Oh, hey, don't apologise for having opinion-explosions! I alwasy love reading comments and it's always gratifying to know that I'm either making sense or talking about something someone else also sees! :D
I know what you mean about worrying about being horribly insensitive. I worried about that too while writing that post. Saying, "Blah blah blah, you know this is pretty much a television cliche," sounds terribly...insensitive when it's such an awful situation in reality. But...it kind of is. Like they forgot to be innovative and good because they assumed that doing The Cancer Storyline would give them enough gravitas. But, um, yeah.
It wasn't so much that Laura didn't feel like Laura to me, but I will concede that Laura probably mostly felt like Laura because Mary McDonnell's a great actress rather than by dint of the writing. And...it's not that I mind them making her "all about the cancer," or at least, "more about the cancer," as long as they did it well. And you're right, here it felt like they suddenly thought, "Oh, a chance to tug on heartstrings," when honestly I think a less heavy-handed approach would have been far more devastating. In the context of this episode, the bald-cap at the start was a little...overdone. But had that just been something we'd seen in a heartwrenching casual way, as she continued to try and do her job, I think it would have been much more effective? Like you say, we don't need an entire episode to get this, and we certainly don't need it to counterbalance the dictator stuff because she's a complex enough character as it is?
Either way, I feel bad for beating on them about this. I probably couldn't have done it better and it's a tricky subject, but...blergh. Even if I couldn't have done it better than this, they're better than this.
It's weird, with the exception of the Baltar stuff, I didn't even hate it! It wasn't one of the few things this show has done that I found creatively bankrupt or stupid, but it was just...disappointingly bland. Which is...an unusual response from me re: this show and probably why I'm going on about it.
Meh, at least I thought Starbuck's plot was awesome!
no subject
I know what you mean about worrying about being horribly insensitive. I worried about that too while writing that post. Saying, "Blah blah blah, you know this is pretty much a television cliche," sounds terribly...insensitive when it's such an awful situation in reality. But...it kind of is. Like they forgot to be innovative and good because they assumed that doing The Cancer Storyline would give them enough gravitas. But, um, yeah.
It wasn't so much that Laura didn't feel like Laura to me, but I will concede that Laura probably mostly felt like Laura because Mary McDonnell's a great actress rather than by dint of the writing. And...it's not that I mind them making her "all about the cancer," or at least, "more about the cancer," as long as they did it well. And you're right, here it felt like they suddenly thought, "Oh, a chance to tug on heartstrings," when honestly I think a less heavy-handed approach would have been far more devastating. In the context of this episode, the bald-cap at the start was a little...overdone. But had that just been something we'd seen in a heartwrenching casual way, as she continued to try and do her job, I think it would have been much more effective? Like you say, we don't need an entire episode to get this, and we certainly don't need it to counterbalance the dictator stuff because she's a complex enough character as it is?
Either way, I feel bad for beating on them about this. I probably couldn't have done it better and it's a tricky subject, but...blergh. Even if I couldn't have done it better than this, they're better than this.
It's weird, with the exception of the Baltar stuff, I didn't even hate it! It wasn't one of the few things this show has done that I found creatively bankrupt or stupid, but it was just...disappointingly bland. Which is...an unusual response from me re: this show and probably why I'm going on about it.
Meh, at least I thought Starbuck's plot was awesome!