TV roundup

[kate_nepveu]

This is what happens when I am ridiculously busy: I have all these things I want to talk to you all about, and then when I have a little time, it all comes flooding out (I even wrote a booklog post!). Another post written on Amtrak: TV catchup.

I should say that I watch TV mostly with the Pip in the same room, so anything violent or scary is out--not that those are really to my taste anyway. (At this point in SteelyKid's life I'd ditched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but though the Pip is acquiring language right now, comprehension at that level is a long way away, I was too cautious before.) Mostly what I want is something with people I like that doesn't make me angry.

Leverage: I would have watched the hell out of the season six they were setting up, so I'm bummed it was canceled. SPOILER: Parker running a team of Hardison and Eliot? Fuck yes. Though if they were going to have Nate and Sophie hanging around angsting about whether to get back in the game, that would have been really tedious, so maybe it's better to just imagine it.

Face Off: the SyFy reality show that's a makeup artist competition. I liked this season better than last because (1) no audience vote determining the winner and (2) it shifted the "win your way back on" to a web series for the next season. Also it made more sense logistically that they didn't bring back all the contestants for the finale, just enough for two helpers each.

Elementary: because the first episode opens with a murder, these episodes kept scrolling off the DVR until I picked it up with the episode with the safe, which turned out to be very low-violence indeed (and, with a couple notable exceptions, much more like the rest of the show). I've since seen all the subsequent episodes except "M.", plus the ones that CBS has re-run. This was probably a good place for me to pick it up, where Holmes and Watson are already more firmly into their friendship/partnership. I enjoy the two of them a lot, and I find it ridiculously refreshing to watch something that is actively opposed to the "Holmes as lone super-special genius" idea and (gasp!) cares about its female lead's agency and choices and life. I saved this past week's episode as a treat for myself because SPOILER I knew that it was introducing Ms. Hudson and Clyde the turtle was back, and it was just kind of adorable all around. (Look! Ms. Hudson is trans and it's mentioned once and no-one cares!) Also, yay some solo Bell investigation. The mysteries are, unsurprisingly, not very good, but I don't watch TV for mysteries so I don't really care; I like hanging out with the characters and watching Watson learn to be a detective and their friendship.

Edit: I meant to link to these two gen Joan-Sherlock friendship fics that I enjoyed:

The Art of Negotiation (6767 words) by language_escapes
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elementary (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Joan Watson (Elementary)
Additional Tags: Boundaries, Negotiations, Male-Female Friendship
Summary: For them, negotiation is less about boundary setting and more about upping the ante.

waltz across naïve wood floors. (4101 words) by paperclipbitch
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Elementary (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & Joan Watson, Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Joan Watson (Elementary), Marcus Bell, Alfredo Llamosa, Clyde the Tortoise (Elementary)
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, My First Work in This Fandom, written at least partially during accidental medication withdrawal
Summary: "You're wearing my underwear again, aren't you," Joan says.

(There are, right now, five fics that list Clyde the Tortoise as a character. Sometimes I love fandom.)

Farscape. A few weeks ago I decided I was going to watch this to keep myself awake when the Pip woke up at night (as opposed to sitting down with him and waking up in the rocking chair three hours later with a stiff neck). I've only seen the first episode and half of the second at this point, but more SF shows should use puppets and non-CG effects for their aliens. I've already been warned about the fourth season, and I seem to have lost some momentum, but I really like Browder and Black from their SG-1 run and do intend to go back to it. (I almost immediately abandoned my vague plan to keep up with the AV Club's watch when I realized it was doing two episodes a week after the first episode, but those of you who've already seen the show, they usually do a pretty good job, though I don't know if the comments on this are the quality of those on--of all things--the Korra coverage.)

Comments

[sovay]

(Look! Ms. Hudson is trans and it's mentioned once and no-one cares!)

Seriously? That's awesome!

[kate_nepveu]

Yes! I am not as sharp at spotting problems with trans stuff as I would like, though I am trying, but as far as I can tell everyone treats her exactly as they would a cis woman throughout the episode. Also she's brilliant, an autodidact who helped Sherlock on past cases.

[sovay]

but as far as I can tell everyone treats her exactly as they would a cis woman throughout the episode. Also she's brilliant, an autodidact who helped Sherlock on past cases.

I approve of all of this!

I have not been watching Elementary; I kind of overdosed on Holmes retellings after trying out the BBC Sherlock. It sounds like you recommend.

[kate_nepveu]

Well, it depends on what you want out of your retellings, you know? It doesn't have the density of playing with ACD canon that _Sherlock_ does or the visual style (which, for my taste, _Sherlock_ sometimes took too far). And as I said, I really like Sherlock as _not_ the intrinsic inimitable genius, but I think it's reasonable for people to disagree on that.

But I liked that in the episodes I saw when they were still formally a recovering drug addict and live-in sober companion, the show seemed to be taking that relationship more seriously than I expected--again, from my standpoint of knowing very little about recovery, but still, it was shown to matter. I do hope Ms. Hudson becomes a regular, because right now Watson is the only regular woman character, but I've not actively raged at its treatment of women or non-white people (ahem, _Sherlock_). And I like their friendship and Sherlock's enthusiasm for mentoring Joan a lot, and I heart Joan all over the place.

[oyceter]

(There are, right now, five fics that list Clyde the Tortoise as a character. Sometimes I love fandom.)

BEST!

I am so glad the extended murder scene that starts off the entire series turns out to be not the norm. I'd rather have more cases that are more caper-y than murder-y, but if they're going with murder, I'm glad it's mostly off screen.

[kate_nepveu]

Absolutely. _CSI_ has a lot to answer for.