Will & Grace Finale
Will & Grace即将于5月18日走到尽头。心情很复杂。一方面，它曾经带给我那么多快乐，真的舍不得。另一方面，它的确已经过了高峰期，甚至一度让人觉得“惨不忍睹”，是时候结束了。
和Friends一样，Will & Grace也曾经是NBC的王牌节目，有过收视率和口碑双丰收的辉煌年代。虽然已经江河日下，它在我心里始终还是有很特殊的地位。所以，借着全剧大结局之际，再向大家推荐一次：如果你还没看过Will & Grace的话，一定要去买碟片来看看。前四季是绝对的经典。同时，作为学英语的材料，它比Friends要更上一层楼。演员的语速更快，台词更难，文化背景更多。如果你能不借助字幕轻松地听懂所有的内容，那恭喜你，你的英语水平已经到了足够高的境界，去学二外吧。
四位主角前两天一起上了Oprah的脱口秀，和观众说再见。找到一个可下载的视频：http://www.malcontent.biz/video/willandgrace-oprah-hi.wmv （Courtsey of The Malcontent, NSFW）
这是提供下载者的原话：
Still, it is worth remembering what the television climate was like when Will & Grace premiered. Ellen had gone off the air because of the concentration on her sexuality. We were living in the age before Queer As Folk and the L-Word.
If Will & Grace is stale and has run its course, the cast and crew still deserve to take their bows. When people are looking back at the age of the gay rights movement and how open gay culture finally entered the mainstream of American society, this is a show that will rightly belong on our little pink wall of fame.
I couldn’t have said it better.
顺便提一句，由于美国的电视剧都是按季播的，所以受欢迎的剧集往往会年复一年、季复一季拍下去。到了一定的时候，剧集的水平自然会到达顶峰，然后开始走下坡路。这种情况有个专门的短语来描述：jump the shark。
When a television show jumps the shark, it has reached a tipping point and will steadily decline ever after. Jumping the shark is the defining moment when you know your favorite TV show will never be the same again.
The phrase is a reference to the 1970s television show Happy Days. On 20 September 1977, the show aired an episode where the character Fonzie jumps a shark tank on water skis. A cliffhanger episode, many fans of the show consider this episode to be the moment when they realized the show had become shameless in its self-promotion.
The phrase jump the shark, however, appears some years later. On 24 December 1997 the website www.jumptheshark.com went up on the net. It listed TV shows and the episodes where they jumped the shark. The site gives credit for the phrase to a Sean J. Connelly, who allegedly coined it in 1985. Connelly was the college roommate of site’s creator, Jon Hein.
As far as I’m concerned, Will & Grace jumped the shark in season 5 when Grace got married. But like I said, it still is and always will be one of my favorite TV shows!
Bonus video: Imogen Heap - Good Night and Go
May 16th, 2006 at 2:41 am
刚来美国时瞥过几眼，当时不觉得好。后来近几个月lifetime周一到周五每晚都放两集will & grace，大概是知道的东西多了，这次再看就觉得很好玩。有一段时间每晚11点看两集will & grace成了我的routine。
看来我可以去学听二外了，hoho，说的话，英语还得慢慢来@_@
May 16th, 2006 at 4:51 am
W&G is grrrrreat!
Jumping the shark - BTW, thanks a lot for teaching me this term - is so typical for American TV shows. Desperate Housewives, Lost, and countless other shows could’ve been much much better had they followed a different production concept, one that has less to do with greed and hollow ambitions, and more with commitment and dedication to artisanship.
Yan:
Well said.
Honestly, I’m surprised that you didn’t know this term before.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:57 am
Will & Grace 的写作风格给我的印象跟 Sex and the City 差不多，都使用大量的隐喻、双关、典故，妙处无穷啊。
May 16th, 2006 at 11:51 am
不借助字幕轻松地听懂所有的内容…暂时还是我遥远的奋斗目标。
看到你翻的W & G字幕了。解释得很详细呢。
Yan:
你的眼睛真尖！我只翻了一集，居然就被你发现了。
May 16th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
看您的部落格真的很长见识而且也能再学习！
Yan:
用“你”就好。
May 16th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
字幕在哪儿呀？你不会是…
…给盗版集团打工的?
向毛主席保证，绝无贬义，呵呵
Yan:
http://lib.verycd.com/2006/02/25/0000091834.html
第13集是我翻的，嵌入rmvb文件。您这样的级别不推荐花时间去下载。
May 17th, 2006 at 5:51 am
我认为有一点可以肯定，那段中英混杂的简介不是你写的。
Yan:
Well, you know me well enough.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:47 am
NBC的情景喜劇我都挺喜歡的。
有點不捨呢，記得那時這套劇，我們這裡是每天下午18點左右播出的，那時正值晚飯時間，我就和妹妹常常邊吃邊看，邊看邊笑，邊笑邊看。。。
呵呵，怪有意思的。。。
題外話，據説插播在finale那集中的廣告，單費用就定格在200万美金/30秒。電視臺再次大發一筆，lol
Yan:
不過還是American Idol的廣告費更狠。那個才是大發特發。
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:01 pm
不知道你对Friends怎么看呢，能谈谈对它的感受么？
呵呵，毕竟在国内还是friends的影响大一些。
Yan:
就是因为它太流行了，不需要我再多说什么了。宁可多花点时间拉更多人来看Will & Grace。