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Old 10/08/05, 09:35 AM   #2
Kamen Rider Decade
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Cmdr Crayfish wrote:
Quote:
Poweranimals wrote:
Either way, I guess my main concern now is Mystic Force. Bruce has heard all of the pleas and cries and I know by this point in the series, it had to still be in production while we were complaining about things long left unfixed. So my main concern is, if he didn't care then, will he care now? Somehow, I doubt it.

I realize we shouldn't chastize someone for doing his job, but he seems to be our only outlet for the show. If he doesn't fix the problems, then it's all in vein, but if we speak up, maybe it'll finally sink in.

Well, and this raises the far larger question of -- is it Bruce's place to care? Yes, fine, nearly the entire fandom (or at least the "name" posters) have now turned on SPD. The ratings are supposed to be good. The toy sales are apparently good. If Bruce doesn't care about the history of the show, is it really his place to care about the fandom? He talks to Keith, he doesn't talk to people who critique the show. He doesn't post to the boards, he keeps himself isolated from any discourse.

And I think in a way that perception in the fandom, as much as refusing to watch the show, has damned him in our eyes. Because, gah. What can he DO? He's not just fighting the problems with SPD, he's fighting the fact the fans now see him as a cocky asshole who is just doing it for the money and cares nothing for the franchise. That's HORRIBLE! That's dehumanizing! If, god forbid, this show gets canceled while he's EP... He goes down in a psychotic, long-memoried fandom as the man who killed PR.

I mean, am I off? The whole perception of Bruce Kalish is that he doesn't want to engage in any kind of discourse about his own work. He just hangs back to bask in the praise. He will only talk to yes-men, which is far more damning than if he was a spectral figure who never interacted with anyone (like Jonathan Tzachor or Ann Austin). It's... I don't even really think any of this is his fault, but the lack of research is what made him a punchline to the fandom. If all you watch is the raw Sentai, the PR suffers. If all you listen to is the mindless praise, you never improve as a storyteller.

And this raises a whole score of related issues I don't even necessarily think are true, but still come bubbling up out of the primordial ooze -- like Jackie being completely marginalized as a writer. Oh, her work is usually as outstanding as ever, but much like Ninja Storm she's getting the worst episodes. When that many of them have none of the classic Marchand dialogue or plotting I'm left asking myself "who's rewriting her? It's supposed to be HER job to rewrite OTHER people."

Someone couldn't be MAKING these mistakes if they were listening to Jackie. She's been working on the show for over a decade, she's forgotten more about PR than I'll ever know. And yet... It's "ask Koichi." It's not "ask Jackie." The catchall answer to SPD's deficiencies in storytelling is to ask the stunt coordinator, who couldn't recognize the Machine Empire Generals were Beetleborgs suits when they were doing Forever Red. Not ask the woman who has been writing the show since the MMPR days.

I mean, god bless him for the incredible work he does -- Koichi's not a writer. If you asked him how Mr. Tate is using the Red Chronomorpher, he will have no answer. IT WAS AN ENORMOUS PLOT POINT ON TF THAT THAT MORPHER IS DNA-LOCKED. Only Alex Drake or people with DNA matching Alex Drake can use it. This was the status quo of the UNIVERSE when we last saw that prop. You can't just spraypaint Darth Vader's armor white and start calling him "Han" for a New Jedi Order television series. I'm sure that's an affectionate reference too, IT'S STILL STUPID.

Asking Koichi is pointless. He has no explanation. If it was "ask Jackie" then there's a good chance not only is there an explanation, we might actually get that explanation. Or, ya now, they'd have made it the Quantum Ranger. Who has no DNA lock on his morpher and thus absolutely no problems reusing for someone else.

You can't make fans work for narrative payoff, not in a shared universe this rich, this involved. That's more offensive than the absence of continuity -- and as Matt sad, SPD made me realize how unduly harsh we were to NS. Poor, misunderstood NS. Its worst crime was "the Rangers don't exist." The POSSIBILITY that it MIGHT be in a different universe from the rest of PR. I'd gnaw my own arm off for SPD to have said that.

I don't know, I think it's just tragic in a way. Kalish is going to go down as PR's Berman or PR's Bob Skir. And for all the problems he's raised in the fandom, and all the real damage SPD has done to the twelve years prior timeline-wise... He didn't deserve that. His great crime was hubris, the belief he could produce an incredible season without needing to watch over two hundred hours of television. He pressed all the wrong buttons in a very galvanizing fandom, and with a show that despite its low reputation is INCREDIBLY complex and involved to write for.

And ya know, the hell of it is that Matt's right. There's no saving MF. Because until Phil SAID saying you dislike SPD was okay on RB, nobody critiqued it. We were, what was it... "A small, vocal minority with no relevance who spite SPD because they lost their chance to write for the program under the Bhaumik regime." And once he said it was okay, the floodgates opened.

NS was flamed, unduly, from Feb of 2003 on. To the point where DT was pitched that May in the writers conferences as "how can we fix this?" Nobody was insulting MF, the fandom had not largely realized SPD was sinking fast, until... I'd say when SWAT aired. MF has already been outlined. MF has already been written for the most part, it goes in front of the cameras in a week or so. THERE IS NO SAVING MYSTIC FORCE. NO ONE KNEW ANYTHING WAS WRONG WITH SPD AT THE TIME.

And isn't that the really depressing part? Even if somebody could reach out to Bruce and make him understand, it's too late. Damage is already done. They'll have rappin' Defense from the Dark Arts teacher Smokey at Rangerwarts, we'll get more awful references that can't possibly fit the timeline, more literally hacked Sentai storylines, no real twists or originality or dynamic, evolving plotlines... The lead time isn't what it used to be. We're fucked. And maybe that's part of why the fandom turned so rapidly; the realization that no matter what, we're in for another year of this.

And then what? With two successful seasons under his belt, Bruce isn't going to listen to us. Not that he did before, but it drives the final nail in the coffin of PR ever being fixed. Why should he listen to us, the KIDS love the show. The fact he did what no one else has ever managed in over twelve years of this fandom, and produce an almost unanimously regarded WORST SEASON EVER... That's much less relevant to the bottom line of SPD's relative success.

But, of course, my favorite SPD strawman argument, and a paranoia I truly have? Nobody's memory is going to be erased at the end of the MF/SPD teamup. Because they're both Kalish teams, and they'll want the teamup to "count."
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