Helpful tip!

[mrissa]

I learned this from watching a handful of romantic comedies in the mists of the past and now from Heroes, and I thought I would pass the useful advice on to you:

If you see the person you are dating embracing another, before you pitch a hissy fit and storm off to destroy the relationship/yourself/the world/whatever, determine whether the embracee is: a) a sibling, parent, or other close family member; b) a friend who has just received bad news; c) a friend who has not just received bad news but would for reasons of their own like a hug; d) someone in need of the Heimlich maneuver; e) ...anything else reasonable. Which covers a lot of ground.

Better yet: do not date people you don't trust to hug other people.

"She's going off to have dinner with someone else! Oh noes! Not--dinner!"

There, just think how much trouble I saved you.

(People who thought Season One of Heroes was good: really? Really? Trite RomCom Maneuver Number Three? This is the good stuff? What's Sylar going to do next, hire a band to sing off-key under Claire's window?)

Comments

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

I'm reading a fairly mediocre crime novel in which the same exact thing happens. Cop 1 is seeing Cop 2 and Cop 2 dares have a quick bite in a mall food court with a reporter, so Cop 1 shits herself in jealous rage for half the book.

It's amazing that Cop 1 carries a sidearm but doesn't accidentally shoot herself with it, she's so damn stupid.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I've seen part of S1, and it just didn't hook me. Probably because I did not form much attachment to 95% of the characters.

As for your broader point: WHAT SHE SAID. In fact, I've got a story in my to-be-written-soon-I-hope queue that involves one protagonist seeing the other being touchy-feely with another woman, and when describing this aspect of the story to people, I've been at pains to point out that said protagonist does not in fact leap to any stupid conclusions based on what she's seen. Because that's what people expect to have happen, and it just gets old.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It is well known that mall food courts are hotbeds of depravity. One can hardly get something from the onna stick place without falling into lustful embraces with randomly selected strangers.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Well, one certainly doesn't go for the food.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

For me, Heroes S1 is how not to do several things. It's how not to do "upping the stakes," because a lot of these situations would be a great deal more interesting to me if they were taken without the overarching "blow up New York City" plot forcing them to only graze the surfaces of the situations they've created. It's also how not to do an ensemble cast, because it seems like in every episode we must advance every subplot by two inches, which is not, it turns out, enough for me to care about any of them.

[crimini.livejournal.com]

It's also how not to do an ensemble cast, because it seems like in every episode we must advance every subplot by two inches, which is not, it turns out, enough for me to care about any of them.

I agree. In the end, I just lost interest.

[fireriven.livejournal.com]

I have watched all of Heroes to date and I can confirm that the writers persist in just that behavior for the entire series. -_-

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I was hooked on Heroes for the first season, right up until the last two episodes where I realized that all the fun stuff was apparently accidental. It was just that for a while there, I was hooked on the cliffhangers and the momentum, but the finale was just so bad that I knew I wasn't going to be interested in the show anymore. And from what I can tell (my husband still watches it, although it's more out of habit), there's nothing to draw me back to the show. The good stuff that I saw was a mirage.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the Misinterpreted Embrace. I personally would like to have this one banned and sent to the Tropes Hall of Fame for a well-deserved retirement.

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

Heroes is much better if you fast-forward through Sylar, Mohinder, and Peter. Once you're doing that you don't have to pay nearly as much attention to the overarching plot, and although it's still not exactly good, I'm very fond of Hiro and I still think Claire and her dad are brilliant.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Heroes was good, or at least interesting, up until the last episode, when they threw it all away. I tried to watch the second season, but it sputtered out of my consciousness, never to return.

I would probably get all Miss Manners over the hug situation. "Wow, my date feels so strongly that she is hugging that person. That person must be worthy and/or need a hug. I shall introduce myself, and maybe proffer a hug myself. Gosh, I'm glad I picked such a caring individual."

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Oh, please tell us the title so I can avoid it. Because if I bought it, I would just throw it across the room when I got to that part, unless it's thin enough that I could rip it on two.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

do not date people you don't trust to hug other people.

"She's going off to have dinner with someone else! Oh noes! Not--dinner!"

Yeah. Really.

I am fortunate in having friendly relationships with all my exes whom I am in contact with, and J doesn't mind at all, in which I am also fortunate (though we wouldn't be together if he weren't like that).

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

It's called The Frailty of Flesh by Sandra Ruttan, whose blog and small-press crime zine (Spinetingler) I admire.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

True, but now the writers have all been fired so who knows what's coming.

"That pathetic jealousy...."

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that I am a songwriter myself and a Beatles fan. (No, I'm not really changing the subject.) But "You Can't Do That" (which I have played in two bands) is about the (I hope fictional) narrator of the song throwing a fit when his girlfriend simply talks to another man -- twice. I really have a problem with this (and "Run For Your Life" isn't much better). I think your significant others' caring for other people and wanting to talk to them (and sometimes hug them, and/or meet them for dinner) is a *positive*, not a negative thing. But I have little to add to this discussion that is bonafidely relevant, so will stop.

Nate

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

see, heroes caught me with the commercials the summer before. and then i was all OMGWTFBBQMUSTWATCHSHOW. (one of the commercials is hiro concentrating so hard you expect blood to come out of his forehead, and then the clock skips backward just. one. second. i actually shushed my mom so i could watch that one. the other commercial i remember is claire diving off the construction site, calmly standing up, relocating her shoulder, and announcing the time, date, and what attempt number that was.)

i do have to admit that i watched season one religiously, but never did watch s2.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Which results in a need to periodically kill of characters for no good reason because you can't think of anything else to do with the character...

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

really?

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Hiring a band to play under Claire's window would be an interesting and worthy plot development compared to the idiotic contortions and outrageous acts that Sylar's character actually goes through in the show. Gag.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Well, actually it was just the two top writers/producers who basically ran the show on a day to day basis, but those are the two really important people to can. You can google it and find articles.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I suppose it says something that, although I've searched my memory, I have no real idea who the various components of the romantic triangle were. Was it Peter Petrelli/Poor Doomed Mystery Sock/Simone-the-woman-mysteriously-hated-by-all-of-the-fandom?

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Heroes, more than any other show, has drawn me in in the hope of some of the characters dying horrible deaths.

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I actually liked Heroes quite a bit. Perhaps this just shows that I'll watch anything involving comic books or relating to superheroes. . .

The sad thing about the romantic comedy embrace thing is that there are really people who get that jealous.

Speaking of Oh Noes, Dinner!

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I had an ex whose then-sweetie refused to let us have dinner alone. Lunch, sure, but dinner had to be chaperoned. I found this incomprehensible, and always longed to ask her:

A) Don't you trust him? Especially considering that he left me for her.

and

B) Why is it that you think one can only be unfaithful after 6 p.m.?