Mommy, make the bad brain stop...

[camwyn]

The part of my brain responsible for the Jenny Rhoades, Self-Made Ninja idea decided that mephron's mention of its TV possibilities meant it was okay to play with the idea some more. Before this, I'd pretty successfully stomped the idea down into 'might work as a Saturday Night Live skit' territory. Needless to say, that didn't last... I wish I could say there was a song that inspired it, but there wasn't, really.

Unless you count the rapidly unfolding scene that accompanied the song "Fame", which I happened to hear on the way to the supermarket, that is. That particular scene took a compare-and-contrast attitude, because obviously a famous ninja is a ninja who's doing their job wrong. Jenny doesn't get to stick around for pep rallies and talent shows much, see. While some other blonde is singing or baton-twirling or dancing on stage and attracting all the admiring eyes, Jenny's sneaking out the back of the auditorium because she just saw her target - some mother's date, who's left the show early to conduct some nefarious business. There was a lot of cutting back and forth between the American Idol wannabe on stage and Jenny and her yumi in the darkness...

Anyway, as I headed into the supermarket to get my lunch I realized my brain had not only decided this was a drama rather than a twisted sitcom, but it had given Jenny a boyfriend. He's Japanese and I don't know much about him; he's maybe a little younger than she is; most importantly, he's the son of the bad guy, the largely amoral and borderline unethical fellow who figured out his business partner's daughter was the shadowy figure flitting around rooftops at night and confronted her with an offer of proper training. Not that he himself is a ninja, mind you, but he knows people. If nothing else he can point her in the direction of schools of martial arts, which she can put together in several nasty combinations without alerting her various teachers to what she's studying them for. Maybe even pay for them, since she can't afford it on Daddy's allowance - ah, and if she pays him back afterwards, Daddy will be pleased with her understanding of business as well, no?

Boyfriend is semi-clued, but doesn't understand quite how dangerous Jenny's game is. He approves of her studying the ninja ways because he knows what it's like to try and get a demanding father's attention. I suspect it's largely disgust with his inability to understand how disturbing she finds her position that eventually provokes Jenny to break free of boyfriend's father's influence. Unfortunately, boyfriend's father is something of a nasty man - he was looking for a personal assassin that no one would ever suspect, after all - which thereby necessitates running away from home (probably w/boyfriend) so that boyfriend's father doesn't try doing Bad Things to her father for revenge. Hence the tie-in to the Bon Jovi song...


There are days when I really worry about my brain.

Comments

This could work, really.

[mephron]

Two hour premiere movie with the setup, and then run it like a somewhat-less-psycho version of "Nowhere Man", with her taking jobs with her Ninja Skills as she's dodging her former mentor's machinations.

Meanwhile, poor Kenshiro (the boyfriend) is now understanding what's going on, and uses his particular skills (he was the kind of guy you'd see going into sales, he's got that kind of nice-guy-trust-me feel about him) to get the layout information. He's no ninja, but he is a social engineer par excellence.

Her father just knows she ran way, not why - it was too dangerous - but she not only has to dodge her boyfriend's father's Yakuza goons, but the PI her father has set on her tail to bring her home.

Perhaps, just to set everyone even more on edge, one of her former teachers is on her tail, as well, for reasons that don't get explained until the First Season Climax Episode.

Re: This could work, really.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It certainly could work.

I'm very fond of this idea.

Re: This could work, really.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Dunno, guys, this sounds like a Buffyclone, only with ninjas -- and not that there's anything wrong with ninjas, or Buffy, just sayin'.

-- Lorrie

Re: This could work, really.

[camwyn]

Which is the part that bothers me, mostly; I mean, I've never actually seen an episode of Buffy other than the one with the ambassador from Syphilis, but I can smell the similarities. I was thinking it actually felt a bit more like a re-skinned version of The Fugitive, if anything.

Then again, when was the last time television did anything original?

Re: This could work, really.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

As rarely as they could possibly get away with it. 8-)

-- Lorrie