this week in tv

[jlh]

HIMYM, "Hopeless."

1. I'm glad it's been revealed how Ted got those stupid red cowboy boots.
   
2. I said this on tumblr but Michael Trucco is really committed to this whole career of being the Ralph Bellamy, isn't he?
   
3. We're also a band! Like the Partridge Family!
   
4. I felt this ep was better on the Barney-Jerry relationship than the previous one, because it wasn't trying so hard.
   
5. How did the little old lady get home to the city from Westchester?

Hawaii Five-0, "Ho'opai'i." No one cares about you, Diddy, but nice job getting your song in the ep. In other news, Steve won't let Danny drive his own car like, ever; Steve has to stop and think before remembering that Grace is not actually his child; Steve's influence on Kono has her climbing trees and destroying government property; Chin just knows how to get shit done. And in the end it was all about the money, just like a Die Hard movie.

Glee, "A Night of Neglect." You know, no. The only things I enjoyed were the always-awesome Steven Toblowsky and Mercedes singing her song. You should check out sistermagpie's recap on tumblr, which is hilarious, or the AV Club rant.

Justified, "Full Committment." Did that just happen? Did all of those things actually just happen? Are there really only two weeks left? What is this SHOW?!!

Community, "Paradigms of Human Memory." It was really funny. Go watch it.

Comments

[wishfulclicking]

These are so short, I had to check them all to make sure.

Ugh Glee, episodes like this don't surprise me anymore. It reminded me how the episode after the Superbowl was kind of weak but the episode after 'Duets' was stronger. I've had the A.V. Club rant saved for later.

Justified. My goodness, this show just constantly amazes me and I can't believe there's only two episodes left. I don't think Dickie is long for this world, even if Raylan doesn't kill him, Boyd wanted to see how he would react and I don't think Boyd would want Dickie lurking around causing unnecessary trouble. Somehow Justified has become the show that makes me the most enthralled and I'm going to miss it so much when it's gone.

Community was hilarious and charming. The 'Gravity' montage was hilarious.

[jlh]

Dude, I'm going to post about this later but the Gravity thing, I knew it was a loving dig at fanvids, but I didn't realize it was actually a recreation of a specific fanvid. J'adore!

Glee totally doesn't surprise me. I was thinking I'd watch it next year and no further as Ryan Murphy said that some of the cast will graduate at the end of next season, but it may just be to watch the musical numbers and that's it.

[wishfulclicking]

I didn't know it was a specific fanvid until someone else mentioned it, apparently Harmon even tweeted the vid maker about it and everything.

Early on with this season I had to take stock on my relationship with Glee after I was ranting in my room and, yeah, I think once majority of the main cast leaves I'll dip out; but I say this and I'm still watching Degrassi even after they killed JT and got rid of the rest of the original cast. But I do know that I am detaching myself from Glee and at some point I may stop watching, or at least not even being aware of the fandom.

[jlh]

The only awareness I really have of the fandom is occasional secrets on FS and what femslash shows up on femslash today. It got so contentious so quickly, not just within the fandom but outside of it with a lot of SJ folks making very large and strong statements against it after the second or so episode that I don't talk about it online except here. Are you more active, or were you?

[wishfulclicking]

During the first season I was actively following several Glee communities on LJ, tracking the anon meme which kept me up to date on various things going on across the fandom, and reading fic across pairings and some gen too when I found it. I also participated in more discussions.

This season I've pulled back from most of that. The anon comm just started getting really repetitive and it lost its fun for me, I don't really care about the cast to the degree that parts of fandom does so the communities became something I took off my default list.

It got so contentious so quickly, not just within the fandom but outside of it with a lot of SJ folks making very large and strong statements against it after the second or so episode

So true. I only talk about the show with people I already know or on the DW comm. I actually find less antagonistic conversation on places that aren't specifically fandom related.

[jlh]

Are you still reading fic? What pairings were you enjoying? Glee has always disappointed me in its fic; it should be exactly the kind of show that inspires piles of great fic because it has interesting characters that it pretty much fails, but the contentiousness and maybe also the relative youth of the fangirls made that difficult. I've found a few diamonds in the coal here and there, but not a lot.

[wishfulclicking]

I am barely reading fic for it now. Glee's average fic quality is not as high as previous fandoms I've engaged in, and maybe it's a perception because Glee is not a fic heavy fandom, it has more of a visual presence that I also enjoy, and perhaps ratio of quality to quantity would be about the same if compared to other fandoms; but I still sort of doubt it.

Because I was attempting a weekly rec post on the glee dw comm I tried to read all pairings, and I'm glad for it because it did make me break my standard mold. It's funny how much this answer would change compared to last season and where I am currently. Favorite pairings usually involved Quinn or Kurt. I still have a gen Mercedes fic that is marked as one of my favorites out of the fandom. There's also this Tina fic that came out of last year's exchange that had her with multiple people that I still adore. Right now I want to read some Santana fic but it's hard to find stuff that handles her well.

I could say the same about most of the fic actually. My favorite fics either land the humor and biting tone without missing some of the random sweetness of the best Glee episodes (which is very hard to do), show more of a character that's not shown on the show (and this falls to all the characters, though I have read fics that really made me see Finn, Rachel, and Puck, and Kurt too; but the most success I've had with these have been with Quinn, Tina, Mercedes, and maybe Santana), or a really hot piece of porn.

Stealth favorite pairing: Quinn/Mercedes, especially during season one. There never was a lot of it but the few pieces I read I enjoyed. Also Tina/girls.

Glee fandom is younger than most that I'm used to, or after I've realized that some people may seem younger than they actually are, but I do feel like there's a majority of more teen voices in this fandom, especially on tumblr, and it comes out when discussing certain things within the show (homophobia, sexism, racism) and that difficulty in discussing those things isn't always put down to youth, but it does play a factor. There's also the issue of some feeling to defend something they enjoy from every accusation of fault because if they love it has to be perfect, or at least not have horrible problems like racism or sexism.

I remember when I first got into Glee I said it would be a perfect fandom for the me of ten years ago when I was just getting into fandom because the source material wasn't hard to deal with and the writing level within fandom wasn't the hightest. There are high quality writers within most fandoms (I can't say all because I haven't been in all fandoms) but some fandoms attract a higher density than others.

[kitty_wake]

I've been reading those AV club rants about Glee and though I'm not in full agreement with the commentary on the earlier episodes - I think I must have a different schmaltz tolerance from everyone on there - the commentary on the more recent episodes I've seen is dead on. I especially like this thought in the comments (paraphrased because I can't remember): "Glee thinks that acknowledging an issue is the same as tackling it".

I've mostly stopped watching it - it's on in the background and I listen to the numbers, but I know if I pay more than five seconds' attention to the speaky bits I'll be incapable of uttering any words other than "What the hell?" for the next two hours.

[jlh]

Yeah, that's where I'm at, that I watch the numbers and let the rest of it sort of zoom past me.