television part the second
Jan. 24th, 2012 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhI decided, in terms of the tagging thing, that the biggest thing that I can't really do is try to perfectly anticipate how other people might want me to tag that will enable them to do something that they're not telling me they're doing. So I'm going to go on as I have been, for the most part, on both AO3 and tumblr. I am VASTLY GRATEFUL to everyone who replied here or on twitter, as talking to you all helped me to think through how I felt. THANK YOU.
I was going to do a meme about the tv shows I'm watching right now, but I'm finding the questions annoying so here is a free-form blurb on each of them, and if you're watching any of them you should let me know! This list is mostly sitcoms because I'm on a very long tear of watching light things, which likely isn't ending anytime soon.
HIMYM: Craig and Carter just said that they were happy to have HIMYM last for billions of years, which doesn't excite me because (1) even if Jason Segal says he's sticking around until the story is done there's no way that NPH will; (2) let's face it, it isn't as consistently brilliant as it once was and end-of-run momentum could help that; (3) eight seasons is enough for any show. I'm sticking around until then, at least, though I think how they handle Barney's wedding at the end of this season will be a big clue as to my sticking around through season eight and beyond.
Castle: I spoke about my love for this show in a previous post.
Glee: I mean really, is there anything to say about it that hasn't been said? It's a mess, sometimes with fun musical numbers. I watch for the latter. Might hop off the ride after this season, less with hate than with, "well, that happened."
Suburgatory: It's really cute without being too in love with itself. It tips to one side and then rights itself, then tips over to the other side for a bit. It's clever without being in love with its own cleverness. It has Elton from Clueless/Billy from Six Feet Under and also Alan Tudyk being ridiculous. It also has teenagers not being as completely annoying as they often are on television.
Happy Endings: Look, it's a zany sitcom. There are not a lot of through stories. It feels very improv-oriented. It's mostly there to make you laugh. On those terms, it's incredibly well done with very funny jokes and sharply written characters. If you don't like sitcoms and silliness, you won't like it. If you do see humor in a lady with a cold going to a Halloween party in a Marilyn Monroe costume getting picked up by a gay man who thinks she's a drag queen, then you probably will like the show.
New Girl: I like this show, and I wish there hadn't been all this "if you like it you're a bad feminist" stuff going on around it. I get that other people don't like the Zooey Deschanel character, and that's fine, but I recognize friends and myself in some of the things she does. I like her friendship with Cici, and how Cici feels a little like she has to take care of Jess sometimes, but also knows Jess can take care of herself better than the boys seem to think she can. (Well, the boys other than Winston, who I think gets Jess better than any of them.) I like Schmidt a lot, of course, but I also like how they're deepening Nick's character. He's not the "normal" person who has to put up with Jess's quirkiness, or the damaged man who will be healed by her antics. Rather, he's a guy who has such a strong reaction to her because he has some issues. I like how they're complicating the initial set up.
Justified: Not so light, but so damn funny I don't care. And since the only characters I'm really invested in are Raylan and Boyd, who aren't going anyplace, I don't have to get all worried about death. That said, I do often skip to the end and see what happened before watching it through, and I skip the occasional torture porn. But damn, it's such a well-written, interesting, intelligent show. Even better, it's about poor white rural folks and doesn't make them all into idiots, and since they are my people, I'm bound to like that.
White Collar: I tend not to talk about this show too much because people too often are like, "I want it to be darker and have STAKES" and it's like, this is USA, not FX. There are no stakes. That's the entire point. Well, okay, there are stakes, but we know how they'll get resolved. Let me have my carefree con man caper show, okay? You can have Doctor Who if you want "stakes."
Top Chef: Kinda snoozy this season, isn't it? I'm not even really rooting for or against anyone, just vaguely watching it unfold. I don't feel any real involvement in the events. I think that long lead-in was a mistake, looking back. And while I know Gail can't be there every week, I don't like having a pile of people to fill in for her, because it feels like Tom and Padma and two guest judges.
Community: You're probably either on this train or not, and if you're not you're probably annoyed with the people who are, but I'll say that it's an incredibly good show and I might follow it anyplace. Six seasons and a movie!
Parks and Recreation: I just started watching it this season, and have seen some very funny episodes from 2&3. I like it a lot, love Ben and Andy and April, like Ron and Donna and Tom and Ann, think Chris and Leslie are just fine. I might like Leslie more when I see the earlier seasons, but I'm not hugely fond of steamrollers and while she's a very nice and well-meaning and caring one, she's still pretty much a steamroller.
Up All Night: If you aren't squicked by parenthood then you should watch it. I know a lot of you are very parenting-avoidant as a principal and that's cool, but if you are only avoiding annoying schmoop, there isn't much of that here. Not that it's edgy, but it has a good balance. And I mean, Christina Applegate! Will Arnett not playing an asshole and doing it well! Maya Rudolph! It's really fun and well done, and often hilarious. (It had a couple of cringey moments in ep 2, but push past that; it isn't a cringey show.)
Pan Am: It tried to be a good show, really it did. It just never quite got there. Watching til the end, and can't imagine ABC will pick it up for next season, but hope it improves if they do.
Probably going to watch Smash. Definitely going to watch The Voice. Will also watch Suits when it returns this summer. Oh, and I keep meaning to watch that new Don Cheadle show, even if it did get mixed reviews.
So anyone watching any of these shows?
I was going to do a meme about the tv shows I'm watching right now, but I'm finding the questions annoying so here is a free-form blurb on each of them, and if you're watching any of them you should let me know! This list is mostly sitcoms because I'm on a very long tear of watching light things, which likely isn't ending anytime soon.
HIMYM: Craig and Carter just said that they were happy to have HIMYM last for billions of years, which doesn't excite me because (1) even if Jason Segal says he's sticking around until the story is done there's no way that NPH will; (2) let's face it, it isn't as consistently brilliant as it once was and end-of-run momentum could help that; (3) eight seasons is enough for any show. I'm sticking around until then, at least, though I think how they handle Barney's wedding at the end of this season will be a big clue as to my sticking around through season eight and beyond.
Castle: I spoke about my love for this show in a previous post.
Glee: I mean really, is there anything to say about it that hasn't been said? It's a mess, sometimes with fun musical numbers. I watch for the latter. Might hop off the ride after this season, less with hate than with, "well, that happened."
Suburgatory: It's really cute without being too in love with itself. It tips to one side and then rights itself, then tips over to the other side for a bit. It's clever without being in love with its own cleverness. It has Elton from Clueless/Billy from Six Feet Under and also Alan Tudyk being ridiculous. It also has teenagers not being as completely annoying as they often are on television.
Happy Endings: Look, it's a zany sitcom. There are not a lot of through stories. It feels very improv-oriented. It's mostly there to make you laugh. On those terms, it's incredibly well done with very funny jokes and sharply written characters. If you don't like sitcoms and silliness, you won't like it. If you do see humor in a lady with a cold going to a Halloween party in a Marilyn Monroe costume getting picked up by a gay man who thinks she's a drag queen, then you probably will like the show.
New Girl: I like this show, and I wish there hadn't been all this "if you like it you're a bad feminist" stuff going on around it. I get that other people don't like the Zooey Deschanel character, and that's fine, but I recognize friends and myself in some of the things she does. I like her friendship with Cici, and how Cici feels a little like she has to take care of Jess sometimes, but also knows Jess can take care of herself better than the boys seem to think she can. (Well, the boys other than Winston, who I think gets Jess better than any of them.) I like Schmidt a lot, of course, but I also like how they're deepening Nick's character. He's not the "normal" person who has to put up with Jess's quirkiness, or the damaged man who will be healed by her antics. Rather, he's a guy who has such a strong reaction to her because he has some issues. I like how they're complicating the initial set up.
Justified: Not so light, but so damn funny I don't care. And since the only characters I'm really invested in are Raylan and Boyd, who aren't going anyplace, I don't have to get all worried about death. That said, I do often skip to the end and see what happened before watching it through, and I skip the occasional torture porn. But damn, it's such a well-written, interesting, intelligent show. Even better, it's about poor white rural folks and doesn't make them all into idiots, and since they are my people, I'm bound to like that.
White Collar: I tend not to talk about this show too much because people too often are like, "I want it to be darker and have STAKES" and it's like, this is USA, not FX. There are no stakes. That's the entire point. Well, okay, there are stakes, but we know how they'll get resolved. Let me have my carefree con man caper show, okay? You can have Doctor Who if you want "stakes."
Top Chef: Kinda snoozy this season, isn't it? I'm not even really rooting for or against anyone, just vaguely watching it unfold. I don't feel any real involvement in the events. I think that long lead-in was a mistake, looking back. And while I know Gail can't be there every week, I don't like having a pile of people to fill in for her, because it feels like Tom and Padma and two guest judges.
Community: You're probably either on this train or not, and if you're not you're probably annoyed with the people who are, but I'll say that it's an incredibly good show and I might follow it anyplace. Six seasons and a movie!
Parks and Recreation: I just started watching it this season, and have seen some very funny episodes from 2&3. I like it a lot, love Ben and Andy and April, like Ron and Donna and Tom and Ann, think Chris and Leslie are just fine. I might like Leslie more when I see the earlier seasons, but I'm not hugely fond of steamrollers and while she's a very nice and well-meaning and caring one, she's still pretty much a steamroller.
Up All Night: If you aren't squicked by parenthood then you should watch it. I know a lot of you are very parenting-avoidant as a principal and that's cool, but if you are only avoiding annoying schmoop, there isn't much of that here. Not that it's edgy, but it has a good balance. And I mean, Christina Applegate! Will Arnett not playing an asshole and doing it well! Maya Rudolph! It's really fun and well done, and often hilarious. (It had a couple of cringey moments in ep 2, but push past that; it isn't a cringey show.)
Pan Am: It tried to be a good show, really it did. It just never quite got there. Watching til the end, and can't imagine ABC will pick it up for next season, but hope it improves if they do.
Probably going to watch Smash. Definitely going to watch The Voice. Will also watch Suits when it returns this summer. Oh, and I keep meaning to watch that new Don Cheadle show, even if it did get mixed reviews.
So anyone watching any of these shows?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 01:09 am (UTC)Justified is one of my favorite shows. I am so mad that it airs against Southland and TNT runs reruns late.
Suburgatory was a surprise pleasure for me. I agree with what you said about it sometimes tilting too far but then self-correcting. Dalia is really growing on me as a character, and Tessa and her friend, though I do wish Malik would show up more.
Happy Endings is one of my favorites too. I love the relationships on the show and how they really seem fond of each other. Alex grew on me from last season and I like Dave as well. I think Brad and Jane are my favorites together.
I fell off with Up All NIght but what I did see I enjoyed. It's a very mild and enjoyable show but I do love how it shows parenting without screaming its point and the couple actually seems to love each other.
Fistbump solidarity on New Girl. Perhaps because I am not very in tune with the internet (or that culture of entertainment blog, culture, echo chamber effect thing) but I had very little Zooey Deschanel exposure before this show: I just saw 500 Days of Summer last year and I came out not hating her character the way a lot of people seemed to, and I am aware she is in a band but I don't follow her, and I know she was in Failure to Launch and I liked that well enough. I avoid her website but I avoid most celebrity sites for my own reasons. I see so much disdain for her and her character and calling her twee, but I think at times she can be extreme on the show but she feels like a real person in that universe. What I love about NG is that the entire cast has its hangups: Schmidt really needs to be accepted, and him having his past doesn't feel like a joke and fits for the way he behaves now, Winston really gets Jess and is at loss but also feels very centered. Nick is not the normal guy that just reacts, he does outlandish things too. Cici and Jess's friendship is one of my favorite things, whenever they have a moment I smile.
I feel you on the whole bad feminism is liking this show angle, it's always something that gets my hackles up.
Ditto on Community and Parks & Rec.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 03:49 am (UTC)FX is very slow to put their stuff online, but they do rerun immediately at 11pm if that helps? I've heard good things about Southland though I think it's not my sort of show. Between those two shows and White Collar Tuesdays at 10pm is very busy! But man, Justified has gotten off to a really great start. So excited.
Suburgatory and Happy Endings happened for me because of my friend Val (
I do follow a bunch of entertainment blogs, it's true, and I think actually that what happened was that New Girl was being SOLD in an obnoxious way with all the adorkable, and the session at the fall TCA did not go well, and so all the female TV critics got their hackles up and their knives out. It doesn't help when a certain tiger-ish writer makes entire posts about it and about how they don't like either Leslie or Liz anymore but only Britta, as if everyone needs to pick their "favorite" sitcom female and that actually has any meaning and we should pit them against each other in some kind of feminist tv deathmatch. Ugh.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 06:18 pm (UTC)Schmidt is definitely the breakout character but the entire definition of them is that they aren't the main character and probably shouldn't be. I mean, anyone want a show led by Barney Stinson or The Fonz?
I felt some of the cagematch thing when it came to that "we love the women you hate" meme that went around. Of course fannish hating on women is (1) an old and sadly familiar story and (2) is the opposite of awesome. And I know that people could add characters to that meme/community. But it does seem like the female characters get sorted into the ones that lots of het-centric fangirls identify with and want to ship with the main male character, the ones they hate on mostly for slash or het ship war reasons, and the ones everyone ignores. Like, for Community, Annie is the first kind, Britta the second, Shirley the last. I don't know that it's any better to codify how awesome you are for liking the Brittas (and I adore Britta). I know that fandom tends to cluster and have ship fights, and I know that online feminism tends to operate on a "you should be doing THIS" model, but put them together and it gets really toxic really quickly, and doesn't allow for the kind of natural diversity that we might have.
It also reminds me how spoiled we were in HP fandom. I know it looked wanky from the outside, but it was so large that no matter what character you liked, you could always find the cluster of people who also liked her and were pushing out a lot of fic. It was much less "if you want to be in, like this character" but more "if you like this character, go find your people."
no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 01:46 am (UTC)You totally nailed Community fandom and the female reaction. Part of the cagematch aura does seem to come from that 'we love the women you hate' mentality and this thing where there is only one way to be a strong female character (which usually fits to the person's preferences) and any sign of traits that are usually around stereotypical portrayals are railed against. There space between this character is nothing but a stereotype and this character has stereotypical traits but the canon fleshes them out. Back to New Girl, yes Jess is awkward and very positive most of the time but throughout the show's run they've seen to balance her out more; they've shown her being a good teacher, understanding Winston, helping out Nick at the wedding and standing up for her right to be weird, and the recent episode with Schmidt showed how they were becoming friends. Jess is not just there to prop everyone up and be tolerated, she has shown maturity.
Big fandoms with ensembles with a good split between genders can lead to great fandoms. HP was like that, and I think if GRRM had not been so against fanfic, Game of Thrones would be bigger but probably not as positive considering the nature of the source and so many of the characters are in conflict and there is a lot of ambiguity within the series. There are different female characters though of different types.