![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yes sir, Captain Tightpants
Nov. 3rd, 2002 03:55 pmFirefly discussion with spoilers for 11/1, Shindig
Friday's Firefly episode was the first time I'd had a chance to watch the show with a group of fans (who also like it), and it really added to my enjoyment to see others reacting to the same things I liked, laughing at the same things I laugh at. I've grown so used to the sniffing disparagement of the show from so many people around me ("It's a western," always said with disdain, something I'd grown wearily used to in Mag 7 fandom) that it was just a joy to be around others who were loving every minute of it.
We were all enjoying Zoe's understated "I can hurt you" to Jayne when he offered to chip in on a slinky dress, the after-sex scene with Zoe and Wash (I just love seeing a sexy, loving married couple on tv for a change who aren't part of a zany family, and I also really enjoy the mixed-race aspect being turned around slightly with a white guy for a change), the whole Captain Tightpants stuff with Kaylee and Mal, and Mal's lame attempt at being heroic. Not to mention the cows.
It occurred to me, though, when we were watching, what a lot of us in that room respond to very strongly that I think a lot of fans I know don't seem to respond well to, and that's a very understated, underdelivered quality to much of the characters and the action. Fannish entertainments, especially, often seem to be very high-powered -- actiony buddy shows, high drama, violent or horror-driven plots, science fiction, spy stuff, etc. Genre stuff, of course, usually tends to attract the highest bases of fans, and almost always they're character-driven shows. It's not that shows like Law and Order or CSI don't have fans and fandoms, but compared to something such as Buffy or Stargate or The Professionals back in the olden days, they're considerably smaller.
There's probably lots of reasons for that, but I think the character stuff is the most important -- most fans can't write fic that's plot heavy, and don't want to, and don't have the background to write the complex elements of that kind of story; character-based shows are easier because you can stick a couple characters in a room (and maybe have sex), and still have a story. And most fans tend to be drawn to more intense emotions and actions on the part of the characters, so shows where we know little to nothing of the main characters make it harder to connect in that super-fannish devotional manner we have.
Firefly, so far, and which Shindig really brought home to me in its very, very low-key way, has been plot-driven in many of the episodes, with a slower development of character background than many fans would be willing to overcome genre prejudces for. Some of the eps were character-driven, but because Fox has played around so much with the airing order and messed so much of it up, it's seemed less cohesive and the audience has had to fill in the blanks (deductively, which is a lot to ask a casual audience). Added to that is the very subtle quality of the actors, and frequently underdelivered lines, quiet throwaway character glimpses, and very dramatically "muted" scripts without lots of action and big sequences -- and that means a show a lot of fan types can't and won't get into.
The people I was having fun watching it with were all people who go for varying degrees of that higher-level, amped up quality (some of us prefer very, very low key, some much more intense), but we do share an appreciation of the things you can find in a show with patience and time. We don't mind the looking for it, but I know a lot of fans who just don't like to do that. They want it right there, and they want it fast, which Firefly hasn't given them yet. Right now, I feel like Fox won't give us the time and patience required to get a real fandom out of this beyond a few months' worth of episodes, but I loved how Shindig showed me that my patience is paying off. I loved its subtle touches as much as I loved its more broad touches, and got more of a glimpse into the people on Serenity as the show shifts slowly to more character-based drama.
And as for MDs...
I noticed that MDs is not on ABC's schedule next week, during sweeps month, which is a pretty big sign that the bell is gonna toll. Sigh. I knew it was coming, but... I can only hope that they might fill up the schedule during the holiday hiatus with some of the previous eps so that I can tape them, just to at least show all the people who laughed derisively at me, "oh, yeah, old guys on a medical drama" when I talked about how slashy they were and how much I was enjoying them.
This past week's ep was, as usual, cheesy (I think at times I'm the only person in America who's not a religious nut who wonders what the fuss about Halloween is -- except the doctor on Scrubs who termed it the mother of all non-holidays), but they did the true slash pairing litmus test -- a whole episode where these two characters don't interact at all, go through punishing and demoralizing days, and in the end meet up for no special reason in the locker room other than to give each other the "we have to soldier on" buck-up-bunky speech, and look meaningfully at each other because they know they're the only ones who can truly understand each other. There was no reason to have the two characters have a scene together, but I think it's become obligatory for the show. At the end of each episode, if they haven't been together, the producers will find a reason to get them together.
At the end, the final shot of Kellerman sitting alone in the lobby after his son has gone home, cried out for Dalgetty to come and sit beside him and remind him of what Kellerman had just told him a few minutes before, that they have to soldier on and fight the good fight. It screamed "I need a hug! From Dr. Dalgetty!" And that's what I went to bed thinking -- that after the camera went to blackout, well, Dr. Dalgetty came along and said, "hey, let's go home, and have a drink." And after that, who knows? Hundreds of thousands of fan stories have been based on flimsier things.
∫
Friday's Firefly episode was the first time I'd had a chance to watch the show with a group of fans (who also like it), and it really added to my enjoyment to see others reacting to the same things I liked, laughing at the same things I laugh at. I've grown so used to the sniffing disparagement of the show from so many people around me ("It's a western," always said with disdain, something I'd grown wearily used to in Mag 7 fandom) that it was just a joy to be around others who were loving every minute of it.
We were all enjoying Zoe's understated "I can hurt you" to Jayne when he offered to chip in on a slinky dress, the after-sex scene with Zoe and Wash (I just love seeing a sexy, loving married couple on tv for a change who aren't part of a zany family, and I also really enjoy the mixed-race aspect being turned around slightly with a white guy for a change), the whole Captain Tightpants stuff with Kaylee and Mal, and Mal's lame attempt at being heroic. Not to mention the cows.
It occurred to me, though, when we were watching, what a lot of us in that room respond to very strongly that I think a lot of fans I know don't seem to respond well to, and that's a very understated, underdelivered quality to much of the characters and the action. Fannish entertainments, especially, often seem to be very high-powered -- actiony buddy shows, high drama, violent or horror-driven plots, science fiction, spy stuff, etc. Genre stuff, of course, usually tends to attract the highest bases of fans, and almost always they're character-driven shows. It's not that shows like Law and Order or CSI don't have fans and fandoms, but compared to something such as Buffy or Stargate or The Professionals back in the olden days, they're considerably smaller.
There's probably lots of reasons for that, but I think the character stuff is the most important -- most fans can't write fic that's plot heavy, and don't want to, and don't have the background to write the complex elements of that kind of story; character-based shows are easier because you can stick a couple characters in a room (and maybe have sex), and still have a story. And most fans tend to be drawn to more intense emotions and actions on the part of the characters, so shows where we know little to nothing of the main characters make it harder to connect in that super-fannish devotional manner we have.
Firefly, so far, and which Shindig really brought home to me in its very, very low-key way, has been plot-driven in many of the episodes, with a slower development of character background than many fans would be willing to overcome genre prejudces for. Some of the eps were character-driven, but because Fox has played around so much with the airing order and messed so much of it up, it's seemed less cohesive and the audience has had to fill in the blanks (deductively, which is a lot to ask a casual audience). Added to that is the very subtle quality of the actors, and frequently underdelivered lines, quiet throwaway character glimpses, and very dramatically "muted" scripts without lots of action and big sequences -- and that means a show a lot of fan types can't and won't get into.
The people I was having fun watching it with were all people who go for varying degrees of that higher-level, amped up quality (some of us prefer very, very low key, some much more intense), but we do share an appreciation of the things you can find in a show with patience and time. We don't mind the looking for it, but I know a lot of fans who just don't like to do that. They want it right there, and they want it fast, which Firefly hasn't given them yet. Right now, I feel like Fox won't give us the time and patience required to get a real fandom out of this beyond a few months' worth of episodes, but I loved how Shindig showed me that my patience is paying off. I loved its subtle touches as much as I loved its more broad touches, and got more of a glimpse into the people on Serenity as the show shifts slowly to more character-based drama.
And as for MDs...
I noticed that MDs is not on ABC's schedule next week, during sweeps month, which is a pretty big sign that the bell is gonna toll. Sigh. I knew it was coming, but... I can only hope that they might fill up the schedule during the holiday hiatus with some of the previous eps so that I can tape them, just to at least show all the people who laughed derisively at me, "oh, yeah, old guys on a medical drama" when I talked about how slashy they were and how much I was enjoying them.
This past week's ep was, as usual, cheesy (I think at times I'm the only person in America who's not a religious nut who wonders what the fuss about Halloween is -- except the doctor on Scrubs who termed it the mother of all non-holidays), but they did the true slash pairing litmus test -- a whole episode where these two characters don't interact at all, go through punishing and demoralizing days, and in the end meet up for no special reason in the locker room other than to give each other the "we have to soldier on" buck-up-bunky speech, and look meaningfully at each other because they know they're the only ones who can truly understand each other. There was no reason to have the two characters have a scene together, but I think it's become obligatory for the show. At the end of each episode, if they haven't been together, the producers will find a reason to get them together.
At the end, the final shot of Kellerman sitting alone in the lobby after his son has gone home, cried out for Dalgetty to come and sit beside him and remind him of what Kellerman had just told him a few minutes before, that they have to soldier on and fight the good fight. It screamed "I need a hug! From Dr. Dalgetty!" And that's what I went to bed thinking -- that after the camera went to blackout, well, Dr. Dalgetty came along and said, "hey, let's go home, and have a drink." And after that, who knows? Hundreds of thousands of fan stories have been based on flimsier things.
∫
