sholio | I love my silly, silly show

I love my silly, silly show

Sitting at home recovering from dental work (AAARGH NUMB NUMB NUMB) I've been collecting clips of Sheppard and McKay for a vid. I know I sound like a goofy fangirl, but OMFG, they're so adorable. *squees* The facial expressions and body language! I didn't really notice Joe Flanigan's acting abilities until this season (it was actually "Irresistible" that made me notice, with the huge variety of facial reactions he went through in that episode) but looking at earlier episodes, he's always had that incredible expressiveness; I just don't think I noticed it because David Hewlett is so much more -- well, I wouldn't even say that he's more expressive, but it's more obvious. I think I was looking more at him than Joe in the scenes with both of them. Now that I'm looking at both, I'm head over heels for the pretty eye candy, and I'm being reminded all over again why I fell in love with this show. Oh yes, I know I'm shallow as hell, but there you go.

I'm also finding it easier to write fic again, after going through a blocked period when I really didn't want to write anything at all. I wrote some short pieces for

sga_flashfic, and I'm working on one of my long stories again.

I've *never* been this fannish about something for this long. Normally I bounce through fandoms like a ping-pong ball. I'm not sure why this show stopped me like it did; I think it's sort of a unique combination of having vast amounts of unrealized h/c and friendship potential (making me want to read and write fic for it) plus actually delivering on that potential every so often, thus ensuring that I stay hooked, PLUS having somehow hit upon a combination of characters and actors (not just Sheppard and McKay, but the whole bunch of them) that really, really appeal to me. They just appear to have found the perfect formula to engage my fan-brain ... which, as it happens, seems to operate on a whole different level than my ACTUAL brain. I've noticed in the past that things I get really, really fannish about tend to not be the best-written things out there. If it's really, truly GOOD, there's no space for my fan-brain to play; there's no way to improve upon the original, no poorly-hidden cracks to patch over with fanfic. If it's really, truly LOUSY, there's nothing to draw me to it in the first place. Somewhere in between, there lies the perfect combination of unrealized potential and actual quality, and SGA appears to have hit that balance perfectly for me.

And I was thinking again about the family vibe between the main group, and the way that it's totally become canon this season, at least in my not-so-unbiased opinion. *happy fan-glow* Still so long until season 4! Waah! But there's always fic to fill the gap. And just knowing that there WILL be a season 4 is immensely satisfying to me.

Off to find more clips. And wish that I could feel my lips again. Aargh.

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You didn't notice his acting ability until 'Irrestistible'?! The episode of the deliberately hammy acting (including Joe himself - the coughing...) LOL! But I suppose that really there hadn't been that much scope for Sheppard until then. Rodney gets scope in every other ep, but John is a character who is supposed to be more 'even' or 'normal' or at times (sorry, ONE OF) the action hero(es).

I love Joe's facial expressions. As much as I adore David, I find myself distracted my Joe - yes, because he's so darned gorgeous - but also because of what is going on on his face! Season 3 has been very good to us in that regard - think about 'Common Ground' where he emotes through a gag, 'Echoes' - that conversation with Rodney and Weir in the hallway, 'The Game' - the perma-guilty looks, 'Tao' and 'Sunday' where he makes me cry... He's never going to get the praise that David does, because he's a different kind of actor, doing a very different role, but there would be no Sheppard and McKay as we know it without Joe's acting ability. Heck, it could have been Dean Cain or Ben Browder! *shudders*

I'm really enjoying watching Jason too. It's easy to look at, shall we say, the more "physical" actors and club them together with Arnie, Stallone, and Van Damme, as serving a purpose that is not necessarily concurrent with being able to act. Jason, however, is proving time and time again, that not only can he pull off the physical stuff with utterly convincing grace and beauty, but he can act too. I wrote off Rachel early on - but it seems that was simply to do with early-Teyla being rather 2 dimensional. As the character grows, so does my respect for her.

No show is ever perfect. Even 'The West Wing' which is one of the best written and acted, intelligent shows ever created was perfect. Two main characters were not so much written out of the show, as simply disappeared without a trace - incredible when you consider that in both cases there were plot lines which were perfect as escape vehicles, and yet they were blatantly ignored.

I want to comment about you phrase 'improve upon the original' but I'd like to ask you exactly what you mean by that. It seems quite close to crossing a line that I know you don't like to cross.

You didn't notice his acting ability until 'Irrestistible'?!

I know, it's hilarious, because everyone was overacting in that episode, but it was the first time I'd really, consciously become aware of the range of facial expressions that he's capable of -- and just how *much* he conveys nonverbally. Then, of course, going back and looking for it, I can see it all over the place; I'd just never really been aware of it on a conscious level. It's not that I ever thought he was a bad actor; I just hadn't really noticed what he was capable of. Similar thing with Jason, really, because I'd spent all of season 2 thinking of Ronon as this sort of un-emotive man-mountain in the background, and then once I really started liking him in season 3, I went back and could see the things I like about him now going all the way back to his first appearances -- the subtle humor and the occasional flashes of little-kiddish behavior (like his happy little hop when Teyla says he can go with her in "Trinity"). I just hadn't noticed it.

I want to comment about you phrase 'improve upon the original' but I'd like to ask you exactly what you mean by that. It seems quite close to crossing a line that I know you don't like to cross.

Bad choice of words. Bear in mind I was kind of doped up when I wrote that. ;) You know how I feel about the fanfic/canon divide. I suppose what I meant by that comment is that when canon delivers on the specific things that *I* want from canon (h/c and strong friendships, mostly) there's not much incentive for me to write my own versions. It's not so much improving upon it as injecting the things I want to see there. I think that's why I have no desire to write fic for Supernatural; all that I would write is already there in canon.

I thought you didn't quite mean that - which is why I asked - I'm learning!

Hope the mouth is feeling better today.

I was going to write a big clever post in reply to you here but there's no point... because you've pretty much expressed all of my thoughts above! Oh, except that I was all about the Sheppard pretteh right from the beginning! :lol: Love McKay and love the interaction between McKay and Sheppard absolutely to bits but I was always aware of JF's awesome yet subtle acting... could be something to do with the fact that, being the huge Shep fan I am, after initial viewing I spend most subsqeuent viewings watching mostly just him, no matter who the scene is focused on! :lol:

*grin* I've been all about the Sheppard pretty too; it's the fact that he can really *act* that took me so long to catch onto. I mean, I never thought of him as a bad actor, at all; it's just not something I'd really thought about, and it greatly deepened my appreciation of the character (which I didn't think was possible, but there you go) to start noticing that subtlety in his facial expressions.

I think I spend way too much time staring at this show, frankly ...

One of my pet peeves as always been that when an actor plays a more subtle character that means he/she is a bad actor. Sheppard is a more restrained character - as is Teyla or even Weir...Joe is a good actor and is very good at taking Sheppard from the cocky, laid back flyboy to the solider who will do what he has to to protect his city and his people.

I keep hearing what if we had other actors in the same role. But at least with TV after a while it becomes all but impossible to see anyone else in that role. Partly because that is the only one we have seen and partly because the writers (at least the good ones) will start to write with that actor in mind. What is that person's strengths as an actor? Who does he/she work really well with? Well if you change the actor - the everything else changes as well.

One of the reasons for the shows success is the chemistry between DH and JF. It is way they work together - David's more obvious style coupled with Joe's more restrained style. Rodney as the ever worried neurotic, John as a laid back go with flow flyboy. Like all the great friendships on TV (Kirk and Spock on the top of that list) I don't think it be the same with different actors in those roles because the dynamic would be very different. You could have two of the best actors in the world but if the chemistry is off then - particularly with a show like Atlantis, then show is going to fall flat.

I keep hearing what if we had other actors in the same role.

I haven't heard that before -- and I absolutely DON'T get that; for me, with TV shows, the actor is very much what makes that role what it is. I can't think of a single time that an actor's been changed with any sort of success; I can think of some times they've done it on sitcoms, and soap operas do it all the time, but it ALWAYS feels like a cut-rate stand-in for the real thing, and loses whatever made that character interesting in the first place. Not to put down the replacement actors; it's just that there's this back-and-forth between the actor and character, and you can't really change that without utterly changing the character -- you may as well make them a different character anyway, because the old one's gone.

SGA really struck gold with its cast, and with DH and JF in particular. Last spring when I was trying to convince my sister to watch the show, I realized how much of what I loved about it wasn't so much the lines and situations as the way they were delivered by the actors -- because I'd try to describe something (like the "I shot him ... in the leg!" from Hide & Seek) and I just couldn't do justice to it; you really have to see (and hear) JF do that line to get the effect.

I really hate to use the word "chemistry" between actors, but sometimes, it's just the only thing that fits -- and they play off each other wonderfully. What's doubly interesting about it is the way that the Sheppard/McKay relationship was never planned; it just happened, and the scripts started playing to that strength because it WAS probably the big strength of the show.

I love the way Torri delivers her 'Ah yes, well, never mind!' line in 'Echoes' when Rodney is trying to show her just how he knows "Sam" is male. I would NEVER have thought of saying that line that way, but I love it.

I get your point concerning the actors - but since Ivy's talk I've given a little thought to the roads not taken. If we look at 'Rising' wherein the characters are not established, and the writers haven't been able to inject as much of the actor into the role as they would later, and try to imagine others in their place it's a little easier. Anyway - my objections to Cain and Browder have somewhat to do with what I have seen of them. Cain is too obviously a 'hero type' - and though he may have dropped the muscle by now (I don't know) his physicality would get in the way of the character.
Browder - I differ from Friendshipper in that I like him in 'Farscape' but am indifferent about him as Cam (because I am indifferent about Cam). But there are things I feel he lacks as an actor in both roles, some nuances I miss, which Joe is fully capable of.

So I compare what I have seen of the three in different roles (I've seen Cain in other things, and virtually everything Joe has been in) and I cannot see strengths in the other two that would make up for the things that Joe offers that they do not. One thing I can say categorically is that I'm gald they gave an unknown actor that role, because Joe came to it without baggage - without anyone seeing either Superman or John Crichton in Shepaprd. Check out the 'Space Daddy' (or whatever it's called) interview at Gateworld for how Joe got the role. (I recommend reading rather than listening, you can barely hear Joe)

It's just too incredibly difficult for me to wrap my mind around the idea of anyone else in that role! Like you say, I'm incredibly glad they got an unknown actor in that role. In general, I much prefer seeing an unknown in a continuing role to an actor I already know from somewhere, because it's so much easier to think of them as the character. There are a few exceptions; Richard Dean Anderson's a great counter-example, since his portrayal of Jack is so radically different from MacGyver that it wasn't hard for me to think of him as a different character. Ditto with Claudia Black, who I adore as Vala and didn't like on Farscape. (Yes, there were exactly two actors/characters that I didn't like on Farscape ... the main two. Both of whom I like on Stargate. Go figure.)

Having said that, though, whenever SGA goes off the air, I'm definitely going to be hoping for more projects with DH and JF. Preferably together, but you can't have everything...

I've noticed in the past that things I get really, really fannish about tend to not be the best-written things out there. If it's really, truly GOOD, there's no space for my fan-brain to play; there's no way to improve upon the original, no poorly-hidden cracks to patch over with fanfic. If it's really, truly LOUSY, there's nothing to draw me to it in the first place. Somewhere in between, there lies the perfect combination of unrealized potential and actual quality, and SGA appears to have hit that balance perfectly for me.

You've hit a nail on the head here. NT and I talk about this all the time. This is exactly why we write fanfic, to tap into the potential in shows that are "good" but not "perfect", which is almost always in those two areas you mentioned - h/c and that family/friend thing I drink in like anything.

Fact is, I like action shows best, and while you may get *some* hurt/comfort in "guy" shows, it really is a rare thing, often given to female or younger characters, but rarely the older (and to my mind, more interesting) ones. That's why I think shows like SG-1 and SGA lend themselves so well to fanfic - because the canon is about the ships and explosions and selling the big GMC trucks you see in the ads in between, whereas fanfic provides the the emotional responses and gripped arms and, yeah, the occasional manly sideways hug (*cough*).

In my old fandom, M7, it was similar. The show was good, but some of the episodes were just poorly written, and the untapped potential of the character's relationships with each other just screamed for fanfic.

What's funny is that, I *am* writing less this year, and I think that is in part because they gave us a lot of what I normally write in fanfic. They gave us some really gorgeous moments with the characters. Tao really did mess with my need to write. I think that's why I've not focused on Sheppard or McKay so much in my last few little stories, and why my current story is...really a Teyla story.

Either way, looking forward to Season 4, no matter what!

What's funny is that, I *am* writing less this year, and I think that is in part because they gave us a lot of what I normally write in fanfic.

*hee* This is becoming increasingly true of me, and for exactly that reason! Especially in the wake of "Tao" -- so many of the scenarios that I like to play with in the fic have been addressed on the show that there's just not that much space to write in. I think maybe that's why I've been leaning more towards different sorts of things lately -- tags, and AUs, and I'm becoming increasingly interested in exploring the Rodney/Ronon relationship instead of the Rodney/Sheppard one. This doesn't mean I don't still adore my snarky boys ... but the show itself has gone so far towards satisfying my desire for snark and sweetness that I feel less of a need to fill the gap with fic.

the occasional manly sideways hug

*laughs*

There can never be too many of those! Well, in fic anyway...

But, yeah. I know exactly what you mean. And I've always gravitated towards "boy" shows and entertainment, too -- in my case, including a big soft spot for superhero comics. The irony is that my favorite parts are usually what happens *between* the fights -- the little moments of softness or group bonding. Yet if it's ALL group bonding, it totally loses me -- it's the chick-flick thing we've talked about elsewhere. I'm fickle...

Rodney/Ronon eh? Wicked! I'm doing the other -- Submersion stuck Teyla in my head in a big way. I'm getting a kick out of tearing her down (and poor Rodney really doesn't help). All I have to do is hide it within a bunch of team love...

And fickle is good. It means you've got taste...(least, that's my theory!)

The facial expressions are the first thing I noticed about him. His lines are bare minimum, only what needs to be expressed. Everything else is in the looks he gives.

The other way I was impressed with him was on the Season 1 DVD set and his comments on the commentary track for Rising. He knows his stuff.

FF seems to lend itself to that little bit more just to tweak the favored show. I started with Smallville during S-4 because it was lacking. Since then...they've kicked much booty, so no ideas.

Discombobulated comments are now at an end.

It really is amazing, when you think about it, how much of the character is in the way the actor presents him -- and the little touches that JF throws into Sheppard's characterization, as well. Apparently a lot of the stuff around his quarters, like the surfboard etc., was suggested by JF.

It's those little touches that make him so much more fascinating than just "the military guy" on the show.

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I love my silly, silly show

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