Yvonne Interview

[Bill Sweatland]

Here is the closest, IMO, that Yvonne has come in stating that she didn’t like the ending.  (No, I can’t let it go, lol)

 

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/12-2012/golden-boy-and-chuck-star-yvonne-strahovski-hates-_63889.html

 

Were you happy with the way that show ended after five seasons? [Editor's Note: Spoiler Alert.]
I was thrown that my character lost her memory. I thought ‘God, how do I play a character that I've built over the last five years that everyone's grown to love and now suddenly I don't get to be that person anymore?' Because it's the memories that make the character, in a way. I do think at the very end, on the beach, where she asks him to finally start telling her [about her life], that she eventually remembers. [End spoiler alert.]

 

[Ardent Aardvark]

What character was she on Chuck again?

Heh, sorry… just kidding.

 

I guess I’ve managed to let my memory of this fade with time. Whatever merits (or lack thereof) Dexter as a show possesses, Yvonne is excellent in it, IMHO. I’ve already become accustomed to her as Hannah McKay and it no longer feels odd seeing her up there without the Sarah Walker framework.

 

Having said that, I find that distance from the series hasn’t really altered my reaction to the ending much if at all.  When I look back on it, I’m still of the opinion that the memory loss plot was a gross miscalculation on Fedak’s part. He was trying for something heart-wrenching yet hopeful, slathered with a helping of first-season-flavored melancholy. What he got was something that felt tacked on and gratuitously cruel. In a way, it’s almost fitting that the show concluded with a gigantic face-palm storyline, since the later seasons came to be defined by them.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Chuck vs. the GoogleGroup" group.
To post to this group, send email to Chuck...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to Chuckversus...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Chuckversus?hl=en.

[Bill Sweatland]

I’m enjoying Dexter.  I had never watched it before this season.  I was sure that Hannah’s dad was scamming Dexter in cahoots with her.  Guess not.  J

 

Look, Yvonne is a great actress.  And I can probably enjoy her in almost anything.  She certainly was the only thing worth watching in the last half of the series.  And I’m rooting for her.  She is in the best position of anybody from the show to make it big(er).  At one time I believed Zac was in the better position.  But Yvonne is probably the one with the established fan base that will follow her.  People casting roles for their shows aren’t stupid.  There is a reason Yvonne was on the Dexter ComicCon panel before she had shot a single scene.  And it worked.  Dexter’s ratings are up big this season.

 

But I think I’ll probably always see her as Sarah Walker.  There was something about the C/S love story in the first two seasons that defy comparison.  They were the impossible couple, and yet belonged together at the same time.  You rooted for Chuck, ached for him.  And quickly we realized that she pined for him more than he did for her.  Until Fedak finally screwed around with us one time too many and gave us wt/wt fatigue, the show provided some of the most powerful TV I’ve ever seen.  I’m still convinced that had they allowed the love story to progress naturally, put them together after Colonel, and made the emphasis on them fighting the rest of the world together, the show would still be on.

 

But I guess if Fedak could flap his arms and fly, he’d be a bird.   

 

Hannah and Dexter simply don’t have the C/S chemistry.  You keep waiting to find out her secret.  Hannah is Dexter’s Shaw, playing a season of wt/wt, keeping him from Deb, lol.

 

 

---

[Kevin Windham]

Heh, I've heard Bill that much of the Dexter regular fan base feels about Yvonne the way we felt about Shaw. I've very much enjoyed her on the show, though. 

I don't know if I like Hannah with Dexter, though. I didn't like him with Rita (Julie Benz's character who was killed off), either, though. I really liked him with Lumen, a character played by Julia Styles. I felt they had the perfect chemistry to make a Dexter relationship work, but sadly, she was only on one season. 

[Bill Sweatland]

So what is the deal with Deb and Dexter?  Are they really brother and sister?  Are people actually shipping a serial killer to hook up with his sister?   J

 

That’s even too wild for fanfic, lol.

 

 

---

[Kevin Windham]

Heh, well they're not related by blood. Dexter's mother was a PI for Deb's dad. She was murdered in front of Dexter and his brother (who was also a serial killer) when Dexter was still very young. Harry (the apparition who speaks to Dexter, and Deb's biological father) took Dexter in. 

But a lot of the fan base does NOT like the idea of Deb/Dexter. There is a niche within the fandom that does, but most casual viewers balked at the idea, and it's one of the reasons popularity for the show waned in Season 6. I'd hoped that storyline was gone, but I suppose not yet. 

[Bill Sweatland]

I haven’t seen enough of the past seasons to understand a lot of the undercurrent.  But it seems plain they are running a pretty classic wt/wt thing.  This seems to have all the hallmarks of a Schwartz love triangle.  Hannah and Deb fighting to the death for Dexter’s hand… which is holding the knife to kill the victor, lol.

[daydreamer2578]

I haven't followed Dexter much past the first the season, but I was pretty icked out by the idea of Deb pining for Dexter when I realized that the show decided to go that way.  There's some sort of psychological conditioning (can't recall the term) that's supposed to naturally prevent children raised together from developing romantic attachments later in life even if they're not biologically related.  (I think the Brady Bunch touched on that a couple of times -- or was that just the movie?)  But I guess in a family containing 2 serial killers and 2 crooked cops, normal psychology goes out the window, doesn't it? And there's tons of people out there shipping and writing graphic slashfic for the two biological brothers on Supernatural, so there's no surprise that Deb/Dexter shippers are a significant fan base, icky though it may be  

I'm still an episode or two behind, but I think Yvonne is killing it in this role. It really didn't take me long to forget about Sarah and just get into the plot line.  I think she was pretty much out of my mind by the sex scene on the surgical table... If only Shaw could have been even remotely as dynamic in his role as the romantic interloper Season 3 might have been somewhat tolerable...  Hopefully this will help her towards a lead role in something good in the next couple of years.  

On another note, has anybody checked out Ali Adler's show "The New Normal"?  It's pretty stiff and pedantic and political and shamelessly semi-autobiographical, but there was one scene in the second episode that cracked me up.  One of the leads is a writer for a TV show (sound familiar?) and the kid comes in to ask him a question while he's working, and he says something along the lines of "hang on a second, I'm breaking up my lead couple to start a Twitter riot."  <types for a while>  "There. Done.  Millions of teenage tears."  <closes laptop>  "Now how can I help you?"  I almost felt like she was waving right at us.  "Hi Chuck fans!!"

[Bill Sweatland]

Yeah, DD.

 

It’s exactly why I don’t watch TV any more.  The wt/wt formula is so predictable.  It’s hard to root.  And when it becomes hard to root, it becomes hard to watch.

 

Ali Adler wrote Fake Name.  It’s the only Chuck episode I have never watched.  But Sarah tells Shaw her real name.  Never mind that it would be totally out of character for Sarah to tell her real name to anybody, much less this spy who she barely knew and really didn’t trust.  It was pure manipulated angst for angst’s sake.  There was zero long term benefit from that storyline.  It wasn’t even disguised well.  It was a writing team looking a substantial part of their base directly in the eye and calmly showing them the middle finger.  It was even worse than the finale in that regard.  And I get why they did it.  To make them getting together that much more dramatic.  But it still was an epic fail.  They deserved the million people who stopped watching and never came back.

 

 

 

---

[mxpw]

The Dexter fandom really does see Yvonne/Hannah as their Shaw. It's actually kind of hilarious to see so many of them lose their shit over her. For instance, if you visit the Dexter forum at TWoP, a good 75% of the posters there hate her. Almost all of them call Yvonne a bad actress (they've called her everything from terrible to wooden) and refuse to give her any praise at all. After the most recent episode, one person even said that Yvonne's crying was completely unconvincing and bad because, in their words, she tries too hard to look hot while crying. Basically, she's too attractive even while crying.

The main difference between Shaw and Hannah, though, is that Yvonne can actually act and has charisma. Oh, and that the ship she's standing in the way of is completely disturbing. Like DD said, they may not be biologically related, but they grew up together. It's creepy as hell.

By the way, Yvonne is killing it on Broadway. Her play "Golden Boy" is getting pretty rave reviews and nearly every review has singled her out and talked about how talented and great she is. This could actually be the gig that really helps her break out. Time will tell.

[daydreamer2578]

Who called my Yvonne wooden???!!??  Let me at 'em!  Put 'em up!  Put 'em up!!  

<sigh>  If they only knew....

Well, at least she only has 75% railing against her.  I think it's a pretty safe bet Shaw had 100% of us gunning against him.  It's been a long time, but was anybody a fan?  Anybody?  Helllloooooooo??  It is amazing how perspective can change when one gets in the way of another's favorite ship.  Creepy as that ship may be......  

Who knows? maybe Brandon Routh is actually incredibly talented as well as classically handsome and we were just blind to it because he was standing in the way of our blessed Charah.  You think?

Naaaaahhhhhhh......

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Chuck vs. the GoogleGroup" group.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/Chuckversus/-/lOkxg4iS-yYJ.

[daydreamer2578]

Yeah Bill, it certainly was a lesson on how to kill a fun show in 3 seasons or less.  I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did after that.  I like the middle finger analogy.  I laughed at the New Normal, but it does go to show how callously the writers view their fans --- you know, the people that keep them employed.  I only make fun of my customers behind their backs, lol.  If I do it to their faces, my bills somehow don't get paid.  Funny how that works.

[dude029]

I read that interview. To each his own but the finale will always suck to me. Of course, I've always felt that they killed Charah in S3 anyway. Happy for all Yvonne's success. Very much deserved. It's funny how Hollywood works sometimes. the bigger you become the more stroke you wield in perhaps determining directions like storyline. Is it possible to say had Chuck maintained ratings success, Yvonne's ( or Zac's) influence with the show's direction been greater ?