One '70s buddy-cop show is much like another, right?
So lysimache has been on a Professionals kick, and she's got me going on it too. It doesn't hurt that Harlequin Airs is one of the best stories I've read in a long time. Plus, it's an AU, so it's not like you need to know the fandom well. Doyle's part of CI5 in this one, and he has to go undercover at a circus as a trapeze artist, a flyer. Naturally, Bodie, whom he meets there for the first time, is his catcher, and of course they make the best pair ever. But, could Bodie possibly be part of a nefarious IRA gunrunning scheme? Oh noes! And will Doyle be able to tell him how he feels about him? Yeah, it's that sort of story. Also it's 700k long.
This is why in the past few days, I have joined proslib, sent off for the archive CD, joined a bunch of LJ communities (apparently Pros fandom is still really active! Who'd have thought?), and seriously want a DVD set even though I am not entirely sure I can play Region 2 PAL DVDs. Waaaant. With the exchange rate it's only about $100. Waaant. I probably should mention that I've only seen maybe three Pros episodes, and the only reason I've managed to see them is because my dad imported and had converted a VHS tape of a few episodes, because Cousin Steve was in them. (I'm not actually sure how he's related -- he might be my dad's second cousin, or once removed, or one of those other things. Genealogy is hard, yo.) Anyway. He played Murphy, which is why that's the only Pros I've seen. And now I really want to see more. Really really.
In lieu of Pros, I have been instead watching Starsky and Hutch, because, well, that's the slashy 70s buddy-cop series that I can easily get ahold of. I know, I know, not the same thing at all.
And, hey, now we've finished watching S3. The amnesia episode was very cute and was full of flashbacks where S&H were telling each other how much they meant to each other... and then it turned out Hutch was faking the amnesia. The episode didn't make it clear why he was doing that, and I sure hope fandom has an explanation for that, because it seemed really out of character to me. The episode after that, where Starsky went undercover as a taxi driver, was reasonably entertaining, except for the chase scene at the end where a fatigued (?) Starsky was wobbling slowly down the alley being chased by the limping crossdressing murderer. That was just weird.
But, oh man, the season finale. I hope Paul Michael Glaser never directs anything else. It might have been a decent episode if someone else had directed it. Didn't anyone tell him that good directing should be, well, unobtrusive? This means no spending five minutes on people walking across the screen slowly saying nothing. No overlapping conversations. Really, no. No shooting the conversation with a huge board between the camera and the actors. No putting the camera at groin level with a uniformed officer's crotch taking up half of the shot. And for God's sake please stop angling the camera so that we can see up everyone's noses all the time. (I was yelling "Nose cam!" at the TV.) Really.
And now it's time for Season 4, in which Hutch has a mustache and apparently the show jumps the shark, and they go undercover as hairdressers. Um, yay?
(I have finally given in and started tagging my journal. I have over 3000 entries. Wish me luck.)
This is why in the past few days, I have joined proslib, sent off for the archive CD, joined a bunch of LJ communities (apparently Pros fandom is still really active! Who'd have thought?), and seriously want a DVD set even though I am not entirely sure I can play Region 2 PAL DVDs. Waaaant. With the exchange rate it's only about $100. Waaant. I probably should mention that I've only seen maybe three Pros episodes, and the only reason I've managed to see them is because my dad imported and had converted a VHS tape of a few episodes, because Cousin Steve was in them. (I'm not actually sure how he's related -- he might be my dad's second cousin, or once removed, or one of those other things. Genealogy is hard, yo.) Anyway. He played Murphy, which is why that's the only Pros I've seen. And now I really want to see more. Really really.
In lieu of Pros, I have been instead watching Starsky and Hutch, because, well, that's the slashy 70s buddy-cop series that I can easily get ahold of. I know, I know, not the same thing at all.
And, hey, now we've finished watching S3. The amnesia episode was very cute and was full of flashbacks where S&H were telling each other how much they meant to each other... and then it turned out Hutch was faking the amnesia. The episode didn't make it clear why he was doing that, and I sure hope fandom has an explanation for that, because it seemed really out of character to me. The episode after that, where Starsky went undercover as a taxi driver, was reasonably entertaining, except for the chase scene at the end where a fatigued (?) Starsky was wobbling slowly down the alley being chased by the limping crossdressing murderer. That was just weird.
But, oh man, the season finale. I hope Paul Michael Glaser never directs anything else. It might have been a decent episode if someone else had directed it. Didn't anyone tell him that good directing should be, well, unobtrusive? This means no spending five minutes on people walking across the screen slowly saying nothing. No overlapping conversations. Really, no. No shooting the conversation with a huge board between the camera and the actors. No putting the camera at groin level with a uniformed officer's crotch taking up half of the shot. And for God's sake please stop angling the camera so that we can see up everyone's noses all the time. (I was yelling "Nose cam!" at the TV.) Really.
And now it's time for Season 4, in which Hutch has a mustache and apparently the show jumps the shark, and they go undercover as hairdressers. Um, yay?
(I have finally given in and started tagging my journal. I have over 3000 entries. Wish me luck.)