Thursday, May 3, 2012

WE'RE THE LADIES


"Of course a bunch of dudes who sit around talking about old movies don't like the show. It is not about or for us."

The money line of Ben's review/defense. And it's a great sentence.

I'm just not sure it matters.

Us Statlers and Waldorfs also don't like Glee or Dancing With the Stars or the Duggars (I have no idea who this dude is, but everyone tells me I'm just like JoeBob except that I'm pretty sure I'm not like anyone that signs his family up for a reality show).

Your defense of the show is to say that it is a mirror that certain people see themselves in and relate to. Us cinephiliac cranks just don't like it because our mirror is the old dudes talking about old movies mirror. (Okay, I'd watch a weekly series about old dudes talking about old movies).

Lots of girls must like Jersey Shore because it relates to their life, right? Desperate Housewives. Whatever that talk show is in the morning with Whoopi. Why haven't these shows grabbed Ben's sensitive-wanna-relate-to-
Lena-and-be-her-girlfriend attentions? In the abstract, would Ben relate more to Jersey Shore if he had spent his 20s in an extended hedonistic haze? Would he dismiss Lena's pathetic attempts at meaning?

I guess that I'm not all that interested in Mirror Cinema.

(Go ahead and challenge me on this one, Ben. I haven't had a chance to swear at anyone since that whole Hipster Horror debacle went down).

Especially if the lives being mirrored are lives that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Two episodes in, there's no way forward. Only uncomfortable screw-ups and maybe the solace of having a few friends. This is the true miserabilist entertainment. These girls are just like us. Now, I feel better about being just like these girls.

Nah.

I like escapism.

No comments: