Pros Rant!!
My newest obsession - yes, due South is my true love, but sometimes I need a little spice on the side - is Pros. meri-oddities, a long-time Pros fan with an incredibly impressive zine collection (she runs the online archive), pimped me into it last October in an all-day, all-night Pros episode viewing session, and since then my interest has been growing steadily. I have the DVDs and have watched through the third season, and I've got to say, I love the show. I'm always a sucker for the cop-buddy OTP dynamic, and the Bodie-Doyle partnership is a pretty compelling one.
What I really love about the show, especially as a contrast to dS, is the grittiness, the way it actually is life and death for them, all the time - they really do have to rely totally on each other for their very survival. Because of the secretive and violent nature of the job, their lives are pretty strange and warped, and they really have to get everything they need from each other. I mean, their "birds" are so obviously irrelevant to them, except as sexual outlets, which may be chauvinistic, but it plays right into my slashy fantasies - these are guys whose lives are so unpredictable, so full of violence, so isolated, that they could never hope to have a true partnership with a woman. No woman could ever truly understand them, or give them what they really need. They are it for each other. And that's my slashy ideal in a nutshell. (Yes, I know this is not realistic - in real life we never get everything we need from one person. But this isn't real life, it's my fantasy. One of these days maybe I'll think more about why I so desperately need it to be this way in my slash).
And really, the show is very slashy. Not in the obvious way of Starsky & Hutch (to which it is often compared - but I think they're quite different). It's all very understated and British, but it's so there. It's not even all that subtle! I mean, look at my icon (from the episode Mixed Doubles; I've been making screencaps as I watch - it's a bit dark because I haven't yet mastered the technique of making a captured bmp image look good as a 100x100 png image on LJ) - they look like they're about to kiss! They're such an old married couple in so many ways. And they look great together - though I started out thinking they were both kind of funny looking (well, they are, kind of!), they rapidly grew on me. Their appeal is more difficult to see in still photos, but the way they move - I mean, I find them both incredibly sexy, each in his own quirky way. Oh, and can't forget the tight pants. It's hard to imagine how Doyle could breathe in those jeans, much less run, without doing himself an injury - they didn't have lycra in those days; that was 100% heavy, unyielding denim! Bodie's trousers aren't exactly roomy, either, and there are plenty of nice ... er ... package shots, if you know what I mean. Eye candy all the way.
Anyway, the point of this post is to rant, loudly (well, kind of), about the Pros fandom - as in, where is it?
I guess there's not much of it anymore, or at least not that much online, and definitely not much in LJ, and I think that's a shame. I've gotten so much out of my involvement with the dS online community - I'm a big believer in the power of the internet to create and foster community (though of course it can be used to the opposite effect as well). I want Pros icons and Pros discussion communities, or just some people showing some real interest. Where are the people who care about this fandom - there must be some? And even more - where are the Pros fans who care about each other in that uniquely fannish way? I have no sense of the history of this fandom - have their been big splits or divisions or unfriendliness?
There are a few mailing lists - Pros-lit , crying_sodomy, the CI5 list. Sometimes those have some interesting discussions, especially about episodes. And Pros-lit used to have some fic discussions, and even some newer fans - but it has virtually no traffic these days (it dropped off precipitously after the New Year, for some reason), It's all pretty sporadic and diffuse, and with relatively few exceptions, there's not a lot of passion there that I can sense. Where is it - it must still exist, right?
And more specifically: where are the Pros crack_van recs???? I mean, Pros is a major fandom! z_rayne made some nice recs in November and December (though not as many as I'd have liked), but there was only one paltry rec in January, and none in February so far, and it appears, as best I can tell, that if there are any February recs the reccer will be the same as in October - phantomas, who also did the intro for Pros. Isn't there someone, anyone else besides these two people who cares enough about the fandom to stand up and make some recs? Is it that the Pros fans don't know about crack_van? Is it that they have too much scorn for the internet to bother with it? Is it that they just don't care about "spreading the gospel" for their fandom? Is it that they don't feel able to make recs if they're limited to online fic, because so much of the Pros fic isn't and will never be online? But Starsky and Hutch has a similar kind of zine-based history, and it's had a new reccer each month and a consistent stream of recs.
I just don't understand it. I'd do it myself - obviously I'm a big believer in crack_van recs, both as a way of making my fandom more popular and also because I find it just plain fun to talk about fic - but for the fact that I've barely even begun to touch the surface of Pros fanfic, and a lot of what I've read so far has just been ... okay. That's the thing - new fans coming into Pros have a difficult time figuring out where to start, because there is so little online presence and not much online community (that I've been able to find, at least). Contrast that, again, with SH, which is also an old fandom - older than Pros, in fact - but has a pretty active, interested fan base and online presence (though not much LJ, unfortunately), and pimps like crazy, actively searching for and welcoming new fans. Maybe the Pros fandom's in a lull right now? Or dying? Or could it be my own fault - maybe I just haven't managed to find the community, or I'm not realizing that it's right there in front of me? But I'm pretty dogged, generally, so I don't think that's it, though I could be wrong.
It makes me kind of sad - the recent revival of SH shows how much energy and potential is still there in the "older" fandoms, if someone cares enough to foster it. I like to see fandoms thriving. Luckily I at least have Meri to discuss the fandom and the fic with, but if I didn't I'd feel pretty isolated with this new passion, which is a sad state of affairs given the general communal nature of fandom. And if I were less dogged I'd probably just give up entirely.
Am I being ridiculous? Am I missing something? Should I become an evangelist and start a Pros Revival?
What I really love about the show, especially as a contrast to dS, is the grittiness, the way it actually is life and death for them, all the time - they really do have to rely totally on each other for their very survival. Because of the secretive and violent nature of the job, their lives are pretty strange and warped, and they really have to get everything they need from each other. I mean, their "birds" are so obviously irrelevant to them, except as sexual outlets, which may be chauvinistic, but it plays right into my slashy fantasies - these are guys whose lives are so unpredictable, so full of violence, so isolated, that they could never hope to have a true partnership with a woman. No woman could ever truly understand them, or give them what they really need. They are it for each other. And that's my slashy ideal in a nutshell. (Yes, I know this is not realistic - in real life we never get everything we need from one person. But this isn't real life, it's my fantasy. One of these days maybe I'll think more about why I so desperately need it to be this way in my slash).
And really, the show is very slashy. Not in the obvious way of Starsky & Hutch (to which it is often compared - but I think they're quite different). It's all very understated and British, but it's so there. It's not even all that subtle! I mean, look at my icon (from the episode Mixed Doubles; I've been making screencaps as I watch - it's a bit dark because I haven't yet mastered the technique of making a captured bmp image look good as a 100x100 png image on LJ) - they look like they're about to kiss! They're such an old married couple in so many ways. And they look great together - though I started out thinking they were both kind of funny looking (well, they are, kind of!), they rapidly grew on me. Their appeal is more difficult to see in still photos, but the way they move - I mean, I find them both incredibly sexy, each in his own quirky way. Oh, and can't forget the tight pants. It's hard to imagine how Doyle could breathe in those jeans, much less run, without doing himself an injury - they didn't have lycra in those days; that was 100% heavy, unyielding denim! Bodie's trousers aren't exactly roomy, either, and there are plenty of nice ... er ... package shots, if you know what I mean. Eye candy all the way.
Anyway, the point of this post is to rant, loudly (well, kind of), about the Pros fandom - as in, where is it?
I guess there's not much of it anymore, or at least not that much online, and definitely not much in LJ, and I think that's a shame. I've gotten so much out of my involvement with the dS online community - I'm a big believer in the power of the internet to create and foster community (though of course it can be used to the opposite effect as well). I want Pros icons and Pros discussion communities, or just some people showing some real interest. Where are the people who care about this fandom - there must be some? And even more - where are the Pros fans who care about each other in that uniquely fannish way? I have no sense of the history of this fandom - have their been big splits or divisions or unfriendliness?
There are a few mailing lists - Pros-lit , crying_sodomy, the CI5 list. Sometimes those have some interesting discussions, especially about episodes. And Pros-lit used to have some fic discussions, and even some newer fans - but it has virtually no traffic these days (it dropped off precipitously after the New Year, for some reason), It's all pretty sporadic and diffuse, and with relatively few exceptions, there's not a lot of passion there that I can sense. Where is it - it must still exist, right?
And more specifically: where are the Pros crack_van recs???? I mean, Pros is a major fandom! z_rayne made some nice recs in November and December (though not as many as I'd have liked), but there was only one paltry rec in January, and none in February so far, and it appears, as best I can tell, that if there are any February recs the reccer will be the same as in October - phantomas, who also did the intro for Pros. Isn't there someone, anyone else besides these two people who cares enough about the fandom to stand up and make some recs? Is it that the Pros fans don't know about crack_van? Is it that they have too much scorn for the internet to bother with it? Is it that they just don't care about "spreading the gospel" for their fandom? Is it that they don't feel able to make recs if they're limited to online fic, because so much of the Pros fic isn't and will never be online? But Starsky and Hutch has a similar kind of zine-based history, and it's had a new reccer each month and a consistent stream of recs.
I just don't understand it. I'd do it myself - obviously I'm a big believer in crack_van recs, both as a way of making my fandom more popular and also because I find it just plain fun to talk about fic - but for the fact that I've barely even begun to touch the surface of Pros fanfic, and a lot of what I've read so far has just been ... okay. That's the thing - new fans coming into Pros have a difficult time figuring out where to start, because there is so little online presence and not much online community (that I've been able to find, at least). Contrast that, again, with SH, which is also an old fandom - older than Pros, in fact - but has a pretty active, interested fan base and online presence (though not much LJ, unfortunately), and pimps like crazy, actively searching for and welcoming new fans. Maybe the Pros fandom's in a lull right now? Or dying? Or could it be my own fault - maybe I just haven't managed to find the community, or I'm not realizing that it's right there in front of me? But I'm pretty dogged, generally, so I don't think that's it, though I could be wrong.
It makes me kind of sad - the recent revival of SH shows how much energy and potential is still there in the "older" fandoms, if someone cares enough to foster it. I like to see fandoms thriving. Luckily I at least have Meri to discuss the fandom and the fic with, but if I didn't I'd feel pretty isolated with this new passion, which is a sad state of affairs given the general communal nature of fandom. And if I were less dogged I'd probably just give up entirely.
Am I being ridiculous? Am I missing something? Should I become an evangelist and start a Pros Revival?