Jenn and I started watching Nine Perfect Strangers tonight. We’re two episodes in and so far I quite like it — except for this one thing that has already happened a lot, where characters launch into a personal attack on another character in a way that people in real life only wish they would tell someone else off. “It’s always so easy for you, isn’t it? It’s easy to be so dismissive and cold when you’re just so perfect. Well, I’ve got news for you, Geraldine. You’re not perfect. You’re not even close to it. You’re actually just a sad, insecure, mean old woman who hides her true self behind that mask, but I see right through that mask.” That kind of crap. Oooooh wow, that character really told that other character off.
It doesn’t end there though. Now the character who just stood by with a bewildered look on their face and took the verbal assault launches a volley of their own back. “You’re right, Gus. I’m not perfect. Most people don’t notice it but you, you’ve always been particularly observant. All those nights I spent slamming yet another bottle of sambuca, struggling to keep this family together — you saw me then. But you never came rushing to take the sambuca out of my fists and ask me how I was doing, did you? No, despite being more observant than your brothers, despite seeing exactly what was going on, you never tried to help me stop guzzling that delicious, enchanting sambuca. So it’s true, I’m not perfect, and I do wear a mask, but I think that’s better than being a fucking coward, don’t you?” WWHHOOAAAHHH, she told him off even better!! This show is HOT, it’s got all the tension I crave. That sambuca bit felt a bit like an ad but the rest of that was sick.
This isn’t a new technique, I’ve been noticing it for years now, but usually I avoid shows that employ it because the ‘big tell-off/responding big tell-off’ bugs me so much. Those kinds of conversations are utterly absurd yet they’re delivered as if they are realistic, and I find that insulting.
If anyone knows what this technique is called, please let me know so I can hate on it more succinctly to all the poor unfortunate souls who are doomed to watch modern tv with me. For now I guess I’ll go with ‘the big tell-off/responding big tell-off.’ It’s a bit clunky but it gets the gist across, I think.
I still like Nine Perfect Strangers so far, despite this. We’ll see how it goes though.
crimson highway 