Dawson's Creek - 101 - Pilot

Original air date: January 20, 1998

Hey Internet, today we are taking an in depth look at one of my many teen obsessions, Dawson’s Creek. Back when it aired on tv, it was lauded for its smart talking, sensitive teen protagonists and criticized for its shocking and steamy subject matter. By today’s standards, I’m sure it’s going to be pretty light fare for most of you but these were innocent times, these were the late 90s.

The millennium had not yet reared its unimpressive head, the internet was all dial-up and made that awful screechy sound:

Yeah, that's the sound we had to listen to before we could access the internet. 

Every. Single. Time.

and most importantly, the world was introduced to the likes of James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams. The 90s version of the fab four but for tv instead of music. That’s a thing, maybe.

Pacey, Joey, Dawson and Jen. In all their glory.

For those of you who were living in a rock during the late 90s or possibly weren’t born yet or old enough to remember, Dawson’s Creek was the story of a small town boy who dreams of becoming a film director and also love triangles and oodles of drama. That and that song which, to this day, I still picture the opening credits of this show to when I hear it on the radio. With that in mind, it’s time we delve into the pilot episode and find out what hooked a generation of teens.

The episode begins with the titular Dawson watching a movie with his best friend, Joey but shock, horror, Joey is a girl! Anyways, they are watching E.T. and actually trying to say that it deserved an Oscar over Ghandi. Now I, personally, have never seen Ghandi but I’m going to bet it deserved the Oscar it won over a film that greatly traumatized me as a child.

E...T...wants to steal your fucking soul!

Stupid E.T. Anyways, Dawson wants Joey to spend the night as usual because it's Saturday and she's stayed over every Saturday since she was 7. Joey points out that it's innappropriate for her to stay over since she's now got lovely lady bumps on her back and on her front and he's got a bigger dick now. Well she assumes he does because of his big fingers. Dawson laughs it off and convinces her to stay but is now totally weirded out.

Why did you have to bring this up anyway?

Cue cutesy theme song! It's after this that we learn that on top of being obsessed with Stephen Spielberg movies, Dawson also makes them with the help of Joey and his other friend, my teen crush, Pacey. Pacey is obviously the oddball because he's goofing around and having a good time which for some reason pisses everyone off. These teens need to lighten up a bit. Suddenly music cues the arrival of sexy new student, Jennifer Lindley.

Watch out, Joey. She's blonde and is wearing a dress.

Joey is not pleased at all. She immediately acts like a bitch because Jen is stealing attention away from her fabulousness and Joey ain't having none of that.

I will destroy your life, Jen!

After we are introduced to the fab four themselves, we now get introduced to Dawson's parents who are so hopelessly in love that they make out in the middle of their living room for their son and his friend to see.

It's ok, son. I was just rocking your mother's world. Like a boss.

This makes Dawson react badly and honestly, I can't blame him because I almost made this same face when I heard his mom call his dad "Mr. Man Meat" in front of her son and her son's friend. What the fuck, Dawson's mom?

I like how Pacey is thinking "Awesome!" while Dawson is mortified.

We then get introduced to Joey's family, her sister and her sister's *gasp* black boyfriend. An interracial couple on tv and they're pregnant out of wedlock?

I think she finds more than just his cooking orgasmic.

This is unheard of! She must be trailer trash. Hey, don't blame me, the late 90s implied it. It is revealed that Dawson and Pacey work at a video rental store. What's that? Oh well, way back when, people used to watch movies at home using these things called video tapes that they'd put into these large boxes called VCRs. If people wanted to watch new movies they had to actually go out to these stores and rent them.

Our jobs are now obsolete.

It's here that we are introduced to the bitch character to probably make Joey seem less bitchy in comparison.

Her name is Nelly.

Nelly? Seriously? You couldn't think of a name more obvious for the small town bitch? Alright, well since I barely remember this character, I'm going to ask you to picture her as this Nelly:

So would this make Joey Half-Pint?

We are also introduced to the eventual Mrs. Robinson who Pacey drools over while she actually rents the Graduate. FORESHADOWING! Pacey is convinced she was flirting with him and so am I. Dawson thinks she was laughing at him which leads me to think that Dawson is really not that bright.

What this old thing? I just threw it on to rent a movie.

Later on, Dawson sees Jen sitting on a dock and so he invites her into his room which is basically a shrine to Stephen Spielberg and this somehow doesn't scare her off. Joey eavesdrops outside his window and looks sad because Dawson is spending time with a girl other than her. Once Jen leaves, Joey finally climbs through his window. Dawson immediately asks her to watch his mom on the news which he has actually video taped. Kind of creepy. He then asks Joey if she thinks his mom is having an affair. Why? Because she says "Back to you, Bob." but with like, a soft 'b' or something. Joey tells him he's crazy and I once again have to agree as he obsessively rewinds and watches that clip of his mother over and over again.

Just saying.

Jen's Gram, is making her breakfast and warning her to stay away from Dawson and Joey. She disapproves of the way Joey climbs into Dawson's window at night and calls them the "wrong element". She then gets on Jen's case for not saying Grace at breakfast. So Jen, flat out tells her Grams that she's an atheist and I immediately love Jen. Now that we know our characters, it's time for the first day of high school.

Jen is approached by Nelly Olson. I'm not even kidding, by the way. This is the characters actual name, the show even points out the obvious joke as she explains her mother loved Little House on the Prairie. I guess her mother really wanted her daughter to be the town bully. She offers Jen an invite to a party but Jen says that she doesn't party with booze or drugs and Nelly insults Jen by saying they should call her Nelly instead. Except Nelly wasn't the goody two shoes of the show. The correct come back would have been "I guess we should call you Laura Ingalls then?"

I think I know too much about Little House on the Prairie.

Pacey finds out that Mrs. Robinson is actually his teacher, Mrs. Jacobs and he is shocked while Joey continues to act like a bitch to Jen by hiding from her as she walks into her Biology class.

Oh my god, someone actually wants to be nice to me.

Dawson, meanwhile tries to beg his way into film class. He tries to impress him with his film knowledge and his passion for movies but he insults the teacher's rule about priority going to upper classmen so the teacher wipes the smug grin off of Dawson's face by denying him admittance into his class. That'll teach you to have dreams, Dawson.

 Jen meanwhile, is still trying to get Joey to be friends with her. She's perfectly nice to Joey but Joey is nothing but snark. God, Jen, can't you see that Joey only wants guy friends? Girls are icky! Jen asks why her Grams would rag on her and Joey gives a snippy exposition dump about her father being in jail for conspiracy to traffic marijuana and that her mother died of cancer which is why she lives with her sister and her black boyfriend. She then snaps that Dawson likes Jen and warns that Jen better not abuse his feelings. And here is my issue with Joey, well one of them. We barely know Jen, she barely knows Jen. So why does she automatically assume that she's an awful evil bitch and why should we feel the same way about her. I ask this because it was obvious that we were supposed to root for Joey, as many girls did, but I just never understood this. Jen has seemed perfectly nice while Joey is a complete bitch.

Her niceness is giving me a headache.

Why are we supposed to sympathize with her? Because she's poor and misunderstood? Because she's brunette and Jen is a blonde and therefore, evil? No, I don't think so, I'm not buying it.

I swear to God, I will fucking knife you in the back
if you keep getting along with my man!

Pacey approaches his teacher crush and tries to flirt with her again by suggesting she next watch the Summer of '42 which is another movie about an older woman who seduces a young boy. She says she's busy seeing a new movie at the Rialto, the town's movie theatre to see a new movie. Pacey decides his best course of action is to stalk her and asks Dawson to go to the movies with him. He does this by convincing Dawson to take Jen. Dawson then asks Joey to go with Pacey so that Jen won't feel uncomfortable going to the movies with two guys but it's probably so that she knows she's going on a date with him instead of Pacey.

 Grams agrees to let Jen go to the movies with the "wrong element" but she expects Jen to go to church with her on Sunday. That crafty bitch. Jen counters that she'll go to church when Grams says the word penis.

Point, Jen.

Dawson goes down in history as the only non-horny teen in existence by complaining that everyone is too focused on sex to his father. He spouts off that Spielberg has never had a sex scene in one of his movies so sex can't be that great and we all know that Spielberg's word is law.

Did you know that Spielberg died for our sins? True story.

He then also defies teen convention by telling his father that he will be home early.

What Homer said.

Joey's sister teaches her how to put make up on and it's a pretty sweet scene. Then Joey ruins it by turning into a bitch after Jen compliments her. Seriously.

 Jen: Hey Joey, I love your lipstick. What shade is that?
Joey: Wicked Red. I love your hair colour, what number is that? 

 So it is the blonde that she hates. Bitch. I'm not even blonde and I'm annoyed with her. You're giving us brunettes a bad name, Joey. For shame. Oh and she delightfully goes on to ask Jen if she's a virgin because "Dawson is a virgin and two virgin make for an awkward first encounter, don't you think?" Fuck. You. Joey. Way to go out of your way to be a bitch to the new girl and humiliate your supposed best friend in the process. And you know what? Through all of that, Jen still tries to be polite to Joey. In this respect, one of my opinions, so far, remains unchanged. Jen >>>>>>>>>>>> Joey

But you have to deal with it.

After Joey makes another rude comment, Dawson drags her out to the lobby to talk to her. 

Meanwhile, Pacey goes to sit next to Mrs. Jacobs so that he can continue to flirt with her. This time, Mrs. Jacobs seems to actually not want to flirt with Pacey. She has a date with a man named Benji. She claims that she was just renting a movie which causes Pacey to spill popcorn over some guy who then decks him.

 Dawson asks Joey why she is being such a bitch and she claims it's because ever since "Little Miss Highlights" showed up, Dawson doesn't talk to her. Which is bullshit, because he did talk to her, even confided in her about his worries about his mother having an affair. Dawson calls her out on it. Joey throws a bitch fit and trashes Dawson for living in a fairytale. I love that she is the one acting childish and immature and yet she thinks he is the one who needs to grow up.

Hey Potter, meet kettle.

Needless to say, the night was not pleasant for anyone. Yet Jen still likes Dawson because she thinks he's sweet. Pacey walks home miserably and runs into Mrs. Jacobs who wants to talk to him to clear the air. Pacey says he understands her perfectly, that she was just flirting with him to make herself feel better about being older and he's pretty fucking cruel about it. I did not really like Pacey in this episode, I thought he was cute but I didn't like him much. Although he does say probably the funniest line in the whole episode:

You blew it, Lady, cuz I'm the best sex you'll never have!

Excuse me, I think I peed a little from laughing so hard. He just says it with such pure conviction that it makes it even more funny. Somehow, his insults and that line serve only to soak Mrs. Jacobs' panties as she then begins to make out with him. It's ok, she says he's not a boy. Thus begins the squickiest storyline this show ever produced.

I think I'm going to need this.

Dawson finds Joey in his closet and somehow, he ends up apologizing. She was the one who was the complete bitch all night, why does he have to apologize? Fuck. You. Joey. Joey says that they can't be friends anymore because they can't talk to each other about everything. Dawson says that he can tell her everything so she asks him how many times he "walks his dog" in a day and what time of the day he does so. He can't answer and neither would I. What the fuck, Joey? Why is this your basis for your friendship with him? I don't know this about my female friends so why should I expect my male friends to tell me this to make sure we're friends? I'm not a prude but there are some things, I personally, don't need to know about my friends.

Exactly.

Joey is crushed that he won't tell her his masturbatory habits and runs away crying. Dawson feels guilty and yells out to her that he usually whacks one out in the morning to Katie Couric.

He does what when I read the news?

Joey laughs as she rides away in her row boat. Because they live by a creek. Get it? On her way home she spots Dawson's mom kissing another man. Dun, dun, DUN! Thus endeth the episode.

So that was our very first trip back to the Creek and I have to say it brings back so many nostalgic memories and oh my gosh the cast looks so young and so different than they do now.

 Things that still bug me:

 1) Joey being a bitch but everyone apologizing to her.

 2) Pacey's affair with the teacher. Maybe this makes me a prude but it's gross and makes me feel uncomfortable and I can see why it might have made parents uncomfortable back then too in light of that other teacher who seduced a young boy. Not to mention that I remember being crushed that the character I had a crush on wanted to be with an older girl. As a self-conscious teen I basically thought, well if older and more experienced girls are what guys go for, I have absolutely no shot. Oh, young Blinvy, you were so cute and so pathetically driven by what you saw on tv.

 3) Grams' strict attitude and coldness towards Jen. I actually didn't like her as a teen. As an adult and knowing how the show goes, I understand her a bit more here but I like her better when she's softened up a bit.

 4) Nelly. I don't know if this counts because I don't know how I felt towards her when I first watched because I remembered nothing about her so she bugs me based on the fact that I doubt she offered anything to the show for me to forget her so completely like that.

 Things I still like:

 1) Jen! She's just awesome and I still sympathized with her.

 2) The 90-ness of it all. This show is like a time-capsule of my teen years. The styles people were wearing, the hair, the music. It's just really neat to watch it again after so long and feel like I am stepping right back into the past.

 3) Remembering my Pacey crush.

That's it for this time, stay tuned for the next episode, Dance. Until next time, I'm Blinvy and thank you for joining me in my Teenage Wasteland.

Update

So my life has been pretty freaking hectic lately and the videos take so long to produce that I've decided to do TV reviews in written format. I also plan to go through the TV shows I review episode by episode from now on. I will still produce video but only for movies that have the material for such. I am also going to try my darndest to have at the very, very least one written review up a week but I'm going to strive for more.

Starting tonight, I will be recapping episodes of Dawson's Creek. That ever so present teen show from my youth. Everyone watched it, most loved it and I haven't seen it since it went off air. We'll see if it lives up to my teen ideals and if I still feel the same way about certain characters and plots or if my opinions have changed from my years of growth and maturity. Well, growth.

Stay tuned.

Just One of the Girls

Hey Internet, I'm back again and ready to take on the early 90s. Get ready for some great Corey Haim cheesiness in Just One of the Girls.

Just as an added bonus, when I paused the movie to make some notes, I got this:

Enjoy!

The New Guy

Taking a break from reviewing movies that cater to the fairer sex, I decided to take on a movie geared towards the opposite sex. This week a makeover movie for men. Really, really awkward men. This is The New Guy.




When the highlight of your movie is a scene that has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, you're doing something very wrong.

Youth in Revolt

I recently watch a movie called Youth In Revolt on Netflix. God how I love Netflix. Anyways, I had remembered hearing about this movie a while ago and had been curious to see it and thanks to Netflix, I remembered this curiosity and decided to finally see what it was about.

Why are Zach Galifianakis and Justin Long on the poster?
They're barely in this movie. 

So, Youth in Revolt is a movie starring Michael Cera and is about a a teenager named Nick Twisp who laments being a virgin because being a virgin is like the worst thing on the face of the Earth, apparently. Well, if you listen to a lot of teen movies it is.

He carries on about how he's so much deeper than most teens because he reads Sartre and Camus and only listens to Sinatra. So my immediate thought about this character is, pretentious hipster. I do get the feeling that it is supposed to be satirical of a teens over blown sense of worth because of their "quirky" or "individual" tastes but it doesn't make me like the character any more.

Nick's family is extremely quirky and weird and it turns out that Nick's stepfather, or possibly just his mother's boyfriend, gets into financial troubles with some sailors who he owes money to. Rather than pay them back, they decide to run and the boyfriend takes them to a trailer park in Ukiah.

There, Nick meets the girl of his dreams. A girl just as pretentious as he is, named Sheeni and he falls immediately in love. Sidebar, can I just say how uncomfortable I was that her name is Sheeni? I mean really, that was the best quirky name you could give her? You really had to make it sound like an ethnic slur?

Exactly.

Anyways, she reveals she has a boyfriend but they have a romance anyways, until Nick's parents decide to head back to Berkeley. Desperate to keep his relationship going with a girl who doesn't seem remotely into him so much as just wants to toy with him for her own amusement, he hatches a plan to return to Ukiah, keep his relationship going and finally lose his virginity.

Sheeni offers to get Nick's actual father, played by Steve Buscemi, a job in Ukiah. All Nick has to do is get his mother to throw him out of the house so he has to live with his dad but to do so Nick has to be bad. He's not used to being bad so he creates an alter ego named Francois who will be bad for him. He named his alter ego Francois because Sheeni mentioned that her dream is to travel abroad and meet some foreign man named Francois who will be her husband and he wants to be more like the kind of man Sheeni wants. For some reason.

He doesn't want to hurt his mother's feelings by simply saying he wants to live with his dad for a while, no he's a saint. So what does he do to get kicked out, you ask? Oh nothing too serious, just blowing up half of Berkeley! Jesus, Nick, virginity isn't that dire a thing to lose you know. I'm sure you can find plenty of other pretentious hipster types once you go to college, if that's still an option for you after that.

Seems reasonable. Fuck people's property, Nick needs to get laid!

I neglected to mention that Nick's mother's boyfriend passed away. She is now dating Officer Ray Liotta who advises them to hide Nick until the heat (pun intended?) dies down and they send him to Ukiah. Mission accomplished except that Sheeni's parents overhear the psychopath bragging about how he blew up half of a town to get thrown out and they appropriately send their daughter away to a French boarding school.

This was apparently her plan all along as her boyfriend also attends the school and this school will enable her to go to France for college. Does this deter Nick? Nope. He still wants her although I have no fucking clue why.

I own you.

Nick follows her to the school and they almost have sex but are interrupted yet again. So he's forced to more drastic measures. He convinces another girl in the school to drug Sheeni with sleeping pills so that she'll fall asleep in class and be expelled. Uhhhhhhh, seriously? Seriously? I've completely stopped rooting for this guy now, not that I was rooting for him much before but this? This would be unforgivable to me.

Officer Ray Liotta has left Nick's mother and she calls Nick to warn him that he will not cover for Nick anymore. The police are now looking for him. He says, fuck it and heads to thanksgiving dinner with Sheeni's family. Unfortunately for Nick, his douchbaggery is revealed when Sheeni's actual boyfriend shows up and reveals to everyone that Nick was responsible for drugging Sheeni to purposely get her expelled.

Everyone is justifiably horrified at what an asshat Nick is and he runs away. His alter ego, Francois pulls him out of his funk however and buys Nick some time to go after Sheeni one more time.

She tells him off for being a creepy asshole and sends him with his tail between his legs off to jail. God how I wish that was the end. Nope, Nick apologizes and professes his love for her and she finally takes his v-card. Because girls love it when you drug them and essentially ruin their future by getting them kicked out of a prestigious private school. We just love that shit.

Preach

Anyways, she says she'll wait for him and he's all impressed because the cops have shown up and he's surely going to jail for a long time. She points out that he's only 16 so he'll just be sent to Juvie for 3 months and that one line shows me how flipping ridiculous the juvenile justice system is if that is the attitude it fosters in youth. Nick then realizes that all he had to be all along was him. Yeah, newsflash asshole, you were you the entire movie regardless of your stupid alter ego and guess what? You're an awful, awful person. Being you is the worst thing you could be.

So, in case you didn't get this from my tone, I did not enjoy this movie. It felt like it was being quirky and edgy for the sake of being quirky and edgy, every time Nick and Sheeni interacted it was like a game of who can be more witty and clever and to quote Jack Worthing:

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.

I concur, Mr. Worthing. To me the movie had an interesting premise, a boy turning to an alter ego to win over a girl, but in order to pull it off, it needed to have more likeable and sympathetic characters. This doesn't mean that the characters had to be flawless awesome people, I like plenty of shows and movies that are about god awful people. It's just, for me personally, I need to the characters to be charming and fun to enjoy a film, be they good or bad. I have to at least like them in an 'I find these people insanely entertaining despite their flaws type of way and I just didn't like these characters. Sheeni is only slightly less awful than Nick and Michael Cera as a bad ass was kind of laughably bad. I couldn't take him seriously as his alter ego with that awful moustache.

I'm suave because I smoke and wear sunglasses. Also, moustache!

He just didn't look suave to me. I enjoyed one scene with Francois and that was at the very end when he called the cops "for Nick" and some of his outbursts could be funny but other than that it just didn't work for me.

I again hear that this was based on a book by C.D. Payne and maybe, just maybe the book covers the characters and their intentions better but I don't know. I'm only going on my feelings from watching the movie and my feelings are that it is just not that enjoyable. This movie has gotten some fairly favourable reviews elsewhere and if you enjoy quirky movies then you might like this but if you don't, avoid Youth in Revolt.

I'm Blinvy and thanks for visiting my Teenage Wasteland again.

The Hunger Games - Post-view

Ok folks, so I just got back from seeing The Hunger Games and (drumroll pleaase), I really enjoyed it. That's not to say it was without its flaws but the good far outweighed the bad here. Bear in mind that I have not read the books so all apologies if things have gone over my head or if I get names wrong.

FIrst off, I had guessed the ending well before seeing the movie because of the snippets I'd heard about the story from friends. I guessed that Katniss would survive based on the fact that I knew there were three novels all about her and when people told me there was a twist, I guessed from the romance aspect that her and her lover would win. It's just simple reasoning really but I wasn't disappointed in knowing the basics of the ending before seeing it, what I was looking for was likable characters and an interesting plot and this movie delivers.

I have a lead who is likable, loyal and selfless in Katniss. She volunteers to essentially die in place of her sister in the annual Hunger Games and from that point on I was rooting for her. I knew she would win but I didn't know exactly how so I still felt her struggles throughout the game. She is also fucking fierce which I love. She doesn't need a guy to look after her, she is more the type to take care of and protect others. The scene where she is displaying her talents to the sponsors who are outrightly ignoring her and she shoots an arrow at one of their apples was just badass. I loved her.

The set designs are pretty gorgeous and the costumes for the rich people are fairly imaginative and represent the lengths a wealthy society will go to stand out and be fashionable. Which is actually another thing I liked about this movie. It didn't make its audience out to be stupid mindless drones worried about romance. Teens can and do care about real issues and this movie, surprisingly dealt with a lot. Sacrifice, death, desperation, hell even questioning our values in fashion and reality tv. Hell, when blue-haired guy was interviewing the tributes, I could almost hear that awful American Idol music playing in the background and that's all this was. A manufactured popularity contest designed to please its audience, except instead of being voted off, you die. Neat.

I wanted to punch mauve/purple dress wearing lady so many times throughout the movie. She was everything I hate about today's general population. Conceited, vain, self-centred, and fake.

I knew everyone in the battlefield was going to die except Katniss and Peeta but goddamit the scene with Rue devastated me. I could see Katniss putting her little sister in Rue early on and losing her, knowing that it could have just as easily been her little sister in her place, her feeling of failure at being unable to protect her was hard to watch. My one nitpick about this is that I kind of wanted a little more development with Rue. It felt too fast. I could see Katniss developing an attachment to Rue from afar, or at least a concern but I just wanted a little more interaction between the two to make the impact of her death all the more meaningful. It felt like Katniss wakes up, they share dinner, they split up, then she dies next time you see her. I don't know, I just wanted a little more.

The climax of the movie was pretty damn exciting and I liked that Katniss and Peeta worked together. I didn't feel like one saved the other or anything, they really felt like a team in that last battle and that they were in it together. It's how it should be these days. No more damsel or dumbass in distress just people trying to survive and helping each other out.

That being said, I was a little thrown off by the romance aspect. I think Peeta was telling the truth about having a crush on Katniss to which she didn't really reciprocate except for show in the begining. However, towards the end I was a little confused because it seemed like she was reciprocating the feelings but then Hamitch? Woody's character told her to tell everyone she was going to throw the game because she loved Peeta so that the Capitol wouldn't have a reason to be pissed at them for throwing the game. I kind of thought that was the reason they didn't kill each other so this threw me a bit. I guess this will be covered more in the other stories?

At the same time, I was very happy that they didn't dwell on the romance too much and that it was very much Katniss's story of survival for the sake of her family who needed her to hold them together. This was a great watch and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a great read as I've decided to give the books a read now.

If you haven't seen it yet, though I'm pretty sure most everyone has, give The Hunger Games a shot. It's got characters you root for and some suspenceful and action-packed scenes. So, you hear that friends? You were right and I'm glad I gave this a shot.

Until next time, I'm Blinvy and I've got some reading to do.

The Hunger Games - preview

Hey internet, welcome once again to the Wastelands.

As you might have realised, I'm not a teenager, just an adult with fond memories of the teen movies of my days be they good or bad. I can still appreciate the charm of a well made teen flick even as the slightly jaded adult that I am, however, I am completely aware that in my parting ways with my teen years, I have also parted ways with my knowledge of all things that are 'in'. I usually find out about a trend as it is dying down a bit or sometimes I avoid over-hyped things at all costs because I assume they'll suck.

So with that thought in mind, today I thought I'd talk about The Hunger Games. Ok, before you all pounce on me, I have not read the books or seen the movie yet. I'm a late comer to this fad because the last fad I embraced open-mindedly that was garnering a lot of attention from teens and adults alike was Twilight. Yes, Twilight and being burned so badly with that crapfest of a wet dream turned four part "novel" I was not keen to jump on the bandwagon for this new teen drama which promised ever more love triangles. Again I have not read the book or seen the movie yet.

However, it has been getting a lot of praise and people whose opinions I trust have had nothing but good things to say about it that it has worn down my defenses. I am going to go see this thing Tuesday night with a friend.

Will this thing meet my expectations or will it fail in Twilight-like proportions? I don't know but stay tuned and I'll let you know what I think after I view it. It will be an opinion by a complete newbie with no knowledge of the books, so I may not "get" things that seasoned readers will, you have been warned.

To all of my friends who recommended this to me, you'd better not let me down.