Games and TV
Mar. 16th, 2013 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessWe’ve now reached the last four of the fandom March madness thing. Getting the obligatory all women comment out of the way, we have Britta vs. Hermione and Martha Jones vs. Joan Sherlock. Full names for characters in fandoms I don’t really know! I voted for Britta, of course. I didn’t vote for her as my favourite character (I plumped for Annie. The fact that I’ve only seen the first seasons may be a factor) knowing that I’d vote for whichever Community character won. At the time, Pierce was at 0%. Heh. I haven’t voted for Hermione in the last two rounds. After all, Katniss is the protagonist in The Hunger Games. Also she is not played by Emma Watson, and then there was the case of me watching some vids recced as being Hermione-centric the other day that were nearly all stealth Harry/Hermione. (I can’t stress how much Ron/Hermione is an OTP for me.)
For the second bracket, I’ve been voting for anyone who is not Martha Jones since she knocked out Natasha. So, I didn’t need the comments to win me over. They have been entertaining though, up to a point, and there’s less of ‘Vote for character X and her flawless, flawless face,’ but I can’t say that they have changed my voting preferences, which have been based on i. Who is my actual favourite character? ii. Does this character annoy me for rational or emotional reasons? If so, I'll vote for the other one, whether I know the fandom or not.
The obvious question following the Veronica Mars movie getting Kickstarted news has been will this be a trend and what project would you like to see green-lit? I’ve seen some suggestions that seem way less likely than VM, where the show’s creator and star were on board and had been actively working on scripts. It’s also the kind of project that could realistically be made on a low budget (depending on the scale of the mystery.) Of course, if this is a success – and it’s a step up from Arrested Development getting made by Netflix on the basis that if they make it, the fans will come in terms of fannish involvement in funding – maybe other projects will happen. I'm sure 'the industry' will be watching.
My answers: Because it’s so recent, I’ll mention The Hour, which was cancelled after a cliffhanger. I saw a suggestion that they should have allowed it to wrap up with a feature-length episode that I liked, where said cliffhanger and other characters’ stories (Lix and Randall’s search for their daughter more than Hector and Marnie) could have been resolved.
In the realms of total fantasy: Jake 2.0. But I don’t think it ran long enough or had enough of a fanbase.
Another thing about the Veronica Mars movie stuff that’s giving me pause is that I’m reminded that the show first aired in 2004!
Last night, I had a Nashville double-bill
1.05 Move it on Over
So Teddy’s story is that he and Peggy just did embezzling (yeah, right. I can’t have been the only one who assumed that it was an affair), although of course he’d say that to his father-in-law. Duly noted that he has daddy issues (does anyone apart from Rayna and Teddy have two parents in their lives on this show?). In-universe, does he really not know what he’s letting himself in for with Lemar? Has he really not been listening to his wife on that score all their married years? Extrinsivally, he’s no Coach Taylor.
Yay. lots of singing from the get-go (I agreed with Juliette, the chorus didn’t live up to the verse of her song). Of course the young love triangle’s performance was going to be awkward! Yay Scarlett for standing up for herself and what writing means to her with Avery. Everybody who was sober or just tipsy in the cafe must have been thinking ‘wow, that ‘Sideshow’ is all about Rayna James, isn’t it?’ Yay, Rayna for deciding to try to write on her own. It isn’t a law that all songs have to be written by a male/female writing team. Of course, her song was about Deacon.
I’m not touching Juliette and her issues, but what a beautiful new place (to be lonely and issue-laden in.)
1.06 forgot to note the title
Yay to Rayna taking control of her album and being willing to try something different, but more connected to what worked for her at the beginning of her career (I’m digging the women being creative aspect of this)! Good for her for fighting for it.
I wonder if they deliberately chose to show booze as a key to unlcoking something for her, when for others it's dangerous.
I quite enjoyed Avery’s song (even if the lyrics were a lot too...pat for the sound, somehow). It definitely wasn’t country. All the vocalists, except maybe Gunnar and Scarlett are only okay though. I feel like if they have a guest star who can really sing one day, the regulars are going to be shown up a little. I mean, for a quarterback, Shawn could pick up the guitar and harmonise very well, no?
I THOUGHT Deacon and Coleman should have gone to the loo and ceremonially flushed the pills down there (um, if you should do that. Should you do that?) And if Teddy was accusing Lemar of having set that up, when all he was doing was riding the wave and Rayna was drinking and talking with the possible producer, who was looking after the girls? That is probably the least relevant thing about this episode.
Anyway, I don’t know how I feel about the gender reversal on the leery manager and the young wannabe, however convenient it was for Scarlett/Gunnar in the long run. What with Juliette's plotline being silly, the Scarlett/Avery development being almost surprising in that it happened now and like that, when they've seemed to pull back from making Avery a total jerk, Decaon and Teddy's stories developing slowly, Rayna won with the most satisfying developments.
For the second bracket, I’ve been voting for anyone who is not Martha Jones since she knocked out Natasha. So, I didn’t need the comments to win me over. They have been entertaining though, up to a point, and there’s less of ‘Vote for character X and her flawless, flawless face,’ but I can’t say that they have changed my voting preferences, which have been based on i. Who is my actual favourite character? ii. Does this character annoy me for rational or emotional reasons? If so, I'll vote for the other one, whether I know the fandom or not.
The obvious question following the Veronica Mars movie getting Kickstarted news has been will this be a trend and what project would you like to see green-lit? I’ve seen some suggestions that seem way less likely than VM, where the show’s creator and star were on board and had been actively working on scripts. It’s also the kind of project that could realistically be made on a low budget (depending on the scale of the mystery.) Of course, if this is a success – and it’s a step up from Arrested Development getting made by Netflix on the basis that if they make it, the fans will come in terms of fannish involvement in funding – maybe other projects will happen. I'm sure 'the industry' will be watching.
My answers: Because it’s so recent, I’ll mention The Hour, which was cancelled after a cliffhanger. I saw a suggestion that they should have allowed it to wrap up with a feature-length episode that I liked, where said cliffhanger and other characters’ stories (Lix and Randall’s search for their daughter more than Hector and Marnie) could have been resolved.
In the realms of total fantasy: Jake 2.0. But I don’t think it ran long enough or had enough of a fanbase.
Another thing about the Veronica Mars movie stuff that’s giving me pause is that I’m reminded that the show first aired in 2004!
Last night, I had a Nashville double-bill
1.05 Move it on Over
So Teddy’s story is that he and Peggy just did embezzling (yeah, right. I can’t have been the only one who assumed that it was an affair), although of course he’d say that to his father-in-law. Duly noted that he has daddy issues (does anyone apart from Rayna and Teddy have two parents in their lives on this show?). In-universe, does he really not know what he’s letting himself in for with Lemar? Has he really not been listening to his wife on that score all their married years? Extrinsivally, he’s no Coach Taylor.
Yay. lots of singing from the get-go (I agreed with Juliette, the chorus didn’t live up to the verse of her song). Of course the young love triangle’s performance was going to be awkward! Yay Scarlett for standing up for herself and what writing means to her with Avery. Everybody who was sober or just tipsy in the cafe must have been thinking ‘wow, that ‘Sideshow’ is all about Rayna James, isn’t it?’ Yay, Rayna for deciding to try to write on her own. It isn’t a law that all songs have to be written by a male/female writing team. Of course, her song was about Deacon.
I’m not touching Juliette and her issues, but what a beautiful new place (to be lonely and issue-laden in.)
1.06 forgot to note the title
Yay to Rayna taking control of her album and being willing to try something different, but more connected to what worked for her at the beginning of her career (I’m digging the women being creative aspect of this)! Good for her for fighting for it.
I wonder if they deliberately chose to show booze as a key to unlcoking something for her, when for others it's dangerous.
I quite enjoyed Avery’s song (even if the lyrics were a lot too...pat for the sound, somehow). It definitely wasn’t country. All the vocalists, except maybe Gunnar and Scarlett are only okay though. I feel like if they have a guest star who can really sing one day, the regulars are going to be shown up a little. I mean, for a quarterback, Shawn could pick up the guitar and harmonise very well, no?
I THOUGHT Deacon and Coleman should have gone to the loo and ceremonially flushed the pills down there (um, if you should do that. Should you do that?) And if Teddy was accusing Lemar of having set that up, when all he was doing was riding the wave and Rayna was drinking and talking with the possible producer, who was looking after the girls? That is probably the least relevant thing about this episode.
Anyway, I don’t know how I feel about the gender reversal on the leery manager and the young wannabe, however convenient it was for Scarlett/Gunnar in the long run. What with Juliette's plotline being silly, the Scarlett/Avery development being almost surprising in that it happened now and like that, when they've seemed to pull back from making Avery a total jerk, Decaon and Teddy's stories developing slowly, Rayna won with the most satisfying developments.
