Taking the Drama out.
Sep. 30th, 2009 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerHere's an oddity. The one-year drama on public TV here recently came to an end. This is a daily serial, with 15 minute segments six days of the week. Each segment is shown about 3 times in the morning, once at lunch, and then again in the evening. Saturday they run through the whole week, just in case you missed something. I haven't really been watching this one, although Mitsuko watches it daily.
The week before the very last week we reached the climax -- the community radio station where the 20-year-old protagonist was working was being evicted from the old movie theater that they were using. The evil woman who was the landlord had been shown to be behind most of their troubles over the last year -- she evicted the family from their longtime candy factory/home at the very beginning of the show, and now she was evicting the community radio station -- so that she could tear down both buildings and put up her dream -- a shopping center. So they were holding a final broadcast and community celebration, saying goodbye to the old movie theater.
And the villainess, dragged into the celebration, changed her mind. She gave them back the old movie theater as a place for the community radio station, and even gave the protagonist's family back their old home and candy factory. Naturally, everyone on the show seems happy that they got it all back.
I found it oddly disappointing. They had made a new home, and were running their candy factory and shop in a new place. They had done the goodbye broadcast, and brought in all the old characters to celebrate leaving the moviehouse. I really thought moving on was the right next step. Having the villainess suddenly turn soft at the climax -- it fell flat for me.
This was a sort of coming of age story -- with the 20-year-old protagonist facing a number of challenges to her life. Her mother who had left when she was 10 years old to chase being an actress, suddenly came back home. They were evicted from their home. She helped find a place for the community radio station and then built it into an important part of the community. Lots of other odds and ends, culminating with the radio station being evicted, too. Admittedly, they would've had a only a week to hint at everyone moving on to new places and new lives. Still, I think it would've been more realistic, and a bit more fulfilling, then the sudden change of mind of the evil landlady.
They filled in the final week with various reconciliations. Clearly they were trying to wrap up all the loose ends. For this kind of a portrayal of life, though, I think it's sometimes better to leave the loose ends -- "and they went on," rather than "everything was wonderful."
The week before the very last week we reached the climax -- the community radio station where the 20-year-old protagonist was working was being evicted from the old movie theater that they were using. The evil woman who was the landlord had been shown to be behind most of their troubles over the last year -- she evicted the family from their longtime candy factory/home at the very beginning of the show, and now she was evicting the community radio station -- so that she could tear down both buildings and put up her dream -- a shopping center. So they were holding a final broadcast and community celebration, saying goodbye to the old movie theater.
And the villainess, dragged into the celebration, changed her mind. She gave them back the old movie theater as a place for the community radio station, and even gave the protagonist's family back their old home and candy factory. Naturally, everyone on the show seems happy that they got it all back.
I found it oddly disappointing. They had made a new home, and were running their candy factory and shop in a new place. They had done the goodbye broadcast, and brought in all the old characters to celebrate leaving the moviehouse. I really thought moving on was the right next step. Having the villainess suddenly turn soft at the climax -- it fell flat for me.
This was a sort of coming of age story -- with the 20-year-old protagonist facing a number of challenges to her life. Her mother who had left when she was 10 years old to chase being an actress, suddenly came back home. They were evicted from their home. She helped find a place for the community radio station and then built it into an important part of the community. Lots of other odds and ends, culminating with the radio station being evicted, too. Admittedly, they would've had a only a week to hint at everyone moving on to new places and new lives. Still, I think it would've been more realistic, and a bit more fulfilling, then the sudden change of mind of the evil landlady.
They filled in the final week with various reconciliations. Clearly they were trying to wrap up all the loose ends. For this kind of a portrayal of life, though, I think it's sometimes better to leave the loose ends -- "and they went on," rather than "everything was wonderful."
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-30 02:16 pm (UTC)But yes too much HEA is kind of irritating.
BTW we'll be in Nara next month (nights of 20th & 21st) if you'd be interested in meeting up...
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Date: 2009-10-01 12:47 am (UTC)I think part of it may have been that there's been an underlying theme of communications can resolve everything. People would be ready to fight, and one of them would "accidentally" be broadcast for the other to hear -- and poof, the fight dissolved. Or they tricked two old lovers who had parted into meeting in the movie theater, in their same old seats, and they made up. Or... so maybe the writers thought that this fit, too. But it broke the believability for me.