Lost and Enchanted.
Mar. 21st, 2010 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
r_scribblesHello Hello! I have been a busy bunny - Alex has a rotten cold that keeps making him throw up, and we had our first night away from home with the kids last night, over in Hastings for my MiL's 65th. Busybusybusy.
However! As I was, essentially, babysitting my own kids during the big party last night, at my SiL's house with SkyPlus & a cupboard full of DVDs, I was able to watch some shiz. Namely, the latest episode of Lost, and the mad-as-a-broom 'Enchanted'.
I am going to give you my thinks on them, but before I start, I have to share the latest Benry Knows Best with those who haven't seen it. I love Benry Knows Best in general, but this one picks up on a realisation I had during Dr Linus - that this shirt
looked like this
back when he first put it on. Ewww. There's not enough Bold in the world to get rid of those stubborn stains & odours.
Anyway. The main joy of this episode was seeing Sawyer's Sideways Life. The Side Flashes have been the most entertaining off-island segue so far. I actually wish that the flashforwards had only lasted a series, and we could have had two series worth of Sidewaysworld instead of the one we'll get. In fact, I've started fantasising about a Caprica-style spin-off series set entirely in Sidewaysville. Someone on a Guardian Blog suggested Dr Linus could totally hold his own spinoff series - well, so could Strum & Ford: Policecops.
As some of you already know, I am a fool for a good Bromance in fiction - especially interracial ones for some reason - and the Miles/Sawyer friendship in both realities just really touches me, because they need each other. Sawyer's friendships with people like Hurley and Claire were lovely, but those people had social skills - they didn't need someone who understood them as much as Miles does. They're both grumpy-at-best-sociopathic-at-worst, wisecracking, defensive, mediocre conmen and I love that they found each other in both worlds.
Speaking of friendships, I'd been devastated to see Sweet Claire turn up so alien to the one we knew, and I felt that Kate's tears after the attack were less 'woe, my old friend tried to kill me' than 'woe, my poor friend has gone mad with loss and rage and I'm probably to blame'. I hope that Claire's apology and acceptance that Claire was doing what was best for Aaron were sincere. I hope she's not gone as completely potty as Mocke is saying she has.
With the threads of their lives coming together in Sidewaysville, I'm wondering if there might be a big action sequence in that world as well as a massive three-way ding dong on the island. Maybe Sawyer tracks Cooper down at Locke's wedding. Maybe there's a siege! Maybe Locke's Sympathy Colleauge Place-filler Invite Dr Linus discovers that within a bookish, mousey exterior beats the heart of an extendable-baton badass, and goes apeshit with a serving spoon. Who can say?
After Lost, I watched Enchanted, and was struck by one abiding thought - this is the most 80s movie I've ever seen that wasn't actually made in the 80s. Bearing in mind the whole premise of the thing was to break the 4th wall on fairytale adventures and let Disney make fun of itself, it seemed to do so with precious little cynicism or irony, and by falling out of a camp, giddy, formulaic cartoon, Giselle and co seemed simply to fall in to a camp, giddy, formulaic family Romcom from 1987.
She ends up in Mahattan. Why are these things always set in frigging Manhattan? Oh, and she meets a cynical, rich Divorce Lawyer who has 80s meetings in an 80s Manhattan office, but has an adorable 80s daughter who lives with him in his 80s Manhattan apartment. She, the kooky, starry-eyed outsider, inevitably charms him, and hopes to mend his broken-by-the-80s heart. It has smiley Black men who burst into spontaneous Calypso in a park, in a most 80s manner. It has a Career Woman Love Rival To The Girl - played by Idina Menzel, who inexplicably DOES NOT SING. It has a Stupid, Prettyboy Love Rival To The Guy - played in fabulously over the top style by Cyclops-off-XMen. It has bad special effects. And then, when you don't believe it could possibly get any more 80s, there's a montage. Set during a fashion shopping/beauty splurge. It just stops short of her coming out of a series of changing rooms wearing a series of different hats. Just.
And yet, I enjoyed it. It was as stupid and twirling as it protagonist, but yes, I enjoyed it. I'd have probably forgiven it its 80sness more if it had actually been made back then. It is clearly supposed to be a nostalgic film. Just it was made 20 years too late for that.
However! As I was, essentially, babysitting my own kids during the big party last night, at my SiL's house with SkyPlus & a cupboard full of DVDs, I was able to watch some shiz. Namely, the latest episode of Lost, and the mad-as-a-broom 'Enchanted'.
I am going to give you my thinks on them, but before I start, I have to share the latest Benry Knows Best with those who haven't seen it. I love Benry Knows Best in general, but this one picks up on a realisation I had during Dr Linus - that this shirt
looked like this back when he first put it on. Ewww. There's not enough Bold in the world to get rid of those stubborn stains & odours.Anyway. The main joy of this episode was seeing Sawyer's Sideways Life. The Side Flashes have been the most entertaining off-island segue so far. I actually wish that the flashforwards had only lasted a series, and we could have had two series worth of Sidewaysworld instead of the one we'll get. In fact, I've started fantasising about a Caprica-style spin-off series set entirely in Sidewaysville. Someone on a Guardian Blog suggested Dr Linus could totally hold his own spinoff series - well, so could Strum & Ford: Policecops.
As some of you already know, I am a fool for a good Bromance in fiction - especially interracial ones for some reason - and the Miles/Sawyer friendship in both realities just really touches me, because they need each other. Sawyer's friendships with people like Hurley and Claire were lovely, but those people had social skills - they didn't need someone who understood them as much as Miles does. They're both grumpy-at-best-sociopathic-at-worst, wisecracking, defensive, mediocre conmen and I love that they found each other in both worlds.
Speaking of friendships, I'd been devastated to see Sweet Claire turn up so alien to the one we knew, and I felt that Kate's tears after the attack were less 'woe, my old friend tried to kill me' than 'woe, my poor friend has gone mad with loss and rage and I'm probably to blame'. I hope that Claire's apology and acceptance that Claire was doing what was best for Aaron were sincere. I hope she's not gone as completely potty as Mocke is saying she has.
With the threads of their lives coming together in Sidewaysville, I'm wondering if there might be a big action sequence in that world as well as a massive three-way ding dong on the island. Maybe Sawyer tracks Cooper down at Locke's wedding. Maybe there's a siege! Maybe Locke's Sympathy Colleauge Place-filler Invite Dr Linus discovers that within a bookish, mousey exterior beats the heart of an extendable-baton badass, and goes apeshit with a serving spoon. Who can say?
After Lost, I watched Enchanted, and was struck by one abiding thought - this is the most 80s movie I've ever seen that wasn't actually made in the 80s. Bearing in mind the whole premise of the thing was to break the 4th wall on fairytale adventures and let Disney make fun of itself, it seemed to do so with precious little cynicism or irony, and by falling out of a camp, giddy, formulaic cartoon, Giselle and co seemed simply to fall in to a camp, giddy, formulaic family Romcom from 1987.
She ends up in Mahattan. Why are these things always set in frigging Manhattan? Oh, and she meets a cynical, rich Divorce Lawyer who has 80s meetings in an 80s Manhattan office, but has an adorable 80s daughter who lives with him in his 80s Manhattan apartment. She, the kooky, starry-eyed outsider, inevitably charms him, and hopes to mend his broken-by-the-80s heart. It has smiley Black men who burst into spontaneous Calypso in a park, in a most 80s manner. It has a Career Woman Love Rival To The Girl - played by Idina Menzel, who inexplicably DOES NOT SING. It has a Stupid, Prettyboy Love Rival To The Guy - played in fabulously over the top style by Cyclops-off-XMen. It has bad special effects. And then, when you don't believe it could possibly get any more 80s, there's a montage. Set during a fashion shopping/beauty splurge. It just stops short of her coming out of a series of changing rooms wearing a series of different hats. Just.
And yet, I enjoyed it. It was as stupid and twirling as it protagonist, but yes, I enjoyed it. I'd have probably forgiven it its 80sness more if it had actually been made back then. It is clearly supposed to be a nostalgic film. Just it was made 20 years too late for that.
