![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the joy of subtext
Mar. 6th, 2009 06:51 pmI've been on an old skool kick of late, and have just for the first time discovered the joys* of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The thing about some of these old fan shows, they ran on subtext. Not the nudge-nudge wink-winking of Merlin, but the less deliberate stuff - and not just slash or UST, either. Most character elements are more inferred than stated. There are no clear backstories, just miscellaneous hints, supplied to move an episode along and forgotten afterward. Relationships - not only romance, but friendships or rivalries, or anything else - are strictly professional, because we never see the private relationships, or private sides of professional relationships - the characters are their jobs, and we almost never see them on downtime, never see them not working. Most character development is incidental, often accidental, an inadvertent byproduct of a plot twist or clever line.
It can be frustrating; it makes the characters less convincingly real people, more silver screen idols, icons rather than human beings. It's also fantastically fun, for a fangirl, because it allows for the subtext game, the careful close watching, gleaning for hints, ferreting out the little clues that describe these characters' true selves, describe what they really mean to one another.
( Don't get me wrong... )
* To wit, Illya Kuryakin. He is l'essence de fangirl bait in a tiny blond package of snark. He is fangirl bait before it was common knowledge that fangirls could be baited; he is perhaps the proto-bait, or one of the first. Spock, Daniel Jackson, Dean Winchester - they all have a bit of Illya in them. Rumor has it that David McCallum** received more fanmail than any other MGM actor, and watching four decades later, I have no question why.
** And yes, since you asked, as an NCIS fan, it is fantastically brainbreaking to be fanning on a much-younger Ducky. Not that I didn't love Ducky all along, but there's loving the cute little old ME, and then there's Illya. My fangirl heart, she twists and flails. Especially since David McCallum retains much of Illya's mannerisms and pretty much the exact same voice (once he dropped the light faux-Russian accent of season 1.***)
*** Whyyyy~ did he drop the accent? It was adorable!!
The thing about some of these old fan shows, they ran on subtext. Not the nudge-nudge wink-winking of Merlin, but the less deliberate stuff - and not just slash or UST, either. Most character elements are more inferred than stated. There are no clear backstories, just miscellaneous hints, supplied to move an episode along and forgotten afterward. Relationships - not only romance, but friendships or rivalries, or anything else - are strictly professional, because we never see the private relationships, or private sides of professional relationships - the characters are their jobs, and we almost never see them on downtime, never see them not working. Most character development is incidental, often accidental, an inadvertent byproduct of a plot twist or clever line.
It can be frustrating; it makes the characters less convincingly real people, more silver screen idols, icons rather than human beings. It's also fantastically fun, for a fangirl, because it allows for the subtext game, the careful close watching, gleaning for hints, ferreting out the little clues that describe these characters' true selves, describe what they really mean to one another.
( Don't get me wrong... )
* To wit, Illya Kuryakin. He is l'essence de fangirl bait in a tiny blond package of snark. He is fangirl bait before it was common knowledge that fangirls could be baited; he is perhaps the proto-bait, or one of the first. Spock, Daniel Jackson, Dean Winchester - they all have a bit of Illya in them. Rumor has it that David McCallum** received more fanmail than any other MGM actor, and watching four decades later, I have no question why.
** And yes, since you asked, as an NCIS fan, it is fantastically brainbreaking to be fanning on a much-younger Ducky. Not that I didn't love Ducky all along, but there's loving the cute little old ME, and then there's Illya. My fangirl heart, she twists and flails. Especially since David McCallum retains much of Illya's mannerisms and pretty much the exact same voice (once he dropped the light faux-Russian accent of season 1.***)
*** Whyyyy~ did he drop the accent? It was adorable!!
