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Sanctuary (again)
Slowly filling in the gaps of my Sanctuary viewing ... I've now watched nearly all of season one (I did quit halfway through a couple of episodes, but enjoyed the others) and a big chunk of season two, though I haven't gotten around to the back half of it yet, other than the couple of character-arc-centric eps that I'd watched earlier (the Tesla one and the Druitt one). "Fragments" was the last one I watched, because I couldn't end the evening on "Pavor Nocturnus" -- that is NOT a good episode to watch when your mate is out of town and you're all alone in a dark house right before going to bed.
Random nonspoilery thought:
I adore Helen. I really, truly do. It's so rare and refreshing to have a female hero on an action show who is the kind of character that she is: not a femme fatale or an ingenue in skin-tight black leather, but basically a female Indiana Jones. She dresses comfortably and practically for the situation; she's never over-sexualized (even in the one episode that required her to strip for decontam, it was scary and brutal rather than sexy, and mostly we just saw her head). She has the dignity, calm and gravitas that makes her a believable and convincing leader, and she's equally capable of thinking her way out of plot problems with SCIENCE!!, or getting a big honking gun and shooting her way out. And she's not paired sexually with her male co-star, nor do I get the feeling that they ever would be. (But she also has lovers; she's not desexualized, either.) She's even front and center of the promo shots and the fanfic.
A++ job, Show.
I could really do with less Will, though. Or, more accurately, I could really do with less of Will being the character in the A plot with Helen nearly every single time. I mean, can we get some Helen+Kate episodes, or some Helen+Henry episodes, or really, anything but "Helen and Will are in mortal peril again"? I don't hate their interactions (actually, like I noted above, I really love that they're platonic, which is rather extraordinary) but I'm just tired of the predictability of it -- if someone's going to get stranded somewhere, or if the characters pair off, it's almost invariably Will and Helen, and I just want to see them pair off in other combinations.
The show's flaws still grate on me at times -- I did give up partway into Folding Man because it was boring me beyond belief, and based on my flist's suggestions I didn't do more than skim through Warriors for the good bits, which were few and far between. I do wish the show had more episodes in which the characters were genuinely clever rather than just telling us that they're smart and then failing to show it. And there are certain things about the underlying setup of the world that still skeeve me a bit. But all in all, it's definitely hit the tipping point I mentioned in an earlier post, where fannish squee overwhelms its flaws and suddenly I stop noticing them as much. (Usually it doesn't take three seasons of spot-watching the good episodes to get there, but whatever.)
And I really like the background steampunky bits. Straight-up Victoriana steampunk is so not my thing, but I really like crossover steampunk, like Tobias Buckell's SF. And Sanctuary is just about the right amount of it for me, without being too slavish to the genre. (I've mostly stopped wanting the science to make sense and just kind of managed to roll with it as fantasy, which helps. *g*)
I'm becoming more and more convinced that Henry is the cutest thing ever. I just want to give him a hug a lot. And he gets the best lines ... well, at least the best lines that aren't Tesla's. "They say nature abhors a vacuum..." *whips out giant vacuum nozzle* "... but that's because she hasn't seen mine." OH HENRY YOU ADORABLE DORK.
My interest in fanfic/fandom for this show is already starting to flag, though. Probably I think this one is going to be like Doctor Who and some of the other things I'm into, where I enjoy the show and watch some vids and occasionally read a fanfic that seems to be up my alley (or write one), but I'm not obsessively seeking out everything in the fandom.
I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the eps I haven't seen yet, though, and really looking forward to new eps in April, yay!
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/307932.html with
comments.
Random nonspoilery thought:
I adore Helen. I really, truly do. It's so rare and refreshing to have a female hero on an action show who is the kind of character that she is: not a femme fatale or an ingenue in skin-tight black leather, but basically a female Indiana Jones. She dresses comfortably and practically for the situation; she's never over-sexualized (even in the one episode that required her to strip for decontam, it was scary and brutal rather than sexy, and mostly we just saw her head). She has the dignity, calm and gravitas that makes her a believable and convincing leader, and she's equally capable of thinking her way out of plot problems with SCIENCE!!, or getting a big honking gun and shooting her way out. And she's not paired sexually with her male co-star, nor do I get the feeling that they ever would be. (But she also has lovers; she's not desexualized, either.) She's even front and center of the promo shots and the fanfic.
A++ job, Show.
I could really do with less Will, though. Or, more accurately, I could really do with less of Will being the character in the A plot with Helen nearly every single time. I mean, can we get some Helen+Kate episodes, or some Helen+Henry episodes, or really, anything but "Helen and Will are in mortal peril again"? I don't hate their interactions (actually, like I noted above, I really love that they're platonic, which is rather extraordinary) but I'm just tired of the predictability of it -- if someone's going to get stranded somewhere, or if the characters pair off, it's almost invariably Will and Helen, and I just want to see them pair off in other combinations.
The show's flaws still grate on me at times -- I did give up partway into Folding Man because it was boring me beyond belief, and based on my flist's suggestions I didn't do more than skim through Warriors for the good bits, which were few and far between. I do wish the show had more episodes in which the characters were genuinely clever rather than just telling us that they're smart and then failing to show it. And there are certain things about the underlying setup of the world that still skeeve me a bit. But all in all, it's definitely hit the tipping point I mentioned in an earlier post, where fannish squee overwhelms its flaws and suddenly I stop noticing them as much. (Usually it doesn't take three seasons of spot-watching the good episodes to get there, but whatever.)
And I really like the background steampunky bits. Straight-up Victoriana steampunk is so not my thing, but I really like crossover steampunk, like Tobias Buckell's SF. And Sanctuary is just about the right amount of it for me, without being too slavish to the genre. (I've mostly stopped wanting the science to make sense and just kind of managed to roll with it as fantasy, which helps. *g*)
I'm becoming more and more convinced that Henry is the cutest thing ever. I just want to give him a hug a lot. And he gets the best lines ... well, at least the best lines that aren't Tesla's. "They say nature abhors a vacuum..." *whips out giant vacuum nozzle* "... but that's because she hasn't seen mine." OH HENRY YOU ADORABLE DORK.
My interest in fanfic/fandom for this show is already starting to flag, though. Probably I think this one is going to be like Doctor Who and some of the other things I'm into, where I enjoy the show and watch some vids and occasionally read a fanfic that seems to be up my alley (or write one), but I'm not obsessively seeking out everything in the fandom.
I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the eps I haven't seen yet, though, and really looking forward to new eps in April, yay!
This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/307932.html with
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Yes, there were webisodes; I actually watched the first one a long time ago, didn't really care for it, and that was one reason why it took me a long time to give the series a try. It does get better. I'm still not able to recommend it wholeheartedly, but if you do want something new to get into, I'd recommend watching the premiere (for setup), and then watching all the Tesla episodes (I looked up Jonathon Young's page on IMDB and used that for a viewing guide XD), and going back and watching the rest of it later, because the other characters did grow on me a lot, but it was Tesla (and Amanda) that really snagged my interest in the first place.
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This is possibly a little random (but I had to share) I treated myself to the DVD box set of “Tales of the Gold Monkey” starring Roddy McDowell and…. The physical similarity but mainly the body language resemblance between Jonathon Parrish playing Tesla and Roddy McDowell playing Bon Chance Louie is extraordinary.
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Yeah, it's light and fun and escapist, and I like the characters, and there just isn't really a whole lot of sci-fi on TV right now.
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I watched the episode last night where we get the flashback to Henry as a little wild child in the wilderness. Oh, Henry.
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It actually took me awhile to realize that there was a whole steampunky theme in the background, because it wasn't overwhelming... I kinda like it that way.
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