Some RL whining and some teevee thoughts
Jan. 13th, 2011 05:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishtar79I'm beyond ready to be done with my MBA. I've actually been doing surprisingly well at it, which is a bit depressing considering I've always found anything business and finance-related incredibly dull and was a Humanities girl at heart. Turns out, you don't need to enjoy something to be good at it. Huh.
Still, constantly working under a deadline for some paper or the other (if I never see accounting details in my life again, I'll be ecstatically happy), I haven't had much motivation to read a book, or really keep up with fandom and my flist.
Instead, I've been watching a whole bunch of shows:
-Homicide: Life on the streets Ever since watching the sheer perfection that is The Wire, this has been on my To Watch list. And it's just...brilliant. Much more of a cop show than The Wire, but at the same time, the very antithesis of a cop show. I can see why it wasn't hugely successful: like The Wire, it takes a while to get hooked on and requires one's full attention (respecting the viewer's intelligence and avoiding exposition/pointing out the obvious). The conversations sound like the type real people have, alternating between mundane, bleak and hilarious, but never sounding like scripted dialogue. And the characters...I could write an ode to John Munch, whose inferior SVU version I was already familiar with, but who only really shines on this show. And dude, where the hell are my Bayliss/Pembleton fics? The slashiness is epic...like, early Smallville-level slashiness, and both characters and fascinating, complex and, you know, HAWT. So WTF, fandom? I have a theory about this very obvious pairing doesn't have a huge following, and it it features the words “worship”, “white” and “cock”.
-The Good Wife I don't know how it happened, but a show involving lawyers, people's marriages and politics is suddenly my favourite show on air, as none of those things are exactly relevant to my interests. But the writing and cast are so stellar, I've been utterly converted. And the wealth of female characters is amazing: Alicia is complicated, flawed and possesses and almost preternatural poise, Diane can CUT you with her words, and Kalinda is just too awesome for words. If only more genre shows had that many female characters! Who interact with each other! And have conversations that are rarely about men!
-Misfits I watched it and liked it well enough last season, but this season took it to a whole other level. I'm shipping Simon/Alisha so hard, it's a bit embarrassing. I can only hope there's no potentially cringe-worthy US remake in the works (unlike that impending Being Human disaster). My only complaint is...SIX episodes? And we have to wait a year after that season finale? Clearly I do not having the patience for watching TV in real time.
Still, constantly working under a deadline for some paper or the other (if I never see accounting details in my life again, I'll be ecstatically happy), I haven't had much motivation to read a book, or really keep up with fandom and my flist.
Instead, I've been watching a whole bunch of shows:
-Homicide: Life on the streets Ever since watching the sheer perfection that is The Wire, this has been on my To Watch list. And it's just...brilliant. Much more of a cop show than The Wire, but at the same time, the very antithesis of a cop show. I can see why it wasn't hugely successful: like The Wire, it takes a while to get hooked on and requires one's full attention (respecting the viewer's intelligence and avoiding exposition/pointing out the obvious). The conversations sound like the type real people have, alternating between mundane, bleak and hilarious, but never sounding like scripted dialogue. And the characters...I could write an ode to John Munch, whose inferior SVU version I was already familiar with, but who only really shines on this show. And dude, where the hell are my Bayliss/Pembleton fics? The slashiness is epic...like, early Smallville-level slashiness, and both characters and fascinating, complex and, you know, HAWT. So WTF, fandom? I have a theory about this very obvious pairing doesn't have a huge following, and it it features the words “worship”, “white” and “cock”.
-The Good Wife I don't know how it happened, but a show involving lawyers, people's marriages and politics is suddenly my favourite show on air, as none of those things are exactly relevant to my interests. But the writing and cast are so stellar, I've been utterly converted. And the wealth of female characters is amazing: Alicia is complicated, flawed and possesses and almost preternatural poise, Diane can CUT you with her words, and Kalinda is just too awesome for words. If only more genre shows had that many female characters! Who interact with each other! And have conversations that are rarely about men!
-Misfits I watched it and liked it well enough last season, but this season took it to a whole other level. I'm shipping Simon/Alisha so hard, it's a bit embarrassing. I can only hope there's no potentially cringe-worthy US remake in the works (unlike that impending Being Human disaster). My only complaint is...SIX episodes? And we have to wait a year after that season finale? Clearly I do not having the patience for watching TV in real time.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 02:51 pm (UTC)Homicide actually had a really active fandom while it was on, and Bayliss/Pembleton was a HUGE pairing. Unfortunately, the fandom was mostly on Usenet, which means a lot of the fics are lost to time. :\ The Yuletide archive does have some good ones, though!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 03:35 pm (UTC)And, OMG, Homicide: Life on the Streets is definitely right up there with The Wire (I personally give the very slightest edge to Homicide). I watched Homicide when it originally aired, back in the 90s and I recently re-watched it via Netflix. It's also the only show I've ever seen that has a character with my maiden name (Bolander, although in my case it's spelled Bohlander). Melissa Leo and Andre Braugher are just brilliant in Homicide, as is Kyle Secor. Love, love, LOVE this show. The Adena Watson story arc is probably my fav of the series (you may not be there yet). So glad you are enjoying it! :D
no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 10:35 pm (UTC)I don't know whether I would have managed to get into Homicide as much as I did had I not watched the Wire before-more specifically, whether I would have given up after a few episodes, because a lot of aspects of it (the grainy film, the slower pace) are harder to get hooked on than most shows. The Wire had higher production values, but the same type of slow, atypical for TV storytelling, so I stuck with Homicide knowing that the payoff would be worth it.
I've seen the Adena Watson storyline in S1, but I know she's a recurring theme of the series. I thought it was a very gutsy move to keep the case unsolved (like the RL murder it was based it).
no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 11:01 pm (UTC)Andre Braugher is amazing and deserved that Emmy he won for the show.
Congratulations!
Date: 2011-01-13 10:43 pm (UTC)Recommendations:
books: The Hunger Games is the latest big new thing which I really love.
TV: of course I loved Dexter, Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, and I just saw the pilot of The Cape which I thought looked really good.
movies: I finally made it to The King's Speech which has an amazing cast (although I have trouble seeing Wormtail as Churchill) and I wish it was a series because I totally loved it.
Re: Congratulations!
Date: 2011-01-13 11:52 pm (UTC)Thanks for the recommendations, I'll try to check some of those out.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 04:55 pm (UTC)You friended me like 5 minutes ago and I was just chatting to me sister about your comment re: H:LoTS. She was in the fandom and so she provided me with some fic links for Frank 'n Tim, if you were interested in reading some really old school fic!
Apparently these are best read post Season 6? So hopefully once you get that far, you'll have something fandomy to chew on!
http://web.archive.org/web/20010301231653/schism.tktv.net/stories/grandopn.html
http://web.archive.org/web/19991118222049/http://schism.tktv.net/stories/lifeside.html
http://web.archive.org/web/19991118222049/http://schism.tktv.net/stories/shadself.html
no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 05:38 pm (UTC)And thanks for the add back. I've been meaning to add you for ages because I always see your posts and art linked around lj, but only just worked up the courage. :)