On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 14:51:33 +0100 (CET), "Adam H. Kerman"
<ahk@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Heynony <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>Frank R.A.J. Maloney <frajm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>>if you [Jim Beaver] ever become a regular on "Monk", which is the only
>>>modern TV series so far I've bought on disc (and that was Season 1),
let
>>>me know
>
>>He's doing some fine work on Supernatural. Overall, an OK series
>>strictly for genre fans, but he is very good in it.
>
>I like "Supernatural" a lot of the time. Sometimes they manage to pull
>off genuine suspense rather than just being gross; it's better those
>weeks. They comedy episodes tend to be better than the angsty ones. The
>season opener featuring the Seven Deadly Sins was hysterical.
>
>The problem with the show is Jared Padalecki who has too little
>personality. What did Rory ever see in him?
A. Well, first off, on a character to character basis, Rory saw in
Dean -- Dean Forester, played by Padalecki on Gg, not Dean Winchester,
played by Jensen Ackles on Supernatural), what Rory saw in him went
something like this:
1) He's over six feet tall. Which means he's probably also big in
places that only Michel and Taylor (both the show's Taylor and
rec.arts.tv's Taylor) really want to contemplate.
2) He was beguiled by Rory's insanity and then, when Lorelai had to
set Rory up on a movie-at-home date with him, how Rory got her
insanity from her mother. In Rory's sort of narcissistic way, she dug
that.
3) Dean was a recent transplant from Chicago with something of a dark
streak when he arrived, able to flip on the tough guy shtick and take
the rich twat Tristan down. There was some hint that maybe he was the
reason his family moved from Chicago to Stars Hollow, but it was not
pursued as a story point.
4) IMO, she was drawn to his inferiority complex. He believed that he
wasn't smart enough to be anything but average, she thought
differently and tried to encourage him that he was smarter than he
thought he was. Again, Rory was somewhat of a well-meaning
narcissist, she saw in him alternately 1) a kid that she could be a
Mother Lorelai to -- except that he always resisted it because he
ultimately didn't believe her sincere attempts to bolster his
self-esteem -- and 2) someone a little bit like her wishy-washy
father, Christopher, who she thought she could be a Lover Lorelai to
and bolster his self-esteem by bolstering his self-esteem. Rory went
one step (too far) further than Lorelai did with Christopher and
helped Dean to break up his marriage by sleeping with him.
B. What I think are Padalecki's strengths as an actor and therefore
what I think that Supernatural's creators/writers see in him:
1) IMO, that nice-guy inferiority complex is exactly what the
Supernatural producers saw in Padalecki as Sam, who is always wanting
to get out from under his brother's shadow.
2) The ability to play the dramatic weight of the show while Ackles
takes the comedic weight, but each having the ability to play the
reverse when needed. Ackles is more well-rounded between Drama and
Comedy, so he *had* to be cast as Dean. IOW, Padalecki is far more
the straight man type, the Abbott to Ackles' Costello. Or Rory to
Ackles's Lorelai. ;)
3) I've got to context this by stating that I've got live theater
training (dramaturgy and stage management), so I've helped cast and/or
otherwise had input into casting a couple dozen or so shows --
Padalecki has what would be described as "soulfull" eyes. Padalecki
really lets his characters wear their hearts on their sleeves -- but
it's expressed through his eyes. Ackles knows how to play bottled, so
you see in his eyes Dean holding back, thus he tends to be able to
play characters who when they lose it, they lose it a lot more than
the actors they play against.
4) IMO, the more general dynamic between Padalecki and Ackles as Sam
and Dean is that little-brother/big-brother dynamic that makes them
appealing to both guys (Supernatural is the favorite show of the
troops in Iraq) and to gals (who crush on them like I crush on Lauren
Graham.)
-- Rob
--
LORELAI: I am so done with plans. I am never, ever making one again.
It never works. I spend the day obsessing over why it didn't work
and what I could've done differently. I'm analyzing all my shortcomings
when all I really need to be doing is vowing to never, ever make a plan
ever again, which I'm doing now, having once again been the innocent
victim of my own stupid plans. God, I need some coffee.
|
