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wren_kt7oz
I've been re-watching bits of S4 and it's finally occurred to me what my real problem with it was and is.
It's not so much that I found some of the story lines totally pointless (Fairy cult comes to mind) or that some of them had potential that was poorly explored (Drew comes to mind here strongly), but that, watching it as I can't help but do, from a BJ perspective, so many of their scenes were totally unsatisfying not because of their content per se, but because they were incomplete.
From 401 where we are suddenly confronted with the "partners" concept to 414 and Brian's unanswered "proposal" it seems to me we were constantly being cheated of bits of their story.
I know that there's a school of thought that believes that the "partners" thing was thrashed out in S3. But I'm sorry, that, to me, is bullshit.
In S3 we had "the guy I fuck more than once" and Brian admitting to Justin being his boyfriend in "an undefined, unconventional kind of way". That, IMO, is a long, long way from him openly stating, 'yes, we're partners' which he does in their first scene in 401. When did this happen? How did Brian come to this realisation? How did he convey this to Justin? And most importantly, why didn't we get to see it.
After three seasons of waiting for Brian to catch up with his "partner" in this maturity level, I felt cheated from the get-go that we weren't party to seeing it actually happen. Yes, yes, I know, loft scene 314, end of 314, all of that. I still say that Brian was not, in S3, talking openly about them being partners. Suddenly he is.
And Justin knows he is. Justin has already had this discussion with him at some point. That, to me, is inherent in Justin's "I thought we were partners". In 314 he makes a tentative offer of lending Brian some money. "If you need money, I'm sure I could ..." In 401 he's claiming the right as Brian's partner to share in the debt. There's a damned big shift there. And, after stringing us along for three seasons, that shift takes place off-camera somewhere in the hiatus between S3 and S4. Un-fucking-believable.
Then of course there was the season ending, and the "cliffhanger" such as it was. Not going to repeat my thoughts on that.
But what struck me as I started to rewatch is how often their scenes seemed truncated and how often the ending of a bj scene left me totally unsatisfied.
I'm not talking about the content of the scenes; it's not about whether I would have liked them to do things differently or about the characters' behaviour. It's about the "completeness" or lack thereof of the scenes themselves.
I think back to the closing scene of 102. Would I have liked that to go differently? Of course. Part of me wanted to kick Brian and make him run after Justin's car. Part of me wanted Justin to say "well, fuck you" and head back to Liberty and find a nice sweet little twink who would love him as devotedly as Brian loved his damned mantras and bullshit. But for all that part of me wanted the content of the scene to be different, it was still satisfying because the scene was complete. It did everything it needed to do and the emotions and reactions of each of the characters was captured and fully realised.
Compare that to the scene in 402 where Brian blows off the headhunter. At the end of that scene he has what to me were two of the most significant lines in the series. When Justin tells him it's a huge risk, he strokes the hair back from Justin's face and looking into his eyes says, "What's one more?"
And you know it's not the financial risk that's really on his mind here. It's the risk he's taking in opening himself up to really sharing his life with this beautiful man who shares his bed.
"If I don't do it now, I never will," he says. Still looking into Justin's eyes.
And, again, it's not opening his own agency that he's talking about.
This is major stuff. This is Brian throwing himself off one of those Kinney cliffs. This is Brian saying "We're happening. I'm committing to making us happen."
This is Brian making the deal of his life.
And it cuts away before we even see Justin's reaction, let alone the deal-sealing kiss that was needed to complete the scene. Leaving me, for one, feeling cheated and frustrated. Because, IMO, the scene simply wasn't complete, it wasn't whole without Justin's reaction to what Brian had said.
And during S4 that happened over and over again. How many times did a BJ scene end abruptly? Mid sex, or mid kiss or in some cases seemingly mid conversation?
Mikey and Ben got to finish scenes.
Lindz and Mel scenes seemed to continue on even after everything that needed to be said and done had long been done.
Hell! even Brian and Ted's scenes had more resolution than most BJ scenes.
And that, more than any other single factor, was the reason that I feel so unimpressed and unsatisfied with S4.
Because it was like a constant tease who either didn't want to, or couldn't, bring the sense of completion that that scene in 102 had. (Well, any scene in S1 really, but that one is classic, since it's also so painful to watch and illustrates what I mean about it not being the content of the scene that left me feeling so incomplete.)
Just my thoughts.
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no subject
Date: 27/7/04 06:57 pm (UTC)But I am not happy with the season just past, for all my attempts to be positive, and you capture my displeasure, completely, above. The B&J scenes were choppy and incomplete. I will never get over NOT seeing the "we're partners" conversation. HOW could that happen without us.
And, I assume (thinking positively here), that Justin turned around on his bar stool, at the end of 414, and said, "Brian, something happened in LA yesterday..." HOW could THAT conversation happen without us?
I'm guessing that the scene-completing conversations, sentences, kisses, etc. were filmed, but cut in the editing process. Why was that? What did it serve? I wonder if I knew why they did it, if I would feel better that they did it?
no subject
Date: 27/7/04 07:13 pm (UTC)The only "reason" (and I use inverted commas advisedly because I don't find it particularly reasonable) was to give time to the other story lines. Like the damned Fairies prancing about in 102 - because clearly seeing Mikey getting ogled by the naked guys was more important than getting some completion on what should have been a major BJ scene - not just in terms of the episode, or even S4, but in terms of the series and their overall relationship.
Or more time to show the pretty boys at Babylon, but don't start me on that one! I may do a separate post on that - it could take pages, lol.
Whatever the reason, it was frustrating.
I wonder if I knew why they did it, if I would feel better that they did it?
I doubt it. Maybe. I have a sneaky notion I'd just feel more pissed off. Because the rationale would be something like "well, we've given a lot of time to the BJ relationship and we needed to spend more time on Ben and Michael to build up to the marriage finale" etc.
Because that was the other thing I found frustrating, that the direction of the whole series was hi-jacked by Ron and Dan wanting to have their say about gay marriage. Understand why they would want to. But don't think it needed to become the focal point of the whole damned shebang. Not after three seasons of carefully building BJ to the point they got to in 314 and then tossing them aside because C/L wanted to play out the marriage thing and BJ weren't going to be able to fit into that scenario.
LeAnn - have you read that wonderful fic (sorry, to my shame I can not remember who wrote it) called The Absence? Which deals in part with how Justin must have felt to miss the wedding. (I mean, why couldn't he have gone to California a week earlier and come back in time for the ride? Oh, of course! Because then they wouldn't have got to show wonderful supportive Mikey and they wouldn't have had a cliff hanger. Silly me.)
no subject
Date: 27/7/04 09:46 pm (UTC)Stewart is a straight man who has watched every episode of QAF but who is unattached to the fandom in any other way. He had not offered an opinion of any kind up to that point. I think he gets to be our objective observer, don't you?
no subject
Date: 28/7/04 03:06 pm (UTC)Although objective isn't really how I'd describe my own reaction to anything QAF LOL
no subject
Date: 27/7/04 07:54 pm (UTC)I often wondered if this was their way of keeping the viewer in, by tantalizing us with not quite enough to make us feel satisfied, and not quiet enough so that we would feel ho-hum about the happy couple.
no subject
Date: 27/7/04 08:09 pm (UTC)Sadly, I think it was sheer incompetence. Well, that and the desire to spend more time on Ben and Mikey.
And though I'm trying to think positive thoughts about next season, I have fears ...
no subject
Date: 27/7/04 08:32 pm (UTC)4 years ago, it was all about breaking barriers - because politically it was so damn different here, that it was important for the gay community to have any significant main stream media presencel. Now that is radically different, and their agenda might have changed.
I do not believe that they are going to abandon Brian and Justin next season. I do think that they have set us up for some good conflict, something that is natural for a relationship between a 20-something year old young man, and a 34ish year old man. I think that if they are aiming for a realistic plot arc at all, its something they need to deal with - new careers vs. established careers, people at different spots in their life etc.
In a way I see what they have been doing as an interesting opposite to what you often see happen on long running drama shows. Frequently you lose the presmise of the show in the characters getting more and more involved with eachother to a level of incredible inbredness. On QAF each character does change and go through their own arc, this takes time, and sometimes means the characters are more appart (which takes more screen time) than together. I am not saying its necessarily any better of a solution. Either way you alientate some segment of your viewing population.
Unfortuntely I do think that they are trying for these character arcs that really should be full seasons to give them enough time to flesh out and so we get things abreviated so that we can fit 22 eps worth of arc in to 14 eps.
sorry rambled -
no subject
Date: 28/7/04 03:34 pm (UTC)I started to write a response, but it turned into a rant, so I've put it in as a separate entry.
The short version is that I agree with most of your analysis on why they are doing what they're doing. But I just don't think it's working. I don't think they're good enough to make it work.
:shrugs:
I've reached the point where as long as there are glimpses of Gale and Randy - apart or together, I'll watch. But I have the dreadful feeling that in S5 that's just about all I'll be watching for.