Boards
Over-long, tortuous musical segments in teen dramas (One Tree Hill, Gilmour Girls, etc.) with loads of exposition
You know, those bits where it shows you a band playing in the local dive bar of the show’s town, and the song they are playing reflects SO WELL with all the crap going on in the characters’ lives? Very annoying. I don’t mind a wee bit of a song at the end of an episode that carries over the credits, but when there’s five minutes of some guy warbling over an acoustic guitar about some girl, and the editors try to stretch out looks of longing between characters... It sucks a lot. Surely it’s the kind of thing best reserved for final episodes of a series, but that’s two days in a row it’s happened in One Tree Hill. It’s just overuse of a crappy device to squeeze out some emotional involvement from the viewers. Mind you, it is a rubbish programme anyway, so they need all the help they can get.
Also, I’ve just started watching Gilmore Girls, which does this from time to time (but with better bands I guess). I’d never really seen it before, but it’s on E4 in the morning, at the same time as Big Brother, so I watch GG instead. Turns out it isn’t that bad after all and incredibly gay to boot. The mum is an unbelievable slag, but she’s also hot, so it’s all okay. And they’re all blether-y and have snappier comebacks than they do in Friends. (Most of you, blaaast, know all this shit already, so humour me.)
Also, how the hell did Rory Gilmore (oddly shaped head, big eyes, bit of a freak) manage to go out with that guy she goes out with (totally hot, great hair, winning smile)? Obviously this dreamboat should be having a steamy affair with Lorelai, amiright? There’s your plot twist! Maybe all this has already happened, but I’m just so out the loop I’ll never know? Oh well.
So, yeah, dramedies...one of the best things to come out of TV? Someone post the picture of Dawson crying.