The Lost Heir Job

[eleanorjane]

Boo for hiatuses; I hate the American TV system and its bizarre "woo, a TV show's just gotten really rolling? let's pull it off air for four months!" ways.

I liked Jeri Ryan's role a lot. I'd been spoilt for the fact that she was a Sophie-replacement already, so I was kind of watching for it from the start, and I thought the setup was nicely clever - the initial interview, where she's playing 'the other side's ally' to both sides, was really well framed. I'm not sure about her actual character (as opposed to the faux-lawyer she was introduced as); she seemed a trifle abrasive in her last scene. It's a shame this came just before the hiatus, because it would have been nice to roll right into her operating as part of the team next week, whereas with the break I think it'll seem weirder when we do get back to it.

I like the references to Sophie, too, both the scene with her at the start, and the callbacks to her throughout the episode. Continuity ftw. (Presumably this means that unlike last season they're actually showing these episodes in the correct order, too.)

One of the things I've always liked about Leverage is the fact that they give enough clues to guess the twist if you're really on the ball. Tonight was a good example of that - reference to the client being colorblind at the start, and reference to Gigi being colorblind during one of Hardison's expositions, and colorblindness being fairly rare in women, et cetera. One doesn't always pick up the clues on first watching, since Leverage is a pretty data-dense show, but I like the fact that they're there.

Disappointments: kinda low on the banter quotient, TBH. I've loved the team-bonding bits of this season in particular (favourite so far has to be Eliot and Hardison teasing Parker about conspiracy theories) and this ep didn't seem to feature much like that. Too much A-plot! ;-)

And now, something else I like: John Rogers (the Leverage showrunner) is pretty benevolent about fanworks.

From this post, in response to a pretty hostile question about fanfic:

1.) I think fanfic is the sign of a healthy show. Here's what it boils down to: you're telling me that in today's crowded media space, our show made someone love it so much they take time out of their own life to talk about it? Holy. Crap.

To be fair, I have a somewhat different attitude toward media/fans than most people. I think what TV/corporate media had wrong for a long time was how they understood the idea of a "water cooler show." They saw it as making the audience talk about their show, on their terms. So any fan-created media is them losing control of their material. I see this more as the natural evolution of culture in a shared digital age. I will be blunt -- other than the satisfaction of our own creative urges (and all that entails: the quest for perfection, artistry, craft, etc), our job in media is to give you stuff to talk about in your conversations, to integrate into your social circle in whatever way you see fit. I doubt that's TNT's official stance, btw, but they are much cooler about this stuff than most companies.

2.) As far as "borrowing" our characters -- to paraphrase Alan Moore, they didn't go anywhere. There they are, sitting right up on the shelf. Waiting for us to let them loose again. Besides, how many people read a fanfic story? A couple hundred, tops? We have, on average 3.5 million viewers, well into the 4 million range when you get the DVR numbers in. I just don't see someone taking control of our Ideaspace through sheer force of Slashfic.

Sure, a lot of fanfic is crap. Of course it's crap. It's written by people who are not professional writers. If I paint, what I paint is crap. Does that mean I should give up painting and displaying stuff in my neighborhood art show?

3.) Is fanfic flattery? Again, depends on how you define flattery. If someone's writing fanfic with intention of currying favor for some ... er, frankly unguessable benefit, then they're really engaged in an exercise in futility. If you mean flattery as in: it's flattering to think someone is so entertained by our work that it inspires them to talk about it and create around it, then aces.

4.) Most writers and actors don't feel this way. Some, including writers I both like personally and greatly admire, hate the idea of fanfic.

Look, end of day, you should always be trying to create your own material. But fanfic, etc, is a different process than original creation -- which I think is the source of a lot of the controversy.

People who do original creations assume the fan is taking some sort of unearned ownership, somehow implying their act is the same/as difficult as the original act of creation. Which, of course, tees them off (doesn't tee me off, but I'm a very relaxed and often drunk guy).

And some fanfic humans are under the impression that creating fanfic is the same creative process as creating original material -- and are sometimes frustrated that they're not accorded the same respect as the original creators. That's also wrong. Fanfic to me is spiritually much closer to the fan-created music videos.

The basic rule I follow here is one I learned in stand-up comedy: Always punch UP. I am a relatively successful typing human whose words are physically produced using millions of dollars and is distributed nationally by a massive billion dollar corporation to millions of people. Exactly how is a free web page with a 1000 word story about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of Elves hurting my brand, exactly?

Tell you what -- if some fanfic writer is so good they manage to amass a million-person audience with their web-distributed free stories using my characters, I am going to consider that evolution in action and hire that bastard. Or, at the very least, urge them to go create their own show. But odds are it ain't gonna happen. And that's okay. We write for different reasons.

Also, now I want to read about Eliot and Hardison fighting a trans-dimensional incursion of elves.

Comments

[ceri]

The Menzoberranzan Job? I may have to try that.

[eleanorjane]

Your ideas, ma'am, are intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

(I am giggling with glee at the thought. Hardison being all "Okay, seriously, this cannot be happening." and Eliot being absolutely positive that this is somehow Hardison's fault.)

[ceri]

Hee hee. *plots*