The commentary

[queensgirl]

I found the discussion track on this one to be very funny and illuminating. It was terrific to hear from Caron and Harmon to get the bird's-eye view of what was really going on.

(***Please skip if you haven't gotten your DVDs yet. Contains spoiler.***)

I enjoyed much of what they had to say, but one thing actually ticked me off: when they are talking about the little scenes in the opening recap, Caron said the jail scene in Blonde on Blonde was full of long, drawn-out pauses just to kill time. That's really why the conversation between David and Joan takes so long.



And I was thinking it was because David was so thunderstruck by what he was about to say!



I know ML was often forced to do strange things to keep up to the episode requirements of 45-50 minutes (an hour minus commercials), and this wasn't exactly a time they could have had everybody come in for a big singing number, but come on! I know they had to do what they had to do, but I still feel like someone told me ahead of time what my Christmas present was going to be.

Up to now, I'd cheered at that marvelous instant where David gets that giddy smile and you're so happy for him because it's so important for him to reach this realization. Thanks for ruining that moment for me...I'll never be able to see it again without thinking something else entirely: "Tick, tock...tick, tock..."

Oh, great. Mess up one of the great moments of the series by making me want to look at my watch.

Grrrrrrr.

[bluemoongirl]

I just watched to commentary last night, and absolutely loved it. Just sat there grinning the whole time.
Coming from a film background, I always love to hear individual perspectives on the technical end of shows. But also to hear the memories of shooting scenes, other actors etc. So this one for me was so cool because of Mark's perspective as an actor entering the ML turf. What the shooting days were like for him. The fact that he was already friends with Bruce made the dinner scene through the end much more enjoyable to me. And coming on a show like this to play a part like this. I'm so glad that Mark accepted the role. I can't imagine anyone else at the time playing it.
What was also interesting was the 'uh-oh' moments, when Glenn would bring up what was really going on during the show at this time. Since so much time had passed, he touched on the 'rumors' at the time of discourse on the set - which he was validating. I found that aside very interesting. But like I said, I love to hear the behind the scenes stuff. So bring it on Glenn. Don't worry that no one wants to hear about warm gel lighting. I, for one, love all of that. ;D
And to touch on the BonB scene that queensgirl mentioned. Yes, sometimes it is disheartening to hear years later that what you thought was going on with the characters really wasn't. Now I only listened to this commentary once, but I recall Mark saying several times how impressed he was with the writing. That the 'beats' were so crucial to the scenes. That you can say so much more with silence that you can with words. Which is absolutely true. So even though Glenn may have made a comment about just trying to fill time - which was probably true - if you think about it - regardless if it's true or not - just think how the impact of that scene would have been lessened if David would have just quickly said "You're right. I do love her. I want to marry her. I'm just going to rush over there right now with a ring." The fact that we 'see' the emotion and realization come over his face - without really saying it expresses so much more than if there was more dialogue or a hurried scene. That was the beauty of this show. Yes, the scripts were double their size with tons of dialogue. But the moments when nothing was said spoke more volumes than any dialogue ever could.

[bluemooner]

Well put, bluemoongirl. I still haven't watched it w/ the commentary yet. I guess I need to get on that.

[queensgirl]

I don't know that I would have liked to have seen the jail segment sped up; I enjoyed the dazed, happy look on David's face as he thought about all these things she was telling him. That's why the explanation changed things for me. It sounded like he meant that at least some of the scene wouldn't be there at all anymore if he didn't need to kill so much time. It's like a magician telling you how he does a trick. You know it was rigged to begin with, but you still like to see him make you think it wasn't.

I guess they had to strike a balance between the way they edited the scripts, taking out scenes and lines they didn't need and moving things around, and then filling up space because this is bound to leave gaps in the amount of time taken up by actual filmed material. I have the script; it doesn't tell you how many minutes they expected to spend on each particular section.

If they had edited the jail scene any further, that would have left us with another minute or two to kill in the episode, but with nothing else for David to really do except go have the confrontation at the house, what else could they have done to fill the time? There are not that many scenes we'd have to see in order to make the story work. I guess that's how we wound up with what we see.

Otherwise they would have had to leave in something else from earlier in the show in order to synch up the time requirements. There was a scene in the garage where David and Bert are getting into Bert's car and Bert is going on an on about all the features because he just got it, but it's really not that great of a car, and David of course is about to lose it because has other things on his mind and he could care less about the power windows or what have you. Bert just rambles on about all the cool switches and stuff, and Dave is about ready to snap, Just drive already! ;D I thought it was pretty funny, but compared to the rest of the major scenes, it's maybe not as important, and I guess that's why they traded it for something else.

[Johanna]

This commentary was very interesting! I agree that some comments spoiled the fun of watching, but I still wanna know everything! Like the fact that they used doubles in the garage fighting scene, and in the restaurant spoils watching a bit, but is still interesting and creates a certain depth ;D
MH was very nice in giving credit to everyone on the show and trying not to step on anyones toes. That was sweet!
He also kept saying that Sam and David were friends or could've been, or something. I never ever get the feeling that David likes him even a little, just that he tries to act like it's no big deal that he was around.