The horrors of today ('s high school)

I watch a lot of tv shows (I think that's been established), but it's not all fun and games. I watch everything. From the funny in The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, the musical things in Glee, the the drama in One Tree Hill and Parenthood, the weird and crime solving in Castle and Bones, to the magical in Once Upon a Time and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the sci-fi in Warehouse 13 and Lost Girl. A couple of weeks/months ago there was an episode in Glee where it focused on a high school shooting. For a show, filled with songs, this is a hard thing to do because it's such a serious and fearful issue. I have never been through anything like it, but I remember all the news items. It's important to show these things, because they are happening. But this also puts a lot of pressure in how to show that on television. So for today's blog, I will focus on a couple of episodes from different tv shows that focused on a shooting.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 3x18 Earshot (23/03/1999)
Storyline: Buffy gets infected with demon blood which causes her to be able to read minds/hear thoughts. At lunch, when she's in the cafeteria, she 'overhears' someone thinking "This time tomorrow, I'll kill you all!" Buffy and the scoobies set out to find however this person is and stop it before it's too late.

Backstory: The WB had to postpone airing this episode, because the Columbine High School shooting took place a week before the originally scheduled air date. This episode wasn't aired until September, five months after it was supposed to premiere. Initially the season finale (Graduation Day Part Two) wasn't supposed to be aired either, because the students are weilding weapons as well as the fact that they blow up the school in this episode. Due to thousands of letters of fans who demanded that the episode be aired, they aired it. This time it was almost two months after the original air date.

Why it's so good: [SPOILERS!!!] Danny Strong (from Gilmore Girls among others, but also the writer of Game Change) plays Jonathan, a student who's feeling ignored and wants to solve his problems with a gun. The fact that he feels ignored is relatable for a lot of teenagers (my thoughts). I can also imagine that a lot of teenagers feel, while they are in high school and can't deal with all the drama, they want it all to stop. They feel they need to do something drastic to change that. Buffy finds him in time and tells Jonathan: "My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. The beautifl ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening..." (you can check my quotes page for the entire dialogue)

My So-Called Life, 1x03 - Guns and Gossip (08/09/1994)
Storyline: [SPOILERS!] A gun is heard being fired in the hallway of Angela's high school. Though no one is hurt, numerous rumors begin to circulate about the possible shooter. In the end you find out that the gun belonged to Angela's openly gay friend Rickie. He brought the gun to school for protection. 

Background: In 1994, when the episode first aired, guns and metal detectors in school were a big topic of discussion. It also shows that even though Rickie might be openly gay, he is still being bullied which affects him greatly. Even though it seems nobody sympathizes with him.

Why it's good: I actually can't really remember this episode all to well... I just remember that I felt for Rickie. So even though I'm totally against guns, I guess I can understand that he felt he needed protection because he didn't feel safe in his high school. And maybe that's why I think it was such a good episode. Even the main character of the show, Angela, kinda looked at him - after he was being bullied - like 'what did you expect?' Guns are NEVER the sollution to any problem, but the real issue that should be adressed in this episode is to stop the bullying of who-ever. Whether they are gay, straight, bi, 'nerds' or geeks, it doesn't matter. We are all equal and should be treated with respect.

One Tree Hill, 3x16 - With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept (01/03/2006)
Storyline [SPOILERS!!!]: A bullied student, Jimmy, takes the students of Tree Hill High School hostage after a dark time capsule video from him comes out. Peyton gets shot and is bleeding out, while another group is stuck in a classroom with Jimmy. Eventually Keith, Lucas' uncle and a former father figure of Jimmy, goes into the high school to talk him down. Jimmy lets the hostages go, but he realizes there's only one way out for him and shoots himself.

Background: This episode contains a few 'nods' to Columbine, like the fact that Jimmy was born on the anniversary of the shooting. A large part of the episode also takes place in the library.

Why it's good: The way this episode is filmed is extraordinary. It's thrilling, and deals with many point of views. They show the fear and hate from Jimmy's point of view, the fear and nerves in all the students but also them talking about how to fix all of it, while Mouth can't believe his former best friend was driven to this and tries to understand how it came to this. Others simply see him as the villain. When tragic stuff like this happends - whether it's someone dying, getting ill or anything else happening in your life - it has far reaching effects. This storyline will follow for many episodes and the show really deals with the aftermath. That's part of why it's so good. In a lot of series, when something happends, it's just for one - maybe two - episodes and then they have all moved on. Which is sad, to say the least. Everyone has to work through their emotions, but on television they usually don't get the time to do that. In One Tree Hill they also showed the aftermath: the guilt of Jimmy's former friends, who feel they could have done more, the mother who has lost her son but will get no sympathy from anyone and everything that has changed in the high school since then. The actors are at their best, just as the writers and producers.

Glee, 4x18 - Shooting Star (11/04/2013)
Storyline [SPOILERS!!!]: After gunshots are heard during a glee rehearsal, the students and teachers are trapped in the choir room. Some of them decide to film messages to their loved ones. A lockdown followed and they all stay put. But logically every students is worried about the other. Just as shown in the vid from One Tree Hill the emotions are high which leads to fights and screaming matches. At the end of the episode it is cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester who claims responsibility for cleaning her gun and it accidentally going off. Later you find out that the gun belonged to Becky, a teenage student with Down syndrome.

Background: The episode aired four months after the Sand Hook Elementary School shootings. One parent from that school complained that it was still too soon. Glee has done serious issues like these in the past: suicide, texting while driving, transgenders, bullying, coming out and many others. ... But this is just something that can't be fixed with a song.

Why it's good: It was good that in a serious episode such as this one, they didn't have many musical numbers. It was stripped of that. But they still ended up singing it out, which feels wrong. When a gun goes off, life doesn't just go back to normal with a song... The fact that it was actually a false alarm, lessened the effect it had. Because for a lot of people, it is real and it actually happened. So it feels fake. It also feels a bit wrong - even though it shows a lot of character - that the coach takes the fall. Because if Becky felt the need to bring a gun to school, she needs help. It didn't take care of the problems she might have had. Even though I think it's great that they took on this issue, I don't think it was meant for the show. It's a good episode, full of emotions, thrills and fear, but this is one issue they didn't handle correctly.

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I know there's not a lot of interaction on my blog, but if you know any other eps concerning this issue or if you disagree with my oppinion, feel free to let me know ;-)

The A for Awkward

There's this show I started watching a while back... An MTV series. For realzies. Yep, can't quite explain it myself either. It's called Awkward, which I guess is something that could be for anything. The thing is... I found it so ridiculous, and it's so exagerated that I think it's funny. All the awkward stuff that Jenna (the main role) goes through actually reminds me of the show Being Erica. Only that show focuses on an adult instead of a teenage girl. Erica actually goes through a lot of awkward and embarissing moments, but other than that it's actually nothing alike. Even though I like Being Erica waaaay better, I'm gonna talk about this teenage show that focuses on a teenage girl, who classmates believe tried to kill herself... Right: AWKWAAAAAARD!

Teen comedy/drama
It's too high school and that is why this show may not be for everyone. All the cliché's come to play, but seeing how it's an MTV original series, it's perfect for their target group. Many of teens most important issues are brought up, like boyfriends, sex, relationships, parents and blogging :P. Though it's focus is mainly on relationships and/or sex, it also focuses on real issues, such as being a social outcast, not fitting in and surviving high school.

But lets start at the beginning. The comedy show focuses on teenage girl (and social outcast) Jenna Hamilton, who after receiving a letter, has an accident, though it appears as if she tried to commit suicide. She also is a faithful blogger, though her blog isn't open for everyone. As the first season progresses she becomes stuck in a love triangle. In the first ep we find out she lost her virginity to the popular Matty McKibben, with whom she contintues a secret relationship because he's embarrassed of her. But soon his best friend, Jake Rosati, feels attracted to her, unaware of their relationship and they start hanging out... Hence the triangle. And of course there has to be a nemesis: Sadie, the cheerleader who wants to make Jenna's life a living hell.


Actors
Even though this show doesn't have many big names on the credits, there are a lot of familiar faces for me. Jenna's mum is played by Nikki DeLoach, who played a vital role in Sarah Michelle Gellar's Ringer (there was also a guest appearance from Kristoffer Polaha who I also know from the same show). Jenna (Ashley Rickards) herself played in One Tree Hill, and the counseller Valerie (Desi Lydic) was in The Client List. As far as the high school kids go, their names are not so familiar to me (and it's hard to believe they would be in high school given their looks), but they make an entertaining cast. The person, beside Rickards and Lydic that stands out the most is Tamara (Jillian Rose Reed). She deserves special mention, not in the least because of her lingo.

Learn the lingo
Tamara is a canon of entertaining lingo and relationship theories... All the stuff that comes out of her mounth really makes you think about what it is she's trying to say and laugh out loud when you finally get it. I mean... Who says "You need to DYR!"? Which btw, means 'Define your relationship'. I mean, this show has me guessing what American high school kids are really like and if they really talk like that. Because if they are, it's hilarious!!! I mean, I understand it if you use it in texts or on facebook or something, but in an actual conversation? That's just funny! At least to me. Other things that come from Tamara's brain are words like major and stuff, but it's the way she says it that makes it funny. Here are just a couple of examples:

"He kept giving me weird non-answers like my cell phone robot." (2x08 - Time After Time)
Tamara:

"Okay, let's stop making drama cakes for a sec, and think tank this." (2x09 - Homewrecker Hamilton)

"Putting yourself up for public consumption is like batshizat on crack. You're the scariest kind of loose canon Jenna, you're a suicide bomber." (2x10 - Pick Me, Choose Me, Love Me)

"No! She's a lesb-utante! She keeps it strictly above the belt, but it was a TS sitch so my Mom's letting me go on the trip to keep me from telling my Grandma. Little does she know I'm totes equal opportunity!" (2x12 - The Other Shoe)

I actually like the show, but I don't love the show. I do love the lingo, as mentioned earlier. What really bugs me about the show though, is the voice over. I think I already wrote about this in relation to Veronica Mars. The thing is, voice overs usually don't work. In Veronica Mars it really did, I mean they rocked it! But in Awkward, well, it's awkward. Totally wrong and very irritating. Especially with the facial expressions... They can be funny to look at, and the thoughts/blogs explain some things, but in all honesty, it's just too much. In short: Awkward is a weird show that makes you laugh and shouldn't be taken too seriously. 

Caught in a web of PLL

I started watching the show Pretty Little Liars because I knew Holly Marie Combs played in it. I was curious to know what she was doing now. After Charmed that is. And it turned out the be pretty awesome. So here's a short review of the show so far. But first: a promo!

'Got a secret. Can you keep it?'

The show is based on popular books by the same name, written by Sara Shepard, and focuses on a group of friends in high school. These young girls, Spencer, Hanna, Aria and Emily, were brought together by their friend Allison. Allison, or Alli, is the most popular of the bunch and one night when they are all together in a lake house (from Spencer's parents), she disappears. A year later the girls have driven apart - 'Friendly, but not friends' - and right before the body of Allison is found, they start getting text messages from someone calling his/herself "A". It soon becomes clear that "A" knows a lot about them and threatens to expose their secrets if the girls don't do as he/she says. These secrets are secrets from a long time ago, that only Alli would know about. But even after Alli's funeral, the girls keep recieving texts, so the big question is... who's "A"????

This one you'll save

Pretty Little Liars is a show to save. Like the theme song will tell, it's a show where teenage girls have big secrets. In the first episode a lot of the old secrets - the ones Alli knew about - will be revealed to the audience, but not to the rest of the group. The more secrets you know about, the more you will find out about their personalities. Intrigued yet?
But there's another interesting storyline: the death - more specifically murder - of Allison DeLaurentis. The girls start their own investigation, after getting some clues from "A"... This is an ongoing storyline which leads to many more questions, without losing interest. The secrets and storylines get more absurd the farther you get in the show/seasons. It makes one thing really clear, that it's total fiction. It's fun to see these absurd storylines play out and get beyond your imagination. From crazy love interests who the girls don't trust and some of the time fear, to the mistery about Alli's murder involving more and more people. Full on paranoia, but then again... Who wouldn't be paranoid, when there's a crazy anonymous person harassing you? You don't know who you can trust, and that's the same for the audience. Even though you may sometimes know a little more then the characters, there's a lot you don't know. 

Lock it, in your pocket

These four girls (and actually also their parents and/or boyfriends) have their own secrets for each other. It keeps it interesting and divers, because that way a lot of stories can be told. Fortunatly they don't all last very long. There's someone that finds out, or one of the girls can't take it anymore and decides to tell either a parent or a friend. But keeping a secret, means having to lie sometimes. So there's a question that will keep coming up in the viewers mind: Why not just tell someone? A parent? The police maybe? Good question! They ask it themselves a couple of times. You will get frustrated, because it seems so stupid to not just do it. They are teenagers after all, so what do they know about murder or all this blackmailing? These are things for the cops. But they feel like they can't tell the truth to anyone. And to be fair... yes, there's a legitimate reason for that (or at least as legitimate as there can be). That would be that "A" is freaking scary. The girls get caught in a web of lies, of which there is probably no way out anymore, because it gets way to tangled. All these secrets and the lying causes problems in relationships, especially in the parental form. A lot of parents will know it when their daughter is lying and they will get frustrated, grounding them and what not. It's kind of typical high school, teenager stuff, but because of their big and out of the ordinary secrets, also not entirely. Of course - the girls being teenagers and all - the parents do get involved and they start asking questions. It makes the storylines a little better, but the girls' lips remain sealed...

Take it to the grave

The threatening texts are send by mobile phone, notes or they recieve e-mails. The number is untraceble, because it's 'unknown'. That's why the "A" could stand for Allison in the first episode, but it later becomes clear that it's really an anonymous person. The use of cell phones in this way is very clever, because who doesn't have one now a days? It shows the darker side of modern technology. Namely the power it can give someone. This power has also been displayed by Allison herself in flashbacks. She used to be the 'It-girl' and could persuade anyone to do anything. Not just her four friends, but also other people at school, or even grown-ups. Talk about peer pressure and blackmail! In the first episode she mentions that secrets are what keeps friends close. She is the one person that knows about all of their secrets (until she dies) and she used that information when she wanted to. It could be what let to her murder... But then again, how will we know that? Without given too many spoilers away, it's safe to say that the storyline gets more complicated as we go along. It makes us understand the boyfriends that much better, because they aren't in the know as well. 

If I show you, then I know...

Talking about boyfriends.... there's a lot to say about the love stories. They go back and forth, due to the threats from "A". The girls push their boyfriends back, without telling them why, but teenage love is a thing that will not be denied. Their love won't go away, and so won't their boys. Or in Emily's case girls... (Yep, she's a lesbian... it's not a big spoiler, don't worry).
The girls get worried about dating, they take the jump, get scared and pull away. Leaving the boys hanging and in serious need of an explanation, which the girls can't give them. But it's not all bad. The boyfriends are sweet and understanding (of course they have a right to an explanation) and they actually turn out to be helpful a lot of the time. They also have their own backstory, which makes them more interesting. Except for Ezra, Aria's boyfriend, or lover... well, he's her teacher. Why is it that nowadays every high school series has a love story involving a teacher and a student? I don't get it. That's what gets old real fast. Ezra and Aria go back and forth, because it's illegal to be together, because there's the age difference, because Aria couldn't tell her parents (or in the beginning her friends), because... well, there's a lot more. They end up breaking up and getting back together a lot of the time. It's supposed to be this epic love story, but it's just annoying. If there's one thing they should change in the series the upcoming season, it's that. 

Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead

But who killed Alli? That remains the big question. And that person is the one in the black hoodie. You see this person at the end of a lot of episodes, preparing something to affect the girls. You don't see a face... sometimes just gloves. But as the girls get closer to finding out the identity, you see a full on person in a black hoodie that keeps to the shadows or the dark. It's pretty clear that this person is "A", but you don't get the satisfaction of knowing it for sure. What a mystery!
It never stops being intriguing, though they sometimes go a little overboard. And the moments where all of their cellphones ring at the same time, never stops being fun. All in all, it's a good show to watch, with extra's such as having Holly Marie Combs (as Aria's mother) and Bianca Lawson (as Maya - Kendra on Buffy) on the cast. I'm not sure where they go from here, but for now I'm still caught in their web of Pretty, Little, Liars.

 

(a nice tribute of Holly Marie Combs)