Considering the level of effort that seemingly goes into plot and dialogue, I'm not surprised at the way racial and sexist issues are handled.
Must be a level of effort going into some other plot and dialogue, because I didn't see a single example of worthwhile exchange or conflict development in any of the first five episodes. The only exception to that was not due to plot or dialogue, but quite frankly to Tony Head's ability to make even bad dialogue adequate by virtue of a fine-tuned delivery. When I think of the dialogue in and of itself, my impression was that it was some pretty wooden stuff -- and few of the cast (if any, excepting Head and Myles) had the ability to draw out the dialogue into something less wooden. For that matter, Gwen's dialogue was the only one with a truly distinctive voice, and that was only because they had her repeating the same pattern, of left-handed complimenting and then backtracking on her words while humorously making it worse.
Gwen's wasn't top-notch dialogue, however, because it relied on a speaking pattern that doesn't translate into other situations -- that is, at other times, she wouldn't display that pattern and thus her dialogue was no longer distinctive. And then sometimes the script had her using that pattern at an inappropriate point, because her voice only had this one note and it was play that note or use a flat voice.
Then again, it could be that I'm excessively hard on my-own-language dialogue b/c I came to fandom by way of BtVS, and that level of dialogue-sharpness is rivaled by few (although come to think of it, M*A*S*H might be one of the few). I give a lot more leeway when it's a translated work, because I can rarely tell if any flaws are embedded in the original language or are the result of a mediocre translator.
But still, no, wasn't impressed on plot or dialogue accounts, so I guess your statement remains true: yes, the sexist and racist elements are much worse. And I'm not even sure I'd be willing to forgive those, even if the plot and dialogue were Whedon-level sharp.
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Date: 26 Nov 2009 05:30 pm (UTC)Must be a level of effort going into some other plot and dialogue, because I didn't see a single example of worthwhile exchange or conflict development in any of the first five episodes. The only exception to that was not due to plot or dialogue, but quite frankly to Tony Head's ability to make even bad dialogue adequate by virtue of a fine-tuned delivery. When I think of the dialogue in and of itself, my impression was that it was some pretty wooden stuff -- and few of the cast (if any, excepting Head and Myles) had the ability to draw out the dialogue into something less wooden. For that matter, Gwen's dialogue was the only one with a truly distinctive voice, and that was only because they had her repeating the same pattern, of left-handed complimenting and then backtracking on her words while humorously making it worse.
Gwen's wasn't top-notch dialogue, however, because it relied on a speaking pattern that doesn't translate into other situations -- that is, at other times, she wouldn't display that pattern and thus her dialogue was no longer distinctive. And then sometimes the script had her using that pattern at an inappropriate point, because her voice only had this one note and it was play that note or use a flat voice.
Then again, it could be that I'm excessively hard on my-own-language dialogue b/c I came to fandom by way of BtVS, and that level of dialogue-sharpness is rivaled by few (although come to think of it, M*A*S*H might be one of the few). I give a lot more leeway when it's a translated work, because I can rarely tell if any flaws are embedded in the original language or are the result of a mediocre translator.
But still, no, wasn't impressed on plot or dialogue accounts, so I guess your statement remains true: yes, the sexist and racist elements are much worse. And I'm not even sure I'd be willing to forgive those, even if the plot and dialogue were Whedon-level sharp.