Nom nom nom say the dinosaurs eating my brain
I have now finished watching Primeval, and 
taraljc was absolutely right that it is a good place to spend my fannishness. My brain is now solidly eaten, to the point where I go "...but I can just start watching again from the start, right?" Indeed, I have re-watched the first 15 minutes of the first ep again already, and it would have been more if I hadn't been so tired yesterday. I'm chasing down motivational posters on TWoP, fic and general squee on primeval_itv and connorandabby, and I have read the entire thread on tvtropes, where I learned that Becker's first name is Hilary.
I'm trying very hard not to fic, which is working so far; no more spectacular bunnies have shown up than bad h/c. And sex in the Cretaceous era. And Matt's first reactions to the 21st century. Anyway, they're all manageable.
Icons are another matter. I've made so many I can't decide which ones to put into use. The facepalm Abby one is a given - it's too useful to skip. But the rest? Any opinions?
I'm figuring I'll just use one of the Rex icons, but I can't decide which one, because Rex is SO DAMN CUTE. I saw a review complain about the annoying, bad CGI mascot, but a) I wave at fat. I mean, I watch Doctor Who. The concept of "bad CGI" doesn't even exist for me. b) When a little chirping creature goes around in a circle and then starts rubbing its head against the table in the universal sign for "pet me" MY HEART IS LOST.
In fact, I cared considerably less when they killed people than I did any time Rex was in danger. REX MUST NEVER BE IN DANGER. (Of course, when Cutter started waving around baby batmonsters from the future, I went, "NO! Bad Cutter! Don't be mean!" so my people vs. animals priorities may be a bit messed up. But they were babies!)
Likewise, I won't use both Connor/Abby icons, but can't decide which one. I like the one where I can see their faces properly, but I also like having the caption. The spoon probably gets to stay, because like the facepalm, it's useful to indicate a certain mood.
Fortunately (for a certain value of "fortunately"), my gifs of the proposal are far too big (in file size) to use as icons. I tried making a jpg, but the lighting is weird and I can really only get the feeling through with the gif.
The feeling of course being OMG THE ADORABLE IS KILLING ME.
As can be seen by the icons, my interest in the show is rather... slanted. It was inevitable, I suppose. Going in, the biggest draw was "by the fourth season, I'll have Alexander Siddig", and the second-bigger was Hatter. So I paid a bit of extra attention to Connor, which meant paying extra attention to Abby, and to Rex, and to Sid and Nancy (I miss Sid and Nancy!) and before I knew it this cute little household held a very warm place in my heart.
I will say, though, that even though I'm OTP like hell with Connor/Abby, I am with Abby when it comes to romantic development and when it is or is not the right course to take. By which I mean, I love geeks like there's no tomorrow, and I know exactly who I think would win in a fight between Wolverine and Spiderman* but even I wouldn't have dated early seasons Connor, because early seasons Connor is, emotionally speaking, about five. (Item of evidence: Spoon icon.)
But then the Cretaceous happened. And, uh, that shirtless scene in 4.01, which of course didn't sway my opinion whatsoever. Anyway. In the later seasons, while Connor still combines a genius mind with no common sense whatsoever, he's at least an adult with no common sense whatsoever. (ETA: I very much appreciate that his lack of common sense is a part of his characterisation instead of, as is so often the case, the show writers wanting to make smart people do stupid things without acknowledging that they're stupid things.)
Abby, of course, has always been an adult. And while I acknowledge that it's a bit unfair that the girl always has to be the adult, sensible one, I can't deny that I'm massively into girls like that. Especially Abby. I mean, look at that first gif. Awwwwww.
Because of this, I can't always be fair to the other characters. For instance, I spent most of season 3 wanting Becker to develop a personality, because it was kind of hard on him to have to go without, when he featured in so many scenes. Season 4 provided a personality, and one that made perfect sense, as the protective older brother type. Unfortunately, they started that off with "people I have lost" angst... while Abby and Connor were lost in the Cretaceous.
Yeah.
They had lost people. They're not soldiers, which means they didn't deliberately sign up for a job where that's a distinct possibility. They lived in a cave, being chased by predators. Also, as a woman... Abby had to have her period with no pads or tampons, in a cave, chased by predators (who presumably can smell blood), and in close perimeter to a guy she had only just started the first tentative steps of a romantic relationship with, and who isn't Mister Tact at the best of times.
And as romantic relationships go, also consider that this was an era without contraceptives, doctors, midwives, or indeed beds, and that the predators would think a pregnant woman was a nummy Kinder Egg, so I'm thinking PiV would be straight out.
So while I appreciated the effort, I did spend the first bits of season 4 going, "Oh, FFS, Becker, shut up. Your life is not that hard."
Fortunately, they didn't keep the angst angle up for long, which is good considering that then you get Matt, who'd definitely win the "stuff deprived of" race by far.
So. Matt. Becker. And Jess and Emily while we're at it. Nice people. I don't object to any of them. And I do think that as a team, the late seasons cast felt more at home with each other than the early one(s). Even so, I can't claim to care all that much. I never stopped thinking of Emily as "not Kate Winslet", which was a bit distracting, and I was a bit peeved that there were no longer any women older than me on the show. (Although apparently Lucy Brown was born in 1979, which, wow, that means she was still in her 20s when the show started. I never would have guessed!)
If pressed, I'd say that I'd rather have Matt and Becker than Cutter and Stephen, and rather Danny than any of them on the principle that it's Jason Flemyng and I'll never object to more Jason Flemyng. Personalitywise, though, I don't know if I care more for Danny than for Matt. Probably more than for Cutter, though. Matt has hands-down the best storyline, but at times I felt they played up the mystery too much, to an extent that the actual story didn't deserve. Like the "He was... my father" scene. WOW I AM SO SURPRISED. No, wait, I'm really not. I didn't particularly wonder who that guy was, but if someone had asked me to venture a guess, "father" would probably have been it.
Jess and Emily vs Claudia/Jenny and Sarah... yeah, I'd go early cast all the way there. It's too bad Sarah got an offscreen death; I really liked her. I do acknowledge that Emily with two knives and a face mask is pretty badass, but... IDK. I had more fun when Sarah went back to medieval times armed with chocolate.
And then there's Lester. Oh Lester. I love stern bosses, I love snarky people, I love you with the fire of a thousand suns. You don't beat out Rex for me, but from time to time you do beat out his foster parents.
What else? Villains, I suppose. Alexander Siddig was satisfactory; I'd been told that they wanted to keep him grey for as long as possible, which caused some distance to my reactions (also, pinkie ring always signifies sleaze). Helen wavered greatly between interesting and making no goddamned sense whatsoever; at times I felt they really could have done better explaining why Cutter married her in the first place, and also wtf was up with her constantly-shifting motivation. Christine was suitably icy, and I'm amused that she was married to Ben Miller IRL.
Oh, and then there was plot stuff. I... don't so much care about the plot stuff? There were creatures. People died. Some potentially world-changing stuff happened. A lot of the time, I was reminded about how my friend Ebba claimed that my love for something seems to have nothing to do with how good I think it is. I love Primeval to pieces. Do I think it's good? Well... I think all of you should see it, stat, and give me lots and lots of fic, art, and vids to enjoy. Let me leave it at that.
That's it for now, I suppose. I'll probably write more later, and I do hope some of you (well, all of you, but that's not gonna happen) will be able to share the squee with me.
* ETA: Oh! I put an asterisk in for the Wolverine/Spiderman fight and then forgot to let it lead to anything! Anyway, Wolverine would win, because a) he'd be less concerned with the rules, b) healing factor, and c) scissors beats paper adamantium claws beat spider webs.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/555544.html and has
comments there.
taraljc was absolutely right that it is a good place to spend my fannishness. My brain is now solidly eaten, to the point where I go "...but I can just start watching again from the start, right?" Indeed, I have re-watched the first 15 minutes of the first ep again already, and it would have been more if I hadn't been so tired yesterday. I'm chasing down motivational posters on TWoP, fic and general squee on primeval_itv and connorandabby, and I have read the entire thread on tvtropes, where I learned that Becker's first name is Hilary.
I'm trying very hard not to fic, which is working so far; no more spectacular bunnies have shown up than bad h/c. And sex in the Cretaceous era. And Matt's first reactions to the 21st century. Anyway, they're all manageable.
Icons are another matter. I've made so many I can't decide which ones to put into use. The facepalm Abby one is a given - it's too useful to skip. But the rest? Any opinions?
I'm figuring I'll just use one of the Rex icons, but I can't decide which one, because Rex is SO DAMN CUTE. I saw a review complain about the annoying, bad CGI mascot, but a) I wave at fat. I mean, I watch Doctor Who. The concept of "bad CGI" doesn't even exist for me. b) When a little chirping creature goes around in a circle and then starts rubbing its head against the table in the universal sign for "pet me" MY HEART IS LOST.
In fact, I cared considerably less when they killed people than I did any time Rex was in danger. REX MUST NEVER BE IN DANGER. (Of course, when Cutter started waving around baby batmonsters from the future, I went, "NO! Bad Cutter! Don't be mean!" so my people vs. animals priorities may be a bit messed up. But they were babies!)
Likewise, I won't use both Connor/Abby icons, but can't decide which one. I like the one where I can see their faces properly, but I also like having the caption. The spoon probably gets to stay, because like the facepalm, it's useful to indicate a certain mood.
Fortunately (for a certain value of "fortunately"), my gifs of the proposal are far too big (in file size) to use as icons. I tried making a jpg, but the lighting is weird and I can really only get the feeling through with the gif.
The feeling of course being OMG THE ADORABLE IS KILLING ME.
As can be seen by the icons, my interest in the show is rather... slanted. It was inevitable, I suppose. Going in, the biggest draw was "by the fourth season, I'll have Alexander Siddig", and the second-bigger was Hatter. So I paid a bit of extra attention to Connor, which meant paying extra attention to Abby, and to Rex, and to Sid and Nancy (I miss Sid and Nancy!) and before I knew it this cute little household held a very warm place in my heart.
I will say, though, that even though I'm OTP like hell with Connor/Abby, I am with Abby when it comes to romantic development and when it is or is not the right course to take. By which I mean, I love geeks like there's no tomorrow, and I know exactly who I think would win in a fight between Wolverine and Spiderman* but even I wouldn't have dated early seasons Connor, because early seasons Connor is, emotionally speaking, about five. (Item of evidence: Spoon icon.)
But then the Cretaceous happened. And, uh, that shirtless scene in 4.01, which of course didn't sway my opinion whatsoever. Anyway. In the later seasons, while Connor still combines a genius mind with no common sense whatsoever, he's at least an adult with no common sense whatsoever. (ETA: I very much appreciate that his lack of common sense is a part of his characterisation instead of, as is so often the case, the show writers wanting to make smart people do stupid things without acknowledging that they're stupid things.)
Abby, of course, has always been an adult. And while I acknowledge that it's a bit unfair that the girl always has to be the adult, sensible one, I can't deny that I'm massively into girls like that. Especially Abby. I mean, look at that first gif. Awwwwww.
Because of this, I can't always be fair to the other characters. For instance, I spent most of season 3 wanting Becker to develop a personality, because it was kind of hard on him to have to go without, when he featured in so many scenes. Season 4 provided a personality, and one that made perfect sense, as the protective older brother type. Unfortunately, they started that off with "people I have lost" angst... while Abby and Connor were lost in the Cretaceous.
Yeah.
They had lost people. They're not soldiers, which means they didn't deliberately sign up for a job where that's a distinct possibility. They lived in a cave, being chased by predators. Also, as a woman... Abby had to have her period with no pads or tampons, in a cave, chased by predators (who presumably can smell blood), and in close perimeter to a guy she had only just started the first tentative steps of a romantic relationship with, and who isn't Mister Tact at the best of times.
And as romantic relationships go, also consider that this was an era without contraceptives, doctors, midwives, or indeed beds, and that the predators would think a pregnant woman was a nummy Kinder Egg, so I'm thinking PiV would be straight out.
So while I appreciated the effort, I did spend the first bits of season 4 going, "Oh, FFS, Becker, shut up. Your life is not that hard."
Fortunately, they didn't keep the angst angle up for long, which is good considering that then you get Matt, who'd definitely win the "stuff deprived of" race by far.
So. Matt. Becker. And Jess and Emily while we're at it. Nice people. I don't object to any of them. And I do think that as a team, the late seasons cast felt more at home with each other than the early one(s). Even so, I can't claim to care all that much. I never stopped thinking of Emily as "not Kate Winslet", which was a bit distracting, and I was a bit peeved that there were no longer any women older than me on the show. (Although apparently Lucy Brown was born in 1979, which, wow, that means she was still in her 20s when the show started. I never would have guessed!)
If pressed, I'd say that I'd rather have Matt and Becker than Cutter and Stephen, and rather Danny than any of them on the principle that it's Jason Flemyng and I'll never object to more Jason Flemyng. Personalitywise, though, I don't know if I care more for Danny than for Matt. Probably more than for Cutter, though. Matt has hands-down the best storyline, but at times I felt they played up the mystery too much, to an extent that the actual story didn't deserve. Like the "He was... my father" scene. WOW I AM SO SURPRISED. No, wait, I'm really not. I didn't particularly wonder who that guy was, but if someone had asked me to venture a guess, "father" would probably have been it.
Jess and Emily vs Claudia/Jenny and Sarah... yeah, I'd go early cast all the way there. It's too bad Sarah got an offscreen death; I really liked her. I do acknowledge that Emily with two knives and a face mask is pretty badass, but... IDK. I had more fun when Sarah went back to medieval times armed with chocolate.
And then there's Lester. Oh Lester. I love stern bosses, I love snarky people, I love you with the fire of a thousand suns. You don't beat out Rex for me, but from time to time you do beat out his foster parents.
What else? Villains, I suppose. Alexander Siddig was satisfactory; I'd been told that they wanted to keep him grey for as long as possible, which caused some distance to my reactions (also, pinkie ring always signifies sleaze). Helen wavered greatly between interesting and making no goddamned sense whatsoever; at times I felt they really could have done better explaining why Cutter married her in the first place, and also wtf was up with her constantly-shifting motivation. Christine was suitably icy, and I'm amused that she was married to Ben Miller IRL.
Oh, and then there was plot stuff. I... don't so much care about the plot stuff? There were creatures. People died. Some potentially world-changing stuff happened. A lot of the time, I was reminded about how my friend Ebba claimed that my love for something seems to have nothing to do with how good I think it is. I love Primeval to pieces. Do I think it's good? Well... I think all of you should see it, stat, and give me lots and lots of fic, art, and vids to enjoy. Let me leave it at that.
That's it for now, I suppose. I'll probably write more later, and I do hope some of you (well, all of you, but that's not gonna happen) will be able to share the squee with me.
* ETA: Oh! I put an asterisk in for the Wolverine/Spiderman fight and then forgot to let it lead to anything! Anyway, Wolverine would win, because a) he'd be less concerned with the rules, b) healing factor, and c) scissors beats paper adamantium claws beat spider webs.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/555544.html and has
comments there.