Just a tiny update

[sincere]

I think I have reached an end-winter madness stage where I feel super lazy and it's dark and cold all the time and I don't ever want to get out of bed. And taxes are being horrible to me. I have decided that I will compensate for all of this by spending money. I bought lots of experimental low-cal groceries for fast days (like cottage cheese with fruit in it) and I'm going to go out and buy SHOES and CLOTHES in preparation for SPRING, DAMNIT.

Adoring Elementary. Adoring Parks & Rec. Liking HIMYM and Go On. I have the best television shows. I'm also rewatching Arrested Development because... yes.

Another book fair week is coming up at work, so that's going to be intense, but after that I get a week off for spring break, wooo! I'm hoping I can hook up with Alicia and Jason to see Oz, but maybe it's short notice. idk. SOMEONE DO THINGS WITH ME.

Jes, this is for you, for some reason.

Anyway, Mass Effect liveplay now to resume.

Comments

[temples]

That is the weirdest present you've ever given me.

I don't know, I'm feeling weird about Parks and Rec. I still enjoy it, and I still make a genuine effort to watch it, which puts it above about 98% of everything else on TV... but the fifth season has been a bit everywhere and it's hard to keep interested in tiny, dropped plotlines like Chris and the reporter or Andy's dream of being a cop. However, Ben and Leslie's wedding pretty much was the greatest thing ever and I am loving all of Ron's stuff with Diane, so — HOW DID THIS SHOW GET ME SO INTERESTED IN ROMANTIC STUFF WTF

[sincere]

I could not disagree more! Both the examples you cited were examples of subplots borne of character development, and not every plot is going to come to a "And it all worked out and everyone got what they wanted, the end". I completely loved them, especially Andy.

Andy grew as a character, he had something he wanted, he tried to get it, and he failed. That's not a sign of a dropped plot thread, that's just a sign of a sad plot that didn't go his way. But it would have made zero sense for him to become a police officer. He is incredibly bad at it. It would be the world's least realistic plot twist for him to be a successful cop. Then he he is going to find something better and more fulfilling for him, as a career, perhaps harkening back to the stuff he really wants to do and has been excited about from the beginning: helping people, being involved with people, being a personable guy.

Chris's plot was about showing us that he is now a more fully-realized person, who in confronting his fear of growing old and dying, realizes he doesn't want to do that alone. He's not the same person who casually dumped Ann and moved on with his life because he's the only important person to him. Every man he knows is married or engaged or Tom, he's the lone bachelor, and he wanted a connection. He pursued one! And it was super awkward and he was trying too hard to make it happen and he decided to scale it back and just be friendly for a while. We're still in the middle of that, it's still there, and it was involved in stuff with Ann Perkins!!. (Her name includes the exclamation points when related to Chris.)

It's amazing to me that they juggle these things. That they treated Andy's desire to be a police officer with such respect and encouragement and then gently acknowledged that, no, not everyone can be a police officer, some people are not right for that job. That they had Chris awkwardly pursuing a woman who may or may not ever have noticed his interest, leaving him in the world's least comfortable emotional limbo, and then he dealt with that, because that's a thing that millions of people go through. The realistic aspects of "Not all things end in weddings and celebrations of a goal well-earned" are part of what I love about this show.

[temples]

I do enjoy anything that involves Chris and Ann. (I cannot in good conscience give her name the Chris-related exclamation points it deserves. Double punctuation freaks me out.)

I guess for me, the juggling was a bit too abrupt for me to get attached to these plotlines. While Andy's attempt and failure at becoming a police officer may be used for character development, the plot thread itself was over too quickly for me to feel the way he felt about it, and I was just bored. There was no time for me to form an attachment to, "Andy wants this thing, Andy reasonably cannot get this thing, now it's time for the viewer to feel sad with Andy". (I'm not sure if this is contradictory to my amazingly short attention span or indicative of it. Maybe both.)

Something I have been enjoying the show addressing is Ann. I did have a tendency, in previous seasons, to wonder, "Aside from Leslie, nursing, and the various men in your life... what are your interests?" And I never really saw a satisfactory answer? So the show recognising that too and putting Ann on a soul search-y plotline is very cool to me.

[sincere]

Li and I were just talking about how we had a similar feeling about the Ann baby plotline -- one episode this season she is completely freaked out dealing with kids and has a few hours of terrifying traumatized "WHAT WILL WE TELL THEIR MOTHER" to soldier through, and then a few episodes later, she's all "I want one of THOSE, yeah". It seemed like really fast development.

But one thing to keep in mind is something I read the other day: They had reason to believe that their show might be canceled, and so the "LET'S GET MARRIED TONIGHT" wedding was designed to be a potential finale if NBC canceled them. I think it's possible they felt they had to rush -- so Andy's police officer aspirations, Ann's babymama aspirations, and Chris's search for family might have been rushed along accordingly, so that we would see what happened with these guys if that was the end. :(

THANKFULLY, IT'S NOT.

But I love the Ann plotline. I love that she and Chris went on parallel journeys of self-discovery, without each other but encouraging each other, and might be slowly coming back around to be a couple again. I love that Ann was encouraged to find out who she is because she tends to be swept away by whatever her boyfriend of the moment does.

Love it. It's really wonderful.

[temples]

Admittedly, I want Chris and Ann to get back together. I really enjoyed the early phase of their courtship, and the way their interaction has played out since then — and it doesn't necessarily involved Ann as a character being weakened, since she is being led back to him based on what she wants and not necessarily because, oh, well, he's hot and he's interested. 100% less mimicking of speech patterns!

Why did they think they were going to get canceled? :(

[sincere]

I'm not sure, I just read that they knew that the gala wedding might have to be the finale, so... It's not getting great ratings? :\ Because people have terrible taste. Maybe that's why.

Anyway, I agree, I love Chris and Ann together, especially since he's been so supportive of her "dating herself," which is the most adorable thing ever. And they were cute together!! It makes me secretly happy if they get back together -- although I'd like it if Ann was having the baby and that gets them back together, instead of they get back together and then have a baby, because I love our empowered Ann going for what she wants doesn't need a man in her life to be happy, if that makes sense.

[temples]

I was a bit confused at the gala wedding. While it did execute very nicely, there was a lot of comedic opportunity passed up there, especially with Leslie's mother and Ben's family. Rehearsal dinners, etc. A wedding can provide a show with a lot of fodder! I was genuinely surprised that it happened so quickly. Then again, quickly might be relative. This year has gone quite quickly for me. (Apparently, my year starts in September. TV year.)

Do you know if it's been renewed for next year or not?

[prefacing]

YAY SHOES. YAY CLOTHES. YAY SPENDING MONEY. :D

Also yay TV shows. I've heard of all of those, but Go On is the only one I've seen and I've only seen....the first two episodes of it, haha. But I enjoyed what I saw, so I'm glad you're enjoying it (and the rest of them too)!

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FRIEND OUTINGS, AND GOOD LUCK WITH THE BOOK FAIRS.

also that gif is excellent and I laughed out loud. yes I know it wasn't for me but I'm still going to comment on it.

[sincere]

/loves on for beautiful Val with all her beautiful good wishes and thoughts

Parks & Rec is amazing and everyone in the world should watch it. It's available on Hulu, I think! It's wonderful happy beautiful friendship funny.