You come at the king, you best not miss

[baleanoptera]

I'm stuck writing a paper and so I'm procrastinating and talking about fandom instead.
Snagged this from wildtiger7 who tagged me with Band of Brothers, BSG & The Wire

Comment and I will give you 3 fandoms and then you have to answer these questions

Comments

[finnygan]

I really need to watch at least one of those shows. It's quite embarrassing that I still haven't. I tried watching The Wire one time, but I kept forgetting when it was on and then - well, I didn't watch it. Whoops?

[baleanoptera]

My best advise regarding The Wire would be to just borrow or buy the dvds. It is a series best viewed in as few sittings as possible. That said I find watching the The Wire in no way a hardship - but instead something of an obsession. I can pretty much guarantee that you will fall in love with many of the characters and become very nervous by the various storylines.

The same view-it-in-few-sittings advice goes to Band of Brothers actually. To be honest I sometimes feel like that series is better viewed as a very long film. ;)

BSG is watch at your own peril...

[finnygan]

Let's see ... The Wire is £90 on DVD, Band of Brothers is £18, and BSG isn't even available yet. I think I know which one I'm going for first. I'm sure that I'll spot an offer on The Wire that I can't refuse soon enough. Oddly enough, I think I want to watch BSG the most, though. It sounds right up my alley.

[Also, can I have three? I need new ways of torturing my wrist.]

[baleanoptera]

Well, BSG has its moments of being pure kickass especially in the miniseries and first season. I think on a whole that it is well worth seeing, its just that the later seasons don't live up to the expectations of the first. But there are spaceships and gritty realism rolled into one, and that is always good.

As for fandoms I'll have to go with things I associate with you, so Tolkien - specifically the fëanorian aspect, Italian football and Greek myths (I blame the aegean punk for the last one) ;)

Speaking of the Greeks it should be mentioned that The Wire is in part inspired the old Greek plays and The Iliad. Seriously, you can have great fun identifying the Achilles character and so forth. Its about as happy as a Greek tragedy also...

[dianora77]

I'm surrounded by people raving about The Wire (I think at least one season aired her on tv as well) but I never felt any interest in watching it. Sort of like with the Sopranos. Also, for some reason I always thought it was British. LOL

I watched BOB on TV when it aired, and not being a huge fan of the genre, I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to follow it through to the end. I consider it a great compliment to the series, cause believe it or not, I'm a tough audience. ;)

As for BSG, same thing as The Wire... Just one of those shows I couldn't bring myself to watch, even though it aired in my country and everything. I don't know, something about the visual look of it, it was so dull and austere, it just failed to draw me in. Probably way too intellectual for me as well... :P

Do me! :)

[baleanoptera]

If it is any consolation I've never managed to sit through a whole episodes of Sopranos, and gods know I've tried. The Wire on the other hand took me a few episodes to get into, but by episode four of season one I was hooked. As I said to finnygan I think that series is best viewed as a whole, as an episode a week gets a bit confusing.

I'm a tough audience. ;)

*radiant smile* The glory of BoB can win over even the toughest audience. I think the series main strength is that it focuses on the humanity and friendship of the men instead of generic re-enactments of historical events.

Its also slashy as hell, which helps. Ahem...

(also, if you liked BoB I'd recommend checking out Generation Kill which is based on the Iraq war and is a sort of anti-theses to BoB, but excellent in its own way. )

Probably way too intellectual for me as wellHee. First of I'd say I highly doubt any of the shows mentioned here are too intellectual for you. Secondly BSG is a lot less intellectual than it likes to think. The whole thing about the series creator

[dianora77]

Oooh, you always make the best picks! :D I'll do this on the weekend, when I get home from the trip. :)

[applegnat]

I'm going to be the first person to buy DVDs of The Wire when they hit India. I know they can be rented somewhere, but I still haven't discovered where! And I will thank you for it when I finally do get embroiled in it. :D

* raises hand for meming! *

[baleanoptera]

I can think of few things that would please me more than you watching and loving The Wire. Its like a police mystery meets political intrigue meets cultural anthropology meets Greek myths. But I'll stop my gushing now.

As for memeing you'll get Tolkien, Lymond and Iron Man. (the latter can be answered in A CAVE)

(and you have a Zak Efron icon don't you? ;) )

[baleanoptera]

*high-fives you right back, sweet twin of mine*

As for the meme you get The Wire, BSG and Deadwood.

Band of Brothers is definitely knee deep in Greatest Generation rhetoric, and I'd say the problems the series does have are largely caused by the Good War/Greatest Generation narrative framework. But unlike say Saving Private Ryan I feel Band of Brothers does manage to rise above that framework on occasion, or at least tries to raise a few questions about it. Still there is no getting around the series semi-mythical feel and its Ryan-legacy.

(btw - have you watched Ken Burn's The War? I understand that he has also done a Civil War documentary. Was that also saccharine? )

[baleanoptera]

That C.S.A. film looks just epic - I think I'll have to get a hold of that. I think I must watch "The Civil War" as well, because I need to know how much of what he does in "The War" is Burns' style and how much is good, old "Greatest Generation" narrative topoi. Don't get me wrong - I like "The War" and find it engaging in places, but it does fit nicely into the mythic story of WWII.