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Let me explain how Dan/Serena made me feel in season 1 using a handy little chart I like to call ~ALEXANDRA'S CHART OF SHIPS~*:

BUT THIS SEASON:

The change is largely due to a phenomenon the world knows as JUDGEMENTAL DAN. Or, more specifically, hypocritical manwhorey and yet still judgemental Dan. UGH, at the beginning of last week's episode when he accused Serena of the lunch-date ruining antics I wanted to punch him through my computer screen, BECAUSE SERIOUSLY, DANIEL, you spent a year knowing her and loving her and you know that shit is Blair. In fact, if I wanted to pick a reason (besides crappy writing) for this stupid, ridiculous ~*real*~ Serena that patronizes people with headscarves, it would be Dan Humphrey and his perennial inability to separate Serena from ~*Serena*~. Literally everyone else does it too, but he, of all of them, should know better. (But really, why am I making lame excuses for Schwartz's second such second season slump? AND WHY IS ALLITERATION SO WONDERFUL? And when I decide ~* was a legitimate way to make a point?)

BUT ANYWAY, LAST NIGHT--
1. The Charlie Trout stuff should have been the (HILARIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL!!!!) first step on Dan's long road to being a less judgemental person, instead it became a way to further woobify Chuck Bass. ...BUT STILL, HILARIOUS.
2. Of course the times when Serena is being most considerate of Blair's feelings Blair has no idea. OH, TV.
3. Blair's bitchy reactions to her perceived victimization are getting RIDICULOUS.
4. At least Serena was slightly less possessed. Ugh, show, why are you doing this to me?
5. UGH, JENNY. Go to school, you are fifteen.

*THE NICE THING ABOUT ~ALEXANDRA'S CHART OF SHIPS~ is that it is not necessarily about quality, it is a very personal, subjective thing based on how much fictional characters delight me. Although I'd like to think I have some internal quality that attracts me to quality things. ...unfortunately I am addicted to crap. BUT YOU KNOW.

Sidenotes--
1. I have Californication sitting on my computer BUT ZERO MOTIVATION TO WATCH IT. Even though I have CKR calling Duchovny rapey to look forward to.
2. LORDY I'M FEELING RECULSIVE TODAY. I think in the future I need to consider making less social friends? The amount of time my friends and family want to spend in the company of other people baffles me.
3. I can't decide if this serenitybyjan.com testimonial was penned by a crazy fan or a writer trying to tell us our girl Filippelli is happy now:

My husband and I light up the "Hunter Green" candle every night and it makes us feel young again! We make sweet passionate love to the smell of the candle. I make my boy a man every night!

- Karen F.

But either way, these silly web stuff the Office does!!! THANK YOU, SHOW.
4. ALL I EVER DO ANYMORE IS READ FRENCH LITERATURE :'( I am never taking two such similar classes in the same semester EVER AGAIN.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I SECOND THIS.

Also: I had the same problem about getting pumped to see Californication! I've had both episodes on my computer forever but just...Haven't mustered the excitement. Until last night when I basically watched 2x01 as a last ditch procrastination effort. LOL 'TWAS (did I put the apostrophe in the right place there?) QUITE GOOD. I kind of already miss the old Hank endlessly pining after Karen dynamic though? But it's still good and hilarious! And hooo boy, Duchovny is way too pretty for an old dude. BUT IT'S SO WEIRD/AWKWARD/ICKY TO WATCH IT KNOWING THE SEX ADDICTION STUFF? IDK.

THIS COMMENT = ME ENTIRELY. Except I haven't even yet downloaded it. I can't be bothered? AND I REALLY LOVED IT LAST YEAR, so idek what's up with me.

BUT YES, it is sort of icky? I think that is the perfect word.

BUT AGAIN, THAT CHART OF SHIPS IS REALLY REALLY EXCELLENT. I haven't even bothered to watch GG S2, again, I don't know why, because I enjoyed S1. I'm obviously very paranoid about things that I loved being ruined.

SEE I ONLY HALF-LOVED IT LAST YEAR. It took me forever to get around to finishing the season, in the end I only did because my friend wanted to and I was there and we were bored, yadayadayada. I just... reaaaaaally dislike Karen.

YOU SHOULDN'T. Season two is not the same.

I have to admit I didn't like the second half as much. After Hank and Karen had sex it wasn't as great to me. But I still really liked it! But I just have ... no desire to right now. D:

OKAY. I won't then.

BUT IT'S SO WEIRD/AWKWARD/ICKY TO WATCH IT KNOWING THE SEX ADDICTION STUFF?
I KNOOOOOOOOOOW. There is suddenly WAY TOO MUCH BLURRING of the line between fiction and reality? (Although good god, HOW MANY TIMES has Duchovny played sex-addicted characters? Hank, Tom in... that movie with Julianne Moore, and even kind of Mulder? Although he doesn't seem that into his porn? There's some weird art imitating life imitating art cycle going on AND IT'S KIND OF CREEPY.)

Uck, eventually I'll get around to it.

Can I just say: OMG I KNOW!? When I found out I was like ... um, Trust the Man, Californication, and Mulder's porn habit? Plus, wasn't he also in some softcore movie, too? It kind of creeped me out.

OH MY GOD I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT RED SHOE DIARIES even though I've seen it? When my two bffs and I turned 18 in 2007 we all had a ~scandalous~ way to do it-- in January Vivian was (David Duchovny) porn, in May Meredith was a hookah bar, and in October for me we did clubbing.

ANYWAY at the time we were loling because David was literally the ONLY person in the entire thing who did not have a graphic sex scene -- his part was sort of like... a narrator? Not actually a narrator, but after his fiance slept with someone else and killed herself, he wanted to ~get to the bottom of women's desires~ and so he put a newspaper ad asking women to mail him letters about their desire and so he sort of bookends the stories and says "HUH, THAT'S INTERESTING, DOG, DON'T YOU THINK?". BUT OHMYGOD, SUDDENLY, WITH THE SEX ADDICTION, THAT IS SUPER CREEPY. I mean, geeeez.

KIND OF REALLY CREEPY. I think the moral of the story is that he's always been sex addicted. NOT THAT ANY OF THIS MATTERS TO ME, but like you said-- the life imitating art or vice versa cycle just makes it so much more a part of his viewers' lives too? IN A WEIRD WAY?

Oh and also, my other gripe with the show? So I get that like the whole LA scene/Southern California culture is ~so different~ from the rest of the country, but so much of what happens in that show is so ridiculous and feels like it's done for sheer shock value. I hate that! It kind of gets to why I appreciate regular comedies that are really hysterical more than cable comedies because they can't resort to mindless sex and graphic things, all they can really do is create strong characters and hilarious stories, you know?

Yeah it's like-- as much as this shit should be private, David Duchovny + sex is pretty much EMBLAZONED across our screens. IT IS UNAVOIDABLE. (ALTHOUGH TBH-- I am still kind of in the stage where every time I am reminded of it I actually literally crack up. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME, IT'S BEEN LIKE A MONTH.)

I was just thinking the other day about HOW SICK I AM of shows about LA/rich people/glamorous stuff. Like, seriously, HOW MANY TIMES can you do that story over? Are we all actually so fascinated by rich people that we need it on four channels at once? But yeah. Californication can be entertaining, but it's not exactly my cup of tea.

BECAUSE IT'S HILARIOUS. Particularly how people are making it into this really really somber and serious thing. Like, EVERYONE PLEASE GIVE A MOMENT OF SILENCE AS DAVID DUCHOVNY GETS THROUGH HIS HORRIBLY DIFFICULT SEX ADDICTION. Because life's real hard when you're really hot and are constantly having sex with your really hot wife and (fake?) sex with your really hot co-stars? (Fifty bucks says D's G's babydaddy, haaaaaaaaaaa) IT MAKES ME LOL.

AND I AGREE. I enjoy Californication, but I think more often than not it leaves me feeling gross and sad that people like these characters may actually exist in the world? I think that's probably why I take more comfort in saying that they're completely unrealistic. Plus they all just feel like some dude's gigantic LA fantasy. Even the female characters who attempt to assert themselves as like, strong female figures in funny ridiculous ways...They have such an air of vague...Not-quite-misogyny? I don't know how to describe it.

Edited 2008-10-01 05:11 (UTC)

more often than not it leaves me feeling gross and sad that people like these characters may actually exist in the world

YES ME TOO (SORRY FOR JUMPING INTO YOUR CONVERSATION A DAY LATE).

Even the female characters who attempt to assert themselves as like, strong female figures in funny ridiculous ways...They have such an air of vague...Not-quite-misogyny?

I also agree with this! I find a lot of things about the show problematic. I mean, I enjoy it, but not on all levels.

DON'T APOLOGIZE, YOU KNOW I LOVE THAT SHIT. The female character thing reeeeeally started getting to me as I was finishing season one, I'm interested in seeing how that changes this time around. I think it's a really well-done show, but there are a bunch of aspects of it that just get under my skin. It feels sometimes like it's trying to convince me that this is what real life's like, rather than being say, a satire about that scene in LA. I guess I'd just like to believe it's not realistic because, like I said, to think that people like this exist DEPRESSES ME SO MUCH.

YOU SPEAK NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, but I feel like enough time has passed that I should be past "" and onto "oh right! David Duchovny's a sex addict! Hee." ...or something.

Plus they all just feel like some dude's gigantic LA fantasy.
YES! And it's weird because the way the people who do the show justify the show is by saying it's not glorifying his sexcapades, but even though it's about the ~seedy underbelly~ of living such an oversexed, gluttonous LA life... there's still that teeny hint of fantasy that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And yeah, it's definitely not-quite-misogynistic. As

veils might say, it's not so much that they actively hate women as it is that they're unwitting tools of a patriarchy?

it's not so much that they actively hate women as it is that they're unwitting tools of a patriarchy
THAT'S EXACTLY IT, YOU JUST HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD.