Yes yes yes yes yes. I know I know I
know I know I know. Etc. No, I'm not wild about this show, but I
assure you, that's not the reason for my dereliction of duty here.
The truth is, I recently had a bit of an unexpected medical issue. No need to
worry; I'm fine. But I was pretty seriously distracted from even
thinking about this stuff. But here we are. Let's do it. Etc.
Right, so everyone's all upbeat and
stuff at the start, because they're going to have a fun adventure in
Monacrow, and I'll admit that the nonsensical "change the name
of everything so it's about birds" kinda cracked me up there.
And Mrs Beakley's coming along too this time because reasons.
But then their plane gets stuck on a,
like, mountain thing. How to get down? You know, I think an episode
dealing with that and only that would've been okay. I do like the
limited setting--everything but the very beginning and ending taking
place on this cargo plane in trouble. But, of course, that's not
what this is.
Beakley being upset that Scrooge is
putting the kids in danger? This...seems to rely pretty heavily on
her having in the past never having received any word whatsoever
about they're doing as they gallivant around, which seems doubtful.
I also find this extremely dubious going forward: you're calling into
question the premise of the whole show, and yet it's impossible to
imagine that future seasons won't proceed...more or less the same as
this one. I don't really think you know what you're doing.
The less said the better about this
fucking Della fan-fiction. The only thing I find vaguely
interesting: is she really supposed to be a single mother? Don't get
me wrong; the LAST thing I want is for the show to address this in
any way, or do anything with it whatsoever. But as long as they are.
Eh.
And then this hella forced "break-up"
business where everyone's alienated from Scrooge? It ain't exactly
Rosa-level pathos, I'll tell you that much. My interest is limited.
But hey. It's kind of amusing that the
only "in-flight entertainment" is the endlessly-repeating
end-credits sequence to a Darkwing Duck episode, yeah? Take what you
can get. Even if there's not much of it.
Hm. I honestly thought the emotional stuff was very well done (it's not quite up to the standards of Empire-Builder from Calisota, but it evoked a lot of the same feelings, and the music and animation in that scene were superbly crafted).
ReplyDeleteAnd if you're going to do Della in any interesting fashion they did it about as well as they could. I mean, how else would you propose they treat her plotline?
BLIMEY, you got here fast. You're maybe right that they're doing the Della stuff as well as they could. But my proposal is that they not do it at all. Even if that ship's obviously sailed.
DeleteWhat I find super-duper interesting is that The boys where still EGGS (!!!) when Della left so not only she NEVER SEEN THEM but Donald took care of them literally
Deletefrom the day they where born.
Makes you wonder if the reason she was so into going adventuring in space was the fact that she was troubled about the boys father abonding her/being dead and it was her way to not think about it.
Anyway glad to hear you are helthy agian, back into tip-top condition and that good'ol cheery Geox persona we all admire, love and secretly worship! All the best my friend!
Interesting point re them being eggs when she left. I do have to wonder: if that were the case...would they *really* care that much? I mean, maybe. But I feel the fact that they have literally *zero* actual memory of her kind of undermines whatever emotional core this whole thing is trying to have.
DeleteI think they'd still have interest in their mum but the problem here is it's not built up at all so all you got is 'well of course they're gonna care she's their mum' which, I mean sure but it's not particularly interesting.
DeleteDella isn't built as a character all that much. Even if she's not present you could have her absence feel like something. We don't even know what Donald has told the kids. They must have wondered and had their own ideas about what their mum was like even if they don't really 'miss' her.
And yeah this whole thing with the danger is so weird and uh. I guess I'll leave my thoughts on how it was resolved on the finale.
I think them doing stuff with Della is fine but she sure isn't really handled with much care. Not enough buildup not enough time.
Re Geox :
DeleteIn the show Dewey had photo of her from Donald (episode "Great dime chase") so I can imagine they at least imagine her over the years.
Oh, belive it or not but a lot of Della stuff here ISN'T fan fiction as it's acutaly partly taken from a European Duck story that also explain Della's whereabout in the exact same way... Only that story was poorly handle and it made Donald into an asshole who get angry at boys for being upset about their mom not being with them anymore.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are well, GeoX!
ReplyDeleteThe slow chase was cute. I liked the kids singing along with the Darkwing music. The departure of Ghost Duckworth made me laugh.
It is possible that in future episodes the writers might give Della more of an understandable motivation for blasting off early by herself. But at this point, I have to say that they succeeded in turning me off to a character I wholly expected to like. I do not need or want her to be an ideal of saintly motherhood. Fallible humanity is preferable. But she's leaving her three unhatched children on earth with no other parent in sight and risking her life for no apparent reason. I can think of several better ways to write her narrative.
Maybe she's just supposed to be so self-confident as to be (a) out of touch with reality and (b) undisturbed by the prospect of child abandonment. Blechhhh. This just seems flat-out crazy to me. Like Dewey walking out onto the plane after the last puzzle piece. Other viewers found this in character for him; I didn't believe any non-psychotic kid his age would actually do such a thing, no matter how stubborn or reckless he was. He would fantasize doing it, but he wouldn't actually do it.
Maybe my underlying problem with this show has to do with the wildly varying tonality. I'm asked to care about these characters as people, and then the characters act like toons. Or give their kids a ball of hair as a pet. Or extort money from their parent via a fake charity.
I'm intellectually curious as to how the show will deal with Della's present/future, since they still have the classic problem that she can't come home and take the kids away from Donald and she can't not come home. But unless they do a better job explaining her past decision, I'm not going to care what they do about her future.
Yeah the tone of the show really... it doesn't work for me. There's no real weight to anything but then an episode like this tries to pretend there is?
DeleteAlso I genuinely laughed at the scene of Scrooge's bin emptying at his search for Della. If I cared about this Scrooge I might be sad but as it is all I saw was a show going 'this billionaire is now slightly less rich :( feel bad"
It doesn't even really tell me anything about this Scrooge as a character because does he even care about money? Does he really care about his title as the richest duck? I don't even believe he feels real joy when swimming in his money it's just a cool trick he has so???
Lot of about Scrooge's character as a billionaire etc is... tricky to write. And it's probably just me but the way this show handles it makes me uncomfortable. (It does also feel like the show would rather he wasn't superrich but he gotta be. so they're stuck with it and just try to convince you it's all about the adventure. even though he is still a disgustingly rich businessman who wanders into other cultures's places to take all their shiny stuff.
Gotta say, you're providing way more insightful commentary about this show than I am. I must attempt to up my game!
DeleteAh, Lieju: this Scrooge is too COOL to feel joy when swimming in his money. Very good point! It's not just you; I also feel uncomfortable with the way the show handles Scrooge's character as a gazillionaire. Part of the way Barks handled it was to give Scrooge a childlike joy in his money, playing with it and in it, which offset the sheer avarice. Like a dragon who may lay waste to the countryside but who builds little forts in his hoard. Donald may rightly critique his greed and his life full of worry, but you can still sympathize with him.
DeleteYes, exactly, typically in this show there's no weight to anything and then suddenly there is.
I don't believe in most of the characters' motivations and emotions. Donald is a protective parent, except he lets Scrooge take over as main home-provider and guardian. The boys care about each other, except that Dewey keeps the mother-search a secret so he can get sole glory and Louie is ready to throw the others under the bus (finale)--no wait, that's just a joke, I'm not supposed to take it seriously. Scrooge cares about being the Great Scrooge McDuck, I guess, except now I'm supposed to believe he cares about Della more than his money, but as you say, *does* he care about his money?
The only emotions/relationship this show really made me believe in and care about was the relationship between Webby and Lena, and then....
Maybe I love stuff like "The Simpsons" to much, but I sort of have no problem with the show taking character trades and pushing it to extreme for the sake of a joke such us Louie cheating his family out of money via fake charity or Webby collecting Scrooges drull samples.
DeleteAs for Scrooge joy in swiming the money... The only time it happen in the show before this episode was the pilot (where Scrooge was shown swiming in money twice... trice if you cound Louie imagining him), "Day trip of Doom" (where Scrooge was having relaxing bath in coins) and Scrooge and Louie talk about swiming it in *Great dime chase".
Of course, there are some other refrence to Scrooge loving money in the show ("Jaw$" is the best example) but yhe, that's not to much to establish how special the bin is to Scrooge.
Still, I did think that showing Scrooge money in the bin gowing dow was touching as it was good way to visual how much energy and time he put find Della.
I wish Tad Stones had portrayed Darkwing Duck playing the saxophone instead of a harmonica or guitar during that show's run.
ReplyDeleteWhatever works worked because David Tennant's performance lends some gravitas, but it's unlikely that Scrooge wouldn't explain that he was forced to call off the search party...or that NOBODY observed a campsite being set up on the Moon.
Concerning the latter problem, there's a few theories.
DeleteThe first is that Selene ties into this somehow (she is the Goddess of the Moon and Della's old friend — maybe she knows more than she lets on and has been helping/sheltering Della, but can't directly bring her back to Earth with godly powers because Gods Can't Intefered With Fate and stuff).
The second is that this ties back into the Dutch storyline's relativity bit — for unclear reasons, the cosmic storm warped time for Della or sent her into the future, and so from her perspective she's only been on the Moon for a year at most. This would make the lack of detection and her ability to survive on just the supplies in the ship somewhat more believable.
...and concerning the first issue (unlikely that Scrooge wouldn't explain...), the family confrontation scene reminded me of the family therapists' advice to write letters when emotions are running high. Donald and the boys are incapable of hearing anything Scrooge is trying to say at that point. If Scrooge had written them a letter giving his story, they might have been able to read it when they calmed down some. Not that that would make for good television drama!
DeleteBoth theories are clever enough, if somewhat annoying, because the first underlines how unhelpful Selene was in helping reunite her friend with her children. Whereas the 2nd highlights how unlikely that Della could have survived longer than a week on a barren landscape, unless that ship was fully stocked with supplies and equipment, even though it was not planned for takeoff.
ReplyDeleteIt's just bringing to light how so much of the storylines felt slapdash & improvised.
I don't think that all is really... The Della mystery is a mystery and even if we now know where she is it makes sense there'd be more questions.
DeleteThat being said-
I think you're distrusting the show and don't believe it will have satisfying answers. So instead of 'oh cool there are all these new mysteries what is going on?' it's 'oh okay there will probably be an explanation and it won't make sense or be super interesting'
That's how I feel. I am sure they had a plan for all this but whether it will be satisfying?
I don't trust the show based on how it handled those things so far.
Some people are capable of trusting the show so these things don't come across the same way to them, I think.
I do have faith the writers did think of those things but I do not have faith it will be interesting or satisfying when we'll see it all play out.