Friday, January 28, 2005

SPOILERS

Exceptionally soapy ep of The O.C. last night, eh? I burst out laughing when Sandy and his old prof Max Bloom started talking about "Rebecca," the love of Sandy's life, who disappeared 22 years ago after bombing a nuclear power plant (or something). Calling her Rebecca's bad enough -- just from the name, you know she has to show up by the end of the ep.

The plot could have used a little work. Sandy spends the episode trying to find Rebecca for Max, and fails. Then Max shows up at Sandy's office with her. The protagonist accomplishes nothing, and then the writers hand him the person he was looking for. Deux ex machina. What's the point?

Lisa had the easy fix -- before we even got to it. (I've ruined TV for her, she says. Now she can see those plot twists coming a mile off.) When Sandy gets the call that yes, Rebecca's dead, and then goes out for a walk -- it should be a lie. The call wasn't that she's dead, the call was here's where to find her; and Sandy lied to his wife on the spot. I mean, obviously you need Sandy lying to Kirsten about her, because otherwise where's the tension?

My other big problem is -- Kim Delaney? If the whole point of Rebecca Bloom is that she's the Jewish intellectual radical that Sandy "should have" married instead of calm WASPy Kirsten, then don't you want someone obviously ethnic playing the part? If it's Kim Delaney, she's not much of a change from Kelly Rowan, aside from hair color. I don't mean that you need someone who's actually Jewish. Someone like Madeleine Stowe could have worked. But when Kim Delaney shows up, I'm not worried for Sandy's marriage. Kim's just another tall high-cheekboned Celt. If Rachel Weisz shows up, all curly haired and bright eyed and short, I'm worried.

We had this issue on a show I worked on, where our hero was supposed to date a Nice Jewish Doctor, and we wound up with a charming Italian girl playing the part who in no way seemed Jewish. (The actress the writers wanted was Irish, but read Jewish.) If you're going to make a plot point out of ethnicity, then you have to follow through.

9:15 AM

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