Last Night's Television - spoilers

[mamadeb]

Heroes

It's funny. I'd been spoiled for the Hiro's dad thing, but still, when the guy turned out to be A. Hiro's dad and 2. Captain Sulu - wow. I guess I'd forgotten.

Niki is getting to be interesting. Micah needs a real dad. And I'm loving the Claude subplot. And, yeah, Claire's brother is getting absent minded. Getting memory charmed too often will do that.

My goodness, I love this show.

Studio 60

This show - not so much. It's not just the whole stalking thing, or the clumsy attempts at thiings (such as addressing racism) that were done so much better during Sports Night, much less West Wing, although those are truly bad. It's not even the awkward, chemistryless romances.

It's that things just plain don't make sense. It started with the whole B6 thing - not only is that NOT dangerous for pregnant women, some are even prescribed it. But the last two episodes - my goodness.

1. Harriet is an evangelical Christian. That's part of her whole character. Why would a CATHOLIC group be honoring her? They barely consider each other part of related religions. (Unless such groups routinely honor people of different religions? It's entirely possible, I guess, but I don't know. Especially since her non-stance on homosexuality would be as problematic for the Catholics as it as for the Christian women's group.)

2. She was sponsoring in her auction (and how tacky was that?) an abstinence-only sex education charity. Yet, she's publically stated that she herself is *not* abstinent, which reads as very hypocritical. More than that - it also says that she uses birth control.

3. Matt was uncomfortable donating to that charity - I don't blame him. But I can think of two different ways of countering it that wouldn't involve donating to *another* group that clearly made him uncomfortable. First of all, Planned Parenthood is an excellent organization that provides for real sex education and pregnancy protection, and they could certainly use that money. And they're not associated with a religious group, so it would also counter *that* aspect. Or he could donate to a non-Christian religious organization - Jewish, Buddhist, even Unitarian. But no, they had to go for the dumb joke.

4. In light of all of this, does it really make sense that Harriet (or the Catholic organization - it wasn't clear) chose Jordan - an unmarried pregnant woman - to introduce her? Or even to be her safety dinner partner?

5. Danny and Jordan were on the roof of a three story building in Hollywood. How is it possible they had no cellphone service there? If the cells work inside the building, and we know they do, they *have* to work on top of it. It's not like they were thirty stories up.

If I'm mistaken about these problems (especially the first one), please tell me.

Comments

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Catholics tend to consider all Christians as an offshoot of them. It's the Evangelicals who tend to think of Catholics as being just like Santanists, only worse. So it's not a total stretch for a Catholic group to honor Harriet. It's more of a stretch that Harriet would be comfortable with it.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

It's the Evangelicals who tend to think of Catholics as being just like Santanists, only worse.

Yes. Catholics are idol-worshipers to many Evangelicals. Even having grown up with that background, I can't explain it so it makes sense, but it is so. Considering the many Evangelicals I know, I have trouble buying Harriet as an Evangelical. A liberal Christian, sure; Evangelical, not so much. Most Evangelicals would be horrified solely by Harriet's job, let alone her lifestyle.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

Note: I did not actually watch the episode, except for the two minutes or so with Masi Oka. However:

Yet, she's publically stated that she herself is *not* abstinent, which reads as very hypocritical.

I'm surprised the media didn't call her on it.

In light of all of this, does it really make sense that Harriet (or the Catholic organization - it wasn't clear) chose Jordan - an unmarried pregnant woman - to introduce her?

Um, no. Although I'm unclear about how many people know Jordan's pregnant. But if it's fairly well-known? Extremely odd.

How is it possible they had no cellphone service there?

Highly unlikely. Now, if they were at street-level in-between two tall buildings, I could see it; I had that problem yesterday. But on top?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Of all of these 3. was the one that got me the most. It was one of those times (and there are so many on this show) where it seems like Sorkin just doesn't get it. OBVIOUSLY if you're not comforting giving to an abstinence program (which I wouldn't be) you donate to something like Planned Parenthood. If you're not comfortable donating to something Catholic I guess you might go for a different religion. But instead he just seemed rich and stupid.

I guess because the problem with abstinence programs isn't that they're anti-sex, although they do seem to have the view that sex is something bad. It's that they promote abstinence only as a way to avoid STDs and pregnancy and give false information that promotes both these things. So if you care about the issue enough to not want to contribute to this why not contribute to Planned Parenthood which, btw, also counsels abstinence, it just does it as one way to avoid these things along with birth control etc.

It just made me think obviously Matt didn't really care about this stuff anyway if his tedious games with Harriet were enough to make him contribute flipping great wodges of cash to this program.

I don't even know if Sorkin's that familiar with the way different Christian groups view each other. Harry rarely makes sense to me, religiously or otherwise.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

He dated (and broke up with) Kristin Chenowith, which makes Harriet make a lot more sense. She's born-again. However, even as assimilated as Sorkin is, Christianity can be a very alien culture to Jews. It's even more so if you grow up in a neighborhood where the only non-Jews are Catholics (For example, I thought Protestants were semi-mythical until age eleven.)

There are a lot of things Sorkin doesn't get, I think.
Personally, I think that they should stop chasing Harriet and Jordan and either get together themselves or find women who want them. And maybe Matt can date someone Jewish. Hah. As if.

[brak666.livejournal.com]

Harriet is a Baptist. And though Baptists are way closer to the Evanglicals than Catholics are they're not actually Evangelicals. At least not in the sense that most people think of Evangelicals.