From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: Re: Strawmen, irritation with
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 2/23/1998 2:45:00 AM
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Russ:
You're setting up just as many strawmen as those you cite.
Basic and fundamental truism: if somebody doesn't like an episode, I'm
absolutely okay with that. Some episodes, like the Mack and Bo show, the
coming Psi Corps show, Deconstruction, those are written with the full
knowledge that it's going to divide people's opinions. I *expect* that it'll
be cleanly divided between those who hate it, and those who love it.
Basic and fundamental truism #2: No show, no single episode, will appeal to
everyone. It's a bell curve: some at one end will hate it, some at the other
will love it, most will be generally in the middle. It's if that bell curve
starts to skew one way or the other that you have to watch.
All that I and others have been doing is pointing out realities to those who
have, in essence, said that something isn't there when it is. How many times
lately have I read, here or on other nets, "Now that we're in reruns we see all
the threads that tied the show together that we didn't see before, all the
foreshadowings of what was to come."
There's a lot of stuff seeded in these early episodes that will, as with the
first several seasons, be more apparent in retrospect. That's ALWAYS been the
case with B5.
I'm also trying to provide a historical perspective. People jump on Lochley
saying she's wooden (meaning she doesn't overact and chew the scenery as with
so much of what passes for TV acting)...and preferring Ivanova...completely
forgetting that for most of the first season, and then some, people were
complaining that Ivanova was wooden, they didn't like her Russian accent (which
she didn't even have), they said "dump her." They did the same thing with Vir.
"Flounder in space! Throw him out an airlock."
Then, later, as the characters continue on, the opinions change. This has been
the pattern from the very first day of this show. I see nothing wrong with
noting this. If it's proper to critique the show, and it is, good or bad, why
is it bad to critique the criticisms and bring a historical perspective to the
discussion?
Look...if somebody doesn't like an episode, I'm fine with that, always have
been. It's when it enters into the sweeping generalizations category,
paralogia or downright silliness about the season as a whole, which nobody's
seen yet, that I finally have to say "c'mon..."
jms
From: (jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com |
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