SGA, SPN, FNL... ah, the life of an acronym addict
SGA: "Outcast"
Last summer, lanthano emailed me a completed draft of an SGA fic (which I don't think she ever posted) in which John returns home for his father's funeral and there sees his ex-wife who works at RAND - so when we find out that Nancy works at Homeland Security, I got some serious goosebumps. WOW.
ETA: And she posted it! You can read if death's waters came at her LJ.
Fanon is a powerful thing, because I'm actually confused and slightly hurt that John's father was evidently not a big shot in the military. Which means that John probably joined the Air Force to get away from his civilian and rrrreally wealthy family, and that's... well, as payoffs go, it's pretty spectacular! Oh, John. Oh, the fic that will come out of this. *swoons*
No mother in sight - I'm willing to bet that she died, probably before John joined the military. Brother (Mike from Blood Ties!!!) with serious issues; for a moment there, I felt like somebody on the writing staff has read some modern drama, a touch of O'Neill in all that resentment! A beautiful ex-wife, who clearly confirms that canon!John has a type when it comes to women. (Sadly, I was quite distracted by vaguely remembering the actress in various commercials to pay as much attention to her character as needed.) Given how easily John gets manipulated by women - Harmony's sisters being the latest glaring example - I have a hard time not judging her even for a bit, mostly because the writing made her look like an idiot: she had a problem with John's secrecy, even though it was dictated by the very nature of his job? I really wish we'd been given just a HINT that she thought he was using his job to hide other secrets from her, OR that he chose a secretive job so he could distance himself further; maybe just the merest suggestion that she felt she couldn't trust him, rather than "just" being emotionally torn with worry over his dangerous job - but the writers wouldn't go there.
(And really, I cringed at some of the lines in this ep: Ava getting recruited by "a brilliant scientist" comes to mind - doesn't anybody edit this crap before it gets into the script?!)
Anyway, the ex-wife decides to trust John after all these years - despite his superbitchy "well, my father thought it was a good thing I married you" - and puts her career at risk by getting him the info about the Replicator project. Outside the incoherent plot (again, why doesn't the SGC have the needed clearance to access the Homeland Security records?) written probably so that John and Nancy can have those scenes together, I was struck once again by how awkwardly the SGA writers write for women; she's a "director" now! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Still, it was rather sweet for John to receive some recognition from her, given that he couldn't get it from THE authority figure in his life. (Speaking of, I think I could watch the John scenes from when he hears his father passed away, and when he steps up to the coffin at his family home, about a million times. DAMN, JOE.)
Other things we learn about Nancy: she's married to a lawyer, who is successful enough to get cases in other states - so once again, she has an occassional long-distance relationship with a husband. Then again, thanks to her career, she feels like the secretive one this time around. And she knows John tends to take risks. Innnnnnnteresting.
The A-plot made me uncomfortable, not so much because of the moral ambiguity (yawn) introduced to the Replicator plotline but because of Ava: yet another female of her species to 1) be "brought up" by a human, much like the Wraith Ellia; 2) act very sympathetic to humans, much like the Repli!Weir and Repli!Keller; and 3) end up destroyed, albeit with some mercy this time (unlike FRAN) and live in the Matrix a.k.a. Stepford Earth-reality inside her mind... until she figures it out and probably goes insane. Hooray. Good thing SGA doesn't handle ALL its outcasts this way. Also, props to the actress who played Ava for that look on her face when she hears Sheppard over the radio telling Lee that her scientist father is dead. That hurt. :(
OK, other good stuff:
RODNEY! Oh, the love in that scene. I can't wait for those fics either.
Ronon! OMG, civilian contractor is TOTALLY new slang for boytoy. I am still cracking up over the fact that John had him watch Blades of Glory.
Also, Jason is PHENOMENAL with a certain effortless body language in situations that seem to dictate awkwardness: I was struck (and *cough* really turned on) by the EASY way he scoots over to Keller in "Quarantine", a move that states intention very clearly and, IMHO, couldn't be pulled off by any of the Earthlings. In this ep, he shakes Nancy's hand and then moves away with the same kind of ease, giving her and John some privacy to talk. I love these physical choices, because they suggest a certain kind of clarity when it comes to social mores - and it makes sense for someone who's been on the run and outside most human interaction for years to distill social behaviors into certain simple steps, and then not bother to question them; they are what they are.
In related ponderings: Ronon doesn't seem to have a whole lot of shame, does he? So of course, now I want him to meet David Creegan of Touching Evil. COME ON IT CAN TOTALLY BE DONE THEY CAN BE ON SOME KIND OF EARTH MISSION TOGETHER PRETTY PLEASE.
Bates! And Lee! Excellent all around.
To sum up? Oh, John. All those raw (and still painful after fourn years minimum) loose ends, left over from the relationships he's clearly severed. OUCH. Let's hope he gets to develop a slightly healthier relationship with his brother; Rodney and Jeannie can give him pointers!
SPN: "Malleus Maleficarum"
Clearly an important ep, given the discoveries about the nature of demons and the explanation behind the character changes this season; and yes, I got choked up over Sam's declaration that he has to turn into Dean to survive, and Dean's shock and dismay because he doesn't want that for his baby brother; and OMG, Dean's face in that last scene with Ruby! I bet he was thinking about John and wondering if his dad could possibly forget his humanity. Oh, heartbreaky show.
But then... here's the thing: unless I misheard the plot A exposition from the demon who infiltrated the book club, SPN had just declared magic, a.k.a. Wiccan practices, to be EVIL. Because supernatural empowerment - traditionally gendered, let's not even try to kid ourselves - can only come from demons. Right?
If this is so, can somebody please tell me just HOW THE FUCK IS THAT PORTRAYAL SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY?!?
(For disclaimer purposes, I'm an atheist; I'm offended as a human and a feminist, not as a Wiccan.)
And to think I used to consider Women's Work (here's another link if the NY Mag site is acting up) an unpleasantly sharp observation on the mysogyny of this show...
Not awesome, SPN. I'm having a pretty hard time thinking of myself as a fan of this show right now.
ETA: It's been pointed out to me that Sam does, indeed, say at some point that the magic they're doing is not Wiccan but dark arts. I'm still bothered whether the remaining members of the "book club" knew what they were getting themselves into, and whether they consciously decided to commit murder through their spells. Also? The female body count was really dammn high, even for this show.
Still pretty troubled here, folks.
FNL: "Leave No One Behind"
You know, I've somehow managed to look past the flaws of this season... up until this episode. It still gets to me - Matt breaking down because everybody leaves him (mom dying, grandma slowly disappearing, dad having gone to war, girlfriends dumping him), Smash coming to realize that the team comes first (plus, oh, the scene with his mother!), but... well, it's all beginning to feel too much like emotional character porn. Which I enjoy, but not in such illogical and out-of-character quantities. Also, I continue to be tired of Julie's insecurities when it comes to her parents' love. And I still adore Tami something FIERCE. But... yeah.
When they run out of new eps, I'll happily rewatch season 1. Because damn, this is a fantastic show.
Last summer, lanthano emailed me a completed draft of an SGA fic (which I don't think she ever posted) in which John returns home for his father's funeral and there sees his ex-wife who works at RAND - so when we find out that Nancy works at Homeland Security, I got some serious goosebumps. WOW.
ETA: And she posted it! You can read if death's waters came at her LJ.
Fanon is a powerful thing, because I'm actually confused and slightly hurt that John's father was evidently not a big shot in the military. Which means that John probably joined the Air Force to get away from his civilian and rrrreally wealthy family, and that's... well, as payoffs go, it's pretty spectacular! Oh, John. Oh, the fic that will come out of this. *swoons*
No mother in sight - I'm willing to bet that she died, probably before John joined the military. Brother (Mike from Blood Ties!!!) with serious issues; for a moment there, I felt like somebody on the writing staff has read some modern drama, a touch of O'Neill in all that resentment! A beautiful ex-wife, who clearly confirms that canon!John has a type when it comes to women. (Sadly, I was quite distracted by vaguely remembering the actress in various commercials to pay as much attention to her character as needed.) Given how easily John gets manipulated by women - Harmony's sisters being the latest glaring example - I have a hard time not judging her even for a bit, mostly because the writing made her look like an idiot: she had a problem with John's secrecy, even though it was dictated by the very nature of his job? I really wish we'd been given just a HINT that she thought he was using his job to hide other secrets from her, OR that he chose a secretive job so he could distance himself further; maybe just the merest suggestion that she felt she couldn't trust him, rather than "just" being emotionally torn with worry over his dangerous job - but the writers wouldn't go there.
(And really, I cringed at some of the lines in this ep: Ava getting recruited by "a brilliant scientist" comes to mind - doesn't anybody edit this crap before it gets into the script?!)
Anyway, the ex-wife decides to trust John after all these years - despite his superbitchy "well, my father thought it was a good thing I married you" - and puts her career at risk by getting him the info about the Replicator project. Outside the incoherent plot (again, why doesn't the SGC have the needed clearance to access the Homeland Security records?) written probably so that John and Nancy can have those scenes together, I was struck once again by how awkwardly the SGA writers write for women; she's a "director" now! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Still, it was rather sweet for John to receive some recognition from her, given that he couldn't get it from THE authority figure in his life. (Speaking of, I think I could watch the John scenes from when he hears his father passed away, and when he steps up to the coffin at his family home, about a million times. DAMN, JOE.)
Other things we learn about Nancy: she's married to a lawyer, who is successful enough to get cases in other states - so once again, she has an occassional long-distance relationship with a husband. Then again, thanks to her career, she feels like the secretive one this time around. And she knows John tends to take risks. Innnnnnnteresting.
The A-plot made me uncomfortable, not so much because of the moral ambiguity (yawn) introduced to the Replicator plotline but because of Ava: yet another female of her species to 1) be "brought up" by a human, much like the Wraith Ellia; 2) act very sympathetic to humans, much like the Repli!Weir and Repli!Keller; and 3) end up destroyed, albeit with some mercy this time (unlike FRAN) and live in the Matrix a.k.a. Stepford Earth-reality inside her mind... until she figures it out and probably goes insane. Hooray. Good thing SGA doesn't handle ALL its outcasts this way. Also, props to the actress who played Ava for that look on her face when she hears Sheppard over the radio telling Lee that her scientist father is dead. That hurt. :(
OK, other good stuff:
RODNEY! Oh, the love in that scene. I can't wait for those fics either.
Ronon! OMG, civilian contractor is TOTALLY new slang for boytoy. I am still cracking up over the fact that John had him watch Blades of Glory.
Also, Jason is PHENOMENAL with a certain effortless body language in situations that seem to dictate awkwardness: I was struck (and *cough* really turned on) by the EASY way he scoots over to Keller in "Quarantine", a move that states intention very clearly and, IMHO, couldn't be pulled off by any of the Earthlings. In this ep, he shakes Nancy's hand and then moves away with the same kind of ease, giving her and John some privacy to talk. I love these physical choices, because they suggest a certain kind of clarity when it comes to social mores - and it makes sense for someone who's been on the run and outside most human interaction for years to distill social behaviors into certain simple steps, and then not bother to question them; they are what they are.
In related ponderings: Ronon doesn't seem to have a whole lot of shame, does he? So of course, now I want him to meet David Creegan of Touching Evil. COME ON IT CAN TOTALLY BE DONE THEY CAN BE ON SOME KIND OF EARTH MISSION TOGETHER PRETTY PLEASE.
Bates! And Lee! Excellent all around.
To sum up? Oh, John. All those raw (and still painful after fourn years minimum) loose ends, left over from the relationships he's clearly severed. OUCH. Let's hope he gets to develop a slightly healthier relationship with his brother; Rodney and Jeannie can give him pointers!
SPN: "Malleus Maleficarum"
Clearly an important ep, given the discoveries about the nature of demons and the explanation behind the character changes this season; and yes, I got choked up over Sam's declaration that he has to turn into Dean to survive, and Dean's shock and dismay because he doesn't want that for his baby brother; and OMG, Dean's face in that last scene with Ruby! I bet he was thinking about John and wondering if his dad could possibly forget his humanity. Oh, heartbreaky show.
But then... here's the thing: unless I misheard the plot A exposition from the demon who infiltrated the book club, SPN had just declared magic, a.k.a. Wiccan practices, to be EVIL. Because supernatural empowerment - traditionally gendered, let's not even try to kid ourselves - can only come from demons. Right?
If this is so, can somebody please tell me just HOW THE FUCK IS THAT PORTRAYAL SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY?!?
(For disclaimer purposes, I'm an atheist; I'm offended as a human and a feminist, not as a Wiccan.)
And to think I used to consider Women's Work (here's another link if the NY Mag site is acting up) an unpleasantly sharp observation on the mysogyny of this show...
Not awesome, SPN. I'm having a pretty hard time thinking of myself as a fan of this show right now.
ETA: It's been pointed out to me that Sam does, indeed, say at some point that the magic they're doing is not Wiccan but dark arts. I'm still bothered whether the remaining members of the "book club" knew what they were getting themselves into, and whether they consciously decided to commit murder through their spells. Also? The female body count was really dammn high, even for this show.
Still pretty troubled here, folks.
FNL: "Leave No One Behind"
You know, I've somehow managed to look past the flaws of this season... up until this episode. It still gets to me - Matt breaking down because everybody leaves him (mom dying, grandma slowly disappearing, dad having gone to war, girlfriends dumping him), Smash coming to realize that the team comes first (plus, oh, the scene with his mother!), but... well, it's all beginning to feel too much like emotional character porn. Which I enjoy, but not in such illogical and out-of-character quantities. Also, I continue to be tired of Julie's insecurities when it comes to her parents' love. And I still adore Tami something FIERCE. But... yeah.
When they run out of new eps, I'll happily rewatch season 1. Because damn, this is a fantastic show.