As is such the way of the world, it would be wrong of this blog to not express it's views on the sudden upsurge in popularity of the "erotic fiction" that is the 50 Shades Trilogy.
These books have become so successful purely because of word of mouth and people jumping on the band wagon.It helps massively that you can get them fairly cheaply for your e-reader of Kindle, plus the fact that it is these devices themselves that make reading such fiction such a free experience. Gone are the days of Lady Chatterly's Lover where you were forced to bring your copy home in a brown paper bag and woe betide you for reading it anywhere than the privacy of your own home.
Ironically, just as happened with the Twilight franchise, which the original 50 Shades was a initially a piece of fan fiction of, the release and re-release of similar stories on the Kindle and ebook sites has been fast and furious. You only have to look at the top ten books in this section of Amazon, for example, to see the common theme or link. All light BDSM. All master and servant, whips and chains. Male domination over young, inexperienced, naive ladies. And all, for the most part, cheap and probably down right awful.
Twilight spawned a sudden interest in so-called Dark Romance, Teen Vampire fiction. It's effects have seeped through into the rest of mainstream culture slowly. Prime example: The Amazing Spider-Man's teen romance sub-plot between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey is shaped the way it is due to the influence of Twilight's teen romance: intense, brooding, ever so slightly relatable to young adults. The same is and will become the case with 50 Shades. Already studio bosses are talking movies - no real surprise, given the speed in which other monumental successes like the Harry Potter series and Twilight were bought up.
But who would go and watch it? It will, if successful, create in cinema a new mainstream soft-porn strand that was championed to an extent by films such as Basic Instinct, Indecent Proposal and the so-awful-its-hilarious Showgirls. That's all very well and good but if you really must watch or read something about sex, make it something with a little more credibility or intelligence. Shame is a perfect example, and it's perhaps no surprise that Michael Fassbender is one of the hotly tipped actors for the male lead in the film version of 50 Shades.
*****
In the completion (finally) of Desperate Housewives comes Surbagatory. Actually, this show seems to be in mourning for a number of American shows - Housewives, Scrubs - that when they were good, they were excellent. It takes swipes casually at other highs - The Stepford Wives influence is clearly visible, and the once-great-now-awful Glee too.
All in all, the pilot wasn't so bad; Jeremy Sisto is a nice laid back addition to the cast, though having seen him in tougher work like Six Feet Under does make you wonder whether the show will head someplace darker soon. I'd like it to very much; the obligatory lesson at the end of the episode - just because someone is made of plastic doesn't mean their heart is - sapped away slightly the general feeling of this might be something different. Let's see how this turns out: until the excellent Big Bang Theory returns to our screens this may be the next best comedy out there.
