the groundhog day project

[Parasocial relationships] are a set of feelings viewers develop toward media characters that allow viewers to think and feel toward characters as if they know and have a special connection with them. (Eyal & Cohen, 2006, p. 504) Struck by Lightning is on again . Saer is here watching, of course. Her in was author/star Chris Colfer. But, the setting is generic movie-high-school enough for anyone to get. The main character is a writer, he's a bit of a sarcastic smartass, and he blackmails popular kids to get them to write for his literary magazine--I should love this. But, it's almost too generic. Still, Carson (Colfer) is wry enough to be entertaining. Fisherkeller (1997) suggests that our parasocial relationships--for teens at least--can get us models for our own behavior. My daughter, for example, wants to act (in movies, on stage, wherever really--a while back she starred in a stage production of To Kill a Mockingbird and I think I mentioned that in the blog... [ I ...

Let us leave (presumably) the evil high school girls behind. ( Presumably because I haven't seen Struck by Lightning before.) Today, our focus is a high school boy, Carson Phillips (Chris Colfer). (And, admittedly, this movie was recommended by my daughter a good while ago and I have put it off. Which really shouldn't be parenthetical, actually, because I want to take this opportunity to a) write a bit about the movie as it plays and b) out my daughter as a crazy fangirl... except, as you will see, my point below is probably going to be that fangirls are not crazy. Plus it's a bit sexist to separate fangirls from fanboys, anyway.) Carson is rather amusingly sardonic and sarcastic--i.e. the best kind of cinematic high school character. I don't need someone who is you know, nice, and genuine. Less Rita Hanson, more Phil Connors. Just how I like a character... at least a comedy. (So, Saer--my 12-year-old daughter, for those of you who have not been following alo...