So I’m still a bit of an emotional wreck from Chicago Fire last night (they killed off a main character and it was horrifically sad at times during the hour, so much that I think I’m still dehydrated from all the crying, LOL) but sitting here catching up on the thread today, I’m thinking about how different this show and OUAT have handled character deaths and once again, OUAT comes out way short. I’m gonna try to type out some things right now but if they don’t make sense please just tell me because I do have a headache from last night and can barely function today. I need to stop getting so emotional over things but then I wouldn’t be me and you guys would all ditch me in a heartbeat, LOL 😉
Anyway, we learned early on for both shows that the stakes were pretty high as far as getting hurt or surviving when crazy things happen but it doesn’t seem like OUAT really cares much about that anymore while Chicago Fire totally raised the stakes last night. Both shows have killed off main characters but have we really ever been allowed to grieve much for anyone on OUAT? We got what, one episode to grieve Graham, no episodes to grieve or process when the bad guys die (which makes sense although we did see some of Regina’s reactions to losing her mom), minor characters are only mentioned when it’s necessary for PLOT, and we barely got two minutes to say goodbye to Neal, a freaking main character who’s been around in some way, shape or form, since season one (grrrr….). They also have brought too many people back to life in various ways which cheapens death and gives false hope to people who think another character might be coming back someday (RIP Neal…the writers will never bring you back no matter how hard we hope). They seem too focused on moving to the next toy out of the box rather than dealing with human emotions when bad things happen and that’s making the show feel unreal and heartless. You brought these characters into the real world and yet they don’t seem interested in actually having them REACT to real world things. The show has lost it’s punch for raising the stakes and now no one believes it when someone dies because “everyone comes back on this show at some point”.
Chicago Fire on the other hand, killed off a guy in the PILOT episode and we still hear things about him over two years later. He wasn’t just a blip on the radar; he was family to the firehouse and you don’t ever forget family (Ohana…oh look at that, I’m gonna blend these two things together and make myself cry all over again..). They’ve even mentioned some of the smaller deaths from people who weren’t as important on the show and showed how those events affected the core cast. Last night they actually killed off a major character in that explosion from the end of S2, a character who’s been there since the pilot, and it wasn’t just glossed over with a fake funeral and more plot. They took us through the characters grief, pain, coping mechanisms, and just dealing with LIFE in general. I’ll spoiler this out for anyone who hasn’t watched yet or who might watch in the future…the person they killed was Leslie Shay, the main paramedic, Gabriella Dawson’s best friend and main male lead, Kelly Severide’s best friend/roommate…she was the other paramedic on the show, and his/her death affected everyone in the house in different ways. Some were able to cope by learning from the deceased’s desire to always live life to the fullest and they decided to take a big risk with something else in their lives (in this case, franchising Molly’s, the main bar on the show), one guy coped by focusing on everyone else’s well being in order for him to handle his own grief (he’s lost a lot of loved ones so it’s hard for him to cope all ready), the one best friend had survivor’s guilt because they switched places right before the explosion and felt that they should have died instead of who actually did, and the roommate of course isn’t handling anything very well at all. The biggest takeaway from this entire premiere? IT WASN’T WRAPPED UP IN ONE HOUR. It’s an ongoing story of how they all deal with losing a family member in their house. Death is supposed to affect you, it’s supposed to make you cry and feel sad, and it’s not supposed to be easy to get past and Chicago Fire understands that better than any other show out there (and I watch quite a variety of TV so I feel okay saying this). This story isn’t over in less than an hour…it’s going to keep playing out through S3 and that’s how it should be. Does anyone actually get over the death of someone close to you in a few days?!
I know the nature of these two shows are slightly different with one being about first responders and one being a random fantasy show set in our world but early on they both established that stakes would be high for their characters and OUAT is failing miserably at actually showing that lately. Does anyone care if someone dies on OUAT? Could have fooled me because everyone seems to get over it pretty quickly (in Neal’s case it was less than one episode). Do people care when someone dies on Chicago Fire? Heck yeah. The show is obviously not glossing over it and I’ve seen a lot of fans mad enough that they don’t want to watch anymore. Hopefully that’s just their anger talking because the show isn’t going to fall apart because one person is gone….their point to this event was to show how life moves on after a tragedy. OUAT isn’t taken seriously anymore because they’ve changed their stakes and what their show is all about (what hope is there anymore if you’re not evil or the LI of an evil person?) while Chicago Fire understands that their fans want to be taken on a journey but also that the job this family does has huge risks and you never know what could happen to anyone. It makes it more exciting to watch and I find myself way more emotionally invested in the characters because they understand their risks too and aren’t afraid to TALK to each other, tell each other the important things, or do good things to help other people because others have helped them in the past.
I really don’t know if I actually made a point with this post but I felt like writing it all out after last night’s emo journey on CF and it really helps show why I gave up OUAT. The bad writing is the main culprit for it (that and the disregard for Neal fans by the two trolls) but I’m just not emotionally invested in these people anymore and the bad writing is part of that since it’s made so many of them pod!people now. I liked that the fantasy was rooted in real life back in S1 but they’ve lost that now and it’s been replaced by a world that’s not enjoyable for me to visit and has no reality left in it anymore. This week is like a mourning week for me as I think about what OUAT used to be and what it is now and that makes me cry almost as much as I did last night watching CF. So much potential wasted for so many stupid reasons. 🙁
BTW-Happy Hump Day. I need more ibuprofen. 😮
#MoreBOOMLessGloom