fannish5 and fanfiction recs

[selenak]

fannish5: What are the five best tv opening credits sequences?

1) Six Feet Under. Because it indicates the death/dysfunctional family/quirky humour elements of the show, in a cool and slightly disturbing way. I always like to think that Claire could have come up with this collage and Olivier would have called it pretentious, inwardly seething with jealousy.

2) Carnivale: from slightly to full disturbing, using the Tarot themes and mixing them with 30s America footage and, well, carnivale elements. The music fits perfectly, too.

3) I, Claudius: Rome sort of paid homage to this one, but nothing beats the original snake crawling over the mosaic, and the music going with it. My hearts beats a little faster each time I hear it.

4) Babylon 5, season 5: B5 had a different opening credits sequence - and different music - for each of the five seasons, going with the concept of them as chapters in a novel. I actually like the music for season 3 best, but as a credit sequence in its entirely, the one for s5 is my favourite. It manages to deliver a short summing up of the entire saga without doing the "last time..." thing, sounds suitably epic, and provides endless rewatching fun when trying to match soundclips to episodes and speakers. (Sometimes, it's easy, as with "you have a hole in your mind...", but it took me a while to identify "weapons supplies" (Bester says it in Ship of Tears)

5) Dexter: back to black humour territory, as we see Dexter go through his morning routine in the credits in a way that teases the first time watcher by making him think he's doing something sinister, but no, he's just cleaning teeth, making breakfeast, etc., complete to whimsical music. The whole credits sequence gains a truly vicious bite and slap in the face in the last episode of s2, though, as it is played out for real. To say more would be spoiling.

***

Now, this weekend, the remixredux08 stories will be revealed, and as I've written two of them and am curious about the one I'll get, I'm impatiently looking forward to it. Meanwhile, there was the reveal of a ficathon I didn't participate in, so I could just enjoy the results as a reader; remixthedrabble!

Here are my favourites:

Harry Potter:

Taking Sides: The Brothers Black, Sirius and Regulus. The genius of both original and remix is that you can't tell who is who, and yet the characterisation is perfect.

Doctor Who:

Paleolinguistics: this remixes the fantastic vignette of astrogirl2 with the same name and slays me. I have a soft spot for fanfiction that uses language and what it means for the characters anyway, and Astro's short take on the Doctor last year this way was genius; this remix presents the Master, and in short form captures his relationship with Gallifrey and with the Doctor as well as his nature. I'm awed.

Threads: is a deceptively light-hearted piece about the Doctor and Martha, and manages to ingeniously explain something in the (lovely) original as well. Enjoy!

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

My love for the Dexter credits sequence knows no bounds.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

♥

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

Eee! Thank you for pointing out that remix of "Paleolinguistics." I adore the original, and the remix is brilliant, too.

(Also? So with you on the B5 S5 credits)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I was so thrilled to read this that I just had to share!

(Hooray for more s5 credits love, too!)

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love the Six Feet Under and the Carnivale credits! And Dexter is of course awesome as well.

One sequence that took a while but finally grew on me were the Deadwood credits; and the ones for Big Love are great, too - slightly bizarre, but actually, they catch the tone of the show quite well.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I've never watched Big Love and must admit I tended to skip over the Deadwood credits (i.e. fast forwarded), but they were well done, that's true.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Great choices!

Six Feet Under and Carnivale would be my first two choices, as well. The next three, I think, would be Freaks and Geeks, Farscape (3rd and 4th seasons), and Twin Peaks.

As much as I love Dexter, I don't find its credits sequence to have the rewatchability factor as these others have. I find the pacing rather slowgoing, and will more often than not skip it when I watch an episode. These other shows' credits, I never skip, even when I'm watching a bunch in a row.

Incidentally, my least favorite credits sequence of a show I love is Battlestar Galactica. I don't like the music, I don't like the way it's edited, I don't like the rather dull fonts of the actors' names. I never watch it.

The cleverest use of a credits sequence, ever, goes to the sitcom, Ellen, in its third season. Ellen had a running gag that began in that season premiere where she said that her staff had been working hard on a credits sequence but that something went wrong and it wasn't ready to air that week, but it would be the next week. Each week, at the top of the episode, she'd appear, out of character, and apologize again for the credits not being ready. It was a great running gag, and led to some very creative comedy while Ellen tried to "fill" the time when they should have been running. Finally, on the season finale, the credits came...and it was purposely ridiculous, with a cheesy theme song a la an 80s sitcom. It was such a perfect satire/commentary of what other TV shows were doing. Possibly the most brilliant meta use of opening credits ever. And here it is!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Twin Peaks! Should have thought of that, yes. I never watched Freaks and Geeks, though.

LOL about the Ellen credits. I remember those 80s shows...

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Blackadder's, er, season 2, I think, had an opening sequence that parodied I, Claudius's, with a gloved hand grabbing the snake and pulling it back into the shot.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*g* Good for them.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

This is the one for the episode "Potato":
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BjFB1FZdKU8

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*g* I see your point.