MovieChat Forums > Hollidaysburg (2014) Discussion > Last Two Episodes The Best.

Last Two Episodes The Best.

posted 10 years ago by MGurlea
2 replies | jump to latest

The last two episodes of The Chair were the best of the series. They were also dumbfounding. Shane continued to come across as pompous ass and not someone who I would ever want to work with on anything. The one meeting he had with the producers he continued to act like a child. Obviously Shane has never had a real job where he has to sit down with bosses and colleagues in a meeting. If he had he would know you don't act like that and you don't say, ya I didn't read this stuff we are talking about. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS! A normal job he would be fired on the spot.

It was really clear after seeing all the episodes of The Chair that the producers wanted Shane's fans for the ratings and the tickets sales but didn't want him to win. Maybe at the beginning they hoped he would make a good movie but when it turned out to be dog *beep* and knew with his fans they would be forced to give him $250K. Kind of backfired in their faces. I guess that is why the one producer, Dodson, wrote this: http://www.thewrap.com/why-hollidaysburg-should-win-starzs-the-chair-g uest-blog/

The part that jumped out to me was this:

"One can reference “Superbad” and “American Pie” all they want, but “Not Cool” doesn't stand up to those comparisons. Not even close. I can't tell if Shane knows better? Or thinks that his film is funnier than it is? Or that he is genuinely trapped and thus resigned to pandering to a fan base for which his content in the movie and online is, frankly, wildly inappropriate for."

Yes, it was really really weird to see such young girls in the last episode sitting in a theater watching Not Cool. I noticed one kid held their ticket up and it said "NR" for not rated. So I guess this was the only way they could get his fan base to see the movie. I wonder if their parents knew or even cared their 10 year old kids were watching a hard R or NC-17 movie if it had been rated? I am really surprised this was not more of an issue. The only mention of it anywhere is in the above article.

It was really odd too how his fans only seem to care about him. They came out in droves if he made a personal appearance at a show time. But theaters showing his movie at other times were completely empty. So these ten year old girls are obsessed and crying over him but could care less about seeing his movie? Just weird.

This was an interesting series and I hope they continue to do more shows like this. Albeit with maybe a bigger budget so they can hire known actors and hire directors who aren't total douchebags.

[–] Lark11 10 years ago

Well, I must admit that I don't have the same negative reaction about Shane as many others. In the early part of The Chair, I didn't know who he was, but thought he was an interesting "character" with a journey worth following. My only real problem with him was the decision to target his film to his audience. Most of the remaining issues stem from that decision. But, even that decision seems more like a calculated gamble to win $250,000 than anything else. And, it paid off.

I really enjoy the quote you posted above by Neal Dodson. It touches on two things that bothered me about this experience.

First, I also take exception to Shane's argument that, basically, people who don't like Not Cool simply "don't like or understand teen comedies." On the contrary, I think most people readily appreciate the massive difference in quality and execution in movies like, on the one hand, American Pie/Superbad and, on the other hand, Not Cool. It's not the genre that's offensive, it's the content and execution of Not Cool. Simply dismissing everyone who doesn't like a poorly executed teen comedy as being someone who doesn't like/understand teen comedies is highly flawed logic.

Second, I will always be baffled by the decision to target young teen girls with this type of movie. It's not just baffling, it's shocking. And, I don't shock easily. This also raises the issue of why these movies weren't rated. I read somewhere that the producers of The Chair changed the competition rule requiring movies to be rated to ensure that Shane's young audience would be able to see an R rated film. At least, that seems to be the opinion of Team Martemucci. I agree that it's disturbing that such young kids were watching that movie and that their parents were OK with it.

It IS bizarre to see Shane's Beatle-like appeal to his audience. In one way, it was kind of sweet that he has formed such a strong emotional bond that meant so much to his audience. And, Shane deserves a ton of credit for building up that type of follower-base. That really isn't easy and it had to be a serious grind to accomplish. On the other hand, it was borderline creepy for them to be so fanatical about his YouTube work. They did seem more interested in seeing him than his movie, but maybe that speaks more to the discontent between the mature content and the immature target audience. Not to mention, I doubt his target audience would watch and enjoy The Chair, which hardly seems like content that would entertain such a young audience, so maybe they really didn't have an emotional investment in his movie.

The other thing that confused me about The Chair was the difficulty in finding online content to supplement the show. That also applies to basic things like when and where the movies would screened and how the voting process was to work. I didn't actually end up voting because it was closed before I found out about it. Obviously, I'm not travelling in the right online circles to be kept in the loop about the show, though I did check a few places from time-to-time, but it seems like it would have been very easy to add in a screen shot on relevant episodes listing information about screenings of the movies and how to vote. The producers complained about the difficulty in marketing the movie and reaching an audience, but they didn't seem to take even the basic step of informing the viewers of The Chair about some simple details about the movies and show.

At this point, I'm still not even sure if I was supposed to be getting that information from The Chair website or somewhere else, but it seems like there was a real disconnect there.

Finally, was there anything more awkward than when Anna and Shane finally met for the first time? They both seemed pretty uncomfortable, so maybe there really WAS something to the rumored tension and bad blood between the two directors/movies.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show and hope they get another season. It's obviously difficult to make a top quality film under all the restrictions and with a limited budget, but the process really IS interesting. Next time, though, I'd like to see something other than a comedy or a coming-of-age story. Why not something dark and gritty like a crime drama or suspense movie?

[–] MGurlea 10 years ago

Hey Lark,

Great insightful post again.

I also take exception to Shane's argument that, basically, people who don't like Not Cool simply "don't like or understand teen comedies."

I agree 1000%. American Pie is in my personal top ten of all time. Myself and my friends love the entire film series. I guess it helps because we are all that same age as the characters. But I also own super-special edition limited copies of Ted, EuroTrip, Fast Times, Super Bad, etc. And I only buy movies that I really like. So I blow up Shane's argument right there. Hell, I even own a life size actual Ted bear.

I read somewhere that the producers of The Chair changed the competition rule requiring movies to be rated to ensure that Shane's young audience would be able to see an R rated film.

Wow! This almost seems borderline morally wrong. Kind of like Joe Camel selling cigarettes to kids. This should have been the reason he lost. None of his audience should have been allowed to see his movie. I would bet if the MPAA rated it, it would have received an NC-17. Which is the modern day nicer name for rated X. If you own the "unrated" DVD of American Pie that is NC-17. It got that from the MPAA originally. So I could easily see this getting that. The movie industry is supposed to police itself with the MPAA and their ratings. If they are just going to skip that process and show movies like this to kids anyway they are going to ruin it for themselves. Someone will make stuff like this a bigger issue I could see happening. I don't want to have to go back to how movies were in the 1930's where fireworks meant that the two leads where off having sex.

It IS bizarre to see Shane's Beatle-like appeal to his audience. In one way, it was kind of sweet that he has formed such a strong emotional bond that meant so much to his audience. And, Shane deserves a ton of credit for building up that type of follower-base. That really isn't easy and it had to be a serious grind to accomplish. On the other hand, it was borderline creepy for them to be so fanatical about his YouTube work. They did seem more interested in seeing him than his movie, but maybe that speaks more to the discontent between the mature content and the immature target audience. Not to mention, I doubt his target audience would watch and enjoy The Chair, which hardly seems like content that would entertain such a young audience, so maybe they really didn't have an emotional investment in his movie.

Interesting take on that.

As far as the voting thing goes you are right there really was not much info about it. I did vote albeit at the last minutes I think. Most the series I
DVRed because I was away from home Saturday night at college football games. I think maybe episode 8 at the very end it said to log on to the Starz website and vote. That is the only thing I remember seeing about the vote. And I watched this episodes later that week and I was like oh I need to vote now because it said the voting closed right away. This might have also been the week too where on Monday night Starz aired Hollidaysburg and Tuesday night they aired Not Cool. I just happened to look in the TV Guide and was like oh nice they are airing them so I can watch without paying anything. They did not advertise that they were airing them at all. I just happened to stumble upon them both. You have to wonder if they really did pay a big PR firm what did the money actually get them?

Hopefully, this does get another season. I heard Project Green Light is coming back too. Not sure if Chris Moore is just going to do that or both? The process is really interesting. I should have been a film major. I remember the first Project Green Light but I did not watch it because I remember not being interested in the film they did. I watched the second season and it's movie, The Battle of Shaker Heights with a young Shia LaBeouf. I really liked that movie. Then I guess that show moved to Bravo or something and they did two more seasons and movies? I missed both of those. I think one was a horror film. I remember Project Green Light being better because they got actors who I at least recognized in the movie. That was probably the real problem with the movies in the Chair. It seems like most involved with it were first timers or have a very short resumes.