shallowness

It feels apt that I watched this (not live, but on Boxing Day night) at home on TV. (Okay, technically on my laptop.) For all that it was released as a feature film in the cinemas, it really is a glorified Christmas special, ( tl:dr )

Sorry (not sorry) for posting twice, but it occurred to me that Yuletide will be opening tomorrow, although these are all fanvid recs. They're in the following fandoms: Downton Abbey, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Mummy, Pacific Rim and The Princess Bride.

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I should admit that I’ve started taking advantage of the Beeb repeating ‘To The Manor Born’ (it first aired around the time I was born, but it still stands up.) It made me laugh a fair bit, though not as much as the recorded audience, and even though Audrey drips of entitlement and privilege, Penelope Keith is peerless as her. I wonder if she was an influence on Julian Fellowes vis a vis Lady Mary although this type is not uncommon. Maybe it’s her relationship with Marjory that makes me think that, ( mild spoilers for a decades old sitcom )

I felt obliged to share that, because I’ve also started watching ‘The Pursuit of Love’ (both of these via iPlayer at my own pace, so I’m already behind,) I’ve never read Mitford, and I have some complicated feelings about my and TV’s fascination with the English upper class. But it is a good show, ( proper spoilers for a current adaptation of a decades-old novel )

The Capture ep 5

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The SNL sketch of Downton Abbey (the movie) is spot on (apart from the accents, for future references to all performers).

Before anything else, I found out yesterday that THERE IS A THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE SPIN-OFF, featuring Millie and Jean, and they are in San Fransisco. And it is on ITV this Wednesday at nine, so that is currently my favourite TV channel. I am thrilled because I thought the show (about former lady cryptographers coming together to solve crimes) was dead and buried!

I've been catching up with some B99 episodes.

5.17 DFW

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5.18 Grey Star Mutual

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I’m obviously still behind with this show, but also a couple of others.

Gotham 4.15 The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause

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Movie news: Initial thoughts on the announced Joker movie (a decade after The Dark Knight came out) are yes, I am interested in seeing Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the character, I’m less excited about the director (I just looked up Todd Phillips’s directing credits and…meh.) More broadly, I am not sure that having several different versions of characters or universes in the same medium out there are the same time is a great idea, Hollywood.

The Downton Abbey movie has been confirmed. I thought it was inevitable if they could get the stars to align. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Lady Violet, who comes back and how it stands up when there's a more direct comparison to Gosford Park, even though the show has such a body of episodes behind it.

This week I went to see The Incredibles 2. Now, the first movie, which I rewatched has a ’15 Years Later’ title, and it is very nearly fifteen years since the last movie. So, a little voice in me did ask ‘why now?’ It was a very entertaining movie, though, and was much better on the women front. Although the film had Stuff to Say about modern technology and Bird’s theses about exceptionalism continued, ( SPOILERS )

I also watched Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema (it’s on the iPlayer) where he takes a genre an episode and casts a critical eye over it in the considering, non-judgmental sense, rather than with negativity, using a lot of clips to back up its suppositions. It was co-written with Kim Newman. The genre in question was the rom-com. I will definitely watch the episode on science fiction, but probably not the others. It’s fairly comprehensive. I liked the way that it looked at how the romcom overlaps with fairy tales, musicals and superhero movies, as I like all those genres.

My criticisms? It needed even more of a female perspective. It tried to be even-handed and awake to gender, but I think it could have dug deeper there and might have if more women had been involved in the making of the show. There were no clips from the late 40s through to the 60s as far as I recall, and it’s not as if there were no romcoms then. It might have been a better idea to have something explaining how we got from The Philadelphia Story to Annie Hall than going on about how The Shape of Water isn’t a rom com, but borrows from rom coms to merge with other genres and become a fable. I also have to point out that Four Weddings came out when I was at school and Bridget Jones’s Diary when I was at uni, so calling them ‘modern’ is a stretch.

Sorry, picky. I did clap my hands in delight when they did a side by side of The Shape of Water and The Gay Divorcee (or is it Follow the Fleet), shouted out ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ as the phrase was uttered and decided I must see The Lady Eve because PRATFALLS. It is the type of show that should make you want to look up or revisit films.

That's it for now. Phew.

Victoria 2.9 Comfort and Joy
Or Victoria invents Christmas

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Title: I appreciate your appreciation
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Daisy Mason/Andy Parker (Mr Mason/Mrs Patmore implied)
Summary: Daisy makes Andy take the last steps more quickly than he expected.

Disclaimer: Not mine, don’t profit.
Author's Note: Spoilers for the last Christmas special. My take on these two with added fluff. With big thanks to kingtouchy for beta reading; all errors are mine. 1,185 words.

( I appreciate your appreciation: shallowness )

Getting my 'fannish year' meme out of the way - adapted from my usual and others I've seen around.

( spoilers for British TV shows )

My fills: ( The Musketeers, Inception, Gotham, Lord of the Rings )



There's one more fill that I'll post separately (and archive elsewhere) as it's over 100 words.


Written for me:
Downton Abbey, Lady Edith Crawley, grasping happiness by autumnia (oblique spoilers for s6)

Harry Potter, Dolores Umbridge, when I turn 17, I'll... by tellshannon815

LOTR, Éomer/Lothiriel, count your blessings by vialethe

The Man from UNCLE (2015), Gaby/Illya, it took you long enough by xahara99

(Updated 27/12/15)