So, thoughts about Hawaii Five-0...
There's about three people on my flist into it, and yeah, I've only just finished ep 22, but hey, here's it so far, because I'm too tired and with not enough time to think it through before typing it up, so, probably reinventing the fandom wheel here.
Okay, so when I started out I was expecting it to be all sexism, all the time, and hey, pleasantly surprised there, because I came for the guys (my god, don't get me started on Alex O'Loughlin, yeah?) but hell, I stayed for the women. Rachel Edwards, Mary Ann McGarrett, Jenna Kaye, Pat Jameson, Cath Rollins, I am in love, I swear, and I never, ever stayed with a show for the women unless it was a woman's show, and that this so ain't.
Okay, so it is annoying that some directors don't seem to get that women watch this show and like to see men in bathing outfits as much as the men who watch the show like seeing women in bikinis, but mwah, I can live with that, because some of them do and the shots of the beach aren't always just about butts and boobs, and hey, gratifying. More than I was expecting. And yes, okay, Catherine Rollins in ep 15, with the "you can't go down there, it's dangerous" line (paraphrased) pissed me off because she's not that girl, and I hadn't thought about this in years, but I quoted Major Sarah McKenzie at the screen right then and there, like it was yesterday and not ten years ago I last saw that: I'm a Marine; my life is expendable. Cath Rollins is like that, too; she's not that girl, she wouldn't say that and it threw me because it made her someone I disliked, rather than someone I liked in spite of the fact that she's messing with my OTP. (For now, I'm pretending my Cath Rollins didn't say that.)
But hey, you know what else, it's not as bad at continuity as I was expecting either, except for how they can't settle on gear for Steve to use until about midway through the season, but then they clearly decided on kit and it's awesome, right, so I'm all happy with the laser/flashlight attachment and the different vest, and yeah, I'm there. (see: Alex O'Loughlin, above.) In another vein of awesome, my god, the overarcing plot has me gasping a lot, and yeah, I've been spoiled a little for the finale and I can't wait till I get there (soon, I promise). The rest of the plots, the episode ones, yeah, I'm not in this show for the writing, clearly, but I do love, love, love the characters.
(Re. continuity and wtf, ep 21 didn't happen, did it? It was like someone wrote H50, took out the slashy undertones and the cool women and planted it back, what with the kid surviving but the wife dying -- I called that, went all, if it had been a daughter, she'd be dead -- and instead of the team being bad-ass, we got some guest star who was meant to be cool. I'm so uncool I didn't realise who he was and what was going on there, and then just rolled my eyes, because, dudes, you're trying to appeal to the wrong target audience, and I'm not watching for your stellar writing, okay? And then there was 22, and it was back to being fabulous and Steve slowly disintegrating, which is awesome to watch.)
On that note, love Steve, adore Danny. Beginning to like Chin a lot too. Having difficulty connecting to Kono, and I can't figure out why. She's a bit of a blank slate to me, when she's definitely had her on screen moments, and I can't figure out what that is. All the other women I love, definitely have mental backstory for, but not Kono. It's odd. (It's also odd I want to write the women, not the men; I've had a few mental bunnies for Steve & Danny, but no real inclination or feeling that I could write them. Rachel, Mary, Jameson... Dying to sit down and go there, omg.)
The fandom, okay. So it's totally obsessed with eyelashes and tattoos, and that I can get behind. I mean, yeah, I'm there. But seriously, I roll my eyes every time fandom gets the whole military thing wrong, because that happens a lot. I've seen some good ones out there, mind you, but also some blatant misunderstanding of ranks and the fact that Steve is a sailor, not a soldier. (This is not the post where I'll go into how Steve must have been in Pakistan around 2002-2004 and how I know this, and how my RL and my fandom should never collide, because I studied the other side of it in RL and my god, it wasn't pretty.) Also, fandom, really, this is selfish, but I was hoping for more DADT fic and more fic dealing with homophobia (don't ask, I know it's bad of me, yeah), but I'm loving the fic that is out there and am seriously impressed with the vids I've seen so far. (Rec list in the usual place.)
This, this is it for now, but yeah, I'm really, really hoping that I can hang out in this fandom a bit longer; I'm beginning to like it here. And when I'm done coalescing thoughts and actually having like, time, I'm dying to do something about the cult of masculinity and H50, because they go together. A lot.
Okay, so when I started out I was expecting it to be all sexism, all the time, and hey, pleasantly surprised there, because I came for the guys (my god, don't get me started on Alex O'Loughlin, yeah?) but hell, I stayed for the women. Rachel Edwards, Mary Ann McGarrett, Jenna Kaye, Pat Jameson, Cath Rollins, I am in love, I swear, and I never, ever stayed with a show for the women unless it was a woman's show, and that this so ain't.
Okay, so it is annoying that some directors don't seem to get that women watch this show and like to see men in bathing outfits as much as the men who watch the show like seeing women in bikinis, but mwah, I can live with that, because some of them do and the shots of the beach aren't always just about butts and boobs, and hey, gratifying. More than I was expecting. And yes, okay, Catherine Rollins in ep 15, with the "you can't go down there, it's dangerous" line (paraphrased) pissed me off because she's not that girl, and I hadn't thought about this in years, but I quoted Major Sarah McKenzie at the screen right then and there, like it was yesterday and not ten years ago I last saw that: I'm a Marine; my life is expendable. Cath Rollins is like that, too; she's not that girl, she wouldn't say that and it threw me because it made her someone I disliked, rather than someone I liked in spite of the fact that she's messing with my OTP. (For now, I'm pretending my Cath Rollins didn't say that.)
But hey, you know what else, it's not as bad at continuity as I was expecting either, except for how they can't settle on gear for Steve to use until about midway through the season, but then they clearly decided on kit and it's awesome, right, so I'm all happy with the laser/flashlight attachment and the different vest, and yeah, I'm there. (see: Alex O'Loughlin, above.) In another vein of awesome, my god, the overarcing plot has me gasping a lot, and yeah, I've been spoiled a little for the finale and I can't wait till I get there (soon, I promise). The rest of the plots, the episode ones, yeah, I'm not in this show for the writing, clearly, but I do love, love, love the characters.
(Re. continuity and wtf, ep 21 didn't happen, did it? It was like someone wrote H50, took out the slashy undertones and the cool women and planted it back, what with the kid surviving but the wife dying -- I called that, went all, if it had been a daughter, she'd be dead -- and instead of the team being bad-ass, we got some guest star who was meant to be cool. I'm so uncool I didn't realise who he was and what was going on there, and then just rolled my eyes, because, dudes, you're trying to appeal to the wrong target audience, and I'm not watching for your stellar writing, okay? And then there was 22, and it was back to being fabulous and Steve slowly disintegrating, which is awesome to watch.)
On that note, love Steve, adore Danny. Beginning to like Chin a lot too. Having difficulty connecting to Kono, and I can't figure out why. She's a bit of a blank slate to me, when she's definitely had her on screen moments, and I can't figure out what that is. All the other women I love, definitely have mental backstory for, but not Kono. It's odd. (It's also odd I want to write the women, not the men; I've had a few mental bunnies for Steve & Danny, but no real inclination or feeling that I could write them. Rachel, Mary, Jameson... Dying to sit down and go there, omg.)
The fandom, okay. So it's totally obsessed with eyelashes and tattoos, and that I can get behind. I mean, yeah, I'm there. But seriously, I roll my eyes every time fandom gets the whole military thing wrong, because that happens a lot. I've seen some good ones out there, mind you, but also some blatant misunderstanding of ranks and the fact that Steve is a sailor, not a soldier. (This is not the post where I'll go into how Steve must have been in Pakistan around 2002-2004 and how I know this, and how my RL and my fandom should never collide, because I studied the other side of it in RL and my god, it wasn't pretty.) Also, fandom, really, this is selfish, but I was hoping for more DADT fic and more fic dealing with homophobia (don't ask, I know it's bad of me, yeah), but I'm loving the fic that is out there and am seriously impressed with the vids I've seen so far. (Rec list in the usual place.)
This, this is it for now, but yeah, I'm really, really hoping that I can hang out in this fandom a bit longer; I'm beginning to like it here. And when I'm done coalescing thoughts and actually having like, time, I'm dying to do something about the cult of masculinity and H50, because they go together. A lot.