Linkspam

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* Robert Redford is confirmed as playing "the head of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Captain America: Winter Soldier.

* Iron Man 3 trailer #9,202, plus a clip of Tony talking to a gaggle of reporters. At some point, I won't even need to see the movie.

* The J. August Richards S.H.I.E.L.D. role I linked to the other day has been confirmed.

* Aaron Tveit's new USA drama, Graceland, has a series premiere date.

* Is Matt Weiner's Mad Men spoiler phobia making unreasonable demands of TV critics? I mostly think he's being silly, since NO ONE watches Mad Men for the ~shocking twists.

* Apply for a job at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce! I apparently would make a good copy writer.

* If you missed the last five minutes of this week's episode of The Americans, FX has apologized for the DVR snafu and made the episode available online. Good thing, because those were a killer five minutes!

* I love oral histories. This one's for Jurassic Park. Also. the scene from the movie that real paleontologists say is unrealistic. It's... not ANY of the ones you'd expect.

* Jason Segel has written a series of YA books. I'm actually kind of curious to read them...

Comments

[jae]

Good thing, because those were a killer five minutes!

*koff* Interesting phrasing, there. ;)

-J

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Heh. :)

[likeadeuce]

Even if Weiner is being a little silly about it, I appreciate the spoiler-free nature of Mad Men? It may not be about 'shocking twists' but I find it to be an oddly suspenseful show, maybe because the complete lack of formula from episode to episode makes it really hard to predict where anything is going.

I rewatched a lot of season 4 leading up to Yuletide, and even having seen it before, I vividly recalled the feeling of suspense that I'd had watching the first time.

My real dilemma is that, now that I have HBO, I will have to decide whether to watch GoT or Mad Men first...

[next_to_normal]

I find it to be an oddly suspenseful show, maybe because the complete lack of formula from episode to episode makes it really hard to predict where anything is going.

The thing is, I think that's true even if you know spoilers? Precisely because there is no formula, it's nearly impossible to predict how Weiner will get to a particular point, even if you know what that point is. For example, given the spoiler that Don marries his secretary - a not terribly shocking development, given that it was a common occurrence, and Don was already divorced - would anyone have predicted the specific trajectory of Don/Megan?

And, to be clear, I'm not talking about knowing every single detail of the plot in advance - I'm talking about knowing vague facts like new characters or what year the season takes place, both of which were specifically mentioned in Weiner's letter to the critics. I hardly think knowing those types of details is going to ruin the suspense.

But if you - or anyone else - felt even that would ruin the suspense, there's always the option of not reading the reviews. Anyone who's spoiler-averse knows to avoid that sort of thing.

[pocochina]

Eh, I don't know if Weiner's issue about spoilers is about the *shocking twists* so much as avoiding fan expectations spinning out of control? One could perhaps from the outside construe fandom as having a tendency to seize on spoilers and make rigid normative and aesthetic judgments months before the plot point airs in the proper context.

[next_to_normal]

No, I don't think it's about shocking twists - since there really aren't any - I think it's, as Mo Ryan says in the article I linked, that Weiner's a control freak who wants to micromanage what people say about the show.

Fan expectations are certainly something to consider, but I'm not talking about spoiling plot points months in advance. I'm talking about the usual hints that you see in official pre-season reviews. There's plenty that could be discussed in vague terms (like WHAT YEAR IT IS or WHO'S IN THE SHOW) that wouldn't cement expectations prior to airing. TV critics do it all the time with every other show out there. Why should Matt Weiner get special snowflake treatment?

Weiner is restricting what TV critics can talk about to the point that it's impossible to write a useful review. When they're expected to write about a television show without talking about the characters or their relationships, I think we've reached the point of absurdity, lol.

[rosaxx50]

Thanks to you guys, I ended up downloading every episode of The Americans to be in my TV queue (currently s2 of Borgias, Americans, and the rest of BtVS and AtS).

/completely relevant

[next_to_normal]

Eeeeeeeeeexcellent.