I've posted a second vid rec list to Buffyverse Top 5
Once again, it took me all damn day (because I'm slow, badly organized and indecisive) - and once again it was worth it. TBT5 is one of the very best ways I know of in this fandom to discover works I've missed otherwise. And it's fun to see what other people come up with! F.ex. snogged posted a recs list of "remix" fanfics - how cool and clever is that
( Read more... )
I actually liked the first few episodes of S8 a LOT - it felt like it was it was getting it's groove back. For one thing Cobie Smulders wasn't as terribly thin as last season (yes, I notice that stuff) and best of all Robin wasn't so mopey and depressed (over Barney of all people). I LOVED the interaction of the core group and their partners, not only as couples but especially as a group - the gals ganging up on the guys in the "marriage contract" episode for instance. I liked Victoria as a partner for Ted more than any other woman he'd been with except Robin, the two seemed like a good fit.
And then they elimated all the partners within a few episodes very quickly; I particularly disliked that we're suddenly told that Robin's boyfriend was incredibly dumb when in fact he is a chef with a successful (if cheesy) cooking show (you don't become a chef or get your own tv show) as well as extremely thoughtful and patient when he'd cooked her a special dinner and she blew him off to help out Barney. But then they had to make him dumb as an excuse to write him off? Ugh. And in fact they made Robin, one of my favorite characters, incredibly unlikeable that season - the way she blew off her boyfriend for Barney and especially the constantly screamed at Patrice made her not only seem crazy and irrational but mean and bitchy, and thoroughly unlikeable, none of which I'd ever associated with Robin before. I ask for so little in life - don't ruin my favorite characters, is that too much to ask? *LMAO*
When they took away the gang's new partners, the air went out of the show for a little while and the new few eps were much less funny because the freshness that the other people added to the interactions and dynamics was gone. (Imagine btvs without anyone in the series except Buffy and the core four. No Anya, Oz, Cordy, Tara, Joyce, Dawn, Angel, Spike, Jenny, Faith etc.)
But as long as it amuses me I'll stick with it - my sweetie was disappointed when we finished S8 and realized we'd have to wait almost a year for the next season on Netlix. (Netflix has so few really good tv series - or at least ones that appeal to her - that we're thinking of switching to Hulu Plus and trying that out. A lot of series people have rec'd to me here on LJ are not available, and I never got to finish watching Nurse Jackie when they split the DVD/streaming options.)
There is still a decent chunk of activity at the barneyrobin comm, but it's not like it used to be.
Is that because the series is winding down?
I always confuse the acronym RPG (role playing game) with RPF (real person fic) btw. *lol*
Reply
I've always been a big fan of Ted/Victoria.
I do agree that it helps to have characters outside of the Core Five. It definitely keeps things interesting.
Actually...the BarneyRobin comm hit a big snag in Season 5 and hasn't really recovered from it. A lot of people seemed to lose interest in writing for prompts and discussing the show after Barney and Robin first broke-up.
*lol*
Well..RPG does involve real people, aka "The Usual Suspects" (yes, our group coined a name for itself. But mostly it was just like one giant fanfic series written by multiple authors. :)
I think the best thing to come out of my love affair with HIMYM though is my friendship with secondmezzanine. She lives about four hours away from me and we have made a point to see each other about once a year!
Reply
I've always been a big fan of Ted/Victoria.
the actress handled the comedy and the quiet drama equally well; and that she was a good visual match for Ted: attractive but not impossibly pretty. I saw the actress who is going to be the mother at the end of S8 and WHY does it have to be someone who's conventionally "model pretty"? WHY???
the BarneyRobin comm hit a big snag in Season 5
I think maybe part of it had to do with the fact that they made their last break-up so visually repugnant? via the magic of make-up Barney and Robin became horribly fat, their complexions were hideous etc. (Which is actually a sort of gross assumption about "fat people" - plus-sized folks can still be very attractive. Not that Hollywood would ever know that.) They brought out the worst in each other but the show went WAY over the top to make the point. I think that's hard to shake from the mind's eye (I know it is for me.)
The other problem for me personally is that I had expected more growth from Barney by this point, and I think I'd want that to be convinced that they are good for each other. The ep where he proposes, she's mad at the way he's manipulated her, the subterfuge and says "This is why we can never be together!" (Cobie was great in that scene.) I was thinking YES, exactly! And then he proposes and her objections magically go away? Doesn't work for me.
I think I've finally figured out that they made a mistake by telling us in the very first episode that Robin was NOT the mother. They basically clanged the gate shut on that entire storyline. So when they're attracted to each other, when they've gotten together for brief periods or Ted is silently pining for her, my reaction is, "whatever. You're not ending up together so there's no suspense there and I have no reason to care."
this is pretty much the same reason I hate the movie trope that I've seen quite frequently in the last 20 years: starting a film at the end with a significant event and then working backwards. I'm talking about purely fictional stories, and not biographies or ones based on real events. (f.ex.We know the Titantic was going to sink, etc) One I saw a couple years ago had Miranda Richards (one of my favorite actresses) as a wife and mother to three daughters in the 1960's in Canada; the very FIRST scene of the movie is her funeral. Then the movie goes backwards from the POV of one of her daughters. I see that a lot nowadays and if I already know that this major thing is going to happen, this person is going to die, etc, then it takes the surprise (and most of the emotional weight) out of it, and it actually makes me a little antsy, like, I know you're going to die, more on already.
I think Moulin Rouge was an exception - somehow I began to care so much for the characters and got so invested in them (and so pulled in by the great chemistry between Nicole and Ewan, not to mention the visuals) that I hoped against hope that Satine wouldn't die. And at the same time I was waiting for her to die and fearing the ending, the way I knew beforehand Joyce and Tara were going to die but didn't know when or how.
Remember when Kennedy guesses correctly that Willow turns off Moulin Rouge before Satine dies to preserve the happy ending? I've done that. And WHY did it only just now occur to me that OF COURSE Willow would turn off before the last scene - Tara died in her arms, she wouldn't want to watch the same thing happen onscreen; she'd want to preserve the fantasy of the happy ending, what "should have been". (I am dense.)
Reply
I'm not going to lie....I watch the show when it airs so I know a lot more about the "Mother" and I pretty much adore her. I also don't view her as "model pretty." I view her more as "bohemian pretty."
I agree that the break-up was "visually repugnant." But the biggest complaints I see on the BarneyRobin comm is how out-of-character they became and that's pretty much the rant ever since. I actually tend to avoid the community because I want to enjoy the show for what it is, instead of watching every episode get picked apart by petty commentary.
I'm with you on Moulin Rouge. I've turned it off before it ends too.
Reply
Re: MR, then I would feel guilty about "subverting" the director's intentions and would watch that dying scene anyway and cry. It was Ewan's cry of anguish that sent me into tears EVERY single time.
I haven't watched MR in years but I did literally "gorge" on it - watched it countless times, actually wrote one fanfic on ff.et that I still think is pretty good;made tons of icons; LOVED LOVED LOVED the costumes (my favorite is the Come What May rehearsal dress that buttons down the front and is worn with the heart-shaped "indian" headdress.) And I have the collectors red curtain box set with the extras disk. That DVD was probably the gold standard along with the LoTR special editions in terms of extras. (I have no idea about DVD's nowadays.)
Reply
I met my friend Kendra Saunders through a Nicole Kidman fanboard over ten years ago. We were both MR fans.
http://kendralsaunders.com
Reply
Leave a comment