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You know, I still haven't made up my mind about whether he's good-looking or not. And that after a year and a half or so of fancying him.

I know he's *attractive*, in some hard to define way. But, good-looking? I don't know. I just don't know.

The journalist who called him "ugly-handsome", ages ago, was wrong, though. He's not ugly. Just kind of... utterly "normal" looking, sort of. Sometimes. Unspectacular, unremarkable.

And then something happens, now and then, and he turns... "startlingly attractive", I think some other journalist put it. And yeah, it is startling. Kind of mind-boggling, really.

*boggles*

I'm also amused by how he seems to be always the short one. Is he really that short, or do they just always team him up with giants?

Yikes, I'm looking at celebrity pics. What's wrong with me? *g*

Current Mood: amused

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hmpf.livejournal.com

(procrastinating - should be bibliographising!)

>Well, Fi and I were firmly of the opinion that he was a self-righteous little prick well before the ending. Which is why we sat screaming at the telly "Jump, you little git!"

I must admit I don't quite get the thought process (or rather, the emotional process) behind this. So... you two don't believe in redemption? I wanted him *not* to jump, not because I thought he was such a nice guy, but *because* jumping would confirm once and for all that he wasn't a nice guy, and that there was no hope for him. It seems I always want to fix, improve characters like Sam. I don't want to see them crash and burn, I want to see them redeemed. Makes for a more satisfying story, IMO. Does it really give you satisfaction to see them crash and burn?

(I've always found cautionary tales frustrating and kind of boring.)

From:

m31andy.livejournal.com

Well, it's not that I don't believe in redemption. I do. In TV-land, though, it does seem to come from the moral high ground. Which is a little galling.

Redemption would've been satisfying to me. Sam learning a great emotional truth. But it was obvious it wasn't going to be. Life on Mars may have looked liked high art and been acted like high art, but in the main it wasn't written as such. It was, in the end, Pop TV. So the best I could hope for was vindication that Sam really was as much of a jerk that I thought he was.

Obviously there was a hell of a lot that disatisfied me about everything. But at that moment, when he jumped, I did smile.

Yeah, I know. I'm not a nice person.

From:

neuralclone.livejournal.com

Hmmm.... but I'd say the whole point of this particular type of story is that the protagonist is redeemed - in fact there seems to be an entire fantasy sub-genre devoted to this from Dickens' A Christmas Carol onwards. (Sorry if that sounds a bit wordy and pretentious, but it's a difficult idea to express.) The not-very-nice (or as John Simm put it, "a bit of a dick") protagonist has some kind of supernatural experience which teaches him the error of his ways. Hollywood (not exactly a bastion of High Art) has done it numerous times over the years. For example, a few of my favourites:

Pleasantville - Dorky boy protagonist learns that life is more complex and interesting than old 50s TV shows; slutty girl protagonist learns that reading can be more satisfying than sex.

Groundhog Day - Nasty Phil the Weatherman is forced to live the same day over until he gets it right and becomes Nice Phil the Weatherman.

Big - Little boy learns that growing up isn't all it's cracked up to be, and there aren't any shortcuts to adulthood.

And yes, I liked all these movies. %-}

Apart from enjoying this particular genre, Sam was the character I identified with - unlike most people who were "Squee! Gene!" It probably has something to do with me being another intorvert who shares some of his character flaws. And I thought - I really thought - that they were setting Sam up to learn from his experiences (what else was all that stuff about feelings and gut instincts?) Instead Matthew Graham let me down badly, and in the process tainted everything which went before. I probably wouldn't be putting it too harshly to say it poisoned something which I'd rather enjoyed before...

From:

hmpf.livejournal.com

>It probably has something to do with me being another intorvert who shares some of his character flaws.

Haha, yes. We should form a club. With Sam as honorary president.

And yeah, I thought everything pointed towards some form of learning/redemptive experience, too. Guess that's what I get for believing too much in conventional storytelling patterns!