#so im trusting the structure and trusting rcg | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cutemeat · 2 years

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ok i Gotta say smth cuz ive been thinking about it... I think that the podcast has brought in this assumption that RCG actually “doesnt think that deeply” about the shows writing but i think that’s total bullshit and here’s why.

The RCG Podcast is most likely pandering/market testing with the wealthier half of RCG’s audience-- aka the more casual (but loyal) viewership of Men aged 18-34... again there is apparently a very wealthy overall demographic, which is totally something i’d tuck away if I were the producer of something.

so my hunch is again RCG is using this podcast to make money and build a good reputation (like they gained from donating all the profits of their Whiskey brand)/good PR and maintain loyalty to the brand amongst even their casual audience (who lately have been slipping due to feeling alienated by recent seasons with stunts like Mac’s MFHP dance, the structure/writing of s15 being more serious than before, gay gay-ass lovestory, etc) cuz as Mac (Rob) states for us in LW7 “[funding] is a very important part of the filmmaking process.”...

so THAT is why for the podcast, they are not going as deep as they used to on the DVD Bonus feature commentary tracks cuz, again, that is not the audience they are aiming to appease with this podcast! When people here say it feels like there’s a certain audience they’re targeting, you are probably not wrong in your suspicions.. its my opinion that u should trust your gut here lmao.

The reason I think there is still very much a heavy degree of care being put into the writing is 1. Glenn is back in the writer’s room and 2. Season 15 (post episodes 1-3) really showed me that they still have a grasp on Sunny threads/metaphors like the “cat in the wall” metaphor... But RCG are very much aware of their reputation as being a "low-brow” “dirty” “peepee poopoo” college-student aged comedy show, so they’re not gonna push the envelope on something like the RCG Podcast that has been scientifically fucking engineered to satiate the more casual half of the audience who does watch the show like that.

Marketing n brand loyalty are all meticulous fuckin things and I don’t doubt that extends even into this kind of territory. maybe im 100% crazy n just lost in the sauce but this is my take on it.

#iasip #i grew up around business ppl i have the desperate need to be able to tell when im being marketed to LOL #i suspected from the very beginning that they were doing this podcast for some image related/#marketing reason... n i think i was right #just rewatch 'Catches a Leprechaun' n esp dennis' whole arc in that ep allright...

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lesbianfreyja · 4 years

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im going to be honest and try to make this make sense but “i don’t know what this is anymore, but it feels like not what we were planning on” is such an INTERESTING thing for glenn franklin howerton iii to say during the bed scene, prompted by mac gently plucking lint from his hoodie...on the one hand it obviously works as a metaphor for their relationship -- i.e, at the outset of the show this was not in the cards, but this is somehow where they’ve ended up, setting up a clear path for a gay romance to blossom

however it also works as interesting little negative comment about the show, especially in context of the finale. if big mo was meant to say “we don’t give a shit about the algorithm, as we stated in Paddy’s Has A Jumper, the algorithm doesn’t work for us because we always get off track. we’re going to stop doing tried & true methods to get ratings and just have fun” then the fact that “i don’t know what this is anymore, but it feels like not what we were planning on” is bookended by “i don’t like this,” “i don’t want to do this anymore” makes it seem like he’s talking abt the way the show’s been going. i don’t know what show this is anymore, but it feels like we set out to do our own thing and make ourselves/each other laugh and do whatever we wanted, no reigns because we insisted on having creative control, and this isn’t that anymore. i don’t want to do it anymore, if this is how we have to go about it

BUT. the point of tggr is to set up a structure, which we’re meant to trust, the same one promising us a gay romance. but they spent the season saying they don’t like structure, they don’t want to follow carefully laid systems, and they don’t work when they DO follow them. so clearly we aren’t meant to be trusting the structure.....

...or at least, not the structure that’s been set up before. i.e., straight people find love and happily ever after, the end. because sunny has followed the structure, if we’re talking about macdennis and bringing the metaphor back around to the gay subtext: this is the banter, this is all part of act one banter (s1-12); pushing away his soulmate, right on structure. and act two (s13); sweep him off his feet, speak from the heart (s14); so next is the romcom ending. i mean, we didn’t imagine all the parallels in tggr, we didn’t make up “maybe hes a platonic friend from high school that makes [the husband] jealous,” the fact macden were being paralleled by an arguing married couple, “so i’m still your leading man?”, etc. there was no reason to spell out what “the structure” is in terms so clearly applied to them.

so why tf would they be trying to throw the algorithm out? because we aren’t supposed to be trusting the traditional romcom structure, since rcg hate algorithms that they didn’t invent. they want to do their own thing.....

which actually brings us back to tggr, because where did they get off track there? where did they jump from structure? when mac thought it should be gay! that’s not traditional. that doesn’t follow the algorithm. “it won’t play in middle america, but screw it. we’ll jam it down their throats til they enjoy it!” sure sounds like something that aligns with the “we’re going to stop doing tried & true methods to get ratings and just have fun, do our own thing” mindset in big mo.

so if next is supposed to be the romcom ending...or at least, next is sunny’s spin on the romcom ending, where they jam a gay-ass love story down our throats...sounds like season 15 actually is right on track to follow the structure-- their structure, anyway. rcg knows what this is again, and it’s going back to what they were planning on. having fun, being gay together, but now with more awareness of their social responsibility to pull the trigger after all this time/since mac’s already come out. this is the banter, this is all part of act one banter (s1-12); pushing away his soulmate, right on structure. and act two (s13); sweep him off his feet, speak from the heart (s14); a gay, gay-ass love story for the ages (s15)

all of which is to say....clown shoes? on!

#these zinged around in my brain as like 4 separate thoughts that whipped together in the span of 3 seconds #and then i had to try and explain them and its... mess #iasip meta #meta #iasip #s14 #s15 #mac x dennis

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