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juniperberryAnybody remember Tin Man (2007)? A coworker/friend kindly copied the DVDs for me, because I told her I was thinking of getting it again for Callum Keith Rennie. (He plays the otherwise forgettable bad guy, Zero.)
And rewatching just the first twenty minutes or so...well, I'm reminded why I picked it up, watched it, and promptly let it go without a second rewatch. Zooey Daschanel is adorable but dull, which might just be me--I was raised on Daria and had long since been impressed with Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye in Wonderfalls, who was also a disaffected 20-something with long dark hair, sarcastic and dissatisfied with the world around her. Though Jaye was a lot more fazed by the magic around her than DG is. Yes, I need to do a Wonderfalls rewatch. My point is, by the time I came upon Tin Man, the "young woman who is dissatisfied with her world and snarky about it" was a well-worn trope, and DG is not as sharply observant as Daria nor as snarky as Jaye. Thirty minutes in and she's just kind of there. I don't know if that's because Zooey Daschanel just didn't have much to work with in the script, or if she was just not enthused by the part. I seem to remember a lot of the backstory being full of repressed memories, so I'm sure she'll be more interesting by the end of it, but the opening bits are a bit blah.
(Also, I was a disaffected 20-something, and now I'm a disaffected 30-something with a lot more stress. Hanging out in a cool attic bedroom with someone else paying my rent and no outstanding debt? Yes please, that was nice.)
Honestly, even CKR only does so much for me. He's younger here, but playing a bad guy (which he has played a lot), and he's doing that CKR thing where he's fading into the background. CKR is one of those actors who is very good, but if he doesn't need to be center stage, he's not center stage. And at only thirty minutes into episode one, Zero is not a very interesting character. CKR looks good in a leather coat, though, but I already knew that.
The look of Tin Man is very steampunky and cool, and I do like that. But it was a made-for-TV miniseries, and honestly, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better as a ten or thirteen episode miniseries, instead of three long parts. (Each part is about an hour and a half, so I don't think it would have stretched things overmuch from what we got, but it might have provided time for more character set-up, and time to see more of DG than just "weird dreams, artistic, bored with the world around her, kind of pouty."
My computer is being annoying, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get through part one tonight in full, but we'll see.
And rewatching just the first twenty minutes or so...well, I'm reminded why I picked it up, watched it, and promptly let it go without a second rewatch. Zooey Daschanel is adorable but dull, which might just be me--I was raised on Daria and had long since been impressed with Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye in Wonderfalls, who was also a disaffected 20-something with long dark hair, sarcastic and dissatisfied with the world around her. Though Jaye was a lot more fazed by the magic around her than DG is. Yes, I need to do a Wonderfalls rewatch. My point is, by the time I came upon Tin Man, the "young woman who is dissatisfied with her world and snarky about it" was a well-worn trope, and DG is not as sharply observant as Daria nor as snarky as Jaye. Thirty minutes in and she's just kind of there. I don't know if that's because Zooey Daschanel just didn't have much to work with in the script, or if she was just not enthused by the part. I seem to remember a lot of the backstory being full of repressed memories, so I'm sure she'll be more interesting by the end of it, but the opening bits are a bit blah.
(Also, I was a disaffected 20-something, and now I'm a disaffected 30-something with a lot more stress. Hanging out in a cool attic bedroom with someone else paying my rent and no outstanding debt? Yes please, that was nice.)
Honestly, even CKR only does so much for me. He's younger here, but playing a bad guy (which he has played a lot), and he's doing that CKR thing where he's fading into the background. CKR is one of those actors who is very good, but if he doesn't need to be center stage, he's not center stage. And at only thirty minutes into episode one, Zero is not a very interesting character. CKR looks good in a leather coat, though, but I already knew that.
The look of Tin Man is very steampunky and cool, and I do like that. But it was a made-for-TV miniseries, and honestly, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better as a ten or thirteen episode miniseries, instead of three long parts. (Each part is about an hour and a half, so I don't think it would have stretched things overmuch from what we got, but it might have provided time for more character set-up, and time to see more of DG than just "weird dreams, artistic, bored with the world around her, kind of pouty."
My computer is being annoying, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get through part one tonight in full, but we'll see.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 01:59 am (UTC)I kind of feel like the 2000s just saw CKR as bad guy material. Which is a shame.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 02:13 am (UTC)(And I'd be glad to discuss the fic and the vids of Tin Man at a later date.)
ETA: Yeah, so much "casting as a bad guy"...but there is good guy stuff too.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 04:01 am (UTC)I dunno, but either way I agree with your assessment of DG. I don’t want to be that person who’s comparing female characters as if there can only be one to rule them all, but the leads in shows following a very similar archetype like Wonderfalls and Veronica Mars all felt much more relatable and 3D. DG just comes across as a woman who’s disaffected because that’s the hip thing; it doesn’t feel like a real significant part of her character, just like something tacked on top as an afterthought to make it edgier.
...woof, it’s been years and I only ever saw one episode but I guess I still had some thoughts about that rolling around! Maybe your rewatch will prove those old first impressions wrong, though?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 04:25 am (UTC)Oh yeah, my biggest criticism of DG is that she's bland. She's written to follow a trope rather than being a character in her own right, and that's kind of terrible because I think the actress is not bad, but I just don't think she's given much to work with, here, and it shows very, very badly. The thing that made Jaye work, or Daria (since I have yet to see VM) is that they fit into a specific character trope, but they are also their own characters outside of that. If we got a longer miniseries, a good portion of the first episode could have been setting up how out-of-place DG felt, but instead we're handed shorthand clues rather than distinct character development.
I do think you're right that she was written that way to seem hip, in other words. :)
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 01:32 pm (UTC)Yeah, I know I saw the whole thing, but I don't remember much of it, really. It's not bad, exactly, it's just not very good, which is almost worse.