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December 1994, Week 3

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Subject:
From:
Jeremy Butler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 15 Dec 1994 08:47:20 CST
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Author:  [log in to unmask]
Date: 12/14/94 7:39 AM
 
[Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted
above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).]
 
Two shows that aren't making it! This is a fun thread.
 
I wanted to put in a few dissenting words on Homicide -- as a big fan of cop
shows, I still haven't been able to develop a taste for it. The show seems too
over-the-top to me, yanking our heartstrings roughly (as in the Robin Williams
episode) instead of letting the audience decide how to interpret events. I'm
surprised to hear it described as unusually gritty and realistic; to me the
hand-held camera and in-your-face close-ups feel manipulative rather than
real. Another fact-based cop drama is Law and Order (a closer sibling to
Homicide than NYPD Blue, in my opinion); the show's format is an airtight
formula, but the plots are easily as realistic as those in Homicide, and the
emphasis is on the crimes rather than the characters. L&O also uses hand-held
camera and location shooting, but doesn't harp on them the way Homicide does --
and I think they're more effective as a backdrop for the action.
 
On My So-Called Life: Just to shore up Don Larsson's posting, I grew up in
inner-city New York and the show seems very realistic to me (so it's not just
Minnesota). I especially like the way the kids' problems persist across
episodes. The 50s values that pop up now and then are still more a part of our
societal makeup than we sometimes admit; I think it's interesting to see them
mixed in with more 90s problems and the conflicts you get as a result. Because
it's aimed at teenagers, I think it's appropriate that there's a little bit of
fantasy in there (hunky guys, good parents) -- not everything needs to be as
gritty as, say, Homicide!
 
Molly Olsen
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