Five Things I Love!
tallulahgs asked me to "name five things you love that most people hate."
Ah, yesterday's mirror image and just about as hard! And almost scarier in a way. But I found some. :)
1) The Twilight Series.
Oooooh boy. Okay. Now, again, obviously, this depends very much on who you talk to, as these were pretty popular (you may have noticed. ^_~) But the hate on the Internet has been pretty loud - certainly loud enough that I have mostly stayed quiet on the subject! I've read all the critcisms though and a lot of it is accurate (some isn't, as always and some is frankly a bit weird to someone who grew up on LJ Smith's Night World books!) But ... I just found it fun. I got involved with various characters, I cared about what happened to them and I liked some of ideas (Imprinting is the best in all ways, I love that there's something that touches on the idea that soulmates are sometimes going to have age gaps that are a bit horrifying and it's difficult to get a grip on what that relationship should or should not be, I regret nothing) I found a lot of the humour gelled with me (Jacob's chapter titles in Breaking Dawn makes me cackle just thinking about them!) I'd rather Bella had married Jacob really - but on the other hand, at least the first book establishes that they do like some of the same stuff which is more than most romances do! And the films are so pretty! (what can I say, apparently I'm weak for interesting scenery shots ... and also, Breaking Dawn Part 2 contains the BEST cheat ever, it was truly beautiful filmmaking - also, the really involved fan behind me squeaking was probably as fun as the "It's Bucky!" guy)
And I actually really, really like The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I just find it this wonderful little step out of the novel, it's so interesting and I like the sadness of it. It works for me, really well.
Is it without issues? Heck no and some of those issues are unpleasant. But for me, that doesn't outweigh what I kind of enjoy in them. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to others - but I don't regret the fact that I now own them and I still do actually like them and enjoy them.
2) Season One of Star Trek: The Next Generation (and really, The Next Generation in general)
Season one is not actually brilliant, I can admit this now I've rewatched it in full (it was truly amazing when I was sevenish!) There's some very odd episodes (and some very awful ones!) and it's aged badly (it's very, very episodic which is a bit weird) But there's still some great episodes in there and I really, really like the characters for me, this continues all the way through and I feel it improves in leaps and bounds as it goes one. I like that they spend a huge amount of time talking about moral issues - I don't mind that it's not lots of action and drama, I prefer the fact that not-a-lot happens quite often, I find that interesting and appealing and strange. I like the funny episodes (yes, I find Qpid funny. Because it's glorious.) I think Picard is wonderful and yes, I like Wesley Crusher. I first watched it when I was seven, I thought we could be friends and have AMAZING ADVENTURES. :) I stand by this decision. :) I just ... really enjoy it and don't think it is quite as bad as a lot of Trek fans seem to think.
3) Jack and Rose's romance in Titanic.
I felt it would be cheating to just talk about things I've already discussed in this talky meme so I haven't, but I felt this deserved it's own little entry because I didn't talk about it much the first time and well, this is probably the really unpopular bit really! But I just ... really, really don't hate their framing device. I don't find it that cheesy or distracting or unpleasant. I really like both characters - I feel sorry for Rose and the place she's in, I think Jack is interesting and entertaining (yes, he's the male version of the manic pixie dream-girl but I like him) But for me, it passes the great test - do I think they would have made it? (obviously, if Jack hadn't died) And I do, I really think they would have been okay and managed the world together. It wouldn't necessarily have been easy but I felt neither of them wanted that so that would be okay. I just have really fond feelings towards it and wouldn't like the film quite so much without it.
4) Kelly's amazing gymnast kick in Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
This may seem a really strange thing to be on this list but dammit, this really matters to me to the extent that I always get kind of narky when people bring it up.
Jurassic Park: The Lost World isn't a brilliant film for me. It's got some pretty cool moments and some good effects and some dramatic freaky scenes that work but a lot of people have pointed out issues with it that I can't really deny and as someone who really liked the book, it is a disappointing adaptation in many ways. And one of these ways is the fact that in the book, Sarah Harding is utterly awesome and in the film, she is mostly ... useless (WHAT KIND OF FUCKING NATURALIST ARE YOU?!?!) Nearly all of her moments of absolute badass are taken away from her and she doesn't really get to do anything as cool as Ellie and Lex in the first movie.
Kelly however, does. She gets to save her father's life with a skill that has been established earlier in the movie. She gets to do something cool and dramatic. Yes, it's a bit daft - although dinosaurs have very light bones in Jurassic Park so I think a good solid smack with a flying kick probably would send it flying. But at least Kelly gets to DO something and I will take that over nothing any day of the week.
5) The later seasons of House.
Actually, there's a lot of later seasons of TV shows that could have gone here (I liked all of Buffy) but I decided on this one as the winner because it seems to be the most unpopular.
For me, the big difficulty in House is getting through Season 3 (which is a harsh and nasty season) But after that, I just ... really enjoy it. To me, House's character development really makes sense - of course he ends up more and more awful because people keep letting him get away with appalling crap. All the little steps he takes to becoming the person he is seem fairly sign-posted to me. And I like him and Cuddy together but also like how it ends (bar the fact that Cuddy leaves, that's a real shame to me, particularly as it's got real-life taints that are unhappy) But I find the stories, the developments just as good as the earlier seasons. I like the new characters, I like what's done with them, I just ... find it all still really interesting and it makes me laugh and then it makes me sad. I liked it and like to revisit it and am always a tiny bit surprised at the amount of hate that it gets.
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