So... that Mark. I think I've worked it out. :)

[elisi]

(Karen Gillan in my icon is doing a Mark impression...)

First of all, then many thanks go to gabrielleabelle for suggesting that Mark is so... OTT in his Buffy reviews because he expects angst. Because suddenly he was easy to diagnose. Basically he suffers from pre-Traumatic Joss Syndrome.

His tagline is 'You're Not Prepared', but this actually misleading. I don't mean that he's spoiled, but he is prepared. Here are my approximations of his mindset for various things:

Buffy:
'OH NOES IT'S JOSS AND HE LOVES TO STAB PEOPLE IN THE BACK WHEN THEY FEEL HAPPY! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE PERPETUAL HEARTBREAK, ANYONE COULD DIE AT ANYTIME! WILL IT BE THIS EPISODE THAT BREAKS ME FOR GOOD? OR THIS ONE? OR THIS ONE? OR...'

Lord of the Rings:
'OMG EVERYTHING IS EPIC AND EVERYTHING IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL FANTASY THAT COMES AFTER AND HOW SHALL I DEAL???'

Moffat Who:
'EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE CLEVER AND COMPLICATED OH NOES WHAT-IS-GOING-ON-I-CAN'T-WORK-IT-OUT-HELP!!!!'

Twilight:
'THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE RUBBISH AND TERRIBLE - AAAAAAAH! IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN I THOUGHT! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? AND IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE...'

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think you're onto something.

That said, he's watching "The Wish" today. And I do believe he's not prepared for what he's supposed to not be prepared for. He thinks he knows who Willow is. Tee hee.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I tried to read him, but his excitement is just seemed so boring... and I am old and jaded ;)

[elisi]

Heh. I think you're onto something.
It works, doesn't it? (And of nothing else it's certainly entertaining. *g*)

That said, he's watching "The Wish" today. And I do believe he's not prepared for what he's supposed to not be prepared for. He thinks he knows who Willow is. Tee hee.
It's going to be another capslocks thing, isn't it? And oh, the beautiful irony of how everything that now seems so farfetched as to be, literally, another universe, will all come true...

[elisi]

It's... Well. He has a very specific style. It's... a bit much. (I can't read his Doctor Who stuff at all, f.ex.) I can absolutely understand people who can't stomach it.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

THIS IS TRUTH!

Seriously, I think he might start having coronaries by the later seasons. Can you imagine The Gift? Dude's gonna faint dead.

[elisi]

THIS IS TRUTH!
Clearly when we combine forces nothing can hold us back...

Seriously, I think he might start having coronaries by the later seasons. Can you imagine The Gift? Dude's gonna faint dead.
Or Smashed... or Dead Things... Or... Yeah, it won't be easy for him. *gets out the popcorn*

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Unlike many Buffy first time viewers - Mark did not come into the show completely unspoiled. He saw Firefly first. (I don't know if he's seen Dollhouse). Also he's heard about it from the media.

No one watching Buffy now can come into it as raw as people who saw it in 1997 when it first aired. Any more than you can watch Star Wars or read Lord of the Rings or Hamlet or Pride and Prejudice. You know certain things. Same with Moffat.

Mark knows Whedon is a horror/fantasy writers who likes to hurt characters in his stories.

It's why his posts feel at times...telegraphed. Or stating the obvious.
It is hard to believe the emotion, because you sort of know he's not completely unspoiled. It's impossible. The DVD packaging and discs alone spoils you. (S6? Come on - we have DarkWillow on the cover!)

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that at least the basis of the emotion is genuine... but the guy is writing two of these reviews a day, five days a week. It's a job to him, not a hobby. So yes, it gets formulaic at times. He's discovered how to monetise his feelings.

[elisi]

No one watching Buffy now can come into it as raw as people who saw it in 1997 when it first aired. Any more than you can watch Star Wars or read Lord of the Rings or Hamlet or Pride and Prejudice. You know certain things. Same with Moffat.
Exactly. He IS prepared, knowing more-or-less what to expect, which then influences his reactions. Although there's also truth in what Stormwreath says - it's why his LotR reviews are so bizarre to me. Because he treats it a bit like BtVS, as if Tolkien is deliberately toying with his audience's emotions... Which is such a strange way of approaching the text, that it took me a long while to even begin to understand why it was so weird.

[diamondtook862.livejournal.com]

I think you might be absolutely right. It's like he thinks things are going to be outrageous, so he responds as if they are, when in fact the emotionally powerful/traumatic stuff on the show only happens rarely, which is why it packs so big a punch. Getting angsty about the breakups of Willow and Xander instead of enjoying the hilarity of Lovers Walk feels like it misses the point. Both matter. This is not unexpected, nor is it tragic. It's tragicomedy, and there is so so much more to come. The Mayor isn't revolutionary or creepy at all. He's just lovable. And evil. Which is hard to reconcile. Lovers Walk is brilliant and wonderful, but it's no Becoming II, or even Prom.

I wish he'd speak more about his thoughts than his feelings. But maybe those are just my own feelings. ;)

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

it's not that I cannot stomach his style, it's just his convulsions about Buffy punching the cop (in Becoming II) above everything else were kind of ridiculous comparing his reaction to the really powerful parts. As if he had a premature ejaculation - got too excited and all spent when the show was just starting to gain momentum.

tee-hee

[elisi]

*snerk*

I know what you mean though. It's like he... doesn't quite get the show and keeps aiming a little too much to the left.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh, very much so. Did you know there's several online sites and how to guides on how to make a living blogging?

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your-blog/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog/

In these two posts, Steve Palina points out how you can make a million dollars from blogging and how to get traffic to your site.

What Mark is doing is three things: 1) talking about himself and what he knows and lending a personal context, 2) speaking in a language that the bulk of his nitch readership would understand, 3)posting frequently.
He is controversial at times - because that increases blog traffic. The Twilight posts - certainly did. He basically follows what is stated in
Palina's posts to the letter.

He's not blogging for the reasons we are, this is his profession. Will he make a million off of it? I doubt it. Too nitch. And too many other people doing the same thing. Also a bit trendy. But - if he can change with trends and reinvent himself as Palina states, who knows?

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Is he controversial? I mean, he knows his audience are fans of X (or in the case of Twilight, anti-fans of X). And he enthusiastically LOVES X (or HATES it). If he had some unpopular opinions about the shows/books relative to his audience, I'd say there's some controversy, but he's pretty innocuous. Hence his popularity.

(Though I really do wonder if that will stay the same in, say, S6. There, any opinion is bound to have a good chunk of fans vehemently disagreeing with you)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

He reacted to Suzanne Collins Hunger Games the same way. Which makes sense, I guess. But there's a tendency to treat novels like tv shows without appreciating the vastly different medium. The novelist is less aware of the audience than the television writer is. Less likely to be influenced.
Particularly during Tolkien's time period. Tolkien being somewhat of a hermit and an academic...tended to be largely oblivious. And in regards to his readers...had no problems with them playing with his characters or reinterpreting them. He disagreed with their interpretations. According to Tolkien Lord of the Rings was not an anti-war series. Nor was he making that point. Nor were the Orcs the Germans - I think he was quite annoyed by that interpretation. It anything I think the main theme of the books was in regards to the effects of the industrial revolution on Europe - the destruction of the primeval forest, the pollution of the air. The changes.

A lot of fiction during that period was about the Industrial Revolution, just as a lot of fiction right now is about the Information/Technological Revolution - with oddly similar themes.

But I think many of those themes fly over Mark's head...because he is somewhat unaware of historical context. Again, I blame the US public educational system for this. The man got a lousy education.

[mefnord.livejournal.com]

I'm Reading mark's Reviews and while i find them a Bit tedious in their excitability (i made that Word just up, didn't i?) i Love the comments and just the whole Nostalgia of People Talking and Spekulating about buffy - draws me back every Day!

I hate auto-correct, by the Way, Sorry about the Bad spelling...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Apparently he got some negative comments on his Twilight read through.
(I noticed because he apologizes every time he brings up Twilight on his blog. And referred to it.)

They are public posts. The moderators kick people out who are disruptive.
But yes, controversial. I've noticed that just in the post I did on Being a Fan - a lot of people responded regarding their annoyance with the whole "Xander bashing" bit in his journal.

But no...not as controversial as your posts or some of mine for that matter. LOL! It's a fine line, I think.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Whenever you post mentioning "Mark", I think it's going to be about Mark Gatiss! XD

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think Seeing Red may do the poor guy in.
Also so not looking forward to the Spike!Rage. Sigh.
So many people over-react to that episode....they act like they've never seen sexual violence on television.

[deird1]

It is hard to believe the emotion, because you sort of know he's not completely unspoiled. It's impossible. The DVD packaging and discs alone spoils you. (S6? Come on - we have DarkWillow on the cover!)

Except he's watching it on Netflix, so he's not seeing any of that...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Unless he's streaming it, he should be. DarkWillow is on the DVD disc in S6.
Or are netflix DVD's different than the one's in the boxes? Also the set up sort of spoils you...on some of them.

Fringe, Trueblood and Dexter were equally bad in that respect. I know, I get tv shows by netflix.

[deird1]

Possibly I'm getting my ways-to-watch-things terminology confused?

Anyway - he's watching them online. With no dvd intros or anything. (As far as I recall.)

[devilscrayon.livejournal.com]

So I just read his post for The Wish. Between that and yesterday's weirdly heartbroken reaction to Lovers Walk... I'm not sure I can read these much more. I was having fun reading them until these, when I feel like he just missed the whole point of both of these episodes. It's disappointing.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

*hadn't read it yet*

Oh wow. Yeah.

"The whole point of this alternate universe is to show Cordelia that she needs to assign blame where it needs to go. "

No. No, that's not the point. I mean, I know the episode pulls a switch-up on the audience, but that shows that the episode isn't a Cordelia-centric one. It's about something else. His insistence that it was supposed to be Cordelia-centric is annoying.

*loves on The Wish and Marti Noxon*

But in his defense, I think that can happen when you're watching stuff for the first time? I mean, some episodes make more sense in retrospect.

[devilscrayon.livejournal.com]

Right?? I can't tell if I'm being unfair in expecting him to see the brilliance of these episodes right away. It's hard for me to remember my own reactions the first time I watched those episodes.. but I can't ever remember thinking that Lovers Walk was a SAD episode. I was just way too entertained by Spike I guess. But then I figured I must be watching that episode through Spike colored glasses, and blocking out the sad parts. But with the Wish... he just completely missed the point! I was expecting a little whining about "not enough Cordy" since he likes her so much, but I was NOT expecting him to demand an after-school-special lesson out of it all.

As you say, though, he might appreciate this episode more if he comes back to it later.