caught among the bracken and the ferns
This evening I got to thinking about homoeroticism in buddy-cop tv shows - though damned if I can recall why; some random train of thought or web links, no doubt - particularly The Professionals. I've only seen a handful of episodes myself, but I believe the show has had a substantial slash fandom over the years, and I found myself clicking about
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*looks it up*
Oh my gosh, yes! There it is! The stuff you find on Wikipedia:
In the United Kingdom, the first season episode "The Fix", in which mobsters get Hutch hooked on heroin in order to extract information from him, was deemed too graphic by the BBC (despite the series being shown after the 9pm watershed), and was effectively "banned" from all of the corporation’s runs of the series. It was never broadcast on British terrestrial television until many years later, as part of Channel 4's one-off Starsky & Hutch Night, on Saturday 31st May 1999.
I absolutely recall sitting down and watching that entire marathon, because my mother told me it was the sort of show I might enjoy (and also I thought David Soul was hot), and before "The Fix" came on there was a voice-over about how this was the first showing on British tv because of the drug controversy. And yeah, that was the most homoerotic episode ever - Starsky nursing Hutch through his withdrawal, shaking and clutching and near-sobbing...heh... Since then, of course, I've come across plenty of fanfic that uses that sort of premise, but these guys did it first, and it was canon, and awesome!
In case you hadn't guessed, my mother was right about it being the sort of show I'd like. ^^;
I also have vague recollections of there being soundbites between episodes, with various minor television personalities discussing the series, their recollections of it, favourite moments and so forth, and there may have been some mention of the, ahh, intimacy of the main characters' relationship, particularly in reference to that episode. Of course, I may have imagined that, but I think it might be true. Oh, memories! XD
Anyway, yeah, that was a long trawl through some of the psychological roots of my fannishness that you didn't really need to hear, sorry. I think my point was something along the lines of: buddy cop shows are fun, and cheesy, and also chock-full of subtext. As are buddy cop movies (which is why I've been raving about Hot Fuzz recently).
Incidentally, have you ever seen the film version of Starsky And Hutch?
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No, I haven't.
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Kirk/Spock old-school represent! Though I admit I always had a soft spot for Spock/McCoy; that bickering UST vibe was great!
The film's great fun in its own right, even if you're not familiar with the show. It's a very gentle, loving spoof of the original series, and is really a comedy with action sequences rather than an action-comedy. Also, it includes a fair bit of deliberate m/m subtext, as an homage to the slashiness of the series, which I found quite delightful. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (who star in the film) referred to it at some point as basically a love story, which is also a comedy with action bits. Or something along those lines.
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Oh, that sounds like quite a nice homage. Love story indeed. ♥
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