on watching TV and fanning

[xparrot]

So gnine and I are caught up on Person of Interest and now desperately need the next episode. Not because it's on any kind of cliffhanger but because we somehow slipped into fanning 3rd gear.

I can hardly rec POI; it's...it's fangirl catnip, is what it is, for a particular sort of fangirl, and everybody else is wondering why you're rolling around giggling in a pile of weeds. I almost find it easier to list its flaws, starting with GOD I am tired of two-white-men-saving-the-world and going on from there. And yet, and yet. This isn't like Smallville, hating the show while loving the Lex; I don't hate POI in the least, though it bores me at times and at its best it's still...pretty dang cliche and shallow; for all it has vague pretenses of deeper meaning, it is eagerly quick to put action over theme.

...And I'm in love all the same. It really is like The Sentinel - there is so little of what I really want there that what's there becomes magnified, precious. And yet what's there is there, it's not all in our heads, it's definitely intended. Down to the old-school gen romance; Finch and Reese don't play as bromance, flirting with subtext; they're comfortably het, not doing the teasing bait&switch of Supernatural or Teen Wolf (some of that is likely because none of the show runners are aware that Finch is crushable material in any way shape or form. Completely missing the inexorable draw of adorably weird little socially maladjusted supergeniuses with bizarrely awesome if slightly creepy voices. They don't know fangirls, is all. I am wondering how Michael Emerson will take it if he finds out he's gaining a following...) Yet they're undeniably each other's Most Important Person - "When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different" and it's so very clearly not only the lost girlfriend he's talking about. There may come a time when I tire of ridiculously co-dependent partners, but it is not this fandom. (...Also I'm lying, I'm never going to tire of those.)

Right now I'm undergoing the usual frustrations of small new fandoms - there's not enough fic, and I'm not really feeling the slash so there's even less that I can happily read...I might get into the slash but I'm really not sure. I don't need it - they're going to be inextricably bonded no matter who they're sleeping with; and Finch still reads kind of romantic ace to me. (Though I'm fonder than I should be of his one true love, which is totally the fault of her being played by Carrie Preston, who, one, I am kind of in love with due to her being Elspeth Tascioni on The Good Wife - one of the most awesome characters on a show brimming with awesome characters; and two, has been married to Michael Emerson for fifteen years and there are adorable videos of them talking about how weird it is to be acting being in love with the person you're actually in love with and come ON there are levels of cute which should be illegal on the grounds of THEY SLAY ME.)

So I guess what I'm saying is, watch Person of Interest! And write me gen fic! Y'know, if you're into action shows with co-dependent clams.

(Also, talitha78 has now vidded for it! Which, seriously now, do you need a better reason to get into something?)

(Also, in the wider social context, I do want to mention the one ep with a doctor being threatened by putting her wife in danger, and it wasn't played as a joke or a surprise reveal or fanservice, and there was nary a blink from any character that she had a wife instead of a husband - it's things like this that give me hope, that a straight-out action show with a fairly conservative ideology is now including gay marriage as an assumed, normal thing. Which is how it becomes normal, to show it so, and it cheers me every time to see it!)

(On the other hand, if you're in the mood for strongly written drama with great female characters (and male characters - great everybody!), I highly recommend The Good Wife. If you, like me, have seen the previews for years and gone 'No, thank you' - give it a shot anyway; the show's victim to the most misleading advertising of anything I've ever seen. It's presented like some tawdry political scandal soap-opera; it's actually a sharp legal drama starring a (totally awesome) woman in her 40s with two kids, which is something more TV shows should star. It's not a fan show for me but it's an excellent watch. Even if, as an American, it does make me kind of terrified of our legal system, and how very capricious and political and personal it can be (especially because from what I've heard, it's more realistic than most shows...))

Comments

[sholio]

... the show claims another victim, I see. XDDD

So far I've seemed to be generally immune to the fannish catnip because I just don't like Reese (much), although I've read a bit of fic, here and there. I also still haven't watched season two (but I'll get to it, one of these days!). I enjoy the ensemble but this is one show where one-half of the central partnership doesn't do much for me, so I've tended to gravitate towards the supporting characters.

The only author whose fic I've read much is livenudebigfoot on AO3, mostly because I went looking for Fusco fic and she's written like 90% of it. She writes a really adorable Fusco and Finch, and Reese as a creepy sociopath, which fits my read on the characters better than the majority of fic I've tried in the fandom. XD She also pulls off the most insane ideas; she's got an AU in which Fusco is a hooker (NO I AM SERIOUSLY NOT KIDDING) and Finch is his client and Reese is his pimp, and it not only works but is kind of adorable. (Er, most of her fic is NC-17 with noncon and/or dubcon warnings, and is REALLY NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT. It's WAY darker than what I read in most fandoms, at least as a fannish gateway -- usually I start with fluff and get to the more hardcore stuff later -- but for some reason in this fandom, dark and fucked-up is what I want to read ...)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Well, I took until s2 to warm to Reese (and Finch is still my favorite), and to start fanning on the series at all - that's where the majority of the cute stuff is! - so that might be part of it? Though it might not be for you anyway - especially if you're craving a darker and more serious exploration of the themes, that's not what the show is (and I hope it doesn't become so, because I will like it far far less if it goes that way! XD) I've missed the fannish boat on plenty of series, sometimes that's just how the pieces fall! (And you were never into The Sentinel, were you? The shows have enough parallels - cop shows with a borderline sci-fi/superhero edge, and a codependent core partnership with a small support team - that I kind of think if you didn't get into one, the other isn't going to appeal that much...)

...I will admit to being a bit mopey anyway that you missed it because I'm craving gen h/c in this fandom and there are very few authors of your skill providing it...but I will manage anyway! XP

[sholio]

I was into Sentinel, actually ... sort of -- I watched it back when it aired on TV, so this was before my fannish days, but I can totally see WHY it was the fannish catnip that it is. Anyway, I can also see the similarities between the two shows. :D It's a good comparison!

[sholio]

And also, I think part of it too ... claustrophobic codependence has never really been a button of mine. I think that's one of the reasons why I never fanned on Sentinel in a major way, because as much as I love friendship of all sorts, that type of relationship doesn't really do it for me in a strongly fannish way; it's usually ensemble shows that really hit my fan buttons.

... and I'm really not trying to put down the show or anything! I hope this didn't come across that way. I do get the impression that most people who fell hard for it fell in season two, so perhaps I'll feel differently when I get there. Or maybe this one just isn't going to be a fannish thing for me ... but I still like it!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, I didn't know you watched TS! That was my second major online fandom after X-files so it's got a special place in my heart. ^^

And yeah, that's part of it too, because as much as it turns you off, claustrophobic codependence is as you know a major button of mine, and Finch and Reese hit it hard! Sentinel actually could be played either way - a lot of the fandom liked to go that route but some of my favorite fic played up the Major Crimes team. POI does have the team element but it's very definitely arranged with partnership over team (given how the entire secret of what they're really doing is being kept from half of said team). So that might always frustrate you, while as for me it just delights my little gen OTPer heart, because I don't need slash to commit them to one another, but still get a variety of friendships as well...

That being said, really enjoyed both Carter and Fusco being in on it together in s2 - they're somewhat at odds still but they've often got a nice (friendly, non-codependent!) partnership vibe at points, with shared irritation and eyerolling at their "mutual friends" XD)

(Really, pair-bonded partnership within a team is one of my favorite combinations, as long as it's arranged such that no one gets jealous or love-triangly. The funny thing is that it doesn't always work this way - there are some series in which I actually get really annoyed with any one relationship being presented as more significant than another. A:TLA, for instance, would've driven me nuts if it had gone that way with any relationship (gen or ship). Or One Piece, in which I can read any pairing as long as it doesn't present as OTP. So I can totally understand why it would turn you off! But sometimes, depending on the set-up, I just find the partnership-within-a-team so~ delicious, and I'm not even sure why...)

[sholio]

Yep, I did watch! And I did like it a lot, although I rewatched season one a few years ago when it came out on DVD and aside from general nostalgia, I remember my main thought was, "... this show seemed a lot better a decade ago." *g*

But yeah, I know that sort of codependence is one of your major buttons, and I totally don't mean to be a squeekill here. I really hope I'm not affecting your squee high, and please tell me if you want me to back off.

I'm also not entirely sure WHAT makes me fall into fannish love with a show, partnership or pairing, honestly. My usual thing seems to be that I fall for ensemble shows, but I nearly always have a specific favorite relationship/partner-pairing within the ensemble that is really the fulcrum of my love for the show. (A:tLA is sort of unusual for me in that I fanned on it without really having a favorite pair, although possibly Aang + Zuko got me a leeeeetle more than everyone else ... but really I was in it for the ensemble to an even greater degree than normal. SPEAKING OF, I just picked up the new A:tLA tie-in comic today! Have not read it yet ...)

But yeah, as much as I can usually pinpoint specific features that are likely to cause me to fall in love with something, there's a certain ... fannish chemistry, I guess is the best way to put it. Some things that really ought to be fannish catnip for me aren't at all. And there are some things I never thought I'd fall for, that turned out to be major sources of fannish inspiration and squee. (Never in a million years would I have expected Dragonball Z to be one of my major fandoms ...) So, I can totally claim "Oh, I don't go for that kind of codependent relationship" ... but if someone dangles exactly the right one in front of me, I expect I'll be sucked down before I know what's happening to me.