sholio | Fandom stuff

I finally finished my Yuletide letter (canons eventually requested after a lot of dithering: Matthew Scudder mysteries, Iron Fist, Defenders, Wiseguy). I was amused to notice that a) they're all set largely in New York, and b) in every case, at least one of my requested characters is a Totally Done With Your Shit cynic who would absolutely hate dealing with magical bullshit. Therefore I would be delighted if anyone wants to inflict magical bullshit on them. I mean, obviously I am also fine with a perfectly normal, down-to-earth story. But consider though: Frank McPike having to deal with the fact that magic exists and Vinnie is in the middle of it.

Still about a day to sign up if you want to! JOIN US.

I am sad that the Defendersverse shows are so far down from last year's signups. I'm the only person requesting Iron Fist (so far), nobody's asked for Luke Cage at all, and there are only 3 people requesting Defenders when last year had over a dozen. I know people move on after a show ends, but did everyone have to move on so fast. ;___;

Anyway though, Trick or Treat Exchange opened on Halloween and is full of lovely things! I got two wonderful gifts:

The Haunting of the Rosebud Motel (Schitt's Creek, Stevie & David, 1300 wds)
Stevie and David perform an exorcism. And it goes about like you'd expect. HAHAHA. This is hilarious and adorable, and nailed canon perfectly.

and now the weather (Stranger Things, Steve/Nancy/Jonathan, 1300 wds)
Steve turned back into a person in the back seat of the Byers’ station wagon. Werewolf!Steve, with gentle h/c and lovely character dynamics. Really delightful.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm also requesting Defenders, I'm just waiting for

st_aurafina to finish her sign-up so that we can make sure we can't match each other! (We have to check this every year!) I'm also requesting Jessica Jones but the characters nominated for Luke Cage are not two I want to write about - I hope someone does, because Che and Shades's S2 storyline was very interesting and unexpected, but I don't feel able to write that.

YAYAYAY. \o/ I was hoping there'd be more people who haven't signed up yet! (And also hoped at least one of you two would be among them!)

Yeah, I feel like the Luke Cage noms were unfortunately limited this year - it would be really nice to have other characters in there, and would probably encourage more participation. At least the JJ and Defenders tags look good this year!

There's always a last minute sign-up rush! I'm usually more organised, but it's been a weird week.

I was amused to notice that a) they're all set largely in New York, and b) in every case, at least one of my requested characters is a Totally Done With Your Shit cynic who would absolutely hate dealing with magical bullshit.

That is delightful.

Because I live under a rock, what happened in the fourth season of Wiseguys that you de-canonized it?

Not living under a rock at all - it's a relatively lesser-known 1980s show and there's no reason why you would know specific details of it.

WISEGUY SEASON FOUR SPOILERS FOLLOW

They killed off the protagonist (there was a dispute with the producers and he got fired between seasons, basically) and switched up the direction of the show to a radically different venue -- it moved to Miami, having previously spent most of its time in northern locales -- and a more standard procedural-type style.

To be fair, the show in general was sort of anthology-like and tended to move around and focus on different sets of characters in different places, connected by a central set of protagonists. But I watched some of the first episode of season four to see if I'm just seeing it through the hindsight of betrayed 14-year-old me who was expecting a box of apples and got a box of potatoes instead, and no, it really does feel noticeably different, with clunkier dialogue and less of the earlier seasons' moody noirishness and leisurely pacing, and more of an attempt to capitalize on the speedy-stylish action look of series like Miami Vice

You can get an idea of the differences by comparing intro sequences: season one vs. season four. I mean, it wouldn't necessarily have been a bad show; it just really wasn't the same show.

They killed off the protagonist (there was a dispute with the producers and he got fired between seasons, basically) and switched up the direction of the show to a radically different venue -- it moved to Miami, having previously spent most of its time in northern locales -- and a more standard procedural-type style.

That's worse than Season 5 of Babylon 5! I'm sorry.

To be fair, the show in general was sort of anthology-like and tended to move around and focus on different sets of characters in different places, connected by a central set of protagonists.

I like that as a structural conceit. It feels unusual for the 1980's.

I mean, it wouldn't necessarily have been a bad show; it just really wasn't the same show.

Change of protagonist and setting is really hard to pull off. I'm sure it's been done successfully, just because of statistics, but I'm not calling any examples to mind.

The intro sequence to S4! LOLOLOL, amazing. The pans up women's bodies! The sunny speedboats! The new hero winking at the camera! It totally is Miami Vice.

It's interesting how much the audience can be into it for the 'feel' and how offputting it can be when that switches. (I've definitely experienced that.)

I LOVE MY DEAD GAY SHOWS //sob

There are rumours of rumours that Feige wants Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter to come back, but I don't know how related to reality those are at all. (I'd want Mike Colter and Jonathan Bernthal too! But I think they're both busy with other stuff now....)

Joseph Loeb is also out at Marvel TV, which seems either doomed or doomed to be eaten by Disney+. Kind of inevitable after Feige's big promotion, but I'm still sad at what happened to the big movies/TV experiment -- no doubt the new D+ shows will have a lot more $$$ and less interference from Evil Friend of Trump, but I will just forever miss Agent Carter and the Defenders shows. (Also, if WandaVision ((THAT NAME)) turns out to a be a twist on House of M/Tom King's Vision, I will SCREAM.)

I wonder if the downer endings of JJ and LC, as well as the abrupt tearing away from us of the whole series have people just disheartened with the Defendersverse. I kinda feel that way myself. On the other hand, isn't that what often motivates a fandom? I wonder if the whole streaming/bingeing thing just means fandoms don't take hold for people as when they're released week by week?

In general, though, yay for things set in NYC!

I do feel it's harder to hang onto canon when you've watched it over the course of a day rather than a year (which is what happens to me with binging). So I think you're right about that, and the downer endings didn't exactly help JJ and LC. I think also that if Defenders as an ensemble had gotten more than one season that would have helped tie the threads together more solidly and as it is you've got fans of only some shows/characters out of the four and that means people don't quite know how to incorporate the rest.

Fandom stuff

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject