sholio | Alaska, she is cold

50 below zero in Fairbanks this morning, and supposed to stay that way all week. Killer weather. We put a heat lamp in the chickens' coop; we'd had a hundred-watt light bulb in there for extra heat, but it wasn't really enough for this kind of cold. They were getting sluggish and unhappy. Poor tropical jungle fowl.

The ice fog has really socked in, too. ... for those who aren't familiar with it, when it gets this cold, the moisture in the air freezes into a dense fog of ice crystals. It's much worse in town, with all the ambient moisture from cars and houses and so forth, than out in the intensely dry valley where we live, but even we have a smoggy drift of it. In town it's pea-soup-thick, "can't see the taillights in front of you" fog. Going to work on Friday was a miserable experience. Right now I'm only working two days a week, and my university-employed husband is off until the students come back, so neither of us has to be anywhere until Thursday and we don't plan on attempting it. This is "hunker down and stay warm" weather.

I've been thinking about doing a "year in review" fic post, because I'm enjoying going around and reading other people's, but I'm just not really motivated to. I am bitter, bitter towards the show at the moment *g*, and I really don't want to dwell on having lavished love on it last year.

Edit: Massive "Vegas" spoilers in the comments.

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Sounds very, very cold! I'm sorry you're still down, I thought you bitterness was at the fandom and not the show. You've been such a big part of the positive side of both. Hopefully you'll feel better after things have settled.

Did you ever watch "Vegas"? Thought it was of the best episodes they ever did. Top five.

Glad you made it home after the crazy adventuress in NY. I never want to g o to the heart of the city..think I'll stay in cold Buffalo :D

Buffalo - that's where you are? I was close to you! Well, by Alaska standards anyway. *g*

No, the bitterness is mostly at the show (and myself), because it's not like the fandom pointed out anything that wasn't true; it's just that I'd been able to ignore it and go on enjoying the show, until it got to the point where so many people were pointing it out that I couldn't ignore it anymore. I just feel kind of ... duped and angry, I guess. I miss the show terribly, but at the same time, I can't figure out what I ever saw in it or why it took me so long to catch a clue about it.

erm....what you ever saw in it? that's easy just rewatch season 1 and season 4. imho those are the best seasons.

Well, but that only works if I'm not overwhelmingly frustrated by how much better it could have been if it had been better conceptualized, written and acted. See, I always knew that it was kind of a bad show that I loved anyway. Most of my fannish loves are; with the really good shows, I like them as they are, and don't feel much need to spin my own stories around the edges of canon. It's just gotten to the point where all I can see is how bad it is, even in the early episodes.

It's interesting that you say this. My first episode was "Aurora" and it is still pretty awful, but then I heard that Jewel Staite was in one, so my Firefly love bled through to SGA. It was okay, but then I saw "Grace Under Pressure" and went..yep, I can watch David Hewlett/McKay regularly. You are most definitely right in that the writing is mediocre for *most* episodes and some of the acting is below that. However, I will point you to a couple of things...
1) David Hewlett is an awesome actor. Just watch an episode with him, not necessarily about him, and see how he behaves. Seriously, just watch McKay and forget the plot, etc.
2) It's tv sci-fi, which is notorious for being shallow in character development. I would, however, state that Firefly broke that rule (and has forever "ruined" me for good sci-fi).
3) Watch season 3 again. I feel that it was the best, though the "Shrine" is certainly my favourite of the series. There were some great episodes and some great ideas coming back. It felt like the show had finally come into its own.
4) Go and re-read your fic Long Road Home and its sequels. Seriously. It is one of my all-time favourite fan fics in SGA, heck, in any fan fic, and is just wonderful to read again. I find new things every time.

While I understand your frustration with the writing and the show in general, perhaps you can gain solace in knowing that, for the most part, new material is going to come from highly intelligent and gifted writers in fan fic. That has to count for something. It's what got me hooked on the show.

And yes, ice fog is too cool! That and thunderstorms in a snowstorm!

I think what really did it to me was the one-two punch of watching Wiseguy (where there's such a difference in the writing and universe-building and character construction; it's really a punch in the gut to watch a show where the characters are more than just pretty faces to move the plot around, and to realize how much of what I've been seeing in SGA is what *I've* been putting there), and then Vegas and the fandom's cheerful willingness to turn a blind eye to the huge racially problematic issues with that episode ... I'm just tired. I can't watch the show without seeing the problems -- in the writing, the acting, the different ways they handle different characters. Season 3 is the one where they gave up any pretense of being an ensemble show and decided to focus on John and Rodney, which I was perfectly okay with at the time, because the characters they'd focused on and shaped into the main characters of the show were my favorites. I'm not so okay with it now, especially since I can see how my own fic has reflected the show's marginalizing of certain segments of the cast.

But thank you for the comments about "Long Road Home". I really appreciate it and I'm sorry for the bitterness. :)

Huh, interesting.

You know, I came into this show off of SG-1 and at first I could barely stand to watch the thing, because it was so obviously worse. But I stayed watching it because of McKay mostly -- he wasn't my favourite character, but he was amazingly well acted, I thought. I could not make myself watch season 2 in it's entirety it was that offputting to me, not even McKay could get me throug. And then towards season 4 or so I started to sort of like Sheppard as well. When the writers let them play up the Sheppard/McKay dynamic there's some really good chemistry there. I came into season 5 actually liking the show a lot. I didn't think it was an awesome show but it was very enjoyable to watch. I haven't seen the majority of the last episodes of season 5 and that's allowed me to keep thinking that way.

I guess you have travelled the 180 degrees, reverse path -- of first really liking the show and then deciding that it wasn't that good. Whereas I, once I came to terms with certain things, have ended up quite liking it for what it is.

Plus, in the million and one fandoms I've been in, I have never encountered as much good fic as in this one. SGA fandom is amazing.

I guess. I miss the show terribly, but at the same time, I can't figure out what I ever saw in it or why it took me so long to catch a clue about it.

Ouch. Guess it's hard to just enjoy something without trying to break it down to death. Maybe it's time we all moved on to happier places.

Er, and sorry for the mini-rant there. I wasn't kidding when I said I was bitter. *g* I'm glad you're still enjoying the show and that you found something to squee about in Vegas. I liked Vegas, actually, though I also saw a lot of what I dislike about the show in the episode as well.

Edited 2009-01-04 19:53 (UTC)

Happier places are in fan fic!

Please tell me where you got that Flangian icon! Love the glasses!! What show/movie is it from?

I made the icon from the picture here (http://kristen999.livejournal.com/206963.html) on my LJ. It's of Joe at Christmas.

Thank-you so much! What a wonderful picture!

i love your pic of joe i haven't seen that one before

Alaska, she is cold

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