There's no particular reason why I haven't updated for a few days. I've just been lazy. Lazy and boring.
But, what the heck, we'll call it time for another installment of What Betty's Watching, I've just finished the latest DVD release of The Sopranos. It's kind of surprising just how much I like this show, because, basically? It's a soap opera. I always used to think I hated soap operas, but I've come to realize that most of the traditional elements of soaps are in fact things that appeal to me. Complex, ongoing storylines in which we get to follow all the intimate details of various characters' lives.... Bring it on! What I actually hate is the kind of people that soap operas -- at least, US soap operas -- always seem to be about. Beautiful, glamorous people who are obsessed with their love lives and get hugely melodramatic about everything bore me. Hell, they actively repulse me. But give me something structured like a soap and make it about gangsters, and I'm totally there. Gangsters are interesting, and, while they're also kind of repulsive, they're repulsive in ways that are entertaining rather than painfully annoying to watch. (Possibly this is because I have had negative experiences with beautiful, shallow, melodramatic people going at least back to junior high school, but, despite living in Cherry Hill, New Jersey for years, I have never had any traumatic personal experiences with the mafia.)
Which isn't to say there aren't any painfully annoying characters on The Sopranos, but the cool thing about that show is that the characters you keep wishing would die horribly often do. Ah, if only that were the case on certain other programs.
Honestly, the only thing that could possibly be better than a soap opera with gangsters would be a soap opera with gangsters in space. Because I firmly believe that everything is better if it's set in space. (Note: if any network executives happen to be reading this and are interested in this idea, I am easily reachable via e-mail.)
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Sopranos is some pretty good stuff, but I like your idea better. Let's you and me work on a pilot for The Jabba Chronicles.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Have your people call my people, and we'll do lunch! :)
ReplyDeleteI think "The Space-pranos" (working title) should be exactly the same as the original, except for weird interposed sci-fi-ery -- sort of like that News Radio episode that took place in the office as if it was a space station in the future.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen News Radio, but I nevertheless fully endorse this idea. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat, Blake's 7 isn't enough for you? :P
ReplyDeleteSomeone else who read this post suggested a Terra Nostra spinoff. I think it'd sell! :)
ReplyDeleteApparently, soap operas in Mexico are highly political.
ReplyDeleteReally? The main impression I get of the ones I keep surfing past on the Spanish-language channels here are that they make the level of melodrama in US soaps look like Ben Stein reading the New York City phone book. :)
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