sholio | Traders

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Traders

So I bought the first season of "Traders" after watching clips on YouTube (*glares accusingly at

with_apostrophe*) and we watched the first four episodes last night. It's fun! Who would have thought a show about stock trading could be this entertaining?

Sally Ross reminds me a lot of Elizabeth from SGA, except she's like a version of Elizabeth who actually achieved what the SGA writers never quite managed to do with the character -- strong without being bitchy, tough without being abrasive, vulnerable without being maudlin, moral without being cloying.

Grant is, of course, adorable. And so is Donald, whose eager-puppiness is a nice contrast to everybody else's "sharks with blood in the water" sort of mentality.

I'm still having to work to sell myself on Jack. There were some nice scenes with him and his father, but I'm having trouble getting past his corporate ruthlessness. With a character like Marty or Adam, you relate to them first as a total bastard and any shreds of human decency they may manage to muster are a nice bonus. With Jack, I feel like we're supposed to relate to him as a sympathetic character (a "nice guy" as opposed to the not-nice guys like Marty), but there's enough of the bastard in him that it's hard to empathize with him on that level.

ETA: Can people PLEASE not put spoilers in the comments, even vague ones? My favorite way to watch a show is completely unspoiled -- it's basically impossible in SF fandom to do that, but since Traders is kind of an obscure show, I really have no idea at all what's going to happen next and I like that. I'm sure I'll be wanting to talk about events in the more advanced seasons when I get there, but I'd really appreciate it if discussion could be restricted to the part of the series that I've seen (which is up to episode 7, as of tonight). I don't want to know which characters stick around, I don't want to know how the relationships develop, I don't want to know ANY of that.

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*raises hands in surrender gesture*

Hey, like you said - it's surprisingly good - I was just sharing the love!

Sally, I didn't really like in s1, but she's grown on me since. She and Weir certainly have things in common - academics propelled into a position they weren't looking for but intend to embrace, surrounded by men who are more experienced and always pushing, disaster follows disaster...

Grant is utterly adorable. I find myself squeeing out loud when he's on-screen. Donald I find a bit bland, but is a refreshing contrast to the rest of the over-confident money-grubbers.

Jack - what can we say about him? Yeah, I thnk we are supposed to like him, but I've never found him likeable either. He's interesting, yes, but not a character I can really gel with. Marty is a lot of a fun. It's great seeing his confidence here vis a vis his lack of confidence in "The Other Guys" and "Avenger 2.0".

Oh and sorry if I mentioned this before, but Adam (or rather, Bruce Grey) is the Senator whom Vala inferred was lacking in a certain strategic area.

You know I might do a little watch along with you - nothing set or scheduled, but just seeing where you're at (and comparing it with the 2nd half of s4, which is as far as I got).

(BTW - I still don't know what going short, or going long means. Technobabble!)

Grant is SO adorable. From what little I'd heard about him beforehand, I was expecting the character to be a lot harder to connect with. But I just want to pet him...

Nice to know it's not just me, with Jack. He's not quite likeable enough to relate to as a "good guy", not quite enough of a jerk to enjoy as an entertaining asshole (like Marty is).

(BTW - I still don't know what going short, or going long means. Technobabble!)

Heh! Yeah, I don't understand half of what they say, and a lot of the plots leave me scrabbling along to keep up. I really *like* that feeling, though -- that they aren't stopping to explain things (except on those occasions when they have to because the plot depends on the viewer understanding some obscur trading concept) and I feel like I've been dumped right into the middle of a stock trading floor. It's fascinating, albeit frustrating at times.

Hola! You're watching Traders! I got sucked into it last year. Seasons 1-3 are wonderful, then it wanders into horrible places in seasons 4 and 5 (thought there are a few good eps). The show is a bit of a struggle. I went hot and cold on Sally Ross, and eventually really, really disliked her in the last two seasons. Adam, on the other hand, I grew to like much better. Jack gets better, and you really rather like him third season. Donald too--just because he's a sweetheart. And I loved Marty--except, again, last season. Heh.

Anyway, if you need the rest of the seasons, just let me know and I'll send 'em to you.

Anyway, if you need the rest of the seasons, just let me know and I'll send 'em to you.

Oh! Thanks! I think you'll be hearing from me ... *g*

I'm surprised how much I do like Marty, given what an absolute ass he is. I've worked with people like Marty in real life and it's a nightmare. But as a TV character, he's very engaging. I think part of it is just that he's such a completely unrepentant asshole. He really doesn't care what other people think. At all.

And Donald is a total sweetie.

Erm, don't suppose you'd be willing to send the second half of s4 and all of s5 across the Atlantic? We could do a trade! That would be appropriate.

I will admit -- I only have CDs (for playing on the computer). I don't have TV DVDs. Is that okay? If yes, absolutely I will make copies and send them across! Just email me your address (megtipper@hotmail.com)

I started off thinking that show was so so boring, and then I ended up just mainlining seasons of it. Highly addictive.

Yeah, my husband is even liking it, and when I first showed him the DVDs he just gave me a look like, "You want me to watch a soap opera about stock traders? Are you nuts, woman?"

It's just so easy to get sucked into their dysfunctional, money-grubbing lives...

Oh, I love Traders! I pretty much mainlained all five seasons and watched them in about two weeks time. There is never enough Grant. I did grow to like Jack. There's another endearing character or two coming along.

I never liked Sally or Adam. I would have been just as happy to have never left the trading floor. With Marty and Grant what more did you need?

The introduced an American character and he always made me laugh.

I really need a Grant icon ;-)

We're having fun so far. I was feeling like a total social retard for liking Marty, but from the comments, it looks like I'm not the only one!

I was surprised by how much I liked Marty. I think maybe it's because you always know what his priorities are and his character (I think) remains pretty constant throughout. Some of the others are very shifty in their dealings with Grant (it's all about Grant with me. If you're mean to Grant I'm writing you off the show!) and I could never forgive them that.

Yeah, the guys on the floor are the real heartbeat of the show.

Jack is not nice but you end up loving him anyway, stupid bastard.

And you KNOW you're incurable when you start loving Adam. Man, that show got me good.

Heh. I really love characters who shouldn't be at all likeable but manage to do it anyway.

Thing is, there's the twist with Adam at the end of season 1 that makes you realise that the Tin Man actually does have a heart!

I still don't particularly like Jack - and I'm up mid-season 4 (you know what that means) though I do like how he deals with Grant. Awww! But his luagh, oh my goodness, that laugh is TERRIBLE!

I don't know what it was about Jack that got to me. I mean, maybe it was just that he was so very very damaged. As damaged as Grant at the very least. But underneath it all, he had a good heart and Grant -- who for all his naivete had a great bullshit detector -- loved him deeply. And Jack was just so helpless in the face of love and so deeply bent on his own self-destruction. I always like to think that he got away somehow, hit his rock bottom and came back up, mellowed but strong as a cop who worked with this wierd psychic chick... *g*

Okay, seriously -- can you guys PLEASE not spoil me? I know you want to talk about it, but I'm only up to episode 6 and I much, much prefer having no idea of where a show is going, including how the character relationships develop.

I am sorry that you feel spoiled by that - I don't like being spoiled either so I deliberately made that as general as possible.

I do appreciate that everyone has different levels for what they consider a spoiler, it does contravene "having NO idea of where a show is going".

I deleted a previous comment and have revised this one, because I was going to try to justify why I didn't consider it to be a spoiler. I changed my mind, because I do believe the individual (you) is the best judge of what is and isn't a spoiler for them - BEFORE they see or read what was spoiled.

On the other hand you did say at one point that your moratorium against small spoilers was off. Was that show-specific (I don't remeber)? Did I miss a post where it was back on? Was there something specific about that spoiler that made you react, because there are tid bits in other comments you didn't react to?

I'm sorry if I got smackdown-ish last night. I guess that the reason why I reacted so strongly was that ahead of time, dating back to long before I thought I might like to see the series, I'd run across one (pretty big) spoiler about it. I'm not sure why that particular thing stuck in my head, but at least I didn't know who it happened to or when. From the little hints in your and other posts, I feel like I now know who and when, which kinda ticked me off. On the other hand, I could be totally misreading things and maybe you're talking about something quite different.

I also felt like it was getting to the point where the discussion was veering into a pretty detailed discussion of future events (again, I could be mistaken, but that seemed to be the direction it was heading in) and I wanted to stop it before I got majorly spoiled.

I know I probably invited it by posting about the series before I'd seen all of it, but the thought hadn't really crossed my mind that people would start talking about the part I hadn't seen. (Which is silly, because I know how fandom works.) And I didn't mean to come down hard on you with the smackdown. I'll just wait'll I've seen the rest of it to post about it again -- no harm done.

On the other hand you did say at one point that your moratorium against small spoilers was off.

I did? Er, sorry. The only time I remember making a comment like that, I believe I was talking specifically about getting upset at other people for posting uncut SGA spoilers in their journals.

I think that the extent to which I mind spoilers depends for me largely on what kind of show it is. Some shows like SGA are very episodic and if you know something about one episode (unless it's a huge casting thing), it doesn't really affect any of the other episodes. You know that the characters in episode 50 will be relating to each other in much the same way as they did back in episode 30. But with a show like Traders, you really DON'T know that. 30 episodes down the line, the character dynamic might have completely changed. Same thing with Lost (back when I still watched Lost) -- each episode has the potential to completely change everything, so I don't want to know ANYTHING.

But, like I said, I didn't make that clear, so it's not your fault at all. And you *were* being vague. I just didn't make my wants clear from the beginning, and I should've.

Ok! ;)

To make you feel better, I don't think you are actually as spoiled as you suspect you are as a result of my comment. I don't think it is what you think it is, or you're right about what you think it is, but you're wrong about the consequences!

That tells you precisely nothing, but should get you guessing again!

I can't resist.

In Season Three, aliens invade Toronto and turn Jack into a Pumpkin, Marty into a dinosaur and Adam into a pickle. And, amazingly, they keep their personalities. Aliens are amazing.

Chris's hair eventually starts sticking straight up in a Beckett like ledge of black, and tiny wee people (all bearing a striking resemblance to a tiny Richard Dreyfuss) who believe they've been abducted try to scale it, looking for the aliens in the top. Turns out, there's a whole race of creaturs in his hair that communicate by 1980s Synth music. The trading floor starts wearing ear muffs to block out the sound.

Oh, and there's a dragon at one point. It's big and red and spits fire. It melts Grant's chocolate hoard, and the whole trading floor becomes a sort of hot fudge sundae for the monster. Sally saves them all by throwing some bottled sass (she learns to bottle it in Season 2, and sells it on the black market to up and coming pre-teen Hollywood actresses, and that's where she makes all her money) at the dragon, and it's so overcome by the girl power that the dragon disappears in a puff of alabaster colored smoke, with a hint of lavender after glow...

And, yes, I should cut down on the caffeine at work.

Darn you, I read this at work and was supposed to look like I was doing something serious and work-related on the computer. ;)

and Adam into a pickle.

This was the part where I really started cracking up...

LOL! That actually does help.

I couldn't believe I was liking a show about traders, but you know, I really liked it. Marty grew on me quickly and I loved Grant from the outset. Jack was always a bit weird for me. He seemed likeable enough but not really a good guy, which I kind of liked. Why not have a main character who's not completely heroic. He acts like a jerk and them redeems himself with something later. There's a wonderful scene in season 2 or 3 between him and Grant that solidified my love for Jack.

I look forward to hearing what you think as the show progresses.

Thanks! :D I'm curious to see how it develops. (And btw, can I ask you not to drop hints about future stuff? I don't want to be spoiled, and one of the things I like about this show is that I can't tell how situations or characters are going to develop, so I REALLY don't want to know about future events.)

I thought the comment was vague enough. Sorry. No further comments on what happens in the future.

Sorry about the spoiler smackdown; it *was* a bit out of proportion. :) I got a little annoyed yesterday because it felt like most of the comments were talking about parts of the series I hadn't seen, so I was afraid I'd have to start avoiding the thread for spoilers.

no need to apologize. Apparently those of us who have seen the series are a chatty bumch and excited to share what we love. Enjoy watching!

Hmmm, I've been considering getting the Traders dvds myself. I may break down and get them now. Like you, I watched clips and vids for the show on YouTube. David Hewlett is absolutely adorable in his role as Grant, but beyond that I don't really know much about the show. I didn't want to buy a dvd set just for one actor, even if it is David Hewlett. There are a lot of shows that I'd like to get on dvd, but I can't possibly afford them all, so I'm a bit choosey about which ones I do get. After hearing about the show from you, as well as a few other people who also liked it, I think I'll go ahead and get them.

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