First post, be gentle.

[phangurl.livejournal.com]

The userinfo said we are allowed to post hairbrained things that Hollywood liberals say, so here goes.

I love Everwood. Love. Also usually admire the way-left-wing creator of the show, Greg Berlanti, who is sometimes credited with previously running Dawson's Creek into the ground post-S3, but Everwood is a wonderful, Emmy-award-winning/nominated show. Or it was, until he left it this season, put someone else in charge, and started investing all his time and energy into the IMHO consistently unwatchable Jack and Bobby, whose lead character is the most unpleasant liberal on television right now. The premise of the show, which was supposed to be controversial but ended up just being convoluted, was about a future President of the USA who turned out to be (as I am) conservative/libertarian, and the show details his past being raised by a socialist mother and a Republican surrogate father figure in flashbacks, with voiceovers from the future.

The show kept trying to show the socialist (and drug using, verbally abusive, philandering) mother in a positive light - she is for some reason supposed to be the protagonist of the present-day story - and thought they were being even-handed by showing the Republican in a sympathetic light too. Unfortunately this backfired and the Republican character was the more likeable of the two while the socialist character came off as absolutely repellant, and now most television critics credit her with the demise of the show and its slumpy ratings despite the network's repeated attempts to make her more likeable. Gotta love irony!!!

Anyway, Greg Berlanti is very bitter and confused about why millions aren't lavishing adoration on the show with the screaming harpie socialist as the lead, and to no one's surprise, Jack and Bobby got itself canned after just one season. So he actually just told E!Online:

"You're so sweet to be holding vigil. It's like day 14 of Terry Schiavo, and you're not giving up. No decision has been made yet, and we haven't been told. But as the clock ticks, I can tell you, it doesn't look good. The network has been so supportive. I think everyone's sort of scratching their heads as to why it's not doing better than it's doing, and everyone loves it and acknowledges that the acting is superb and there are great stories, but it may very well be our fate to join the ranks of My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks."

Yes, Greg, your awful show getting canceled is just like the Terry Schiavo situation. *faceplant*

Comments

[foodsthatcan.livejournal.com]

I love Greg Berlanti and think he is incredibly talented, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand why J&B failed:

- Unlikable protagonist - Grace is militant, shrill, judgmental, neglectful of her children, and pretty selfish, and not in a sympathetic way (and then there's the pot-smoking, the affair with her student, and the far-left socialism)
- Bobby is a Mary Sue
- Blew their hand by revealing Jack's death in the pilot, thus cutting off any possibility for changes to characters based on audience response/natural evolution (it's the "prequel problem")
- Bizarre (IMO) "future" scenarios, especially politically
- No compelling chemistry among the actors
- "So what?" writing

J&B is the show that "should have." It certainly had the pedigree in the producers (Berlanti and The West Wing's Tommy Schlamme) and the actors (Christine Lahti and various high-profile actors playing FUTURE talking heads), and it filled its WB requirement for fresh-faced young actors, but it never came together. The show was unable to establish a workable balance between family drama (Berlanti) and political drama (Schlamme), and with Grace being so unlikable, is it any wonder the show never found an audience?

As an Everwood fan, I can't say I'm totally upset by J&B's demise, because I think Everwood has suffered this season. And Berlanti, you are off your freakin' rocker if you think J&B deserves to stand next to F&G.

[phangurl.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with everything you said from start to finish.

Everwood has suffered a LOTLOTLOT this season, not the least of which is the poor understanding that the new production team and writers showed of the characters' history and their insalvageable Andy/Amanda storyline and the terrible payoff of the Madison story. I could go on but I'd probably be preaching to the choir. Berlanti unfortunately doesn't seem to think it's problematic at all - not only is Mimoun (whom I consider to be the Marti Noxon of Berlanti/Liddell Productions) back at the helm next year, he's doing yet another untenable project called The Prince. Sigh.

And yes to every critique you made about J&B. It is just a giant failure of the show. Berlanti has puzzled publicly about why people like Andy Brown - another politically liberal highly flawed single parent he created - and people do not like Grace McAllister. He has tried to imply that it's because she's a woman, but I dont' think that's it at all. It's because she's a sociopath that only sees other people as extensions of herself instead of individuals with their own boundaries and right to have different views than her. Her constantly turning her older son into a second parent for her younger son was creepy and emotionally incestuous. Andy screws up *constantly* and is possibly the worst parent on television right now, but we know that what he does comes from good intentions and a place of love and wanting to do the right thing for his kids. That isn't the case with Grace at all - she is just a totally irredeemable character IMHO.

[foodsthatcan.livejournal.com]

Everwood - Good acting has saved a lot of bad storytelling this season. You are definitely preaching to the choir. Drop me an email or IM me if you want to vent!

Heh, I never thought of Rina Mimoun as the Marti Noxon of Everwood, but now that you mention it.... ;) Like Noxon, Mimoun is better as a writer than showrunner.

What's this The Prince thing? I cringe already.

J&B - People don't not like Grace because she's a woman. That's a ridiculous cop-out excuse, and Berlanti is too good (I hope) to honestly believe that. People don't like Grace because she has no redeeming characteristics. People forgive Andy Brown much more than they should because they sense he is a good person inside. He knows he's made mistakes, he acknowledges them, and he's fighting his natural tendencies (self-righteousness, arrogance, belief that he can fix everything) in order to rectify his mistakes. Sometimes he succeeds; sometimes he fails. People see themselves in Andy Brown. With Grace McCallister, nobody sees a picture of themselves in her character, and nobody would want to. She (AFAIK; I stopped watching early on) has never seemed truly remorseful about her horrible parenting or has shown consideration of others' feelings or beliefs or has dedicated herself to making important positive changes to her life. Instead, she steamrolls over everyone, makes self-important speeches, and is just...UGH.

Basically, Grace is abrasive and Andy is not. That makes a huge difference in people's acceptance of their flaws.

[foodsthatcan.livejournal.com]

OT - Just visited your LJ and friended you. You watch American Idol, too? Excellent.

[lemonlye.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Intelligent TV analyses like this are always fine around here. And yeah, the comparison to Terry Schiavo...wow, that is tacky.

My husband and I watched Everwood for a year or two there, but then stopped sometime last year when the quality started plummeting. Now I know why!

[sydpenguinbunny.livejournal.com]

I watched a couple of episodes of Jack and Bobby and I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on in it.

Sometimes Socialists can be fun... Like Roger Waters... lol :)

[ashkarita.livejournal.com]

Stupid is as stupid does dear.

I hate when liberals try and sound smart and just end up sounding like an ass. You know, when they try and pull the whole "I'm going to rock the sympathy vote here and attach this totally unrelated event to something tragic such as a woman dying because they're so much alike" type deal.

Which always backfires.

You would think they would learn from their mistakes, but nope.