eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Late again, mostly because WebKit has been sulking every time I ask a browser to do something useful. Go, WebKit! \o/

**

Day 11 - A show that disappointed you.

Oh, so many of them. Oh TV, why can't I quit you? I could mention BSG here, or Dark Angel, or Alias, or The Mentalist, or Lie to Me, or any of the Stargates, or FlashForward, or even, if you want to be nitpicky, all the shows I love, because they've all let me down in various ways too. (Like NCIS with its destructive humour, especially of the Mock-the-Geek variety, like Firefly with its erasure of people of colour in a future where everyone speaks Mandarin.)

But I think here I'll talk about White Collar, because it wasn't the deepest disappointment, but one of the most recent, and one that I can clearly articulate.

When I first heard about White Collar, I was interested by the premise, which played up Neal Caffrey's criminality and the Rat Pack retro theme running through the show. Fannishly, people were talking about it in the same breath as Leverage or Burn Notice, or even Ocean's Eleven. So I was expecting a sharp, bantery heist/caper show -- and what I got was, in fact, a buddy cop show, arguably of the Genius Wrangler variety. And I already have plenty of Buddy Cop shows and Genius Wrangler shows that interest me a lot more than White Collar does. And, to be honest, I don't have much interest in partnership-based shows where the partners are both middle-class white guys. It's not White Collar's fault that it wasn't what I wanted, but it was definitely the biggest letdown of the season for me.
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving.

MASH. When I was living with my last live-in boyfriend, MASH reruns were airing on weeknights before the news, and he insisted on having the TV on. (Bear in mind that I'd never seen MASH before as we were a largely TV-free household as I was growing up.) Despite the fact that I watch a lot of shows, I actually hate most TV, and I hate having the TV on; I hate ad breaks, and the way ads are louder than the shows, and I hate the mindless self-promotion of the commercial networks, and I can't stand having the TV on as background noise (which this particular boyfriend did all the time) and I was basically incredibly resistant to watching this stupid show.

And then, y'know, I saw a scene here and a scene there, and I gradually got sucked in, and - as so often happens when it comes to MASH - I fell in love with the characters and the show, and I basically loved everything about it. I haven't seen MASH in years, but I loved it then, and I keep meaning to watch it again - and all this for a show I was resolved to hate.
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
I think I was getting behind, so let's fix that!

Day 09 - Best scene ever.

Augh! I can't decide!

Thoughts behind the cut. )
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch.

Aha, now, see, my first response for this was "the news" because I do genuinely think everyone could stand to be more informed about the world around them -- but given the state of modern news reporting, and the blatant political biases of many major agencies, I don't feel I can say that without flinching.

So, instead, I'm going to say Media Watch, although this is specific for my Aussie readers. Media Watch , which has been running since 1989, is a short weekly program on the ABC (Australia's publicly-funded national broadcaster). It's basically a media watchdog, highlighting media biases and breaches of journalistic standards, in TV show format. Unsurprisingly, most of the major media outlets hate it. It's had a significant impact on Australian news media, and brought a few scandals to light, and it serves an extremely valuable purposes in (as an Australian politician used to say) 'keeping the bastards honest'.

It can also be extremely entertaining, as well as educational; I'm not as much of a fan of the current presenter, but Stuart Littlemore, the host for the first nine years, was one of the most biting, cynical, witty, entertaining presenters on television.

It's just a shame that other countries don't seem to have an equivalent.
eleanorjane: john crichton on a beach (john crichton)
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show.

Man, this one will be haaaard. I don't like focusing on things I don't like, y'know?

I think I'd have to say That Old Black Magic, episode 8 of season 1, in which the dark entity Maldis pits Crichton and Crais against each other for his own amusement.

I dislike it because... I have a hard time with people who refuse to be rational in important situations, which is Crais to a t in this episode. He's so dead-set on blaming Crichton for his brother's death that no amount of apology or explanation from Crichton will assuage his need for vengeance. I understand that people do behave like that, that people aren't all rational or sensible, but Crais's irrationality is so blatant here that I find the episode really uncomfortable to watch because the entire interaction between them is so frustrating to me.
eleanorjane: Chiana (call me pip)
I knew I missed a day. Although with my sleep patterns the way they perennially are, the concept of "day" is kind of academic at this point.

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show.

Given that we've already established that my favourite TV show is Farscape, that leaves me having to pick my favourite episode. Funnily enough, the episodes that first spring to mind are the ones that aren't my favourites - probably because that's a shorter list.

Okay, I can do this. *deep breath*

Farscape episodes. Well, I love Throne For A Loss, in which Crichton shows that he can get things done in spite of his genetic disadvantages - or, more likely, because of them. I love DNA Mad Scientist, where we start to see that these are real, flawed people - not noble heroes - and they will do some wrong shit when they think they're being nothing but reasonable. I love Durka Returns, when we meet Chiana for the first time, and Taking the Stone, when it's clear no-one really gets her.

...and I could go on, and on, and I don't need to because I've realised that there's one episode that stands above all the others for me: Die Me, Dichotomy. It is an absolute fucking masterpiece in the context of the rest of the season, and it's so beautifully heartbreaking. And what makes it, for me, is Aeryn; she's made herself so much more than what she was, and I fell in love with her the first time I saw it - through the tears - because she is so brave and strong and awesome.

**

You know, this whole meme could really be retitled, for me, Thirty Days of Elle Winding Up Talking About Farscape Every Day. I'm going to have to rewatch the series now. :)
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Hmm, I had this nagging feeling I'd missed a day - maybe I have. Oh, timezones, how I hate you.

Day 05 - A show you hate.

This one is actually harder than I expected because I generally approach media positively, wanting to be entertained, and even when something's not my cup of tea I don't hate it - I just don't want to have to see it.

I do, however, pretty much hate most sitcoms, because they generally rely on perpetrating tired stereotypes that I find dismissive and actively hurtful.

My first thought, though, was Big Brother (specifically the Australian variety, because I haven't seen the other flavours). It was alright in its first season, when it was just a dozen people jammed into a house together for three months. That was interesting, in a sociology-experiment kind of way. These days, though, it's all cheap gimmicks and fake drama and the most annoying television coverage known to mankind.

However, I hate the Biggest Loser more, now I think about it, because it's all cheap gimmicks and fake drama and it's actively damaging, given the likely health impact of all the ridiculous dieting and high-impact exercise, plus the amount of implicit fat-hatred and body normativity and oh look, I guess there are TV shows I do hate after all. (Man, that was a run-on sentence and a half.)
eleanorjane: john crichton on a beach (john crichton)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever.

I didn't really get heavily into TV-watching as a teen; we watched very little TV in our household, and there was some amount of parental disappointment (in a genteel sort of way) if I wanted to watch commercial television. And then I lived on campus at university which was a chaotic lifestyle with zero chance of keeping up with anything regularly.

Once I moved off campus I started watching more TV, more regularly, and I fell in love with various shows. I loved the first season of Dark Angel, and then Alias grabbed me when Dark Angel let me down in the second season. And then there was Farscape, and that's all she wrote. I've since managed to identify the features that interest me in a show, and Farscape has pretty much all of them in spades - banter, characterisation, drama and humour. It wasn't perfect; nothing ever is. But when it was good, it was glorious.
eleanorjane: Sam and G on a beach (beach)
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)

At the start of the season, I was totally expecting the answer to this to be White Collar. Shenanigans! Capers! Natalie Morales!

But they badly underused Natalie Morales, and in the end it turned out not to be a caper show but basically a buddy cop show about two characters I couldn't bring myself to care much about. Which is a shame.

So, I'm going to say NCIS: Los Angeles. I think it's deeply flawed in some areas (for instance, its Serious Emotional Plot Arc episodes are just laden with offputting Srs Emo Manpain because it's trying to follow the NCIS model with less-good actors and characters we care less about), but when it sets aside the Srs Emo Manpain Plot Arcs, the ordinary weekly procedural episodes are really quite enjoyable, and I'm hoping for more of them next season.

*

In other news, it's 2am and I should be going to bed, but I'm hungry, so I'm going to make myself a bowl of pasta and sit and play with the new David Mitchell's SoapBox iPad app.
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching

I don't actually have an obvious answer for this. Most of the stuff that I really love at the moment tends to be fairly mainstream and popular; it's not so obscure that I think "oh, people would love this if they only knew about it". (My current dedicated TV-watching roster is: NCIS, Castle, Burn Notice, and QI, plus I'm less dedicated about but still interested in NCIS:LA (though I fast-forward through the Emo Manpain episodes), Bones, Dr Who, Spicks and Specks, and Leverage.)

If this was last year, I'd say The Middleman, to try and save it from cancellation - but it's too late now. So I think I'll say Castle, just to keep it safe, since it's the one in most danger.

---

Right, that's that done, now back to wrestling with WordPress templates for my new blog.
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceled

This is tricky. My first response was "Firefly!" but thinking about it, I generally like Whedon shows less once he's got stuck into ruining everyone's lives, whereas the half-season we got wasn't perfect, but was damn awesome.

Then I thought "Futurama!" but hey, they're bringing that back. (Soon, soon!) So they're off the hook for that one.

Then I realised: Farscape, where they'd planned just one more season and the plug got pulled at the last minute. Oh, lost fifth season, how tragic and awesome you would have been.

The other days... )
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Poll #2508 Rewatching!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7


I should watch/rewatch:

View Answers

Burn Notice S1&2
2 (33.3%)

Farscape in its entirety
1 (16.7%)

Star Trek TNG
0 (0.0%)

Star Trek DS9
2 (33.3%)

Star Trek VOY
0 (0.0%)

Something else entirely! (See comments!)
1 (16.7%)

Is this a tickybox?

View Answers

TICKYBOX!
6 (100.0%)



(Also, apologies for the absence/radio silence. I've been kind of down-in-the-dumps lately, unposty and uncreative.)
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
I've been blocked on my current vid-in-progress for ages - I open up FCP and stare blankly at the screen and move clips around pointlessly, and make exactly zero progress - so finally today I threw up my hands in despair, put that project aside, and started something fresh. And I love it, and I have ideas, and I'm having fun and eager to work on it...

...and I have a laundry list of stuff I have to do and no time to vid!

***

In other news, I've started sampling some new shows. First off the block: Psych. After the pilot, I say winner!
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Feed me more TV, that is!

I've run out of stuff to watch, and I'm looking for more shows to glom up. Shows that aren't currently airing are also fine.

Things I Like

* Humour (especially good dialogue. I am a sucker for banter.)
* Genre shows, sci-fi, fantasy, procedurals, mysteries, crime shows, et cetera.

(I should clarify that "Humour" is pretty much a requirement. With the exception of Star Trek, I cannot love a show that doesn't make me laugh, no matter how good it may otherwise be.)

Things I Do Not Like

* Sexism, ableism and racism
* Using the gender divide or modern relationship stereotypes (eg sitcoms where the men lie to their wives and the women are shrewish nags)
* Shows that resort to cheap stereotypes for their humour (eg Mock The Geek)
* Embarrassment humour

TV Shows I Particularly Like (some of which fail some of the above criteria, of course, because nothing's perfect)

* Farscape
* Futurama
* QI
* Star Trek: TNG, VOY and ENT (I've only seen a bit of DS9; I like what I've seen, but I don't know enough to assert either way)
* NCIS
* Castle
* Leverage
* Burn Notice
* Chuck

Various TV Shows I've Tried So You Don't Need To Rec Them

* White Collar
* The Stargate serieses
* BSG
* The Mentalist
* Lie to Me
* NCIS:LA

Suggestions gratefully accepted!
eleanorjane: The one, the only, Harley Quinn. (Default)
Swiped from [personal profile] musesfool again.

That TV meme that's making the rounds )

My Fandoms

May. 11th, 2009 10:38 pm
eleanorjane: Benton Fraser - talk to the hand. (hand)
I saw [personal profile] damned_colonial posted a list of her fandoms, broken up into category; she wasn't necessarily trying to start a meme, but I've been thinking about fandoms and what I read and what I participate in, so replicating the effort seemed worthwhile. Category titles are mostly ganked from [personal profile] damned_colonial. :)

The ones I'm active in by which I mean that I belong to communities, create fanworks, participate in activities, etc:

* Leverage
* Kormanverse
* Edited to add: Star Trek XI!
* [your ad here!]

(A lot of the time, this means "thinking about participating", because I'm the biggest non-starter ever, sadly. I get all enthused about an idea and then I just don't follow through, out of fear or writer's block or whatever.)

And that last entry - I'm kind of looking for a new fandom, TBH. :)

The ones where I'm a fannish consumer meaning that I read fic in these fandoms, read people's posts about them, follow the fandom to some extent, but don't really create stuff of my own:

* Pirates of the Caribbean (Sparrow/Norrington, particularly)
* Due South (Fraser/RayK)
* Stargate: Atlantis (McKay/Sheppard, mostly, and gen)
* Iron Man
* Harry Potter (of all flavours, though I prefer Potter-era to Marauder-era)

The ones that I'd read in if there were fic but there's usually only fic at Yuletide:

* Just about anything where I'm familiar enough with the canon to follow the fic

The ones I watch/read enough to have a fannish discussion about them, or follow other people's fannish discussions, might follow fic recs but don't read regularly, and don't actively seek out fannish works or communities:

* Avatar
* Burn Notice
* Castle
* Chuck
* Dark Angel
* Dollhouse
* (New) Dr Who & Torchwood
* Firefly
* House
* Narnia
* NCIS
* Farscape (which is my favourite TV show of all time, but it satisfied me so much I don't really need fic)
* Red Dwarf
* Star Trek TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT
* Star Wars
* X-Men Movieverse (though X3 does not exist, as far as I'm concerned) and other comic -> movie adaptations

The ones I don't want to see/read more than I already have, but where I know enough about the rest of the canon to read and enjoy some fanworks:

* Alias
* Buffyverse
* Battlestar Galactica
* Gossip Girl
* Heroes (I loved Season 1, and then it went downhill)
* Supernatural

...okay, I'm sure I've forgotten some, but I can't think of any.

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