Precious Simon and fic issues.
So today I finally got to see Simon's other CHiPs episode! He was adorable! **cuddles him.** However, I do take issue with the episode. As mostly quoted from emails earlier tonight:
He ran a car alarm company and was bewildered because the cars he set up with alarms kept apparently being stolen and then reappearing in random places around the city. His college age daughter wanted to help him in the business and he didn't want her fiddling around under car hoods. In the end, it turns out that she was the one disabling the alarms and driving the cars off so they'd seem to be stolen, all to try to get his attention! Ugh! What's really disgusting about it is that his reputation was being ruined over it, and she didn't care and kept on selfishly doing what she was doing until she tried it on Ponch's car and he caught her. Simon was much too forgiving and adorable under the circumstances. It looked like she was going to get what she wanted. After ruining her father's reputation, she should have to pay in a legitimate way before it would even be a consideration! She didn't even say she was sorry!
Hopefully some action would be taken, even though it wasn't shown onscreen. Even if Ponch didn't press charges over his car, some of the other people might have. She even did it to the mayor's car! I can't believe her utter immaturity. Simon was adorable, but that was one time I really would have liked to see him go into full-blown yelling, chewing-out mode. I would have rooted for him all the way. His daughter really didn't deserve to get what she wanted after being so nasty.
Simon's character didn't want her dealing with the cars, but he wasn't really harsh about it like some of his characters might have been. Yet Ponch acted like he was being so awful, and when he revealed the girl's crummy actions, it seemed like he and Jon behaved as though they were on the girl's side. Not that they agreed with what she did, but they felt the father really needed to listen to her side. Which he did, true, but they should have warned her that what she did was really wrong and even criminal. Usually characters never get off scot-free on the show, so I'll keep figuring justice was done, but I'll always wish there had been some onscreen mention of it.
Honestly, I don't think this show writes female characters very well most of the time. I don't care much for Bonnie; she can really be a she-dog when she wants to be. (Although maybe that just started happening later on; I thought she was nicer in earlier seasons.) I did like Robbie the truck driver, though. And I usually like Sindy, although I was disappointed with her when she wanted to be "one of the guys" so much that she even joined in teasing a sensitive character (Grossman) way too long until he really felt hurt over it and then she shrugged it off when he felt bad, as though that was it and there was nothing she could do about it. Ponch really felt awful when he realized they'd taken the teasing too far, and he wanted to do something to try to help Grossman feel better, but that angle didn't really get developed. (Grossman did, however, get to be heroic in the climax and then kids were coming up to him wanting his autograph. Aww.)
I was a little surprised when someone recently proclaimed they hated CHiPs, and I've been pondering what could be the reason for that, especially since they like the somewhat similar Jack Webb shows of the 1970s. My guesses would be: 1, CHiPs is funnier than the Jack Webb shows. 2, CHiPs kind of sensationalizes huge car accidents and shows really horrifying things, like cars tearing through trucks as they fly through the air. (This wasn't done so much earlier, but became a staple later.) 3, They don't seem to be able to write very likable female characters much of the time.
I think CHiPs was better in the earlier seasons, like 1-3. I haven't always liked some of the goings-on in the later episodes. And season 6 sounds preposterous on so many levels. We not only lost three key cast members, but they started doing dumb plots like people believing that there were aliens or other monsters afoot, and it really looking like there were, before everything was resolved. CHiPs is a more realistic show aside from the sensationalized car crashes, so I don't think I'd care for season 6 very much.
And I'm wondering what to do with my Maverick fic. I'm to the point now where I think the main conflicts have been worked out as much as I'm going to let them be at this point, so I was going to write the epilogue and have Bart recovered enough that they're leaving, but there's also the fact that Bart being injured set up the whole plot. He's still injured and I suppose I could extend the story with a chapter of two of him trying to recover and focusing more on that. Maybe it wouldn't even look like the story was properly paced if I didn't.
One problem is, I don't really like detailing recoveries in every particular. My WWW RP partner lives for that part of the hurt/comfort, but I get bored by it if it goes on very long. (I prefer the angst of the hurt and the squee of the initial beginning to recover.) Detailing every instance of trying to stand again after being in bed for so long, or every changing of the dressing, etc.... I can think of at least two multi-chapter fics that remain unfinished because I couldn't figure out how to keep detailing everything like that and not be retreading old ground. I wonder if I should do one scene of each, though.
The other thing is, however, the hurt/comfort was kind of a secondary plot point. The main thing seems to have ended up being meeting Snakes and how the Mavericks deal with this, including the feelings Beau has of not really belonging in the family. It was also supposed to explore Bart and Beau's relationship and I've done a lot of that through their conversations and Beau being protective and Bart worrying about Beau. I'm just not sure if suddenly focusing more on the hurt/comfort would make sense.
I always read through the whole story before I post an epilogue, but with these confused feelings, I don't even know whether to finish my epilogue yet. Maybe I could have some brief hurt/comforty flashbacks in the epilogue to Bart's recovery scenes. I could probably do that without breaking the flow of narration and it might be better than devoting a whole chapter to it. On the other hand, maybe it wouldn't.
I guess the only thing I can do is read through everything as it stands right now and then decide what direction to take.
He ran a car alarm company and was bewildered because the cars he set up with alarms kept apparently being stolen and then reappearing in random places around the city. His college age daughter wanted to help him in the business and he didn't want her fiddling around under car hoods. In the end, it turns out that she was the one disabling the alarms and driving the cars off so they'd seem to be stolen, all to try to get his attention! Ugh! What's really disgusting about it is that his reputation was being ruined over it, and she didn't care and kept on selfishly doing what she was doing until she tried it on Ponch's car and he caught her. Simon was much too forgiving and adorable under the circumstances. It looked like she was going to get what she wanted. After ruining her father's reputation, she should have to pay in a legitimate way before it would even be a consideration! She didn't even say she was sorry!
Hopefully some action would be taken, even though it wasn't shown onscreen. Even if Ponch didn't press charges over his car, some of the other people might have. She even did it to the mayor's car! I can't believe her utter immaturity. Simon was adorable, but that was one time I really would have liked to see him go into full-blown yelling, chewing-out mode. I would have rooted for him all the way. His daughter really didn't deserve to get what she wanted after being so nasty.
Simon's character didn't want her dealing with the cars, but he wasn't really harsh about it like some of his characters might have been. Yet Ponch acted like he was being so awful, and when he revealed the girl's crummy actions, it seemed like he and Jon behaved as though they were on the girl's side. Not that they agreed with what she did, but they felt the father really needed to listen to her side. Which he did, true, but they should have warned her that what she did was really wrong and even criminal. Usually characters never get off scot-free on the show, so I'll keep figuring justice was done, but I'll always wish there had been some onscreen mention of it.
Honestly, I don't think this show writes female characters very well most of the time. I don't care much for Bonnie; she can really be a she-dog when she wants to be. (Although maybe that just started happening later on; I thought she was nicer in earlier seasons.) I did like Robbie the truck driver, though. And I usually like Sindy, although I was disappointed with her when she wanted to be "one of the guys" so much that she even joined in teasing a sensitive character (Grossman) way too long until he really felt hurt over it and then she shrugged it off when he felt bad, as though that was it and there was nothing she could do about it. Ponch really felt awful when he realized they'd taken the teasing too far, and he wanted to do something to try to help Grossman feel better, but that angle didn't really get developed. (Grossman did, however, get to be heroic in the climax and then kids were coming up to him wanting his autograph. Aww.)
I was a little surprised when someone recently proclaimed they hated CHiPs, and I've been pondering what could be the reason for that, especially since they like the somewhat similar Jack Webb shows of the 1970s. My guesses would be: 1, CHiPs is funnier than the Jack Webb shows. 2, CHiPs kind of sensationalizes huge car accidents and shows really horrifying things, like cars tearing through trucks as they fly through the air. (This wasn't done so much earlier, but became a staple later.) 3, They don't seem to be able to write very likable female characters much of the time.
I think CHiPs was better in the earlier seasons, like 1-3. I haven't always liked some of the goings-on in the later episodes. And season 6 sounds preposterous on so many levels. We not only lost three key cast members, but they started doing dumb plots like people believing that there were aliens or other monsters afoot, and it really looking like there were, before everything was resolved. CHiPs is a more realistic show aside from the sensationalized car crashes, so I don't think I'd care for season 6 very much.
And I'm wondering what to do with my Maverick fic. I'm to the point now where I think the main conflicts have been worked out as much as I'm going to let them be at this point, so I was going to write the epilogue and have Bart recovered enough that they're leaving, but there's also the fact that Bart being injured set up the whole plot. He's still injured and I suppose I could extend the story with a chapter of two of him trying to recover and focusing more on that. Maybe it wouldn't even look like the story was properly paced if I didn't.
One problem is, I don't really like detailing recoveries in every particular. My WWW RP partner lives for that part of the hurt/comfort, but I get bored by it if it goes on very long. (I prefer the angst of the hurt and the squee of the initial beginning to recover.) Detailing every instance of trying to stand again after being in bed for so long, or every changing of the dressing, etc.... I can think of at least two multi-chapter fics that remain unfinished because I couldn't figure out how to keep detailing everything like that and not be retreading old ground. I wonder if I should do one scene of each, though.
The other thing is, however, the hurt/comfort was kind of a secondary plot point. The main thing seems to have ended up being meeting Snakes and how the Mavericks deal with this, including the feelings Beau has of not really belonging in the family. It was also supposed to explore Bart and Beau's relationship and I've done a lot of that through their conversations and Beau being protective and Bart worrying about Beau. I'm just not sure if suddenly focusing more on the hurt/comfort would make sense.
I always read through the whole story before I post an epilogue, but with these confused feelings, I don't even know whether to finish my epilogue yet. Maybe I could have some brief hurt/comforty flashbacks in the epilogue to Bart's recovery scenes. I could probably do that without breaking the flow of narration and it might be better than devoting a whole chapter to it. On the other hand, maybe it wouldn't.
I guess the only thing I can do is read through everything as it stands right now and then decide what direction to take.