Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Night Gallery: "Brenda"

You never forget your first love, do you? Especially if it's a summer love like Brenda Alden's. And especially if it's not human. But wait. I'm guessing that last part never happened to you.

The funny thing is that Brenda started out this episode seeming just like a normal girl. She chased a butterfly but did not catch it. She knocked down a sandcastle but rather than taking the blame like a normal kid -- Who am I kidding? The way Brenda Alden justified the wrecked sandcastle as an apt response for its builder's failure to talk to her on a previous day was totally the response one could expect from all too many "normal" kids (at least the ones I know). So was her attempt to patch things over and make friends with Frances Anne Emsden, the builder of said sandcastle. She had no real reason to expect Frances Anne to have warmed up to her since the last time they met; if anything, she had just assured that Frances Anne would hate her twice as much in the future. Still Brenda had the chutzpah to at least try to make friends with Frances Anne and as you might guess, she got turned down. Indeed, it was quickly pointed out by Frances Ann that none of the kids on the island were interested in being Brenda's friend. And given Brenda's odd idea of fun, who could blame them?

Then she met a creepy monster that seemed to be passing by from a nearby Theodore Sturgeon story. Brenda Alden tricked the monster into falling into a nearby pit but then she stuck around and talked to the thing. Eventually the thing got out of the pit and started wreaking havoc on Brenda's neighbors. So Brenda naturally decided to respond by leaving the front door of her parents' vacation home open one night. And then, of course, the monster came...

Unlike most conventional monster stories, Brenda Alden never got a comeuppance for any of her more dubious actions in this episode. But I was left with the impression that she was terribly lonely. True, it might be argued that Brenda's loneliness was really Brenda's own fault but Brenda obviously did not see it that way.

And in the end, Brenda had this very creepy monologue where she professed love for the monster even though it had been covered with rocks and placed in a pit by her father and her neighbors, even going so far as to declare the monster to be the only thing that she ever truly loved. (Interesting to know that she did not bother to mention her parents in that speech.) Brenda's monologue was made even creepier by the fact that it took place one year after Brenda and her family left the island where she first found the monster.

We viewers were never told exactly how the monster got there and what it would have done had it not run across Brenda. It was noted, however, that Brenda was twelve when she first found the monster and one year later when she said she loved it, she was thirteen. Coincidence?

Should we consider Brenda's situation to be a metaphor for puberty? Unwed motherhood? Or something else?

Anyway, narrator Rod Serling told us viewers at the beginning of the episode that he hoped that we would never end up being as lonely as Brenda. He had a point. It was hard for me to watch that last monologue and not think, "God, I hope I never get that lonely." And this despite the fact that -- as I've noted above -- Brenda Alden was not a very likable person.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Crush”

I have been researching a lot of old Buffy episodes in order to prepare for my latest Buffy fanfic story and I'm kinda surprised what thoughts come to mind watching such episodes nowadays that didn't occur to me when I first watched them. For example, there was a scene in this story where the vampire Spike kept professing his love for the title character over and over again, only to have his feelings mocked and rejected. Granted, this was a character who spent his first two seasons on the show trying his damnedest to kill the Slayer so it is kinda hard not to see why Buffy might be shocked by this latest turn of events. Then again one can't help but wonder how this reaction of Buffy's would be received by the TV audience if it were a female vampire -- like, say, Drusilla -- professing her love for Buffy instead of a more conventional choice like Spike.

Okay, it does not necessarily have to be Spike's ex-girlfriend Drusilla in the scenario I mentioned above but it is kinda hard to hear Buffy continually talk about how disgusting the idea of Spike loving her was to her without thinking of an obvious parallel in the real world. You could say that people no longer act like that nowadays but one would wonder how much of the idea that "people no longer act like that" is based on wishful thinking. Prejudices don't always go away easily and given the way many scenes in Buffy have rightly or wrongly been alleged to have a gay subtext, one can't help but wonder whether or not this is one of them.

Of course I might be biased on the whole matter because I've written quite a number of fanfic stories -- both serious and not so serious -- about the odd relationship between Buffy and Drusilla, and it has gotten to the point that even when I try to write a Buffy story that doesn't have Drusilla in it, she nevertheless finds a way to enter the storyline. In many ways, I find her more interesting than other female vampire characters on the show like Darla and Sunday because -- among other things -- she doesn't even try to act normal. She is not always as crazy as she pretends to be and she's certainly not as likable as her fans would hope but she is interesting to write about. I can't help but see her as kind of an anti-Buffy -- a woman who -- like Buffy Summers -- was cursed with an unwanted supernatural power and rejected by a mother who did not understand her gifts. I don't believe that it would be fair to argue that Drusilla is basically what Buffy would be like if she ever became a vampire but she is not as dissimilar from Buffy as I once would have liked to believe.

Anyway, there is another scene in this episode in which Drusilla tries to persuade Buffy that even a vampire has the ability to love. That said love is real and not a thinly disguised parody of the real thing. Again, one can't help but think of real-life parallels. And one doesn't necessarily have to confine such parallels to the gay community either. The deepest heterosexual feelings I ever felt were for a woman who was never my official girlfriend -- yet in my own way, I loved her more seriously than many of my more "official" romantic interests. And in her own way, she showed more affection to me than I ever received from many women whom I actually dated.

Anyway, we all have a tendency to read our own issues into the stories that we see on both the big screen and the little screen. And sometimes these readings are even true.

Edited to Add:

Further Thoughts on This Episode:

Cool! Drusilla traveled to Sunnydale via Amtrak. So odd to see an American TV show episode set in the early 21th century that had people traveling by train.

The opening in which various train passengers were attacked by an unseen assailant was well-done. So was the final fight scene, which involved a tied-up Drusilla getting herself loose so that she could attack a chained-up Buffy. If nothing else, that scene made me realize how rare it was to see a scene on this show where Drusilla and Buffy actually fight each other.

Poor Harmony Kendall attempted to win Spike over by doing the world's worst impression of Buffy Summers ever.

Dawn attempted to bond with Spike and annoyed the heck out of her big sister by doing so. Because apparently certain traits -- like befriending vampires -- run in the family.

Spike was easily one of the most popular characters on this show -- especially with female fans. But many of his actions on this show seemed at best questionable. For example, his attempt to persuade Buffy to give him a chance by offering to stake Drusilla seemed so obviously destined to fail that it was surprising that a smart guy like Spike thought of it. If nothing else, Buffy would have to have been insane to look at the way Spike was treating his once-beloved Drusilla and not see a vision of the type of treatment that she could expect from Spike if she ever chose to let him fall in love with her. And Spike was an idiot for not seeing that.

¡Feliz Día del Amor y la Amistad!

The late Julie Adams would like to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine's Day and I wish to echo her sentiment.

May you and your loved ones find some happiness on this day, even in the midst of these often depressing times.

Movie Song of the Week: "I Won't Say I'm in Love"

The Greek myths go Motown -- so to speak.

Iconos de Cine (Amor Oscuro)

Poema de Mi Id

“Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love)”

Your ring finger has a white circle
Not yet conquered by the summer sun.
I know my love for you, my darling,
Should be something that my heart should shun.

But I smile when I see your face
On a day that is frigid and gray
And I sadden when I must see you
Start to turn and walk the other way.

Movie Song of the Week: "Love Theme from The Godfather"

Because it's been that type of week.

A Second Look at High Tension

Warning: Here Be Spoilers

I can think of a thousand things wrong with High Tension and I still stand by my original review but there is something about the way the ending of High Tension sticks in my mind that makes it hard to forget.



Perhaps it was the way the director took a standard image usually associated with happy endings -- in this case, a young girl eagerly turning in the direction of her current object of affection and then reaching out in that direction as if to give her a hug -- and then made it seem -- well -- creepy. The sad part is that I couldn't help sensing that Alex -- the objection of the young girl's affection -- still felt sorry for Marie -- the young girl in the mental hospital. Yet it was fairly obvious that any chance of a serious relationship between the two of them ended when Marie killed Alex's family. And that Alex had ample reason to hate Marie after everything Marie had put her through. Indeed, it could be that Alex's feeling in that final scene was not so much pity but relief that Marie was in a cell and not likely to bother her again.

Yet Marie somehow sensed that Alex was watching her even though she could not see her and turned in her direction with a facial expression that most people reserve for their deities. (Indeed, it did not seem like that much of a coincidence that the way Marie was muttering those words at the beginning of that scene made it almost sound as if Marie was praying.) Alex obviously no longer loved Marie and never did love her in the way that Marie wanted her to. But Marie still loved Alex -- and probably will continue to do so till the day she dies -- even though her violent actions have ended any realistic hope she ever had of ever being loved back.

Some people would consider that last part a happy ending and separated from the rest of the movie, one might even be fooled into thinking that it was. In context, though, it seemed far more scarier than the ending of any conventional final girl thriller.

Quote of the Week

Love that is not madness is not love.
--Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Song Quote of the Week

I am what love is all about.
I've got American teeth and a Spanish mouth.
--Billy Crystal and Paul Shaffer, “You Look Marvelous”

Comic Book Image of the Week

And you thought your love life was complicated!

Song Quote of the Week

Well, if it looks like love should be a crime,
you'd better lock up me for life.
--Walter Afanasieff, Desmond Child and Draco Rosa, “She Bangs”

Movie Quote of the Week

People think because I never married I know nothing about emotions. They are wrong. I loved my aunt.
--Glenda Jackson, Stevie (1978)

TV Quote of the Week

Don't you see, Kate? Love does not follow the rules that we lay down. Love goes by the heart, not the calendar.
--Frank Cady, Petticoat Junction, "Pop Goes the Question"

Random Thoughts

What does it say about my life that my initial response to the first declaration of love I have received from a woman since I broke up with my former bride-to-be was to try to argue her out of it?

Do I have to vote for a presidential candidate this year?

If automation is truly putting an end to the repetitive and soul-destroying jobs of yesteryear, why do so many of the jobs available nowadays tend to be repetitive and soul-destroying?

Of course, having to continually search for work in this economic climate isn't exactly an ego-booster either.

If atheism is so fashionable nowadays, why do so many people other than me throw around words like "soul-destroying"? I thought atheists didn't recognize the existence of a soul.

Poema de Mi Id: Parte IV

“Amour Noir”

My love for you
is a dark love.
A secret love.
A love that lives
in dark shadow
and hides from light,
dwells in darkness,
thrives in silence.
Someday I will
show you my love
and risk watching
it shrivel up
in the harsh light
of a bright day.
Until that time,
I'll keep it safe
within my heart,
hidden from all,
including me.

TV Quote of the Week

Love should be the opposite of death. It should be our biggest reason for wanting to be here.
--Russell Tovey, Being Human, "Ghost Town"

Movie Song of the Week: “I Don't Know How to Love Him”

From the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar, it's Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene giving her side of the eternal conflict between sacred and profane love. My apologies if you find her lyrics a bit on the TMI side.

My Love Life Explained in One Movie Still


Or at least it would be if my former bride-to-be wasn't a brownette.

That said, I'm not adverse to dating women who don't look anything like Ms. Kelly and Ms. Jurado but for some reason, the powers that be keep steering me away from them and towards Latina brunettes and white non-Hispanic blondes.

Except for the exception I mentioned above...

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The X-Files: “The Rain King”

Anyone else get the feeling that this should have been the last episode of the series? True, it helps on an atypical happy note -- something rarely seen in a X-Files episode. But it ends on a note of ambiguity too. True, two characters have their romantic problems resolved, but the romantic problems of the show's two lead characters -- FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully -- seem destined to continue.

And though I would like to be able to argue that the show continued to improve after this, it’s difficult to think of few episodes -- apart from an occasional exception like the Groundhog Day tribute “Monday” -- that were really all that great.

Indeed, the whole series starts going downhill after Season Six. In fact, some X-Files fans would argue that I was being excessively Pollyannaish at including Season Six in the list of good seasons.

Anyway, this is not exactly a classic episode, and in many ways, one might consider it quite forgettable. After all, the episode tells us nothing about UFOs or extraterrestrials or government conspiracies or even the whereabouts of Mulder’s missing sister. It could be argued that the morale of the story is borderline creepy -- act out in a psychotic fashion and you too can get the girl of your dreams -- and if the writer had not been so intent on creating a “comic” episode, he could very well have put a darker spin on this same material. But he doesn’t.

And yet I like this episode precisely because the writer resists the pull of his dark side. So many episodes in this series seem to toss in an unhappy ending just for the heck of it. And after a while, one gets tired of the constant reminders that yes, mankind is bad and the fight against evil is not so easily won. Most people don’t have to watch a TV show to know all that. They’ve learned it from personal experience.

And while one could argue that at this point we hardly needed yet another episode alluding to the unspoken romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully, it was nice to see an episode allude to that fact without hitting us over the head with it.

I found genuine humor in the scenes in which Mulder had to give dating advice to a guy who was even more emotionally repressed than he was. And, of course, Scully’s big soliloquy on the evolution of platonic love into romantic love was quite touching.

So should I feel happy about an episode that seems to argue in favor of a possibly lethal romantic obsession? Not really. But then one could argue that the episode is not about that at all. After all, the one guy who receives the most punishment in this episode -- the fraudulent “rain king” of the title -- is a guy who tries to be something he’s not. He pursues relationships for his own selfish reasons, and he ends up paying a price because of it.

For that matter, the emotionally obsessive weatherman who proves to be the true culprit of the episode also pays a price for not being himself. By repressing his true feelings for fear of rejection, he ends up ensuring his own loneliness. It’s only when he is encouraged by Mulder and Scully to conquer his fear that his romantic problems resolve themselves.

And if there’s hope for a guy so repressed that his very emotions can cause thunderstorms, then there just has to be hope for Mulder and Scully -- and by extension, the rest of us.