If you need some cheer...

[elisi]

Russell Howard is here:

Why 2017 has actually been amazing...

(Mind you, I am also not quite sure about what is real anymore, as tonight we watched the Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired in 1978 and is described on wiki as 'The special is notorious for its extremely negative reception and has never been rebroadcast or officially released on home video. It has therefore become something of a cultural legend, because of the "underground" quality of its existence.' If you're curious, you can find it here: The Star Wars spinoff George Lucas wants to destroy. I cannot describe it, except that it's like bad fanfic that somehow ended up on screen with the actual actors acting in it.)

Comments

[shadowkat]

Yep, it was basically Wookie fanfic but by Lucas. Read recently that Lucas intended the original three films to be a parable of sorts or analogy to the US and Vietnam Cong with the US in the role of the Empire. ( never saw that connection myself but it does explain the prequels and the Christmas special.)

[shadowkat]

ETA - apparently Lucas felt that democratic systems would become corrupt eventually. I think he didn’t feel he got that across with first three films so tried to do it with the latter?

[elisi]

The Prequels you mean? Well he write them first (as you may know), but the studios decided to film books 4 - 6 first, deciding the earlier ones were a bit too dry. (They were not wrong, although in other hands the stories might have fared better.)

[shadowkat]

Yeah, the prequels. (Sigh, I've seen the prequels, the holiday special, and all the films. The only things I haven't been able to watch more than once were the prequels and the holiday special. Because once was really more than enough. I also saw the animated series - The Clone Wars - which was actually better than prequels. Although not sure how canonical it truly was.)

[elisi]

I've not watched The Clone Wars, but am not surprised they were better than the prequels. Like, that's not hard. ;) But I have heard good things otherwise.

[elisi]

Surely he didn't write it? The Christmas Special, I mean. Just gave it the green light...

And I can see the analogy - it's certainly not gotten any less.

[shadowkat]

No, he didn't.

Go here. It had a lot of writers...which may have been the problem. Also that it was a musical variety special, which, uhm...

[elisi]

Thank you - found that already, didn't look at the writers. Your line just threw me!

And oh, the musical numbers! I can't even. Grandpa Chewie basically watched porn...