Writing, Nashville and Partners in Crime
Aug. 6th, 2015 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI wrote a fic, The History Boys and Girl some days ago, (Nashville, gen, universal), which came to nearly 2,000 words. That’s long for me.
As I say in the notes, I wanted to have Scarlett, Avery and Gunnar bask in what they’d done and for there to be some lead-up to Gunnar speaking for the band with Noah, so I wrote this missing scene, giving the characters (more Scarlett and Avery, who have their mental blindspots too, of course) a moment of introspection after the gig about all that had happened. The title comes from the play ‘The History Boys’ and was inspired by Gunnar’s line about how the three of them have some history, which is one way of putting it. I’m glad I got it out before watching the next episode – I feel as if I played within the canonical lines, but of course, things moved on, especially for Gunnar and Avery.
Nashville 3.10 First to Have a Second Chance
A lot happened in the episode, but I feel that Juliette/Avery got the raw end of the deal in the desire for there to be a wedding, but not the one we’ve been building up to. The misdirection about what was going on in Avery’s mind after he gave Juliette the ‘Erk, I’m not sure if great friends covers it’ look, meant that I thought he was moving away from that realisation – his gloss on what Juliette did to break them up was quite something. So, the proposal was a shock and they were playing the audience in the build-up, and they gave Juliette a moment of heartbreak, even if they showed how much she’d grown in her response to Avery’s ‘I can’t do this...’ which is a terrible beginning to a proposal.
I even feel a bit cheated as a shipper that they decided to get married there and then (what about Glenn and Emily, at least) though Juliette’s hair, the simplicity of it and THEIR FACES were darling. However, they haven’t thought about this, AND I WANT THEM TO WORK. Sacrificing decent development for them for Rayna/Deacon is not acceptable!
I’d give a B for the handling the inevitable demise of Ruke before the Rayna/Deacon steamroller, which may not be a great grade considering how much work went into it. Tandy’s return was stiff, but who else but a sister could ask the obvious ‘are you happy? Have you thought what marrying Luke will mean for your life? Really?’ questions? Oh, but, Tandie, how Luke talks to (and doesn’t talk to) Rayna is part of the problem...
Rayna should have pushed the ‘it’s me and what I want’ line harder, although Luke was always going to blame Deacon (rightly so, to some extent). As someone who isn’t that hardcore about Rayna/Deacon, I think they’ve done a good job with Luke’s feelings, although he has been petty and macho and (understandably) materialistic, while Rayna and Deacon share the same noble, family-first or is it music and yay!privacy values.
I have been thinking about how the show could do a little more with class and poverty/wealth. It’s there with Rayna, Luke, Deacon, Juliette and Gunnar, whose backgrounds influence them. It’d be interesting to find out more about where Will comes from, actually.
The sad mess of the Will-Layla-Jeff triangle had a brief moment of Jeff threatening to turn more human (shudder).We also had Layla raising the age difference, but it’s the power dynamic that made it icky, even if Will was the one who out-ultimatumed Jeff, Jeff is boss to both of them. So, thanks to those two delightful gentlemen, Layla’s self-destructive spiral was back on. (The pills reminded me of Liam). The appropriate response would have been for Layla to take a picture of Will being NOT GAY with the freelancer and DIVORCE HIM. More seriously, I hope they haven’t killed her off, as it would basically be fridging.
Micah’s grandparents were ridiculous, I was very sarcastic about their unilateral decision that they would be better at bringing him up, with no communication or negotiation with the adults in his life. Obviously, their methods worked so well with the responsible Kiley, why not repeat them with the next generation? This didn’t endear me to Micah as a development (see previous whinges), as, say, having him cross paths with Daphne would have done. We even had the broken family, child on the stairs visual cliché (in an episode that embraced the wedding dresses clichés too). But the plotline redeemed itself with the reveal that my original theory that Jason was his father was right.
I loved the ending, because my heart was bursting for Scarlett who had to deal with moping!Deacon turned into potentially terminally ill!Deacon and Gunnar’s grief. Because it always comes back to Jason for him, and she’s the only person in his life who will understand that. I think you can read it as platonic, even if Deacon has turned into quite the Scarlett/Gunnar shipper. They need to do a lot more work to rekindle the fire for me, like interaction and singing, plus she needs to decide on her direction career-wise and he needs to grow up more than they need to get back together. His instincts were right around Micah, but what he was trying to present as evidence of him being a good dad was so wrong.
Going back a step, I love the Scarlett-Deacon relationship and how supportive it is. There was a lot of ‘WE’RE IN MEMPHIS’ about their strand, but it was the one that got to me the most.
I thought it was ambiguous as to which father helped Maddie write her song. Was it more angst for couldn’t-get-away-from-Ruke Deacon or Teddy? The latter would explain why it was a bit on the short side for a song. At least Teddy knew about it, which means he and Maddie are talking, and it was nice that that’s what got through to him that what he was doing was pathetic,
Meanwhile Maddie and Colt were continuing to make eyes at each other. But now they won’t be step-siblings!
And Sadie should get a restraining order post-haste. That was some punch.
I liked Sadie and Avery singing together. It sounded better than Bowen and Esten’s duetting (although it was fun to watch the characters cut loose IN MEMPHIS. What’s the show’s name again?).
Partners in Crime The Secret Adversary – part 2
Tuppence and Tommy wriggled out of their imminent danger – phew. Tuppence then spent a lot of time peeking round corners and doorframes, which makes her good at this stuff, apparently, that or her refusal to recognise she’s out of her depth when submarines pass by. Er, if she could open the front door with a hatpin, why all the bother with Rita’s keys?
I still think Walliams is miscast, bringing too much buffoonery to the role, but there was one moment where Tommy grabbed Tuppence’s face before kissing her in one of many instances of gloating too early and the proportions of the size of his hands (big) and her face (wee) worked. Lots of blah-blah Tommy feels emasculated that his uncle pays for his son’s education and is their boss with no faith in them now.
I have a prime suspect for Brown.
As demanded by the camera-work, kudos to the location scout for finding period-appropriate buildings etc, but then production design was let down by a dozen anachronisms in the dialogue. It is a tonal mess, sometimes daft and gung-ho, but with two nasty killings. And although I praised the titles for their stylishness, the music is trying a bit too hard to makes us think of Sherlock.
I was in a weird mood watching both shows.
As I say in the notes, I wanted to have Scarlett, Avery and Gunnar bask in what they’d done and for there to be some lead-up to Gunnar speaking for the band with Noah, so I wrote this missing scene, giving the characters (more Scarlett and Avery, who have their mental blindspots too, of course) a moment of introspection after the gig about all that had happened. The title comes from the play ‘The History Boys’ and was inspired by Gunnar’s line about how the three of them have some history, which is one way of putting it. I’m glad I got it out before watching the next episode – I feel as if I played within the canonical lines, but of course, things moved on, especially for Gunnar and Avery.
Nashville 3.10 First to Have a Second Chance
A lot happened in the episode, but I feel that Juliette/Avery got the raw end of the deal in the desire for there to be a wedding, but not the one we’ve been building up to. The misdirection about what was going on in Avery’s mind after he gave Juliette the ‘Erk, I’m not sure if great friends covers it’ look, meant that I thought he was moving away from that realisation – his gloss on what Juliette did to break them up was quite something. So, the proposal was a shock and they were playing the audience in the build-up, and they gave Juliette a moment of heartbreak, even if they showed how much she’d grown in her response to Avery’s ‘I can’t do this...’ which is a terrible beginning to a proposal.
I even feel a bit cheated as a shipper that they decided to get married there and then (what about Glenn and Emily, at least) though Juliette’s hair, the simplicity of it and THEIR FACES were darling. However, they haven’t thought about this, AND I WANT THEM TO WORK. Sacrificing decent development for them for Rayna/Deacon is not acceptable!
I’d give a B for the handling the inevitable demise of Ruke before the Rayna/Deacon steamroller, which may not be a great grade considering how much work went into it. Tandy’s return was stiff, but who else but a sister could ask the obvious ‘are you happy? Have you thought what marrying Luke will mean for your life? Really?’ questions? Oh, but, Tandie, how Luke talks to (and doesn’t talk to) Rayna is part of the problem...
Rayna should have pushed the ‘it’s me and what I want’ line harder, although Luke was always going to blame Deacon (rightly so, to some extent). As someone who isn’t that hardcore about Rayna/Deacon, I think they’ve done a good job with Luke’s feelings, although he has been petty and macho and (understandably) materialistic, while Rayna and Deacon share the same noble, family-first or is it music and yay!privacy values.
I have been thinking about how the show could do a little more with class and poverty/wealth. It’s there with Rayna, Luke, Deacon, Juliette and Gunnar, whose backgrounds influence them. It’d be interesting to find out more about where Will comes from, actually.
The sad mess of the Will-Layla-Jeff triangle had a brief moment of Jeff threatening to turn more human (shudder).We also had Layla raising the age difference, but it’s the power dynamic that made it icky, even if Will was the one who out-ultimatumed Jeff, Jeff is boss to both of them. So, thanks to those two delightful gentlemen, Layla’s self-destructive spiral was back on. (The pills reminded me of Liam). The appropriate response would have been for Layla to take a picture of Will being NOT GAY with the freelancer and DIVORCE HIM. More seriously, I hope they haven’t killed her off, as it would basically be fridging.
Micah’s grandparents were ridiculous, I was very sarcastic about their unilateral decision that they would be better at bringing him up, with no communication or negotiation with the adults in his life. Obviously, their methods worked so well with the responsible Kiley, why not repeat them with the next generation? This didn’t endear me to Micah as a development (see previous whinges), as, say, having him cross paths with Daphne would have done. We even had the broken family, child on the stairs visual cliché (in an episode that embraced the wedding dresses clichés too). But the plotline redeemed itself with the reveal that my original theory that Jason was his father was right.
I loved the ending, because my heart was bursting for Scarlett who had to deal with moping!Deacon turned into potentially terminally ill!Deacon and Gunnar’s grief. Because it always comes back to Jason for him, and she’s the only person in his life who will understand that. I think you can read it as platonic, even if Deacon has turned into quite the Scarlett/Gunnar shipper. They need to do a lot more work to rekindle the fire for me, like interaction and singing, plus she needs to decide on her direction career-wise and he needs to grow up more than they need to get back together. His instincts were right around Micah, but what he was trying to present as evidence of him being a good dad was so wrong.
Going back a step, I love the Scarlett-Deacon relationship and how supportive it is. There was a lot of ‘WE’RE IN MEMPHIS’ about their strand, but it was the one that got to me the most.
I thought it was ambiguous as to which father helped Maddie write her song. Was it more angst for couldn’t-get-away-from-Ruke Deacon or Teddy? The latter would explain why it was a bit on the short side for a song. At least Teddy knew about it, which means he and Maddie are talking, and it was nice that that’s what got through to him that what he was doing was pathetic,
Meanwhile Maddie and Colt were continuing to make eyes at each other. But now they won’t be step-siblings!
And Sadie should get a restraining order post-haste. That was some punch.
I liked Sadie and Avery singing together. It sounded better than Bowen and Esten’s duetting (although it was fun to watch the characters cut loose IN MEMPHIS. What’s the show’s name again?).
Partners in Crime The Secret Adversary – part 2
Tuppence and Tommy wriggled out of their imminent danger – phew. Tuppence then spent a lot of time peeking round corners and doorframes, which makes her good at this stuff, apparently, that or her refusal to recognise she’s out of her depth when submarines pass by. Er, if she could open the front door with a hatpin, why all the bother with Rita’s keys?
I still think Walliams is miscast, bringing too much buffoonery to the role, but there was one moment where Tommy grabbed Tuppence’s face before kissing her in one of many instances of gloating too early and the proportions of the size of his hands (big) and her face (wee) worked. Lots of blah-blah Tommy feels emasculated that his uncle pays for his son’s education and is their boss with no faith in them now.
I have a prime suspect for Brown.
As demanded by the camera-work, kudos to the location scout for finding period-appropriate buildings etc, but then production design was let down by a dozen anachronisms in the dialogue. It is a tonal mess, sometimes daft and gung-ho, but with two nasty killings. And although I praised the titles for their stylishness, the music is trying a bit too hard to makes us think of Sherlock.
I was in a weird mood watching both shows.
