judging amy

» wonderwoman51 - bad acting or bad writing

interesting that sarah brought up that particular episode of "judging amy" in her comments last week on the cbs 75th anniversary celebration. (i',m late in getting this up, so i don't think it's still on-line -- sorry.)
sometimes what looks like bad acting is really writing. in the case of
"judging amy." it was compressed storytelling and plot-driven character.

it was the episodes preceding it that really caught my attention (and
that of my friend, barbara). it had been clear to me for a while that the
whole amy/stu thing was not working and i pretty much knew that had to
find a way to end it. but what they did in that preceding episodes was to
compress the storytelling -- maxine's pain over jarrod's death, stu's
unease with lauren (this was purely plot-driven character. do you really
believe that amy would be even entertaining the idea of marrying someone
who had not bonded closely with her daughter, much less be planning the
wedding?), the introduction of the new guy (and his son and wife's
death), then the heavy-handed way they used him in the wedding episode,
then bruce had a headache (a headache?!). they so skewed the
storytelling that the audience couldn't get emotionally invested in the
relationship ending, so it wasn't brennerman's acting/crying that was
bad; it was compressed storytelling and plot-driven character. it was
such a waste bringing dan futterman back for such drivel. oh, and the
kilts?!

now, had they allowed the flaws in the relationship to be explored over,
say, a half-dozen episodes (family member noticing stu's unease with
lauren and bringing it up to amy; maxine not being able to separate her
pain from her concern about stu; slowly introducing the new guy, maybe
his kid first, then him, the wife dying; and the whole bruce thing
(remember how she just fell into his arms after jarrod died?), then we
would have been crying right along with amy.

in a way, this show fell into the same trap soaps have been. what i'm not
sure is why. amy brennerman is the show's creator and one of the exec
producers. i think they realized that the stu thing wasn't working and
decided to bail (perhaps with the encouragement of cbs) in time for
november sweeps, instead of taking the time to fully develop the story
and having it culminate for february sweeps.

-- posted by wonderwoman51

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