On Superspies and La Femme Nikita
Jul. 12th, 2005 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raefinlayI couldn’t sleep last night, so I watched a couple eps of La Femme Nikita. I loved it muchly. It’s a lot like Alias--which I also love in spite of much silliness--but more artsy, grittier.
These days, when I watch anything, I analyze in terms of STORY. So I watched Nikita, and I learned. The show contains an element of realism I find fascinating, but not to the exclusion of its Big Outrageous Plot. The perfect combination. This is how I want to write.
For example, when her nose bled, the blood coagulated and turned dark. When she sucked on her hair, the strands stuck together in a slightly viscous base. After an explosion threw her to the ground, her nylons ran and she skinned her knee. Even her apartment, which is profoundly cool, expresses something about her rather than being a mere accessory to the show (because if one is a spy, one must have cool digs.) There is a subtle, underlying theme of Nikita decorating the place in soft colors and pipe-cleaner sculptures, and it becomes a symbol of the other Nikita, the one who hates her job and just wants to be a normal girl. (This is a cliché of course, but the subtle, subtexty presentation makes it feel like anything but.)
So, yeah. *learns from Nikita*
BUT. My original assertion, the one that inspired Elisa’s Belly still stands. Hollywood can’t make a realistic spy show, because real spies are not 6-foot Icelandic beauties. Real spies blend in, never garnering a second look. (I mean, the Discovery Channel says so, so it must be true, right?) And real spies use their brains more often than fast-forward spin kicks.
Sydney and Nikita may be hot fighter chicks, but Elisa could take both their skinny @$$3$. Now, I just need figure out how to have her do it using all those lovely, Nikita-esque details.
These days, when I watch anything, I analyze in terms of STORY. So I watched Nikita, and I learned. The show contains an element of realism I find fascinating, but not to the exclusion of its Big Outrageous Plot. The perfect combination. This is how I want to write.
For example, when her nose bled, the blood coagulated and turned dark. When she sucked on her hair, the strands stuck together in a slightly viscous base. After an explosion threw her to the ground, her nylons ran and she skinned her knee. Even her apartment, which is profoundly cool, expresses something about her rather than being a mere accessory to the show (because if one is a spy, one must have cool digs.) There is a subtle, underlying theme of Nikita decorating the place in soft colors and pipe-cleaner sculptures, and it becomes a symbol of the other Nikita, the one who hates her job and just wants to be a normal girl. (This is a cliché of course, but the subtle, subtexty presentation makes it feel like anything but.)
So, yeah. *learns from Nikita*
BUT. My original assertion, the one that inspired Elisa’s Belly still stands. Hollywood can’t make a realistic spy show, because real spies are not 6-foot Icelandic beauties. Real spies blend in, never garnering a second look. (I mean, the Discovery Channel says so, so it must be true, right?) And real spies use their brains more often than fast-forward spin kicks.
Sydney and Nikita may be hot fighter chicks, but Elisa could take both their skinny @$$3$. Now, I just need figure out how to have her do it using all those lovely, Nikita-esque details.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-12 07:16 pm (UTC)Elisa does not engage.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-12 08:04 pm (UTC)I assumed by referring to Sydney and Nikita as 'skinny' you were referring to Hollywood's tendency to ignore weight advantages in a fight scene. Anyone who has ever strapped on the gloves or grappled knows it plays a major factor.
But in Hollywood you've got skinny guys and gals throwing these big dudes around as if it were nothing. Not that I mind. It is, after all, 'fantasy'. Real fighting is boring, violent, ugly, and brutal. Who wants that kind of stuff unless it is specifically meant to show the horrors and brutality of violence. Really good and insightful movies should leave you thinking, "I really don't want to be in that sort of situation. It pretty much sucks..."
:D
How is that for a long winded response?
no subject
Date: 2005-07-12 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 03:40 am (UTC)Only that is not the way it is portrayed in movies and such. Then it is using it to save lots of people through violence (rather than as an alternative to violence). Ah well...who would want to watch a movie about reality anyway...
:D