someday...this tv movie will be iconic

remember when marcia gay harden defended the honor of her promiscuous teen in lifetime's "she's too young" (tagline: to fit in, you've gotta put out)? oh, how you weeped for lost innocence and a mother's struggle! you said to yourself, never again can marcia know the pain of raising a child who rejects true love! after you dried your eyes and poured out another glass of rosé, you dared god himself to produce a more thrilling television event. you shook your head. it couldn't be done, it just couldn't.

dearest reader, you were wrong. it can - and has! - been done again. this time, the appropriately named marcia gay harden, will appear as mother-of-the-teen in the book-to-film translation of someday this pain will be useful to you, a story about my favorite kind of disaffected youth - the gay new york socialite.

in all seriousness, of the ya in the last few years, this novel managed to really capture the tone of a not-quite-adult. nothing is ever right for james sveck, son of an inattentive mother and arrogant father. the walls of his well-heeled world (brown university, manhattan's upper east side...) are closing in on him and it's everyone else's fault but his. he's a completely unlikable hero to be sure, but a smart ass who keeps you in on the joke (ie.: see how much everyone sucks?)

his tiny "tragedies" made for one great read and i can't wait for them to bring the drama to the small screen.

twee tv OR how i learned to love books on the screen

a full (and last) semester of library sciencing under my belt, i now return to tv blog you silly. i know you've missed me terribly, so what do you say we just dive right in? good? great!

having the grace and good luck that i do, i've chosen the most inauspicious time to pop back to pop culture. the ominous atmospheric change of which i speak...twilight. now i could, like many people who have the good sense to do so, mercilessly mock the franchise, but what else could add to the conversation that hasn't already been said? take downs of creepy merch, creepy fan-mades, and the creepy fans themselves are everywhere and i don't love the series enough to justify talking about it all the time.

instead, let me spend some time talking about things i do like - namely, YA, tv, and YA on the tv. it will be funnier, and it won't make me hate life as much.

so, dear followers, let's travel to a place, far off in the internet where the hair is big, the emotions are bigger and the banter campy. that place, gentle readers, is a land called "made for tv movies". as we wander, take a look around. who's that you see? valerie bertinelli and marcia gay harden?! crying about teenage pregnancy, cancer, and low self esteem?! oh well, then we must be nearing the village of "lifetime television for women". moving along. as we continue our tour, you can - wait! kristen stewart? is that you?! i thought we left your ass back in "teenage sparklemopey mumbleville". oh, i get it. you're here as a representative of tv-cum-YA novels. fine. you can stay and listen to me. but only if you shut up and sit in the back.

Speak

once upon a time, a sullen suburban teen kept a secret. ever since her encounter with the pervy undead jock at that party on the twinkling meadow farm, she hadn't been the same. withdrawing from friends, increased clumsiness, and an appetite for woodland creatures self-destruction, mark this tale of female frailty empowerment.

no, seriously, laurie halse anderson writes some pretty fantastic books. the tv version may smack of lifetime's "not my daughter" aesthetic (elizabeth perkins takes a very un-"weeds" turn as a concerned mother; kristen underwhelms us with her mumblecore method of acting), but nothing satisfies me more than a problem novel brought to life.

Don't Die My Love

 in 1998, lifetime had the happy idea of producing a movie based on the lurlene mcdaniel novel (can you even call it that?) don't die my love. the title? a champion's fight: a moment of truth movie. seriously. i couldn't make that up. fortunately for us suckers, they retained the GRAND STATEMENTS ABOUT LOVE!, the ridiculousness of teenage logic and (SPOILER: not that you'll find this movie, or have any reason to read this book) luke still bites it in the end. i laughed, i cried, i wanted more.

Rats Saw God

this book might be one of my favorite YA books. it's got everything a girl could want: sensitive/sarcastic boy protagonist, a band of merry social pariahs, no nonsense love interest wanda "dub" varner...

author rob thomas (no, not that one), takes the familiar loner and makes him something more than a two dimensional place holder carried along by flimsy plot devices (i'm looking at you, lurlene). scott york may be a total loser (socially retarded, failing class, king of unrequited love. he really can't get anything right.), but he's the kind of loser i'd want for a best friend. wherever he is, i hope scott's doing alright these days...

now, while this novel was never officially turned into a television screenplay, it's a literary sibling to one of the best shows no longer on tv - veronica mars. vm was born out of a novel rob thomas (no, not that one) never published. read a few diary entries in rats saw god, listen to a few voice overs on vm... you'll start to see the two loners as one in the same. in fact, veronica is so similar to scott, thomas first imagined her as a him. but, knowing better, rob added some girl power into the script.

oh, and more proof they come from the same world: s1e6 features veronica mars getting duped by a smart-mouthed wild child. her name? dub varner.