ldarling (ldarling@thehub.com.au)
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 10:17:56 +1000
> That's actually a pretty fair assessment of the story, and I'm not going
to
> argue over it at all. Now that you mention it, I think doing a story of
this
> magnitude in two parts could have been better. Most of the big "issue"
stories
> were two-parters, after all, and drug abuse among the high-pressure
journalists
> of the Junior Gazette might have been an interesting angle. As it was,
TAC was
> almost as much about Lynda's psychology as it was about drugs anyway.
Kevin and Natacha both made this point, and I have to give it to them: What
TAC does best is illustrate Lynda's power as a dramatic protagonist. Like
the heroes of the best classic literature (Shakespeare, Dickens etc) Lynda
feels like a real human being because she cannot be classified by a few
cliches, or described by a few eccentricities, she can't be boxed as one
type of person. She is always an enigma - swinging from mega-bitch, to
wonder woman, to a vulnerable little girl, to a spolit brat, and so on.
You can never pin her down.
And that was what TAC showed most clearly. Though you agreee with Spike
that she's callous, you also feel her fear for her paper, her selfishness
towards the paper, her remorse and guilt, her confusion, all her emotional
baggage. It's one hell of an experience, to connect and feel all her pain
and fear like that, and it just wears me out everytime I see it. This is
another of PG strengths - the characters are strong enough for this sort of
really powerful drama to take place.
So going down into Lynda's psyche was a good way in some ways to end (see
DayDreams - a much better ending in my opinion) as she is the main
character. But I would have liked to seen more than just that, you know.
It was great that it could be that personal but it was maybe a little too
personal to finish up on. At least DayDreams shows us the other guys'
futures as well, plus Steven balanced the drama and the humour there
better. I guess that's the whole problem - if this episode has been two
parts, the drugs message could have been better, the drama could have been
balanced more with humour, Lynda could have been balanced with the other
chars, we could have seen more of the newsroom and maybe had more of a
summary. In trying to rush it, something was lost I feel, and it's not
quite as "Press Gang" as it could have been.
But that's just my opinion.
Cheers all,
Steve
--
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