Mini-discussions, details, questions - The Little Things of YA!
 

The Head-Grabbing Maneuver! :D (i don't know how to link to the jahammer guide to prove this, but I know Anja's keeping it safe somewhere...;) )

ETA: Found it! Guide to the Jahammer :kiss: :kiss: :kiss:

Aww, that's a good one Nikki! :glow:

And the Jahammer soft noses touch :love: :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...n/wbshm_90.jpg

:lol: Yeah and Kate and Ian would be the teachers in charge, wouldn't they? :D

:sigh:

Oh, definitely :nod: Just a look between those too and :sigh: :love:

I love the noses touching :love:

Me too! :blush:

I agree. :love: I think it's one of the most intimate gestures. :sigh:

Yeah me too! It's so perfect and yummy :)

Four little things from one 9-minute clip
 

The profile shot of Jacqueline looking out her dorm room window near the start of episode 2, about 25 to 27 seconds into this clip, has reminded me ever since I first saw it of Michelangelo's David. Does it strike anyone else that way?

Later in the same scene, about 2:15 seconds into the same clip, when Hamilton shows up to protest his heterosexuality, isn't he made up to look more more like a girl than at any other point in the series? Besides wearing a necklace, isn't he made up with mascara, cheek rouge, eye-shadow and lipstick?

If one answers "yes" to both questions, then as Jacqueline-as-David meets Hamilton-in-mascara, Antin is wickedly messing with our heads ...

Also in episode 2, in the scene where Jacqueline runs to Hamilton on the lawn to tell him that her bike is missing, exactly six minutes into the same clip, notice how Hamilton looks around to find out whether anyone else is watching them? A telling indicator not only of his embarrassment to be seen together with Jake, but also of how cautiously circumspect a character Hamilton is. And when he agrees to help Jake recover the bike, he sets it not for "tonight," but for "tomorrow night," in order to give himself a night to find out where the bike is. He's anything but impulsive: he's brooding, and he keeps his own counsel.

Very good observations... I like how much attention you pay to the details of the show :nod:

I do agree with what you said about Hamilton, he's definately the kinda guy that likes to think before he does things, he's cautious and careful :nod:

Thanks, Brokensmile. For such flattery, I offer a "little thing" of pure lust: in episode 4, ever notice how Jacqueline's eyes move up and down Hamilton's body as he walks away after saying "I'm history"? It's 14:09 to 14:11 minutes into this clip. This eye gesture foreshadows that the girl is about to break, that when Jacqueline tells Hamilton, at the cotillion, that she has to talk with him, "but not here," she needs to tell him she's a girl. That, in turn, implies that Hamilton responds to her at the last possible moment when his response can pass the test of cross-dressing-as-test-of-true-love.

Let others rave about the kissing scenes in YA, or all the raw flesh on the docks. I find nothing in the series so "hot" as the eye interaction between Pratt and Fleming in their three pre-cotillion scenes in episode 4, in each of which Hamilton sinks deeper into helpless acceptance of a partly-illusory fate.

More generally, though, I don't see how to understand the characters of Jacqueline Pratt and Hamilton Fleming without attention to non-spoken details. The characters of Finn and Will are fully articulated; their very essence is words. Scout, Bella, and Sean also are relatively transparent. But Jacqueline seems too hurt and confused to be able to do be honest even with herself, and Hamilton seems usually too cautious to reveal himself fully to anyone, including Jacqueline. So often we see Hamilton thinking, but we don't know what he's thinking. I've offered one possible construction of his motives in my third post on this board's thread, "Raven at my window with a broken wing," but ambiguity is inherent in the character, and almost certainly deliberate. On the other hand, my view, that Hamilton consciously accepts, on the night of the cotillion, to play an "emotional savior" role despite its poor prospects of success, implies he cannot tell Jacqueline what he is doing; playing that role entails expressing his own neediness fully, but masking his awareness of Jacqueline's greater neediness. Is this 15-year-old behavior? Clearly not, at least not in contemporary American culture. But then, what in YA really is?

Flower boxes and establishing shots
 

More "little things:"

(1) Notice the flower boxes in front of the "Friendly's" dinner? That's yet another deviation from the real in favor of the ideal in Antin's Rawley: flower boxes are rare in U.S. towns (unlike European towns), and real "Friendly's" restaurants (like this one) generally don't have flower boxes under their windows.

(2) I recently watched the series in a version aired in Europe (French credits, Spanish dubbing); this version, which can be found on Youtube by searching for "Jovenes Rebeldes," has superior visual quality to the U.S. version on YouTube, although the dubbing is dreadful. I am struck by the omissions in the version aired in the U.S., necessitated of course by the greater time allocating to advertising in U.S. commercial television. Many lovely "little things" were cut. In particular, many establishing shots, for example of the town of New Rawley, were cut: in the European version, the camera takes us on leisurely tours of Havre de Grace.