Post by Rilian on Sept 9, 2006 15:39:47 GMT -5
There is this episode of Strange Days at Blake Holsey High that makes me really angry every time I see it. It's called Thursday.
Corrine wakes up one day to Josie dancing to the music in her head-phones. Her clock says 6:30, but that's because Josie woke up and unplugged it at 6:30. It's actually 8:57 and class starts at 9:00. Josie is already ready for class and walks out the door, telling Corrine that she'd better hurry, or she'll be late. Josie-dirk unplugs Corrine's alarm-clock and then doesn't bother to wake her for school.
Corrine jumps out of bed and grabs her stuff for science class and runs out of her room. The door closes behind her. She looks down and realizes that she is still in her pajamas. She turns to go back in her room, but finds that she is locked out.
Then it cuts to her, in her uniform, hurrying down the hallway. We have no idea how she got into her room. She rushes around the corner, where she literally runs into the principle, Ms. Durst, causing both of them to drop all their stuff. Ms. Durst gets mad at Corrine for running in the hallway and scolds her for being late to class. Corrine then explains why she is late and asks Ms. Durst if she could have a different room-mate or at least have more outlets added to their room, at which Ms. Durst yells, "Miss Baxter!" in an indignant voice. What, Corrine isn't allowed to have problems, or complain about them? It's all very reasonable, Corrine has done nothing wrong, and she has proposed a very reasonable solution to the problem which was not even her fault. Ms. Durst is a dirk.
Then Corrine gets to class. When she walks in, Professor Zachary says, "You're late," in this awful tone. Everyone starts making comments about 'Miss Perfect' ruining her perfect attendance record. Everyone is being out-of-character mean to her. Then Z says there's a pop-quiz and Corrine doesn't have a pencil because she was in a hurry because Josie-dirk unplugged her alarm clock and didn't wake her up in time. Josie says, "Here, you can borrow one of mine," and hands Corrine a pencil with the name 'Corrine' on it. Corrine totally loses it and calls Josie a pencil thief. But she's totally justified because Josie unplugged her alarm clock and didn't wake her up and made her late for class and made Ms. Durst yell at her and made her hurry so that she forgot to bring a pencil.
Everyone tells Corrine to calm down about the pencil. (I can relate to this scene. Someone stole a pencil from me once, and I didn't let it go. The teacher gave me a new pencil from her desk, but I was still mad. It was the principle of the thing.) Corrine doesn't want to calm down, because Josie is a dirk and Corrine hates dirks. Professor Zachary tells her to STFU or he'll "find an alternative place for her to do the quiz," which is jerk-teacher code for, "I'll send you to the principle's office."
Cut to Corrine sitting in the principle's office. Ms. Durst is a freaky tightwad as always. She's looking at some folder. "I'm surprised to see you in here." Corrine: *submissive, apologizing* "You've had an unblemished record up until now," she says with this murderous look in her eyes. As if being late to class once means that she has suddenly turned into a bad seed. But then Ms. Durst says that she will let her off with a warning.
Cut to Corrine sitting at a table outside. Vaughn comes up and says she missed their meeting, where they were supposed to work on their mid-term paper. (I know that at some point prior to this, Corrine reminded Vaughn about the meeting, but I can't remember where it came in.) Corrine freaks out, but Vaughn says it's OK because he finished the paper and "turned it in for both of us." Then Corrine freaks out some more because she's afraid Vaughn didn't do a good job on the paper. Vaughn does not have a reputation for being very smart.
So Corrine goes to Z's office to get the mid-term paper. As she comes out of the office, Ms. Durst sees her and asks what she's holding. Corrine tells her that it's a mid-term paper. "You stole a mid-term paper off your teacher's desk?" No, she did not steal it. It's HER paper. Corrine says that she took the paper because she wants to fix it. Vaughn turned it in and she didn't get to do her part. "Why didn't you do your part?" Ms. Durst asks. "Because I missed my study session with Vaughn." Corrine asks Ms. Durst what she would do if her grade depended on Vaughn, as if she were actually doing something wrong-but-excusable. Ms. Durst says, "I would give you a detention."
It is not made clear whether the paper is past-due. If it is not past-due, then Corrine has every right to take her paper and finish it and then turn it in. If it is past-due, Corrine still isn't doing anything bad. If Z accepts late work, then the paper should just be considered late. However, she shouldn't do anything like that without Vaughn's permission.
Then the day repeats. On one of the repeats, Corrine knows she is about to run into Ms. Durst. She moves over to the side of the hall-way, and Ms. Durst is about to walk past her. But then Corrine sticks her hand out to stop Ms. Durst and moves to stand in front of her. WTF??? Then they say, "No, after you," a lot and then end up running into each other anyway.
Then, she forgets her meeting with Vaughn again. WTF? How could she not remember?
Then, she tells the others about her problem. At night, as they are falling asleep, Josie tells Corrine to "let the day be perfectly imperfect. Let it be perfect just the way it was."
So when Corrine wakes up the next day, she says to herself, "Take the day as it comes," and when she sees Josie dancing with her head-phones on, she says, "Nice moves, Josie," and pretends not to care that class starts in 3 minutes.
Then, when she runs into Ms. Durst (which was totally avoidable!!), she apologizes and says she's late for class. For some unfathomable reason, Ms. Durst is less of a dirk today. This implies the false idea that if you are optimistic, other people will be less stupid. Ms. Durst says, "You, late for class?" and tells her to hurry on, and that she will pick up her papers herself.
Corrine asks for a pencil for the quiz. When Josie hands her Corrine's own pencil, saying, "Here, you can have one of mine," Corrine says, "Oh, hey, my pencil! You found it." The look on Josie's face is stupid. It seems to say that she doesn't really believe that it is Corrine's pencil.
Corrine tells Vaughn that she is going to miss their meeting and that he should just turn the paper in himself. This is stupid. She should be able to remember the meeting after having lived through the day 7 times. She should have remembered on the SECOND day.
The next morning, it's the next morning. Corrine says, "Yesterday wasn't so bad," and comes away with the lesson that when people are unfairly mean to you, you just have to take it and be nice to them; that if you're not, and it makes your day worse, it's your fault; that the mean people don't deserve any of the blame.
This is a freaking stupid episode. This show is full of stupid lessons like this one, where children are taught to take responsibility for things that aren't their fault; to allow adults to treat them unfairly; and to be polite to those adults, who are not polite to them at all. But this episode is by far the worst.
Corrine wakes up one day to Josie dancing to the music in her head-phones. Her clock says 6:30, but that's because Josie woke up and unplugged it at 6:30. It's actually 8:57 and class starts at 9:00. Josie is already ready for class and walks out the door, telling Corrine that she'd better hurry, or she'll be late. Josie-dirk unplugs Corrine's alarm-clock and then doesn't bother to wake her for school.
Corrine jumps out of bed and grabs her stuff for science class and runs out of her room. The door closes behind her. She looks down and realizes that she is still in her pajamas. She turns to go back in her room, but finds that she is locked out.
Then it cuts to her, in her uniform, hurrying down the hallway. We have no idea how she got into her room. She rushes around the corner, where she literally runs into the principle, Ms. Durst, causing both of them to drop all their stuff. Ms. Durst gets mad at Corrine for running in the hallway and scolds her for being late to class. Corrine then explains why she is late and asks Ms. Durst if she could have a different room-mate or at least have more outlets added to their room, at which Ms. Durst yells, "Miss Baxter!" in an indignant voice. What, Corrine isn't allowed to have problems, or complain about them? It's all very reasonable, Corrine has done nothing wrong, and she has proposed a very reasonable solution to the problem which was not even her fault. Ms. Durst is a dirk.
Then Corrine gets to class. When she walks in, Professor Zachary says, "You're late," in this awful tone. Everyone starts making comments about 'Miss Perfect' ruining her perfect attendance record. Everyone is being out-of-character mean to her. Then Z says there's a pop-quiz and Corrine doesn't have a pencil because she was in a hurry because Josie-dirk unplugged her alarm clock and didn't wake her up in time. Josie says, "Here, you can borrow one of mine," and hands Corrine a pencil with the name 'Corrine' on it. Corrine totally loses it and calls Josie a pencil thief. But she's totally justified because Josie unplugged her alarm clock and didn't wake her up and made her late for class and made Ms. Durst yell at her and made her hurry so that she forgot to bring a pencil.
Everyone tells Corrine to calm down about the pencil. (I can relate to this scene. Someone stole a pencil from me once, and I didn't let it go. The teacher gave me a new pencil from her desk, but I was still mad. It was the principle of the thing.) Corrine doesn't want to calm down, because Josie is a dirk and Corrine hates dirks. Professor Zachary tells her to STFU or he'll "find an alternative place for her to do the quiz," which is jerk-teacher code for, "I'll send you to the principle's office."
Cut to Corrine sitting in the principle's office. Ms. Durst is a freaky tightwad as always. She's looking at some folder. "I'm surprised to see you in here." Corrine: *submissive, apologizing* "You've had an unblemished record up until now," she says with this murderous look in her eyes. As if being late to class once means that she has suddenly turned into a bad seed. But then Ms. Durst says that she will let her off with a warning.
Cut to Corrine sitting at a table outside. Vaughn comes up and says she missed their meeting, where they were supposed to work on their mid-term paper. (I know that at some point prior to this, Corrine reminded Vaughn about the meeting, but I can't remember where it came in.) Corrine freaks out, but Vaughn says it's OK because he finished the paper and "turned it in for both of us." Then Corrine freaks out some more because she's afraid Vaughn didn't do a good job on the paper. Vaughn does not have a reputation for being very smart.
So Corrine goes to Z's office to get the mid-term paper. As she comes out of the office, Ms. Durst sees her and asks what she's holding. Corrine tells her that it's a mid-term paper. "You stole a mid-term paper off your teacher's desk?" No, she did not steal it. It's HER paper. Corrine says that she took the paper because she wants to fix it. Vaughn turned it in and she didn't get to do her part. "Why didn't you do your part?" Ms. Durst asks. "Because I missed my study session with Vaughn." Corrine asks Ms. Durst what she would do if her grade depended on Vaughn, as if she were actually doing something wrong-but-excusable. Ms. Durst says, "I would give you a detention."
It is not made clear whether the paper is past-due. If it is not past-due, then Corrine has every right to take her paper and finish it and then turn it in. If it is past-due, Corrine still isn't doing anything bad. If Z accepts late work, then the paper should just be considered late. However, she shouldn't do anything like that without Vaughn's permission.
Then the day repeats. On one of the repeats, Corrine knows she is about to run into Ms. Durst. She moves over to the side of the hall-way, and Ms. Durst is about to walk past her. But then Corrine sticks her hand out to stop Ms. Durst and moves to stand in front of her. WTF??? Then they say, "No, after you," a lot and then end up running into each other anyway.
Then, she forgets her meeting with Vaughn again. WTF? How could she not remember?
Then, she tells the others about her problem. At night, as they are falling asleep, Josie tells Corrine to "let the day be perfectly imperfect. Let it be perfect just the way it was."
So when Corrine wakes up the next day, she says to herself, "Take the day as it comes," and when she sees Josie dancing with her head-phones on, she says, "Nice moves, Josie," and pretends not to care that class starts in 3 minutes.
Then, when she runs into Ms. Durst (which was totally avoidable!!), she apologizes and says she's late for class. For some unfathomable reason, Ms. Durst is less of a dirk today. This implies the false idea that if you are optimistic, other people will be less stupid. Ms. Durst says, "You, late for class?" and tells her to hurry on, and that she will pick up her papers herself.
Corrine asks for a pencil for the quiz. When Josie hands her Corrine's own pencil, saying, "Here, you can have one of mine," Corrine says, "Oh, hey, my pencil! You found it." The look on Josie's face is stupid. It seems to say that she doesn't really believe that it is Corrine's pencil.
Corrine tells Vaughn that she is going to miss their meeting and that he should just turn the paper in himself. This is stupid. She should be able to remember the meeting after having lived through the day 7 times. She should have remembered on the SECOND day.
The next morning, it's the next morning. Corrine says, "Yesterday wasn't so bad," and comes away with the lesson that when people are unfairly mean to you, you just have to take it and be nice to them; that if you're not, and it makes your day worse, it's your fault; that the mean people don't deserve any of the blame.
This is a freaking stupid episode. This show is full of stupid lessons like this one, where children are taught to take responsibility for things that aren't their fault; to allow adults to treat them unfairly; and to be polite to those adults, who are not polite to them at all. But this episode is by far the worst.