mmm, British TV
I've been watching season two of Life on Mars. The show really is all about the snarky, occasionally fistfight-y love of Sam and Gene, isn't it? It doesn't want to be (Annie = beard), but it is. I'm enjoying how every episode falls into exactly the same pattern, which is: 1) Sam and Gene disagree about a case; 2) Sam and Gene spend the middle part of the episode furiously angry at each other; 3) they turn out to be both right about the case; 4) Sam and Gene reconcile, with whisky, awkward compliments, and long looks while sitting somewhat too close together.
Unhealthy interest in male bonding, indeed, Sam. Takes one to know one.
(By the way, I'm only up to episode 3 of season two, so please don't spoil me in comments. Thanks!)
And I've been watching Red Dwarf again (thank you, Netflix "Watch Now" feature). I first saw the show maybe ten years ago, and I last saw any of it almost six years ago, so it has both the charm of an old favorite and the delight of freshness (because I've forgotten many of the details).
I was wondering why there's not more fanfic, and it occurred to me that all the most extreme fanfic plots have already happened, canonically. Just in the first two-and-a-half seasons there's already been a genderswapped AU, a male pregnancy, a body swap between main characters, and several occurrences of characters being duplicated. What's left for people to write crackfic about? Plus, Rimmer's current incorporeal state makes slash a bit tricky.
It's interesting that Rimmer, who started out as a sort of cardboard annoying-minor-villain (very much in the vein of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H) rapidly becomes the most interesting character. It's partly just that Chris Barrie is a better actor than Craig Charles, but also, Rimmer gets more backstory and more emotional moments (which, now that I think about it, may be because Chris Barrie's a better actor). It could also just be that Rimmer's more interesting to me because he's my "type"--I'm a sucker for the manpain and the loneliness and the wanting to be loved but having no idea how to go about it. I would very much like to deny that "lonely and broken, functioning mostly through a mix of willpower and habit" is my character type, but I think at this point the evidence is unmistakeable.
Also, I think Rimmer is sometimes kinda mysteriously hot.
You can stop laughing now.
And, randomly, I've spotted a couple of RD details that new Who and Torchwood make shout-outs to. I am amused by this.
*****
Unhealthy interest in male bonding, indeed, Sam. Takes one to know one.
(By the way, I'm only up to episode 3 of season two, so please don't spoil me in comments. Thanks!)
And I've been watching Red Dwarf again (thank you, Netflix "Watch Now" feature). I first saw the show maybe ten years ago, and I last saw any of it almost six years ago, so it has both the charm of an old favorite and the delight of freshness (because I've forgotten many of the details).
I was wondering why there's not more fanfic, and it occurred to me that all the most extreme fanfic plots have already happened, canonically. Just in the first two-and-a-half seasons there's already been a genderswapped AU, a male pregnancy, a body swap between main characters, and several occurrences of characters being duplicated. What's left for people to write crackfic about? Plus, Rimmer's current incorporeal state makes slash a bit tricky.
It's interesting that Rimmer, who started out as a sort of cardboard annoying-minor-villain (very much in the vein of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H) rapidly becomes the most interesting character. It's partly just that Chris Barrie is a better actor than Craig Charles, but also, Rimmer gets more backstory and more emotional moments (which, now that I think about it, may be because Chris Barrie's a better actor). It could also just be that Rimmer's more interesting to me because he's my "type"--I'm a sucker for the manpain and the loneliness and the wanting to be loved but having no idea how to go about it. I would very much like to deny that "lonely and broken, functioning mostly through a mix of willpower and habit" is my character type, but I think at this point the evidence is unmistakeable.
Also, I think Rimmer is sometimes kinda mysteriously hot.
You can stop laughing now.
And, randomly, I've spotted a couple of RD details that new Who and Torchwood make shout-outs to. I am amused by this.
*****