Jesus of Newport Beach

I haven't posted anything since last week.  One (false) reason for this: I've been catching my breath for the fall schedule.  Another (true) reason: I've been crying uncontrollably over the season finale of Kyle XY. 

You may recall that I initially found Kyle XY uncontrollably creepy, sort of a television version of Powder.  It turns out that only the pilot and possibly the first few episodes played as pedophile porn.  Once the show found its rhythm, and once its title character was allowed to mature, it got really good. 

The sci-fi aspects of the show are neither very exciting nor very lame -- a little bit of The X-Files, a little bit of Escape from Witch Mountain, a  lot of The Pretender, a lot of Starman.  The way that these elements are incorporated with the straight-forward, teen drama elements were satisfying, though.

What really works are those teen drama elements.  The cast is very appealing.  I have a tiny crush on April Matson, who plays Kyle (Matt Dallas)'s foster sister, Lori, and I've always liked Chelan Simmons (Wonderfalls), who plays Lori's intermittently spiteful best friend, Hillary.   What's interesting, though, is the writing.  The main teen love story, between Kyle and nice, boring neighbor Amanda (Kirsten Prout) is not very interesting, probably because it's a relationship between two ciphers.  However, the secondary relationship, between Lori and poor little rich boy Declan (Chris Olivero, last seen as the doomed First Son on 24), is awfully good and feels awfully real.  In general, the way dating and sexuality get treated on the show is very sophisticated and very sensitive, neither exploitative on the one hand nor puritanical on the other.  Both Lori and Hillary are sexually active, for which there are consequences, but they're not draconian.  In the finale, for instance, Hillary, who has been sleeping with Amanda's boyfriend, Charlie (Cory Monteith), gets her comeuppance, but, startingly, gets to retain her dignity.  She even gets a great line: "Waterproof mascara kicks ass!"  For once it feels like accountability is evenly shared between the boy and the girl, a radical step forward for the genre.

Finally, Kyle XY is interesting because of the ways in which it casts light on the genres from which it borrows.  I mentioned earlier that in terms of story arc, Kyle XY and The O.C. are identical, with Kyle and Ryan Atwood filling the same role.  What Kyle XY makes explicit in the season finale is that Kyle is a Christ figure.  Is Ryan Jesus as well?  Hit your season 1 DVDs and let me know what you think.  -- Pete   

Comments

[camille]

I was just thinking about all of the similarities between kyle xy & prison break.
Large sinister corporation running everything.
Both series pay homage to classic literature. The scene with Sucre from Les Miserables was something I'd expect not to like, but it was elegantly done. And almost completely true to the book,in our time. Now there's a Cyrano de Bergerac story line in Kyle XY.
Messages hidden in plain sight in both stories & symbols - Michael's tattoos, Kyle's CD, book with symbols.
'Watchers'.
The writing for females of all ages in both is very strong.
There's more, but then when I was thinking along these lines, I thought how you could apply the same ideas to Buffy The Vampire Slayer,(especially the season with the Initiative), Angel, Smallville.
As well, the writing in all of the above is always clever.
Speaking of sinister corporations, perhaps GE, etc. would grace the writers with their presence at the negotiation table & allow some of these people to continue their fine work.