TheGreatGodPan on 6/11/2006 at 22:36
I know what some of you are thinking: "At least TGGP won't be linking to another economics blog". Well, hypothetical ttlg reader, you thought wrong! (
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2006/11/dexter_beyond_g.html) Here Bryan Caplan discusses a Showtime (I'd add "original series" here if I was a commercial, and since I just did, I guess I am) uh, show, called "Dexter", and how it inverts the normal "sympathetic person who does bad things" trope of fiction with an inhuman (in the metaphorical, not literal sense, it's no sci-fi/fantasy) character who does good things. Except for the flashbacks as a kid when he killed small animals for kicks, if you're the kind of person who thinks there's something wrong with that:joke:. I don't watch tv, and even if I did the set my roomate just bought doesn't get premium channels, but the first two episodes were free to watch online. I only watched the first one, but it seemed pretty good. I thought number 159 of the (
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html) Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches was hyperbole, at least for the last part, but the ridiculous of the past becomes the commonplace of tomorrow.
Watch it and discuss. Or don't.
Rug Burn Junky on 6/11/2006 at 23:05
Are you even capable of forming an opinion that doesn't come in prewritten blog format?
Scots Taffer on 6/11/2006 at 23:51
The first I'd heard of this show was from a friend whose opinion I often share and deride in equal measure - for example, he watches the OC and the Sopranos, the L word and Sex and the City, the bad and the good in uncomfortable tandem (no one can defend the L word because there's plenty of softcore lesbian porn on the internet to not have to suffer an attempt at plot too). I don't know if that tells you anything, but it means that it's not anywhere on my list of shows to get until someone corroborates him. :D
Also I've still got Carnivale, Entourage and several others to watch.
Rug Burn Junky on 7/11/2006 at 00:08
Showtime dramas in general tend to try to be all things to all people. Even when a show can stand and fall on its own premise, like Huff (psychologist who gets fucked up psychologically from a patient killing himself) or Weeds (suburban mom weed dealer), they tend to throw the kitchen sink at them, and end up with bog-standard, touchy feely crap that actually detract from the premise.
I don't give a shit that the next-door-neighbor-overprotective-mom has breast cancer, or that the fucked up son has emotional issues about daddy dying. Give me more funny shit that happens when suzy homemaker goes to the hood to buy weed. After about three episodes of Weeds, I totally gave up on Showtime as a network developing shows.
While I love the thought of a show about a serial killer, you just know Showtime would fuck it up. If it were on HBO or fX, I'd give it a chance.
As a point of comparison, both of those networks handle the emotional side issues without overshadowing the main story - Vic Mackey in The Shield and Jimmy McNulty in The Wire each have custody issues, which give depth to their characters, but are still ancillary plots. If they were on Showtime? You'd have 60% of every episode dealing with them whining to their spouse about visitation rights.
I could only imagine how they would fuck up Deadwood: the entire show would revolve around Trixie and Sol trying to get pregnant, Al trying to win her back, and Johnny Burns trying to come to grips with his sublimated homosexual feelings towards Dan Dority. And if The Sopranos were on ST, Meadow and Carmella would be the stars, while the only Big Pussy we'd ever see would be Janice. Fuck that shit.
Renegen on 7/11/2006 at 02:42
There's nothing wrong with blogs, it's good that you're experienced with them. The blogs are the internets way of having discussions.
Rug Burn Junky on 7/11/2006 at 02:46
Are you gonna get that rock connected to your shoulders bored out and have a brain put in there?
Renegen on 7/11/2006 at 02:50
Hey blogs are everywhere, if you don't like them and choose to ignore them fine, but they offer something special so as always shut up instead of bashing something you don't like.
Rug Burn Junky on 7/11/2006 at 03:09
Honestly Renegen, as usual, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
My comment wasn't directed at blogs in general, per se, but rather at TGGP's somewhat annoying habit of merely lazily regurgitating things that he's read elsewhere, usually on a blog whose reliability varies wildly from the extremes of "Fucking Nutjob Crackpot" to "mildly biased," rather than actually formulating and expressing his own opinions. The fact that this extends even to his TV viewing is somewhat comical, as he even pokes fun at in his own fucking post.
Now, really. Pretty please. For all of our sakes. Shut the Fuck Up.
Renegen on 7/11/2006 at 04:38
And what exactly is wrong with what he does? Nothing, unless you don't like his blog links, like I said they tie in to discussions all over the internet every day. Your last line makes it that more obvious what a big baby you are, no one cares what you like or don't like, your opinion is not the world.
Rug Burn Junky on 7/11/2006 at 04:56
No, it is most certainly not the world.
However, it's not just me. It's well recognized by many on this forum that that is a pattern of his. FOR FUCK'S SAKE HE EVEN POINTED IT OUT HIMSELF YOU GIANT DOUCHEBAG. If you hadn't come along, fagging this up by being your big, usual, giant retard self, this would have ended with:
A) TGGP making a self deprecating comment about how he constantly posts links to blogs.
B) Me making a mostly harmless comment about how he constantly posts links to blogs.
That's it. No harm, no foul.
But no. You had to come along and what? Defend "blogs"?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH, YOU BIG DUMB FUCKING RETARD?
Now, for christ's sake, will you please do us all a favor and go out and get yourself axed to death by a serial killer?
/edit: Besides which, you dumb fuck, it's not about liking or disliking the blog posts. It's about the lazy way he often uses them - posting the links without coming up with his own opinion. There's a huge difference between that, and using them as a jumping off point for your own ideas. Which you would know yourself if your own skills of discussion and debate weren't so goddamned intellectually bereft.
