The Pitch

January 14, 2015 11:51 AM

Wanna hear my idea for a cool new teen sci-fi show? By Sara Lautman (previously)
posted by capnsue (19 comments total)

Heh heh heh ... *shudder*
posted by Quasirandom at 11:59 AM on January 14, 2015

I totally thought this was going to have some commentary on gaslighting. I guess it is, in a way, but more about the incomprehensibly society-wide PR/spin machine kind than the abusive boyfriend kind.
posted by JauntyFedora at 12:02 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I totally thought this was going to have some commentary on gaslighting. I guess it is, in a way, but more about the incomprehensibly society-wide PR/spin machine kind than the abusive boyfriend kind.


Can you expand? I don't really know what you mean by this.
posted by josher71 at 12:09 PM on January 14, 2015

Guys, I didn't think the American adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya could out-weird the original, but they're taking it in a COMPLETELY different direction...
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 12:11 PM on January 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I would watch this show.
posted by Rob Rockets at 12:19 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Josher71: "Gaslighting is a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted/spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception and sanity."

If that's what was confusing you.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 12:33 PM on January 14, 2015

If this were a show it would probably have advertising, and that would be a little too sardonically meta for me, given JauntyFedora's comment.
posted by Wretch729 at 12:35 PM on January 14, 2015

I know what gaslighting is, but I'm not sure how it relates here.
posted by josher71 at 12:39 PM on January 14, 2015

This is vaguely reminiscent of It's a Good Life (and the Twilight Zone show of the same name) in that it's a cautionary tale about when innocence meets omnipotence.
posted by surazal at 12:50 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is a way better comic than a show.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:18 PM on January 14, 2015

I think the author meant Sliders instead of Quantum Leap. You could also describe the plot as Lathe of Heaven meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer minus Buffy...
posted by Skwirl at 1:37 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

That was incredibly funny, and I would watch this show if it were done by very, very smart people.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:22 PM on January 14, 2015

Josher71 my take, though I could be wrong, was that JauntyFedora was referencing the darker turn the comic takes which to me seems to pretty clearly be a commentary on how much casual mendacity is present in the media and our day-to-day existence. We don't think about how many lies or half-truths we encounter on a daily basis until Bethany's condition (and her need to be sheltered by her friends) highlights it. From a certain perspective, our entire media culture is trying to gaslight us every day, trying to convince us what we know about ourselves and our world isn't true. ("You need this perfume to be attractive, this car will make you a sex god, evolution is bunk, giant corporations care about your welfare!")
I don't think the comic has to be read this way but it is a reasonable interpretation, and a chilling one.
posted by Wretch729 at 2:48 PM on January 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

Reading this sent a deja-vu chill up the back of my spine, because it's nearly identical to a story idea I idly thought up once, one of those things you think of when you're lying in bed half-asleep and trying to prolong the enjoyable process of falling asleep by dreaming up elaborate fantasy worlds. (...am I the only one who does this?)

Anyway, clearly I am neither as original nor as clever as I thought. I already knew that from Haruhi Suzumiya (the novels!), and various other reality-warping media but this just confirms it.

I rather like the variation (that I thought up? that I poached from somewhere?) in which your reality-warping belief-power person immediately loses this power upon learning that they have (had) it, either due to rules of magic or due to them out of paranoia becoming immediately too skeptical to believe anything. Does reality then cease to exist? NO ONE KNOWS
posted by nicebookrack at 3:58 PM on January 14, 2015

Is it weird that this totally seems like it could have existed in like, the mid 90s nick or Disney channel series realm with secret of Alex Mack, animorphs, zenon, etc?

Like I can only imagine this being real shot on tape with terrible low budget special effects.

It really does seem like a show that would have already existed in a weird alternate universe timeline of the 90s though. Somehow it just feels like more of a then show than a now show.
posted by emptythought at 4:00 PM on January 14, 2015

one of those things you think of when you're lying in bed half-asleep and trying to prolong the enjoyable process of falling asleep by dreaming up elaborate fantasy worlds. (...am I the only one who does this?)

Nope! I think of it as bedtime stories for growed-ups.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 5:21 PM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nice. And funny that it's posted on the same day that I read "The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald".
posted by Zonker at 6:31 PM on January 14, 2015

I really enjoyed this, until the author used the word "inculcated" wrong and it shattered my immersion. I wish things like that didn't bother me so much.
posted by penduluum at 11:42 AM on January 15, 2015

Wretch729, you get me.
posted by JauntyFedora at 4:01 PM on January 15, 2015