Current mood:

Amazed

Television Recappers Without a Spine or an Actual Sense of Humor
I didn't want this part to get buried in the original wank, so I'm posting it anew.

On the front page of TelevisionWithoutPity, the latest Gilmore Girls recap trumpets "Gilmore Girls - Behold! The perfect recap. No, really. No. Really." On page 1 of the 21-page recap, Pamie quotes the "fan mail" she has been receiving. Two are the well-written-if-critical letters that started the whole brouhaha in the first place. The third letter on page 2? Notsomuch. Pamie explains:

Just wanted you to understand a bit the headspace I'm in tonight, as I sit down to recap the latest episode. While I'm fully aware you cannot please all of the people all of the time, I'm certainly trying my best to please the "Red Stater." That's a phrase they use at the television job I have these days. "Red Stater." I want you to know that's the phrase they use when they mean "total dipshit." I don't feel that way about you. I do try to write to the top of your intelligence. It's just that the powers that be sometimes think you couldn't find your way out of a used bookstore without help from Blue's Clues. Notes like that last gushing squee-fest aren't helping some of y'all's cases. So. In order to attempt to be as mainstream and satisfying to as many people as possible, without losing the audience who actually might enjoy my writing (I know -- "gasp!"), I will recap to two completely different audiences: first for the readers of TelevisionWithoutPity.com, and then for a site I'll just call...Television. (dot org?) To protect myself, however, I shall write my alternate recap under my fanfic-gushing pseudonym "Stac(e)y."

Pamie recaps the first scene and then tries to be amusing or snarky with "Stac(e)y's" take on it.

Stac(e)y: I lurve Lorelai's super-cute hat. She goes to Yale and goes to Rory's room and there's boyfriend!Doyle totally making himself at home because he's dating Bossy!Paris, who totally complains that Doyle's putting his wet laundry on her laundry (Dirty!!!1!), and I'm like, "Honey? If that boy put anything wet on me, I'd be grateful!LOL!" So then Lorelai says something REALLY FUNNY because Paris is talking about having s*x with Doyle and ohmigod it was hilarious, you should have seen it.

As one F_W anonymous put it,

This, from the group of people who called Aaron Sorkin a big baby for getting peeved with their trashing of his writing.

Oh noes, did negative feedback make us cry? Poor little Pamie.

Wow. Just... wow. The recap was not funny, not smart, not about the show itself, not anything but obviously sour grapes. Actually, that could be a lie - I couldn't get past the third page. Nor would I want to. Oh, it's also completely insulting to viewers of the show who, you know, dare to enjoy it.

Thanks, jrs1980, for posting the link first. And also for saying "Pamie has passed Anne Rice on the ARTISTE wank scale."

Also, TWoP apparently "added a new server to the forums to balance the traffic load. You may be locked out of the forums until your ISP gets the new DNS info (usually no more than a day)." But then how will the minions be able to post about how funny and clever Pamie is?

ETA: Looks as if it's not the week to be an asshat. One of the contestants of The Apprentice posted a swipe at TWOP here, with a few posters joining in.

The insistence of the fanatics of TWoP that it's "television withOUT pity" doesn't hold water when you get away from the recaps and into the forums, where opinions that differ from the majority are slapped down, given warnings, and just plain banned. It is not at all uncommon for brand new posters to the forums on TWoP to be banned after their first post, simply for voicing a difference of opinion, or .. God forbid .. not reading the FAQ's before posting or .. sin of all sins .. not reading the previous 15 days of posts and/or 15 pages of a thread so as not to disrupt the "flow". (which is complete bullsh*t)

I wonder if Miss Alli will work it into one of her recaps? (Thanks to napoleon for the heads up. I loved you in Animal Farm!)