(no subject)

[wren_kt7oz]

The marriage storyline I found particulary cheesy.  To me there were so many many things wrong with it.

One was the over-the-top Debbie scene.  Sorry, but to stage a scene with no other purpose but to allow a character to spout off a whole lot of propaganda is bad writing - even when I agree with the politics.  We all know that's not how it works when you cross from Canada to the US - even I, a neither a US nor a Canadian citizen didn't have to fill in any paper work, I just showed my passport.  The scene was only in there to allow C/L to "have their say".  Just bad writing. 

Another was the stuff I've already mentioned about how the way they handled it made the character's motivations seem incredibly shallow.  If that's the level of seriousness that gays are going to bring to their marriages, then their divorce rate is certainly going to equal hets.

The third was the Brian and Mikey conversation.  Not because of what Brian said.  I thought Brian was just being Brian.  But ... why did Mikey have to wait until he'd discussed it with Brian before he knew that he wanted to marry Ben?  There was nothing in that discussion to reveal any real doubts he had about his and Ben's relationship.  So why wasn't he over the moon when Ben asked him, instead of in a total funk about it?

Well, the answer to that again, of course, was that the conversation between Brian and Michael had to take place so that once more C/L could put the argument that while marriage is not on every gay man's agend, those that want to marry should have the right to do so.

There wasn't, actually, any reason why that conversation couldn't have taken place after Michael had accepted Ben.  And I think it would have been a much stronger scene, and would have indicated much more forcefully that Michael is growing up and making his own decisions if Brian had arrived in Toronto to find Michael already engaged.  That would have had an element of real drama as Brian came to terms with that.  But no.  Mikey had to wait for Brian's blessing, his "rewrite the story" before he could accept Ben. 

(Of course, I still think that while for Brian the argument was all about 'why the hell would anyone want to get married?', for Mikey, it was one last try at seeing if Brian would stop him committing to Ben.  An attempt to make him say something to give Michael a reason to keep hoping, if you like.  But then you know what I think of Mikey.)

And while I'm on the subject of this conversation, I know there's a lot out there that believe that Brian was trying to convince himself as much as Michael and that he was actually finding his arguments pretty unconvincing.  Could of course be wrong, but it really didn't strike me that way.  I thought he was being totally Brian.  These aren't things like his "I believe in fucking" speech.  To me, this is something that he really believes.  Down to his depths.  And his love for Justin isn't going to change that.

I think that he's accepted that Justin is in his life for as long as Justin wants to be there.

But I don't believe that he thinks of it in terms of forever.  And I certainly don't believe that he thinks that any sort of ceremony is going to make it 'forever'.  And I don't believe he'd want to face all the drama of having to legally dissolve it when Justin wants to move on.  He'd want it to be over as quickly as possible.  With nothing keeping them tied together. 

And I don't think any of that is going to change any time soon.

Comments

[stillife.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Cowlip intended this, but the last few episodes (especially 414) portrayed B/J's relationship as rather shallow and insubstantial compared to Michael and Ben's. It was just a very flat ending as far as B/J are concerned. I was left with the feeling that "there's no there there." Not a great note on which to end the season. I can't even call it angst - more like indifference.

[wren-kt7oz.livejournal.com]

Yes - the only glimpse of anything else was Brian's "vision" during the race (which I found kinda corny) and the genuine concern on Justin's face at the end of the race. But for the rest, there seemed to be little real connection.

Mind you ... I didn't feel all that much depth in the Mikey Ben relationship either given that Michael, for no articulated reason, was more rattled than overjoyed at Ben's proposal.

[stillife.livejournal.com]

That's true. It's difficult for me to look at the show from the perspective of a Ben/M fan, but after watching 413, I thought Ben/M fans would have good reason to feel shortchanged. When you come right down to it, there was never a satisfactory resolution to the bug chasing arc (not that I want to prolong it, mind you). Would Ben have f*cked Anthony if he hadn't turned out to be a total loony?

Of course, for me the fatal flaw of the season was the handling of the cancer arc. Brian is (or used to be) arguably the show's main character. He's got a life-threatening illness and yet it was treated as just one of many storylines. And don't even get me started on the gratuitous insertion of Mikey into what should have been purely B/J's story in 407-409. Grrrr!