Claire Hennessy
Writer, tea-drinker
Category Archives: TV addictions
May 14 2012

How to ruin a character in a single line

by clairehennessy

I have mentioned, I believe, my fondness for April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy? And then along came episode 8.21, in which she is a hysterical sobbing mess (a little too hysterical for someone with her capabilities), gets into a drunken brawl (okay, that part is sort of awesome), sleeps with Jackson (a sort of oh-no-you-guys-are-friends-yet-really-there-are-no-friendships-in-Grey’s-without-sexual-tension-so-go-for-it mishmash), and then freaks out (bad). Because Jesus will be mad at her that she’s had sex.

As this piece discusses, it is a prime example of Retconning, in which a series rewrites its own history, and not terribly effectively. There’s a difference between a shock reveal and something that makes you go “uh… what? That doesn’t even make sense.”

So for everything up to that moment, there was never any mention of April having particular religious beliefs. Not even when she had to face down a psychotic gun-man. The ‘adult virgin’ status was about wanting to wait for it to be ‘special’, then waiting too long and finding it awkward and a big deal. Then suddenly: angst! But not angst that would have made sense and fitted with the consequences of drunkenly sleeping with your best friend the night before the biggest exams of your life and it being your first time and oh-what-does-it-all-mean and where-do-we-go-from-here. Oh no. Jesus-angst. Sudden Jesus-angst.

What the hell?

Even Christian fans are going “Jesus wouldn’t hate her!”, incidentally. Which is sort of missing the point – that what we learn about April here isn’t just an articulation of misguided beliefs (although…), but something that flat-out doesn’t fit with everything we’ve learned about her before.

And on a storytelling level, honestly, it’s far less interesting. Super-Christian girl ‘saves herself’? Yawn. Woman with sexual desires but uncertain about what to do or how to get what she wants because society deems there’s an acceptable window for ‘first times’ and struggling with all that? And searching for meaningful connections in the oversexed hospital which realistically is going to be where she meets most potential love interests? That’s interesting.

Sometimes retcons can be fun, if they’re done knowingly. (The Simpsons episode ‘That 90s Show’ is one of my favourite episodes of TV ever.) But this one feels… a little ick. A little not-really-thought-out. A little let’s-amp-up-the-drama-by-surprising-everyone-without-considering-whether-the-surprise-makes-sense.

Plot twists and shock reveals are supposed to surprise and, well, shock. But when they come out of nowhere, it’s not clever plotting. It’s cheating, and it’s unsatisfying for readers, or viewers, or whoever.

Sigh. Back to my Cristina-worship and Arizona-adoration I go…

Categories: TV addictions | 3 Comments »

Apr 16 2012

Drinking games NOT to play

by clairehennessy

Occasionally (feeling slightly navel-gazey as I do so) I check out the search terms that lead people to this site. Sometimes they are very ordinary (“Claire Hennessy writer” ), other times they’re slightly more unusual.

One recent one was drinking games with Hennessy, which I presume means the cognac, rather than, you know, me. But then I started thinking about drinking games I would suggest to this person. Many of them were TV-related.

For example, while watching Desperate Housewives, drink every time Mary Alice says, “Yes….”

When watching Boston Legal, drink every time Denny Crane breaks the fourth wall. And start chugging whenever he and Alan Shore dance, dress up as flamingos, or get married.

Drink whenever Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock alludes to any other Alec Baldwin characters.

When watching anything featuring Betty White, drink whenever she gets the best lines.

For Brothers and Sisters and Cougar Town, drink when they drink.

Then I realised that these were very bad ideas which would leave people comatose and/or dead. Especially the last one.

Alas, searcher-person, I can’t help you on this one. Have a link to that episode of Black Books where they write the children’s book instead. Do not drink when they drink. Ever.

Categories: Random thoughts, TV addictions | 4 Comments »

Apr 9 2012

This and that from around the internet

by clairehennessy

–> This is a really nifty piece about young adult versus adult fiction.

–> This is a new blog about YA fiction in the UK.

–> This is a great post from author Candy Gourlay about taking wrong turns along the writing path.

–> This is a useful post about writing in the mornings.

–> This is a thought-provoking post from YA author Kody Keplinger about disablity and diversity in YA fiction.

–> This is the first proper post at Cheetah Books, a group blog focusing on gifted & talented characters as represented in fiction – looking at Jane Eyre as a GT character.

–> And this is just delightful.

–> Finally, this is one of those love it/hate it Glee covers (have to admit I’m a fan)…

Categories: Gifted education, Random thoughts, That writing thing, TV addictions | 2 Comments »

Mar 19 2012

Love Triangles

by clairehennessy

I recently finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy (more thoughts forthcoming in the next book-review post), and had been vaguely aware that – along the lines of Twilight and Harry Potter – there had been some ‘Team Peeta’, ‘Team Gale’ type stuff going on within the fandom.

My question upon finishing was: ‘really, people rooted for Gale in this little love triangle? Seriously? Peeta! Peeta all the way! He BAKES!’

And I found myself wondering whether I had rooted for him the whole way through because that had been the author’s intention, or because of my own reading/interpretation of the text.

I can think of very few love triangles where I’ve genuinely understood the girl’s (tends to be the girl, especially in YA fiction – which is a whole other issue) conflict. Often when it happens in TV settings there’s a clear favoured outcome – e.g. with Duncan/Veronica/Logan on Veronica Mars, Logan wins all the way with the fans – or there’s a back-and-forth between what the writers are doing and what the audience is responding to.


(any excuse for a Logan/Veronica clip…)

With books the love triangle may be partly invented by the fans rather than explicitly there in the text. I’m thinking of the Harry/Hermione fans in the early/middling days of Harry Potter fandom. I completely fail to see what Hermione sees in Ron, and would have liked to have seen Harry/Hermione happen, but never had any sense that the books would ever go there, or wanted the readers to believe that they might go there.

With things I’ve read recently, the possible ‘love triangle’ has been more about ‘romantic false leads’ and ‘dragging out the tension’ than anything else. Yet I’m never quite sure to what extent this is about becoming attached to a particular romantic lead as a reader (Leon in Caragh O’Brien’s Birthmarked trilogy, for example) and not wanting to give up on that, rather than the whether or not the author is convincingly setting up a new/existing character as an alternative romantic interest.

I wasn’t torn about ‘Gale vs Peeta’ in The Hunger Games, though I know some people were and know that it’s there within the books as a dilemma. What I’m contemplating is whether this is about how this is set up, or about how I read the books as an individual reader, bringing existing preferences (e.g. baking over hunting!) to the equation.

And I also want to mention the one trilogy (albeit it still unfinished) where I genuinely was/am torn about the way the love triangle would go – Logan/Aura/Zachary in Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade trilogy. Without getting too spoilery about how the books go, I found myself liking Zachary an awful lot while at the same time completely getting how Aura was conflicted and hoping that there might be some way of making the Logan thing work. But I also wonder to what extent that’s about the paranormal elements of that world and how they factor in to keeping people apart/together.

Just something I’m pondering. For anything (films, books, TV) featuring love triangles, did you know from the beginning who you were rooting for – or did you find yourself torn? And did the author/creator end up providing you with a satisfactory resolution? Do you root for characters or outcomes even when you sense the author/creator isn’t going to go there, or do you hunt for indicators about how it’ll turn out in the end?

Categories: Book reviews, TV addictions | 12 Comments »

Feb 17 2012

Some things (with links)

by clairehennessy

–> Recent interview with Sophie Kinsella, whose new book I’ve Got Your Number is just out. In which the interviewer is a tad condescending and Kinsella is mightily zen. (There’s a follow-up piece as well.)

–> On a related note, a piece about reader-shaming and genre fiction.

–> Over at DIY MFA, there’s a great post about what you promise the reader in the opening pages of a story or novel.

–> On the non-writerly, personal side of things, there is a super piece here about bad relationships. Aimed at teenagers, but worth reading at any age.

–> And on a happier TV junkie note, some fabulous bits of Cougar Town Season 3. (I may have mentioned my love of this show previously. It is very very funny, and has a super cast. YAY for season 3!)

Categories: Random thoughts, That writing thing, TV addictions | No Comments »

Jan 30 2012

Getting in touch with your inner teen (part 2)

by clairehennessy

Have been meaning to follow up Getting in touch with your inner teen for a while now.

This time: TV shows. Ah, yes – a legitimate excuse to watch television. Because it’s research.

I have two personal favourite recommendations, TV-wise. One is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, especially seasons one to three (though there is some good stuff later on). Teenage angst, but with monsters. Having a whole secret identity that teachers and parents don’t understand or respect, or a boyfriend who goes evil after you sleep with him… oh, it is so good. With super, if quirky, dialogue.

The other is Dawson’s Creek. As with Buffy, there is terrific dialogue. In this case, it’s terrific, over-thinking, over-analysing-everything dialogue. But there’s also that hovering between grown-up and kid, the sulk-fest one moment and adolescent sex-obsession the next. And there is Pacey Witter.

Both of these are from the late 90s/early 00s, during which time there were also things like Roswell (teen angst! With aliens!), Felicity (she cut her haaaaaaaair!), Popular (demented yet brilliant), Freaks and Geeks (tragically short-lived). I am fond of this post-My So-Called Life era of TV, I must say. The noughties went on to bring us Gilmore Girls (possibly more family drama than teen show, but shh. Rory! Paris! Lane!) and Veronica Mars (girl detective! Darkness! Epic amounts of angst and betrayal!), and then the glamour-heavy worlds of The O.C. and Gossip Girl. And of course the high-school-drama-meets-musical fest that is Glee.

The trouble with watching teen-centric TV as research is that you need to know how interpret it. Characters in books, like characters in TV shows, have lives that tend to be slightly more dramatic and polished and scripted than real-life people. But TV shows also tend towards characters acting and seeming much older than they are (in large part because the actors playing them tend to be older), in a way that happens much more in TV than in books. And everyone is good-looking, really really ridiculously good-looking – even the ‘plain’ kids are stunning. And almost always thin or muscular, depending on gender. And have many, many different outfits and spacious living quarters, even if these things are only shown and not discussed.

On the plus side, though, teen-centric TV does a lot of the same thing that teen-centric books do. It takes various situations teen characters might find themselves in, ranging from probable to implausible, and mines them for all the drama (and romance, and comedy) they’re worth. And if it does it right, it persuades viewers to care deeply about what happens with the teen characters and the choices they make, to take them seriously or to empathise somehow. Teen-centric things aren’t the only things that ask us to do this, of course, but books and TV aimed at adults often has teen characters acting in a way that invites exasperation or amusement rather than identification. The ‘oh to be young and know everything!’ sort of vibe.

So, legitimate research? Absolutely. And not just a reason to gaze adoringly at Joshua Jackson or David Boreanaz in their 20something primes. Nope. Certainly not.

Categories: That writing thing, TV addictions | 4 Comments »

Jan 13 2012

Oh fictional characters, you are delightful (April Kepner, Grey’s Anatomy)

by clairehennessy

So, season 8 of Grey’s Anatomy (up to 8.09, anyway). I am still liking Meredith (yes, I like Meredith. Stop looking at me like that) and Arizona (so cute! So awesome!) and Owen (especially his struggles-with-being-chief). I am liking Richard in his new role an awful lot, and continue to think Callie is fabulous. I am not too impressed with Bailey and hoping someone tells her off soon and the show actually presents this as acceptable rather than crazy (I mean, between the not-so-amazing treatment of the men in her life plus the complete disrespect towards Owen as Chief… seriously).

And I am adoring April Kepner. So here are my five favourite April moments/plots:

  1. The shooting episode OF DOOM in which there is apparently no hospital security whatsoever, and in which April’s snarky best friend has been already shot dead by the killer. April tells him everything about herself – makes him see her as a person. And he tells her to run.
  2. Her crush on Derek Shepherd. She gets mocked for it, but given that he’s presented as this Amazing Guy and Neurosurgeon, it makes sense. And is sweet.
  3. Her interactions with Dr Stark (aka Peter McNicol, who will forever be John Cage on Ally McBeal in my head). Tension, respect, sexual tension, friendship. Just a world of loveliness. I would have loved seeing more of this.

  4. Her friendship with Jackson. Something I would love to see more of – particularly as they’re the only two Mercy West kids left – but it has its moments. Like after she and Alex have almost slept together (which I am sort-of rooting for, if it happens without yelling), and then he’s rotten to her, and Jackson has this protective-older-brother thing going on when she needs him. But he still won’t let her boss him around when she becomes Chief Resident.
  5. Her being Chief Resident. This pleases me immensely. I love her checklist, and why she knows it’s important. I love her struggles to make people listen to her, and how she’s not a natural leader in some ways and yet has many of the organisational skills she needs for the job. And I nearly applauded when she just told Alex, Lexie and Jackson what to do after they’d been ignoring her all day: “Any of you argue with me and I’ll take you off the OR board. Indefinitely. I, on the other hand, just got fired from Bailey’s trial, so I’m going to spend the night drinking and flirting with boys.”

Categories: TV addictions | 5 Comments »

Jan 6 2012

Things of squee

by clairehennessy

Televisual things I have been squeeing about lately:

- Queer As Folk, which I have been rewatching. The US version, not the UK (which, you know, I watched. And it’s okay, except I can’t take Stuart seriously as a Sex God because he’s that breed of Irishman that’s ten-a-penny. Whereas Brian Kinney is made of yum…). I’m loving it – it’s very soapy and ridiculous in parts, but also delightful and mightily pretty. (Ben is also delicious. And intellectual. Swoon.)

- Cougar Town, which I’ve just seen Season 2 of. Okay. So. Rubbish title (which they know, and mock), but from the guy who did Scrubs, and featuring appearances from several familiar faces. Basically, imagine Scrubs if they weren’t doctors, but instead… living in a cul-de-sac in Florida. And kinda dumb. But lovable. And drinking a lot of wine. (Oh, Big Carl!) Favourite characters include, well, all of them, but I have a soft spot for Travis (aka Brandon from Easy A) and Laurie (aka Audrey from Dawson’s Creek). And of course Ellie (aka Jordan from Scrubs). I tip my hat to her.

- House. Because. Um. Hugh Laurie. Those eyes. The snark. The sense of despair at the universe and lack of faith in humanity… yeah. Good times.

Categories: TV addictions | 3 Comments »

Nov 1 2011

Links of interest from that world wide web yoke

by clairehennessy

–> Anna Carey writes about why adults are watching kids’ comedy series, and why they are brilliant. My beloved Horrible Histories is mentioned. This pleases me immensely.

–> Gemma Malley, author of The Declaration trilogy, has a new YA dystopian trilogy kicking off in March 2012.

–> In other dystopian-YA news, follow Caragh O’Brien on her blog tour for her new book, Prized. (Loved it.)

–> Need something to counteract the bile of that dreadfully homophobic Indo article last weekend? Have a read of what Jennifer O’Connell or Ross Golden-Bannon have to say about homophobia in Ireland and beyond.

–> Megan Crane, author of smart chick-lit and swoony romance novels, writes about finding her voice for both these things.

–> YA author Aimée Carter talks about what it takes to write – courage.

–> For anyone who’s read Veronica Roth’s Divergent, her post about what changed from the first to final draft is very interesting, particularly for people who wonder what kind of changes ‘revising’ or ‘editing’ entails.

–> YA author Geraldine Meade talks about writing YA fiction over at writing.ie.

–> The web comic Hyperbole and a Half talks about depression. Quote:

“…trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back. A fundamental component of the plan is missing and it isn’t going to work.”

Categories: Random thoughts, That writing thing, TV addictions | 6 Comments »

Jul 31 2011

Current pop culture obsession… (it’s educational!)

by clairehennessy

Two things I adore: history and comedy. So the Horrible Histories love has been going on for the last few months, earning either looks of bewilderment or knowing nods.

There’s Historical Wife Swap, This Is Your Reign, lots of songs, and a talking rat.

But mostly? Mostly there is Mathew Baynton.

Yum. That is all. Yum.

Categories: Random thoughts, TV addictions | 5 Comments »

Jun 1 2011

Things I have loved on TV recently…

by clairehennessy

I adore musicals. And television. And Glee. Now, I admit that Glee can be fairly hit-or-miss. There are the episodes which make sense, which pick up on plot points that they’ve been playing with for a while, that reveal something surprising, that do something fantastic. And then there are those that have lots of songs for any old reason, barely nod to continuity, and do gimmicky things with guest stars.

The season 2 finale has many things wrong with it. Oh, so many. But it also has Kurt and Rachel on the Wicked stage doing ‘For Good’.

Five reasons why this made me squeak in delight and then gaze at the screen in a sort of rapt wonder:

1. WICKED!
2. With the SET!
3. With Kurt and Rachel, so it’s like a sequel to their ‘Defying Gravity’ duet of Season 1.
4. Lea Michele singing Elphaba’s part, completely in the style of Idina Menzel (aka original Elphaba, aka Rachel’s-birth-mom).
5. ‘For Good’ is possibly one of the greatest songs in a musical ever. Oh. Swoon.

But I am also loving, as ever, The Big Bang Theory. Season 4 has just been terrific – so many great episodes, and a bigger focus on the female characters. Every time Penny, Bernadette and Amy get together, it is guaranteed to be delightful.

Oh, Amy Farrah Fowler. Five reasons why she is one of the most fabulous female characters on TV ever:

1. She sometimes gets drunk. And it is the best thing in the universe.
2. “I don’t object to the concept of a deity, but I’m baffled by the notion of one that takes attendance.”
3. She calls Sheldon a “sexy toddler”. It, um, makes sense in context. Sort of.
4. She is totally and hopelessly out of touch with reality, as evidenced by… pretty much everything that emerges from her mouth. And yet…
5. … there is just enough quasi-human-ness in there to make her an empathetic character. Occasionally.

Laughter, musicals, and nerdiness. That seems to sum up the current televisual love.

Categories: TV addictions | No Comments »

May 13 2011

A Very Special Musical Episode

by clairehennessy

Today: a tribute to musical episodes of TV shows.

I love TV. Love, love, love it. As I may have mentioned here once or twice. I love the scope for character and plot development, the threads that play out over months and years, twenty or forty or sixty or a hundred hours instead of the two you get in a movie.

And I love musicals. Ergo. Musical episodes of TV shows – they bring the happy. They bring the Glee, in fact, but that’s a separate issue. But they can also be done horribly badly. One of the reasons Glee works is that every episode is the Very Special Musical Episode – the viewers know, and are tuning in, to see musical performances interwoven into the episode. When it’s something out of the ordinary, you need a reason.

Grey’s Anatomy used an out-of-body experience recently, and – oh, I had fears. I had fears when I heard that they were doing a musical episode, because it’s not a musical episode kind of show. And then having it be songs already used in the show – when Callie (Sara Ramirez) started singing, I wasn’t convinced. Even though she has a stunning voice.

Then Owen (Kevin McKidd) started singing. And oh dear lord swoon. It grew on me. I still think Addison (Kate Walsh) was underused. I think they used their strongest singers well though. It does not surprise me at all that Lexie (Chyler Leigh) can sing, and we’d heard Bailey (Chandra Wilson) on the show before. But Sara Ramirez and Kevin McKidd. Whoa.

It’s not your typical musical episode – it’s dark and twisty. It’s an episode of sadness and angst and worries. (And Arizona having sadness and angst and worries, which is just extra-sad.) But it works.

I think the best musical episodes are the ones that take the best from the TV show and the best of what a musical can do, and merge the two. Another favourite is the Scrubs musical episode – which has a sort-of medical explanation for the singing, in that a patient (Stephanie D’Abruzzo of Avenue Q fame – part of the writing team were also involved in the music for this, which explains a lot) is hearing everything sung and it’s actually a symptom. It’s zany and wacky with some poignant moments – pretty much your standard Scrubs episode, so, except with singing.

And the standard amount of JD/Turk subtext. Or, um, text.

Other TV shows have tried. Ally McBeal, for example, even though it didn’t necessarily need it – it’s a show that’s so closely tied to music anyway, and has plenty of opportunities for getting characters singing. (Oh, Robert Downey Jr, your duet with Sting remains a favourite.) The Simpsons have had a variety of musical numbers. (Cartoons tend to be able to pull off musicals more so than live-action shows.) It’s tough – you do need to justify it in some way, and to ensure that it works as an episode as well as a musical extravaganza, moving storylines along, making things change.

I think we all know where this is going. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ‘Once More With Feeling’ – one of my favourite episodes of anything, ever. From the moment Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) opened her mouth, I was there, ready to buy it, ready to love it.

Like the Grey’s episode it does suffer from some cast members being weaker singers than others (oh, Alyson Hannigan) and doesn’t always hide them away (I’m not mad about Xander [Nicholas Brendon]). But most of the cast do an extraordinary job – I especially love Tara (Amber Benson) and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Spike (James Marsters), which actually is pretty much most of the rest of the cast.

There’s a reason for the music – it’s a demon! And one can actually dance oneself to death – the singing and dancing is out of control and needs to be stopped and might be bunnies. They can’t help themselves – they just have to sing. And like any good musical it ends with a kiss – which, this being Buffy, is messy and complicated and vampiric. Oh. It is excellent.

I love musicals but like films they’re only a couple of hours long – plenty of time for great music, but not so much for ongoing character development. With TV shows we get to see what happens next – and we know these characters already, so what they sing doesn’t need to set them up for us but can move straight into their current predicament.

It can go horribly wrong. But sometimes, it can go so beautifully right.

Categories: TV addictions | 8 Comments »

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