In a message dated 98-01-03 17:15:42 EST, prydonia@accn.org writes:
<< Good question, and one I hadn't thought about before. I don't have a
good answer, but I'll give you a couple general observations. PG has an
odd take toward families, Spike's being the most obvious. I find it
interesting that Lynda always is moaning about never having anyone to
rely on, but she never seems to think of her own mother, as in "Jasper
Street." Is this a game she plays to get sympathy from others (As she
does with her "missing" father in bamboolzing Sarah during "Friendly
Fire) or has she had a serious falling out with her folks? Sarah's
parents are less interested in her than in her achievements. Colin's
family seems rather vicious towards him. And in most every case
mentioned, it is only related to us second-hand from the characters. We
never see it, so how much do we believe it?
>>
I don't know how much we should believe the depictions of each characters
family dynamic, but I do tend to think they are slightly exagerated.
Certainly in Spike's case, the allegations he makes don't hold up under closer
inspection. Thats one of the things that gives his character depth. You
wonder why he would portray that untrue image of his father for any other
reasaons that he is really kind of lonely and wants just a little bit of
sympathy and attention.
I think if you view it from the point of most (or at least a lot of)
teenagers, how many really want to be associated with their families? They
want to seem cool and independant of their parents and in that respect PG
works nicely. It plays well to a lot of the fantasies I had as a kid about
being grown up and I presume thats kind of universal thing with all kids.
The deal with PG is that it is very imaginative in its presentation of the
students lives. The characters were all really cool and sophisticated and got
to do a lot of interesting things in the course of their adventures with the
Junior Gazette. That is what is probably so appealing to its audience. What
kid wouldn't want to have that kind of intriguing peer group and do all that
cool sort of stuff growing up? Its a far cry from the average run of the mill
kind of life experiences most students have and I think that is the prime
reason behind all of the show's success.
signing off,
Matt
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