I've seen Adam West talking, and he discussed a little bit how the show gradually (gradually = more in production stage, I think) became the parody it was. Adam West really pushed for it. He also indicated that Burt Ward (who was from "serious" Westerns--he was in The Searchers!) wasn't comfortable with it at first. As a kid, I used to make fun of the Batman when it was on in reruns, and took it as proof that 60's TV was bad (entertaining, but bad). It took me until I grew older to realize that, hold on, it was deliberately funny. Great stuff.
Among other things, I think the problem with season eight conversations is that it used to be at least somewhat clear what Joss was trying to do, at least on the surface level. Twilight, the arc, in particular, is bat-feces insane. Is Joss doing parody, homage, both, neither, some new form of writing hitherto unimagined? Writing erotica or a doomed romance novel or a deliberate effort to tear down Bangel in his fans eyes or, or, or....
Aycheb said shortly after 34 came out in a comment to me that the internet hadn't yet decided whether 34 was too porny or not porny enough, and now there's an argument over whether it's too much like Promethea or not enough like it, or, etc. Because it's so difficult to work out what he was trying to do, it's natural to speculate. I think it's even reasonable to make guesses. I'm not really convinced though that any of the guesses are right.
Of course, Simon points out that this has happened before; and I think that many fans were also not just offended but baffled by later seasons. (I found a contemporaneous review site, and the person seemed bright and open-minded but absolutely had no clue how to parse the Trio-as-villains, Spuffy, or Hell's Bells.) On TWOP they didn't understand that the Hellmouth scenes in "The Zeppo" were satire. It's nothing new, but Twilight is so much weirder than anything that came before that things are probably more intense....
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Date: 2010-07-14 04:19 am (UTC)Among other things, I think the problem with season eight conversations is that it used to be at least somewhat clear what Joss was trying to do, at least on the surface level. Twilight, the arc, in particular, is bat-feces insane. Is Joss doing parody, homage, both, neither, some new form of writing hitherto unimagined? Writing erotica or a doomed romance novel or a deliberate effort to tear down Bangel in his fans eyes or, or, or....
Aycheb said shortly after 34 came out in a comment to me that the internet hadn't yet decided whether 34 was too porny or not porny enough, and now there's an argument over whether it's too much like Promethea or not enough like it, or, etc. Because it's so difficult to work out what he was trying to do, it's natural to speculate. I think it's even reasonable to make guesses. I'm not really convinced though that any of the guesses are right.
Of course, Simon points out that this has happened before; and I think that many fans were also not just offended but baffled by later seasons. (I found a contemporaneous review site, and the person seemed bright and open-minded but absolutely had no clue how to parse the Trio-as-villains, Spuffy, or Hell's Bells.) On TWOP they didn't understand that the Hellmouth scenes in "The Zeppo" were satire. It's nothing new, but Twilight is so much weirder than anything that came before that things are probably more intense....