Tag: Lisa

Deny, Deny, Deny

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

Matthew 26:34

“I’ve just alerted all of our friends…” Hey Westview, you’ve got mail! Frankie and his “reality TV crew” (Lenny with a camcorder) are coming to get some dirt on St. Lisa. Not so as to waste any time, the “crew” does away with advance calls and pre-interviews and just shows up on the doorstep rolling film. Rather than flat-out telling Frankie to GTFO, they’ve been instructed by wise Les just to play dumb; i.e., to lie. Funky follows these instructions to the hilt, practically channeling his senile father. Bull, as always, is able to get by with physical intimidation: “Never heard of her.” SLAM! And Crazy Harry’s just dim; doesn’t realize that Lisa Crawford is that Lisa.

Mo' Tell

Act III’s most confounding, incomprehensible story arc continues apace. Back at the motel, Frankie discusses with the mysterious Lenny his sinister plot to… to do what, exactly? Help out Fred and Ann Fairgood with their expenses? Assist Jessica in completing the documentary about her father, John Darling? And where does Frankie, who apparently lives in squalor, get the money for an extended stay at a motel (albeit one that still uses actual metal room keys), let alone to fly his partner in for “some back-up”?

Fade to Wack

Charles
April 20, 2013 at 4:53 am
…So where did we go this week? Well, Les dithered around uselessly and then started writing his script in the most mundane fashion imaginable. I can’t believe Batiuk is actually going to do this. Never mind that he’s going to show Les writing this script, but what he’s going to have Les writing is godawful.

Not to mention improperly formatted.

Everybody can relate to the illness and loss of a close friend or loved one. And Batiuk did a creditable job of telling “Lisa’s story” the first time around. Readers were moved; at least the ones who didn’t object to such depressing content in the comics section. But TB, through his avatar Les, has spent the last five and a half years rehashing this story over and over again, as a book and then a movie, and Lisa’s story has become All About Les. The book was a success, and adoring fans lined up for their signed copies. Then Hollywood sends him a fat check and lets him write the screenplay, despite his complete lack of screenwriting experience. All the while, Les carries on like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a week of dragging his heels, today the Delicate Genius can bask in the afterglow of having written a trite and stilted line of dialogue.

Does the “home run” fantasy indicate that what he’s just written is the last scene? Doesn’t the story end with Lisa dying?

Screen Pass

davidorth
April 13, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Ooh, I got a leaked scene Les is working on! Let’s take a look!

Int: Les and Lisa’s apartment above the pizza place
(Lisa is checking her self in the mirror after the football tackle thing after she landed on her chest. Her handsome husband is in the other room, saying funny, witty things about stuff)…

Guess that leftover pizza did the trick! Les finally begins crafting a screenplay which so far happens to read very much like davidorth’s “leaked scene”.

Missus Headroom

“If you’re still watching this on videotape…”? It is a videotape! What’s he supposed to watch it on?

There are seventeen comments already below as I write this, so I’m way late to the party, but the general tone of the comments so far is “What. The. Fuck,” and rightly so. The worst part, of course, is that Batiuk intends for these neverending Lisa Tapes to be heartwarming. What we’d really love to see is Cayla lurking just outside the room where Les pays rapt attention to his first and only true love, finally, finally realizing that she needs to move on.