Why I have stopped caring about LG15

[DreamerM]

I'm not even frustrated anymore. It's an afterthought and a quiet evening that drive me to make this thread, such is the depth of my newfound but long-comming apathy.

Those of you who remember me, will remember that I stated in my first post ever that I got into the show because of it's infusing the charming antics of a dorky teenage girl with the dark occultic undertones and the whispers and hints of some larger, more sinister conspiracy.


But this show has fallen prey to the same thing LOST fell pray to: NEVER ANSWERING ANY OF THE QUESTIONS. They infused new elements, dropped in a whole fleet of new characters, but since nothing is ever resolved I simply stopped hoping they would be. And when I no longer had any conclusions to look forward to...I had no reason to continue watching. This is the first time I've been on this site in almost a month.

And look what's happened in my absense. A whole ton of new characters have been dropped on us. Now we have a whole host of Brees. When they're standing in a line, I can't tell them appart.

....And if that sister is a 'crazy emo chick' then Creators....I gotta introduce you to some REAL crazy emo girls.

Hint: They dress basically the same but thier hair is dyed black, they never smile or kid around or associate with thier siblings, especially if that sibling is non-emo. Your knowledge of subculture is fail.

Guys, I don't pretend to be a professional writer: But I'm pretty sure the whole point of adding new characters is to...I donno...add something...new? These girls are just like Bree. They instantly folded right into the group. No clashes. No conflicts. Best buddies forever instantly, girl power, blah de blah blah...

..And this might be un PC of me to say but...why couldn't one of the THREE new girls we've had dumped on us have been black? or Asian? Is the Order full of neo-nazi white supremists on top of everything else? In fact, everyone on this show has been white. Everyone.

But back to my original point:

So we had new characters. We had the kidnapping. We had the escape/ desert rescue. We had a bunker full of old Resistance information and parephanalia. You'd think this would open the door to some mind-boggling tension, facinating twists, and the general deepening of affairs, right?

RIGHT?

...Wrong. Because the Creators took these twists and used them to shed absolutely NO light on the situation.

The kidnapping: Everyone has amnesia. And if you can't remember something, it might as well have never happened because it didn't teach us anything significant. Sure we got the blah-blah about divisions in The Order, but nothing really changed for the main characters so it doesn't matter. Way to make something 'interesting' happen without actually having to think too much, Creators. Totally brillient.

The bunker's materials: There were boards with charts of connections. There were maps and blueprints. Naturally we never saw them again. Bree, who is SUPPOSED to be an almost-genius who tears through every book she gets her hands on, completely ignored them and the boys were too busy making stupid nothing blogs about sleeping. Thank goodness we will never find out what those blueprints were for: that might have given us an actual CLUE.

Soccerstar and Fakeemo: Literally ran screaming from the only real clue they had. So again we don't learn anything.

....And I wasn't suprised. In. The. Least.

And that is why I have stopped caring about Lonelygirl15.

[TOSG]

..And this might be un PC of me to say but...why couldn't one of the THREE new girls we've had dumped on us have been black? or Asian? Is the Order full of neo-nazi white supremists on top of everything else? In fact, everyone on this show has been white. Everyone.

Three randomly selected Americans being white does not neo-nazism make. More like...probability. And you're not even correct; Yousef Abu-Taleb (the actor who plays Daniel) is Arabic. I've got nothing against diversity, but to cast characters based on the actor's race, rather than their talent, would be of the utmost folly.

A lot of your legitimate criticisms are watered down when they're mixed with doozies like that one.

[Lurker]

As you no doubt remember, DreamerM, I'm a harsher critic of the series than even you, but I actually feel like things may be going places now. These last two videos were infinitely superior to anything we'd seen in a long while. We've got two new interesting characters in Sarah and Taylor (who, by the way, I'm going to have to say are very different from Bree; I don't know why you think they're similar) who are being played by great actors. We have witty, intelligent dialogue. Sharp humor. A return to a past plot thread (remember the maps on Lucy's computer in "Following The Helper"? One of them was of Zavalla, Texas; apparently until some point last year, Jules was living there) with the potential for it and others to be explained.

Things are definitely looking up. I'm not saying there haven't been problems (review my posts from the last month or so, and you'll definitely see that I haven't overlooked the problems that the series was having), but I think the timing for your post is a little late. The dynamic has altered already, and some of the problems you bring up are possibly being addressed at this time, such that it looks like you may be issuing a complaint just after the concerns started being handled. Heck, even YouTube has been caught up to date on vids (right now, it's at a reasonable lag of a couple of videos).

As for some of the other things you mention:

A whole ton of new characters have been dropped on us. Now we have a whole host of Brees. When they're standing in a line, I can't tell them appart.

If you're referring to all of the girls in the "New Girl" section of the forum, you should know many of them are fan creations. The only ones known to have a connection to the Creators are Jules and Taylor (and, as a result, Sarah, who has a myspace, but no videos). Those latter two are definitely not Bree clones.

..And this might be un PC of me to say but...why couldn't one of the THREE new girls we've had dumped on us have been black? or Asian? Is the Order full of neo-nazi white supremists on top of everything else? In fact, everyone on this show has been white. Everyone.

You know that Yousef Abu-Taleb is half-Arab, right? And that Jackie Jandrell is South African?

In any case, casting with the idea in mind that you're looking to meet some quota on races and ethnicities is the death knell for quality in anything. That's why so much of "professional" theatre these days is garbage. Theatres get a great deal of their funding on the basis of meeting a quota.

What ends up happening as a result is that they cast based on that instead of ability, or what the plot calls for. You ever see a director for "King Lear" try bullshitting his way through a press panel when asked why the three daughters were all cast as different races by saying "Well, I felt like it was implied that he'd married three different women of different races and had a daughter by each one"? It's not pretty.

[DreamerM]

Three randomly selected Americans being white does not neo-nazism make. More like...probability.

Three randomly selected americans being white, I'll give you that is not beyond belief.

But Bree, the two new girls Soccerfan and FakeEmo, Alex, Jonas, Lucy, the deacan, Jules, Tachyon, Ophaid, Youseff may be arabic but Daniel is not, Brother doesn't matter.... Count that up. No recurring characters have been any sort of ethnicity besides misc. caucasian.

And I'm not talking about meeting quotas just for quotas sake. I'm talking about getting some variety in this always-was-suspiciously-photogenic production. Again, I can't tell the two new girls apart. California's a varried place and the Order seemingly has tendrils in all walks of society.

Here's an idea: instead of TELLING us how widespread and strong the order is, how about you SHOW us by showing us seemingly random people NOT either of the attractive isolated suburbanite teenager variety (or thier relatives) who are affected by it?

And mention not the fan creations to me, Lurker. I know the difference. WHen I talked about The New Girls I was talking about Jules and those other two.

And f*cking up the casting of shakespere via affirmative action is not the classiest image you could have created.

And tell me how the girls are different from bree. Soccerfan talks fast, makes quips and faces...her sister is NOT emo. They act alike. Whatever differnces have been written into thier characters are not coming through. From a distance, when they stand in a line, ya can't tell them appart...

[Lurker]

Youseff may be arabic but Daniel is not

How do we know this?

And I'm not talking about meeting quotas just for quotas sake. I'm talking about getting some variety in this always-was-suspiciously-photogenic production.

I'm confused by this. It kind of sounds like you're suggesting that "photogenic production" implies "cast of caucasians," but I know that can't be what you meant.

Again, I can't tell the two new girls apart. California's a varried place and the Order seemingly has tendrils in all walks of society.

Well, Taylor and Sarah have no known connection to the Order (and since they're sisters, it's not that big a surprise that they're both caucasians and blonds). Jules is the only one we actually know to have a connection (the three are in Texas, by the way).

And mention not the fan creations to me, Lurker. I know the difference. WHen I talked about The New Girls I was talking about Jules and those other two.

Alright, just making sure. Since you said you'd been away for a while, I didn't know if you were up-to-date.

And f*cking up the casting of shakespere via affirmative action is not the classiest image you could have created.

It's not classy at all, I know. I wanted to emphasize that (by the way, the example I mentioned actually happened; it was painful).

And tell me how the girls are different from bree. Soccerfan talks fast, makes quips and faces

Those aren't really foundational attributes (and Bree's rate of speech fluctuates depending on the situation anyway). Isn't that more of something related to the actors, for that matter?

They all make quips, by the way, just like all of us.

What faces from Taylor, by the way? She doesn't do that annoying stuff like Bree.

....her sister is NOT emo. They act alike.

I disagree on both counts. They seem different from what we've been shown of them.

Whatever differnces have been written into thier characters are not coming through. From a distance, when they stand in a line, ya can't tell them appart...

Bree is Ms. "I don't want to sin" (her claim).

Sarah: "I can tie a cherry stem in a knot just using my tongue."

Very different (also, have you read Sarah's blog?).

[DreamerM]

How do we know this?

No. But we don't know ANYTHING in this stupid show. Thus my apathy. Someone needs to tell Miles and the others that Motion does NOT equil action: you can have characters involved in all sorts of furious activity, but if nothing is being revealed then....

I'm confused by this. It kind of sounds like you're suggesting that "photogenic production" implies "cast of caucasians," but I know that can't be what you meant.

What I meant was, if you are going to cast always pretty people all the time, you might as well have a variety of different types of pretty people.

Well, Taylor and Sarah have no known connection to the Order (and since they're sisters, it's not that big a surprise that they're both caucasians and blonds). Jules is the only one we actually know to have a connection (the three are in Texas, by the way).

They will have a connection though, much like Jonas ended up having. Mark my words.

Alright, just making sure. Since you said you'd been away for a while, I didn't know if you were up-to-date.

That is not a matter of being up-to-date. It's of being able to recognize the style when you see it.

It's not classy at all, I know. I wanted to emphasize that (by the way, the example I mentioned actually happened; it was painful).

Shakespere's misogyny is painful. I can't stand his stuff. But that's a debate for another day. Again, I am not talking about quotas. If the director has a die-hard REASON for wanting to cast each daughter as a different ethnicity (maybe he wants to make some metafictional statement on world relations) then he can. At the same time, don't just assume that because a child actress is black, she can't play Little Orphan Annie. Her being black wouldn't change that story (it's about adoption after all).

And since all your other comments were basically about the same thing, I'll state that I am, for the moment, not commenting on the writing. Yes, sara IS written as more of a racy fake-emo or whatever the heck she is. Clearly the characters are SUPPOSED to be different.

But they are not. All three actresses have incredibly similar body language, vocal styles, and are clearly cut from the same physical mold as our lead protagonist. They ACT alike. The girls, not the characters.

But I'm going to stop debating. It's not like it matters now anyway. We are NEVER going to get resolution in this dumb thing...

[Morgan]

O_o

I just wanted to say that LOST is developing quite nicely, actually.

[Inigo]

If you had stopped caring you wouldnt have posted this.

Has for the emo thing... well I can call you emo but youre not really one are you? Whoever wrote the title of the video didnt mean to label sarah as an emo, it was more of a first impression reaction.

[allisonjenna]

Quick! Somebody call the waahhhmbulance!

[Letal89]

As you no doubt remember, DreamerM, I'm a harsher critic of the series than even you, but I actually feel like things may be going places now. These last two videos were infinitely superior to anything we'd seen in a long while. We've got two new interesting characters in Sarah and Taylor (who, by the way, I'm going to have to say are very different from Bree; I don't know why you think they're similar) who are being played by great actors. We have witty, intelligent dialogue. Sharp humor.

I agree totally with you Lurker.

[Lurker]

How do we know this?

No. But we don't know ANYTHING in this stupid show. Thus my apathy.

I don't think it's really a big deal if Daniel (the character) is half-Arab or not. Since his actor is, I would assume so until we're given reason to think otherwise, though.

But he's not connected to the Order anyway.

Someone needs to tell Miles and the others that Motion does NOT equil action ...

They've been told that a lot lately. I'm of the hope that they've taken it to heart and are doing something about it. One more video of the quality of the last two, and I very well may be of the belief as well.

What I meant was, if you are going to cast always pretty people all the time, you might as well have a variety of different types of pretty people.

I feel like ability should come first.

Well, Taylor and Sarah have no known connection to the Order (and since they're sisters, it's not that big a surprise that they're both caucasians and blonds). Jules is the only one we actually know to have a connection (the three are in Texas, by the way).

They will have a connection though, much like Jonas ended up having. Mark my words.

We don't know that they will. Let's hope they don't. If they do, though, let's just hope it makes sense.

That is not a matter of being up-to-date. It's of being able to recognize the style when you see it.

Yeah, all of us were pretty sure it was their work too because of the style. Anyway, you said "a whole ton" of new girls had been brought in, which implied to me that you might be thinking of more than three.

Again, I am not talking about quotas. If the director has a die-hard REASON for wanting to cast each daughter as a different ethnicity (maybe he wants to make some metafictional statement on world relations) then he can.

I didn't say they couldn't, but in this particular case, there was no reason other than funding.

At the same time, don't just assume that because a child actress is black, she can't play Little Orphan Annie. Her being black wouldn't change that story (it's about adoption after all).

I haven't said anything to the effect. I will say, though, that you can't cast "A Raisin the Sun" with a bunch of caucasians.

All three actresses have incredibly similar body language, vocal styles, and are clearly cut from the same physical mold as our lead protagonist. They ACT alike. The girls, not the characters.

I guess we just perceive them differently.

Quick! Somebody call the waahhhmbulance!

That's not helping.

[kristy2520]

I don't post much but thought I'd say this...

You can't say that Yousef is Arabic and Daniel isn't. If the actor is half-Arabic, then the character is too...just because he doesn't look Arabic really and doesn't talk about it doesn't mean he's not.

Also, LG15 did not control who the actors in OpAphid/Tachyon vids were, and it's still uncertain at this point if they chose the newest additions.

[allisonjenna]

Quick! Somebody call the waahhhmbulance!

That's not helping.

Sorry

Do people whine this much about television shows though? Where they know they won't be heard? Or is it the fact that the people behind LG15 pay attention to fans that sends said fans into hissy fits when the storyline doesn't go the way they want it to?

[Morgan]

Do people whine this much about television shows though? Where they know they won't be heard? Or is it the fact that the people behind LG15 pay attention to fans that sends said fans into hissy fits when the storyline doesn't go the way they want it to?

You are my hero, and I think you make a great point.

[DreamerM]

Do people whine this much about television shows though? Where they know they won't be heard? Or is it the fact that the people behind LG15 pay attention to fans that sends said fans into hissy fits when the storyline doesn't go the way they want it to?

Hell yes they do! Ever visited the TelevisionWithoutPity forums? ten, twenty pages of six paragraph posts, scrutinizing EVERYTHING. If anything, they're nastier when they think those in charge aren't around.

The creators got it easy.