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| A 'meet cute' refers to the highly telegraphed and cliched first encounter between romantic partners in a variety of genres, but most notably the romantic comedy genre. It is a blunt yet cute way of introducing the audience to the relationship of these two characters, perhaps by having them bump in to one another, perhaps by seeing them have a gentle disagreement that develops quickly in to love. San Junipero makes explicit use of the meet cute as a narrative device by seeing Yorkie and Kelly thrust together by circumstance, with Yorkie playing along with Kelly's ruse to put off annoying suiter 'Wes'. However, the bluntness of this narrative conceit is yet another example of hyperreal simulacra; another use of implicit intertextuality that reinforces the notion that San Junipero is not a real world, but instead a simulation based on a complex set of references to other fictious worlds... a copy of a copy of a copy! Alternatively, I don't know, maybe it's just cute? |
Romantic comedies typically end immediately after the first kiss between the characters, or a declaration of love. The film typically ends before any real intimacy, a relationship being shown etc. This reinforces the ideologically perspective that the run up to romance is more exciting, and being in a relationship is boring. Kids, mortgages, arguments, these things are all boring. True love is the start of a relationship. It is real, it is exciting, it is hyperreal. In the marriage scene in San Junipero, we see a hyperreal representation of love, romance, arguments and relationships.
Yorkie has chosen to live in the hyperreal simulacrum that is San Junipero. A simulacra is a representation of something that never existed in the first place. San Junipero is constructed from stereotypical and archetypal representations that already exist in films, television shows, videogames and songs. It is a representation of a representation of a representation. It is completely divorced from reality. However Yorkie claims this world is real, and for her, it is more real than anything she has experienced . Yorkie holds up her wedding ring, and argues that the coded simulation is real. This reinforces the postmodern ideology that is central to this episode. Since nothing means anything, nothing is real, and nothing matters, then she can actually do anything.
The colour of Yorkie’s and Kelley’s wedding dresses is not hegemonically conventional or appropriate to a traditional wedding ceremony. They are silver and shiny, neither black or white, which symbolically encodes their complex gender identity. Y’s wedding dress is more traditional and conservative with puffy sleeves, while Kelly’s dress is more modern and floofy and significantly shorter, which demonstrates the binary opposition that exists between these two women. This constructs a highly complex set of gender performance codes, which clearly shapes the world around them.
The MES of the twinkling lights in the background represent a vibrant and exciting world. However, in this simulation, there appear to be only 2 locations: Tuckers and The Quagmire. This reinforces the hyperreal nature of this world, and the fact that it is a simulation. The location where the argument occurs appears to be in a completely separate world. This hyperreal construction therefore presents a perfect world where there are no distractions and no annoying people ruining the perfect moment.
While K&Y have an argument, even their argument is hyperreal and perfect. Their argument is serious. Well articulated and dramatic. Rather than arguing about petty things, they have a deeply philosophical argument about life and death and the concrete existence of an afterlife. They are able to share their emotions in an articulate way, and when things get too much, Kelly is simply able to exit the simulation
- “Pass over!”
- “Who can even make sense of forever?”
- “It’s real. This is real. And this”.
- “I was with him for 49 years…you can’t know the boredom, commitment, the laughter…the fucking love of it” - From K’s perspective, it is bad things as well as good things that make our lives worth living. Life is complex!
- “You think you’re the only one who’s ever suffered? Go fuck yourself”
- “This fucking graveyard you love so much…” - Kelly views SJ as a graveyard, contradicting the ideological perspective that SJ might be giving them more life, or even just a life, or even that this world is heaven. Kelly swears frequently, demonstrating an atypical representation of femininity. Her gender performativity is clearly constructing a site of conflict that intimidates and clearly upsets Yorkie. However, Kelley swears not to insult Yorkie but to demonstrate her own passion. She is passionate about the world and this is something which clearly attracts Yorkie
- “You want to spend forever where nothing matters?”