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Otalia - Guiding Light
Topic Started: Mar 29 2009, 06:54 PM (21,281 Views)
abzug
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In love with a prisoner
Cagey, I sat here thinking "you're right, you're right" about the soap conventions that this story is following. (Think Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally responding to Sally's comment that her boyfriend would never leave his wife.) But in the end what is SO weird is watching a storyline with real-world plot points and real-world emotions being told in a soap opera genre. It's like hard to get our heads around. In a way, it would almost be better if they threw crazy soap opera shit at them, the way AMC did to Bianca (ok, not better, but you know what I mean--rapes, murders, mistaken identities, kidnapped babies, whatever), because then we wouldn't need to keep reminding ourselves that this is a soap. But b/c the acting is so good and realistic, and because the emotional/psychological side of the storytelling is actually very nuanced and textured and detailed, whenever these soapy conventions come in (the story review/exposition, the teasing the viewers with a kiss that doesn't happen, the ending of an episode just after the climactic moment but before that moment is resolved) it's like disconcerting and unexpected.
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ekny
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In love with a prisoner
Wow. What a funny set of exchanges! I was sitting here thinking: you have to remind yourself of this?

Cause dude, I can't ever forget it.

And that, I suspect, goes to the heart of how different people are watching & receiving this whole s/l! :D
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abzug
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In love with a prisoner
OMG, e, I LOVE your new avatar! So so so perfect. Where is that from? That cartoonist draws for the New Yorker, but I don't recall seeing that cartoon in the New Yorker (and I would have remembered).
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ekny
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I couldn't resist. You're right, it was the New Yorker with the in memoriam for David Foster Wallace--so about 2 months ago. I don't get it but someone gave it to me for that piece.

Must be the first cartoon I've ripped out of a magazine in YEARS. Like--a decade maybe. It's totally brilliant. :)
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abzug
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In love with a prisoner
Shit, I read that New Yorker! Maybe I did see it, and just completely forgot. Anyway, thanks for reminding me.

ekny
 
I was sitting here thinking: you have to remind yourself of this?

Cause dude, I can't ever forget it.

OK, here's the thing. There's two ways I can read every scene where Olivia and Natalia don't kiss:
1. I can see each non-kiss as a double-standard in how they're portraying a same-sex relationship vs a hetero relationship.
2. I can see each non-kiss as a traditional aspect of soap storytelling, where viewers will wait a year or more for a couple to kiss.

#1 comes MUCH more naturally to me, because I've been watching lesbian storylines on American tv for 19 years now, and this double-standard has always been there. #2 is totally new for me. So I default to #1, and the lesbian chip on my shoulder just gets heavier and heavier. To be reminded of #2 makes it lighter, and therefore makes me happier. :clap
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Jeanna
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
Those are very good points, Abzug. And the paranoid in me, aside from and together with the lesbian long-time viewer, expects to be jerked around and let down...but...part of the template (and the hoped for appeal) with these two was to finally be treated like any other soap couple, at least in so far as the progress of the love story and that would argue in favor of nothing so sinister, or truly left-handed, as the time-honored tease being neither more nor less than standard soapy practice.

i.e.--if they finally follow through!

ETA: I'm still not seeing the NY-er toon, but your previous avatar, e. Must be my cookies. <G>
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ekny
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Today's development (which I am not mentioning bec Jeanna just told me about it & it's still mid-day on the west coast thus could be construed as a spoiler) seems good to me in terms of plotting: it would allow a different sort of resolution for Olivia around issues of family, keep the reality factor high, give audiences some good vicarious weepies, & generally allow for a continued storyline that's still... well, real. Is that making sense to anyone else? I mean I'm sure other viewers may be bummed but structurally it seems like a *great* idea, to me. If that doesn't sound too, um, unkind.
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abzug
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In love with a prisoner
Call me crazy, but I don't think Philip's illness/impending death is going to play into Olivia's storyline very much. I don't think it will be a central plot or emotion-driver. It's not like P has been a big presence in Emma's life, and Olivia just seems to tolerate him, barely.

That said, it's a good storyline for the soap, of course. :)
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Jeanna
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It is a fitting storyline for the end and one long-time watchers were pretty sure was going to happen as the "light" fades to black on the soap...so also goes this popular core character. Does anyone know how long the Spauldings have been a part of life in Springfield?

I do think there's going to be some connection...maybe Liv will learn finally that it was Alan 'gaslighting' her, from what I hear, and making it look like it was Phillip's doing which is a large part of the reason she still fears him. He's going to want some final interaction with all his children...and he is the one who immediately approved of her relationship with Natalia and said it wouldn't surprise him. If Alan does make any further custody noises after he learns the truth about their situation, Phillip will likely be their ally and pay no heed to big daddy.
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cagey
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So Phillip has the soap death disease? That was some weird arc to get Ed Bauer and all those folks I don't know back in the scene and invite him to the BBBQ.

Here's my grand thought:

Natalia and Olivia NOT kissing is the only plot they have left to carry on with until Sept.


Well perhaps, Otalia not getting it on until Sept.

Once they start kissing there is no more drama. There will be no 4 week homophobe subplot. All they've got left is reactions to their reveal. So that has to be put off for as long as possible.
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solitasolano
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The Muppets!
cagey
Jun 24 2009, 08:20 PM
... kissing is the only plot they have left to carry on with until Sept.

Isn't that the theme theses days on the show....waiting waiting waiting...
Besides the 4 week homophobe arc is happening with Rafe.

Waiting..... :ph43r:
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cagey
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I am of the opinion that Rafe gets involved elsewhere - with Daisy and maybe the Spauldings - cause he is one of them, or with Olivia.

But Rafe must join a family - that would be a soap imperative. The Coopers are certainly recruiting. I am hoping for the new diversity family to be acknowledged in Springfield.

I just don't see any value - content wise or the future of the writers to do some short cut trash story for our heroines.
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Jeanna
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
And now we know the soap death disease is perfectly timed to coincide with the end of the show. He's got Three Months to live. So...the show ends, in perfect tragi-comic style, with both a wedding ("Bizzie") and a death...

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traveller
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Does anyone know how long the Spauldings have been a part of life in Springfield?


The Spaulding family arrive in Springfield on November 7, 1977

For more info on family:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaulding_Family
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood ..... Helen Keller

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cagey
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G3 Curtain and Duvet!
jeanna
 
And now we know the soap death disease is perfectly timed to coincide with the end of the show. He's got Three Months to live. So...the show ends, in perfect tragi-comic style, with both a wedding ("Bizzie") and a death


I completely missed the signifigance of Three Months to Live. :) But if Bill and Lizzie do get hitched and off to honeymoon by the 13th of July, that leaves either a Josh/Reva grudge match wedding to conclude the show or, dare we fantacize, Olivia and Natalia. Personally, the thought of an Otalia wedding makes me queasy, but some sort of community acceptance would be really nice, contemporary, affirmative. I could totally be happy with that sort of ending.

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