Entry tags:
looking for new mental real estate
I've been saying for a while that I'm in a very unfannish part of my life, and this is sort of true, in that I don't have A Fandom. I have all my old friends and family in my life -- the well-worn DVDs of Firefly and Due South and Veronica Mars that I kick in whenever I want something to futz around the apartment by that I know won't let me down. Even higher (lower?) on the comfort-food scale, I have the sitcoms that are my go-to entertainment; even though I can't really see what the point would be of sitcom "fannishness," per se, the two shows I most look forward to nowadays are The Office and How I Met Your Mother, which timeshare with endless Scrubs and Simpsons reruns and my occasional front-to-back Sports Night binge. If I'm really feeling ambitious, I'll dig up some Buffy or Homicide or X-Files or occasionally the early seasons of The West Wing -- something harrowing and lovely. And it's probably some pop-adjacent part of my brain that makes me actually care what happens on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance (and most seasons of Dancing With the Stars, but man, does this season suck or what? If it weren't for Jewel's cowboy husband and the adorable Chelsea, I probably would be ignoring it completely, instead of just falling weeks behind on the DVRs.)
But there's nothing really going on *now* for me, except for so much wheel-spinning. I'm actively following a grand total of TWO scripted dramas right now, having bailed on CSI now that half the original cast is gone. One of them is Supernatural, which I've enjoyed in the past mostly for the trainwreck quality, but I actually find myself kind of liking this season, even though it feels like they've had to stretch a ten-episode plotline into a twenty-episode season. The pacing is all fucked up, with endless grand revelations that leave me going, "Didn't we already have that one a few weeks ago?" But it's a show that's hit its stride as a cult hit of sorts, and you can sort of tell that now everyone is just like, Fuck it, let's have some pie! So it's sort of careening along giddily, smacking into walls and sometimes being quite clever and generally making an exuberant, creative doofus of itself. It's like a puppy. I don't know if I think Supernatural is a *good* show, but it does keep doing things I didn't know it would do, and Jesus Christ, after having watched a fuckton of tv in my life, I'm in a position to realize how nice that is for once.
I'm also watching Dollhouse, I mean, of *course.* Hi. And I have basically nothing but good things to say about Dollhouse -- except maybe the issue that drove me out of BSG after one season, which is that it's so unrelentingly bleak that at times, even as I admire the artistry of it, it just feels like self-flagellation to sit down and watch it. Fortunately, I seriously doubt Dollhouse will go beyond one season. It shouldn't. It's the kind of story that I think benefits enormously from that British style of closed "series," where it takes its time and tells one good story. Assuming the season wraps well, which I expect it to at this rate, I feel like it will have done what it was put on Earth to do, and I don't know that anyone will really be served by doing it all over again next year (well, except the people it employs, I guess).
So there's those two shows, and I look forward to them and all that, but I don't consider myself "fannish" about them; I'm certainly in no kind of contact with a fandom of any sort. Basically my rule is this: if I'm going to be A Fan of a show, it has to have A) an ensemble cast that I understand and basically like, and 2) a universe that I like playing around in. I will sometimes accept special pleading on A, going so far as to define "ensemble" as two people, but 2 is non-negotiable, and it's really the lack of Thing Two that I'm feeling at the moment. SPN and Dollhouse entertain me, and I love them for that, but who the hell would want to live there? Even those characters don't want to live there. Hell, I barely want to live in *my* reality after I've watched some of the bleaker episodes of those shows.
Anything on the horizon for me? Hm. I remain inexplicably stoked about Caprica, even though as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marythefan points out, it also fails my "not being so bleak as to make me contemplate suicide once a week" test -- at least, unless you manage to block out what the future holds for the entire civilization. I remain EVEN MORE INEXPLICABLY stoked about Stargate Universe, even though I know perfectly well that everyone who was too stupid not to run SGA into the ground is still on the staff, and I doubt they've gotten any smarter since they decided they wanted to try their hands at some of this cool, credibility-granting BSG "human drama" crap. I figure I can probably wring the better part of a season's worth of honeymoon out of that show before I just give up and admit that the showrunners are all still incompetent tools.
There's also the very slight possibility that my fannish existence could cycle back around to its beginning this summer, and that the nerdy Star Trek-loving child that my nerdy, Star Trek-loving family nurtured up from a mere hatchling could burst into glorious phoenix fire and give birth to an actual Star Trek fan once more. Maybe this time, with gay sex! Because seriously, even after I was initiated into the Ways of Our People -- guys, I'm *not* going to read or write anything that makes me picture Shatner naked. I love and respect my fannish foremothers, but nyet. Chris Pine, though? Mmmmaybe. Maybe.
But there's nothing really going on *now* for me, except for so much wheel-spinning. I'm actively following a grand total of TWO scripted dramas right now, having bailed on CSI now that half the original cast is gone. One of them is Supernatural, which I've enjoyed in the past mostly for the trainwreck quality, but I actually find myself kind of liking this season, even though it feels like they've had to stretch a ten-episode plotline into a twenty-episode season. The pacing is all fucked up, with endless grand revelations that leave me going, "Didn't we already have that one a few weeks ago?" But it's a show that's hit its stride as a cult hit of sorts, and you can sort of tell that now everyone is just like, Fuck it, let's have some pie! So it's sort of careening along giddily, smacking into walls and sometimes being quite clever and generally making an exuberant, creative doofus of itself. It's like a puppy. I don't know if I think Supernatural is a *good* show, but it does keep doing things I didn't know it would do, and Jesus Christ, after having watched a fuckton of tv in my life, I'm in a position to realize how nice that is for once.
I'm also watching Dollhouse, I mean, of *course.* Hi. And I have basically nothing but good things to say about Dollhouse -- except maybe the issue that drove me out of BSG after one season, which is that it's so unrelentingly bleak that at times, even as I admire the artistry of it, it just feels like self-flagellation to sit down and watch it. Fortunately, I seriously doubt Dollhouse will go beyond one season. It shouldn't. It's the kind of story that I think benefits enormously from that British style of closed "series," where it takes its time and tells one good story. Assuming the season wraps well, which I expect it to at this rate, I feel like it will have done what it was put on Earth to do, and I don't know that anyone will really be served by doing it all over again next year (well, except the people it employs, I guess).
So there's those two shows, and I look forward to them and all that, but I don't consider myself "fannish" about them; I'm certainly in no kind of contact with a fandom of any sort. Basically my rule is this: if I'm going to be A Fan of a show, it has to have A) an ensemble cast that I understand and basically like, and 2) a universe that I like playing around in. I will sometimes accept special pleading on A, going so far as to define "ensemble" as two people, but 2 is non-negotiable, and it's really the lack of Thing Two that I'm feeling at the moment. SPN and Dollhouse entertain me, and I love them for that, but who the hell would want to live there? Even those characters don't want to live there. Hell, I barely want to live in *my* reality after I've watched some of the bleaker episodes of those shows.
Anything on the horizon for me? Hm. I remain inexplicably stoked about Caprica, even though as
marythefan points out, it also fails my "not being so bleak as to make me contemplate suicide once a week" test -- at least, unless you manage to block out what the future holds for the entire civilization. I remain EVEN MORE INEXPLICABLY stoked about Stargate Universe, even though I know perfectly well that everyone who was too stupid not to run SGA into the ground is still on the staff, and I doubt they've gotten any smarter since they decided they wanted to try their hands at some of this cool, credibility-granting BSG "human drama" crap. I figure I can probably wring the better part of a season's worth of honeymoon out of that show before I just give up and admit that the showrunners are all still incompetent tools.There's also the very slight possibility that my fannish existence could cycle back around to its beginning this summer, and that the nerdy Star Trek-loving child that my nerdy, Star Trek-loving family nurtured up from a mere hatchling could burst into glorious phoenix fire and give birth to an actual Star Trek fan once more. Maybe this time, with gay sex! Because seriously, even after I was initiated into the Ways of Our People -- guys, I'm *not* going to read or write anything that makes me picture Shatner naked. I love and respect my fannish foremothers, but nyet. Chris Pine, though? Mmmmaybe. Maybe.
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Crap, I don't have a Leverage icon to pimp with yet.
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I'm kind of in the same place as you with the fannishness. I'm really enjoying Kings, though it looks like they're canceling it. I've been enjoying Dollhouse a lot, and I still watch Heroes and Lost, but I haven't gotten fannish about any of them like I was with SGA. I suppose I'll check out SGU, though I feel kinda slimy about it after the way they dropped SGA.
I think the show I'm enjoying the most recently, and the one I think has the most fannish potential, is Southland. I've you haven't checked it out yet, the first 3 episodes are on Hulu. I highly recommend it. The characters are interesting and well-written, and the acting is top notch. It's one of the few things I really hope people will start writing a lot of great fic for.
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