[ SECRET POST #2356 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2356 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 134 secrets from Secret Submission Post #336.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

06. http://i.imgur.com/ESLvRPV.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I usually think they're hilarious. Mostly because there's only so many ways you can handle it for broadcast (especially in the 90s... do they even do many "Very Special Episode"s these days?) and especially for family shows, you can't actually SHOW what's so bad about it, just reactions and "clever" cutaways.

I mean, 7th Heaven was an awful, preachy show to watch, but the VSEs were amazingly bad. So bad it's good.

[(Anonymous)]

My family truly grew closer when we could watch a 7th Heaven VSE and all snark it together.

[(Anonymous)]

I think sometimes comedians/comic actors are actually the best people to present stuff that isn't funny. I remember Uprising, this TV movie about the Warsaw ghetto uprising which had Hank Azaria and David Schwimmer in the leads. On the director's commentary, he said he liked casting people who worked in comedy because they felt more "balanced" to him. I think there's some truth in that.

[(Anonymous)]

My opinion is that comedy is the hardest thing, and any actor who can do comedy can do anything.

[chardmonster]

Fulfilling a promise.

[(Anonymous)]

This is hilarious, but I cannot get over that MARBLE FLOOR. You didn't even need to edit that to make it awful!

[(Anonymous)]

... What promise could that possibly be? Seriously.

[siofrabunnies]

Yay, more!

[jaydestarlight]

This cracks me up XD

[sootyowl]

I like them, especially when shit gets real. Old school Degrassi did it well.

Other times (like on Glee), the eps are so hilarious or just terribly cringe worthy, I don't understand who thought creating it was a good idea.

[lunabee34]

100% agreement here. Degrassi in the 80s was really edgy and groundbreaking in that regard.

[(Anonymous)]

Same. I'm not a huge fan of comedy show but I ALWAYS love these dark episodes because the characters finally get some real background. Often a darker, more serious episode can be for me the final step to watch the complete show.

[(Anonymous)]

Depends on the show and how it's handled and how often they go that route. But yeah, especially for older shows they were always my favorite episodes.

[intrigueing]

Are you me??? Okay, they're not always the ones I think are objectively the best, but I get so much more excited about and get so much more of a thrill from those serious episodes. Even though I'm too embarrassed to ever watch them with someone else.

(I do prefer the ones that are a little less cliche though, so it the portrayal of the issues doesn't feel so strawman-y).

[(Anonymous)]

idk, I always felt like they're a little bit offensive usually. And not just in a Glee way. Even in Boy Meets World, for example, they did an episode about a girl whose dad beats her and they end up calling the guy out on it WHILE THE GIRL WAS STILL WITH HIM. That's a good fucking way to get someone severely injured, if not killed.

[(Anonymous)]

No... they didn't? I just watched that episode today. The father was confronted only after the girl was sent away to stay with a relative.

[(Anonymous)]

Why? If they were marketed to adults, yes, I'd agree. But these are kids' shows. They are meant to educate kids about serious issues they might have to deal with. They're not about being sensitive and tasteful to mature adult sensibilities.

And IMO sitcom characters are one of the best ways of getting through to kids about serious things -- if a character who kids like and who is usually funny gets serious about things, that holds 100000x more weight than adult dramas that often feel disconnected from kids' real lives, or those educational specials that kids usually ignore and don't take seriously.

(Seconding the above two comments about BMW, it was made very clear that the abused kid was temporarily safe from her dad before the cops were called - maybe it's been a long time since you last saw it?)

[(Anonymous)]

I really, really love a lot of them (although some are just plain dumb and crappy). It gives me particular gleeful relish to see sitcom characters deal with serious things. Don't know why. But it always feels 100 times more real when it happens in a sitcom, for some reason. I guess because in dramas, shit happens all the time and it kind of just feels like part of the spectacle, whereas in sitcoms, it makes you go "whoa, shit got real!" And it feels like a much bigger deal. :D

I tend to like them more when they're not too predictable though. Like, the episode of Boy Meets World that's pictured: even though Shawn's the "troublemaker" kid, he didn't pressure Cory to drink. Cory pressured Shawn to drink. And not to be cool or something, Cory pressured him into it because he was depressed and lonely and wanted to feel good with his friend, and Shawn relented because he knew Cory was depressed and lonely and wanted to cheer him up. And then Alan accused Shawn of being a stereotypical bad influence because "MY son would never do that!!" and Cory had to stand up to him and defend Shawn and explain in detail his whole thought process of why he decided to steal the alcohol and why he made Shawn drink.

That's a lot more impactful than some simplified "don't listen to dumb bad kids who tell you to drink to be cool, because they're dumb and evul!!" message, which isn't all that helpful. Because it's easier for kids to understand that you shouldn't listen to aggressive assholes than to understand that your nice friends can make innocent mistakes for sympathetic reasons.

TRANSCRIPTION

[(Anonymous)]

[A picture of Cory and Shawn from "Boy Meets World" where they have an alcohol bottle. The comment above this one has more details on the episode.]

I would never dare admit it to anyone, but the 'very special' episodes of sitcomes are always among my top favorite episodes, the more serious and dark, the better.

[harp]

Same here. I once went through the Wikipedia page for VSE and then to youtube to look for the episodes. And you're right, the more dramatic and obscure the better. The only exceptions tend to be the ones about drugs. Those episodes are so boring, though I'm not sure why.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, good or bad, when I think about a sit-com from the 80s or 90s, those are the episodes that usually stand out in my memory. Drugs, death, and drinking were the ones every show had.

[(Anonymous)]

I'M SO EXCITED

[(Anonymous)]

That episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Will gets betrayed by his biological father for the last time STILL gets me in the feels. He's just so excited and trusting even though he's been walked out on before, and then when it happens again...oh man.

[comma_chameleon]

I'm probably going to sound stupid but... what are 'Very Special Episodes'? Is this slang for something, or an actual media term?