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December 1994, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
Donald Larsson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 7 Dec 1994 11:40:36 -0600
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Let me second Chris's rave for MY SO-CALLED LIFE, which is as intelligent
as anything on tv. I suspect its intelligence is one of the things it
has going against it. It refuses to resolve issues in a single show, or
even a several-episode "arc." It requires recognition and appreciation of
"cinematic" techniques of subjective framings, voice-over and so forth. It
is often very funny, but lacks a laugh track to cue people. (I especially
like the hapless teachers, whose main method of evoking student response is,
"The answer is _________? ? Anybody? ? ?"--I confess to having fallen
back on the same.)
 
A few months ago, Harry Stein, the "ethics" columnist for TV GUIDE (an
oxymoron for a Murdoch publication?), said he'd given up on the show because
it wasn't promoting "values" like (get this!) ROSEANNE. If he'd waited a
few weeks, he'd have found values aplenty. The show doesn't just deal with
teenage angst and rebellion but also substance abuse (a thread seemingly
resolved but now opened again this week), sex, and guns in schools. It
shows many of the production values that marked THIRTY-SOMETHING (by the
same producers), which was mdoerately successful but also maligned by
critics who found its yuppie protagonists too irritating or its own
"cinematic" style too arch.
 
I don't expect a groundswell of Save Our Show opinions keeping this one on,
so I'll enjoy it while I can.
 
One more problem it faces--being opposite DUE SOUTH, which I haven't seen
but seems to promote another set of the kinds of social fantasy that
Gene Stavis just took to town so nicely.
 
 
--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN

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