Vidathons are something I enjoy as a watcher, not being able to create vids to save my life, but full of admiration the people who can. In many a fandom. festivids went online - the masterlist is here - and a cursory glance (will watch more in days to come, of course) gave me these gems:


When you're evil: Jim Profit, sociapath at large. Witty and entertaining, and also, Adrian Pasdar. Profit the show didn't even get a complete first season, which is ever so frustrating.


Pots and Pans: Deadwood, otoh, got at least three. This vid uses footage mostly from the first one and portrays the town and the ensemble with that mixture of brutality and humanity that characterized the show.

Collage : a Homeland vid, no spoilers beyond the first season, about Carrie and Saul picking up the pieces in their morally ambiguous profession and their relationship with each other. I'm very happy one of the two Homeland vids was about the Carrie & Saul relationship, which is imo as important to the show as the one between Carrie and Brody.

Blackbird: based on the film Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, this vid uses a Beatles song, a Paul one which I'd never have associated with John because well, so not the subject, but it works for the emotional arc of the film.


I've just seen a face: and another McCartney-penned Beatles song, this one using footage from the film We'll Take Manhattan to portray Jean Shrimpton (as played by Karen Gilliam, aka Amy Ponds from Doctor Who) and her relationship with David Bailey. I didn't think the source material was all that (only mildly entertaining, with a great in-joke of an ending, though), but the song fits Karen-as-Jean beautifully, and the vid is charming as hell.

I'm answering this from the ideal assumption I could resurrect some of these directly after they were cancelled, i.e. with the same writers/actors/producers available instead of bound by other commitments, aged or died.

1) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Because it was, hands down, the best show in the last two years, smart, with complex characters and relationships, developing arcs, and a superb use of its medium. (By which I mean it used visuals and music as well as dialogue for storytelling, which fewer tv shows do than you'd think.)

2) Deadwood. Because I want my characters cursing in iambic pentameters back, damn it, instead of seeing their story just cut off by cancellation. Again, great ensemble show, complex characters of both genders, and it manages to avoid incredibly easy traps of horrible gender clichés. (For example: Trixie and Al.)

3) Crusade. Not as great as the first two, but it had promise (especially if seen with the episodes in the right order), I liked most of the characters enormously (i.e. everyone except for Galen), I'm still frustrated thinking of the unfilmed scripts that I've read (one of which was a great Bester episode which incidentally would have made my favourite B5 books character, Sandoval Bey, tv canon, and the other would have been one of the jawdropping OMG NOW I UNDERSTAND revelation episodes JMS excels at that would actually have justified the existence of Galen the irritating to me), and also, the Excalibur is the Liberator with better GCI and I loved watching it.

4) American Gothic. This one found out it would get cancelled just early enough so that the s1 finale also works as a show finale, and a good one, but you know, it should never have been cancelled to begin with. It was great and subversive, and it probably influences me against Supernatural to this day because I can't help but comparing its first and only season to SPN's first season (which is all I've seen of the later) and wonder how the second one survived when the former was ever so much better as a take on supernatural mysteries of the week connected through ongoing arcs and an ensemble of characters. And as twisted family relationships with possible devils, definite angels and potential antichrists go, give me Lucas Buck, Caleb Temple and Merlyn over the Winchester boys any time. Footnote: and it even got screwed on the DVD release because for some benighted reason they put the four episodes not broadcast in the US at the end instead of putting them where they were in the European broadcast, which is at various places in the first third, middle, and last third of the show. Where, you know, they included crucial character development. Grrr. Argh.

5) The Order. Because the question did not specify "tv series", and the cancellation of this comics series by Matt Fraction after just two trade volumes continues to grieve me. Yes, he can and has brought characters from it back in his other titles, but that's not the same as the freedom to develop them and their stories in their own title. Again, great ensemble story, great twist on the Marvelverse and its established storylines, and oh, great, great use of location. (I.e. Los Angeles). I want it back!

I somehow managed to get sick over Christmas and have been coughing, sneezing and glaring feverishly at my nearest and dearest ever since, but thankfully, there is fanfic distraction.

So, yuletide recs (well, the first bunch - there are over 2000 stories in this year's turnout! Great Maker!):

1602:

Renaissance Portraits: the Elizabethan versions of Pyro, Mystique and Wolverine. Captures the Gaiman poetry in the writing of the original beautifully.

A.S. Byatt: Possession

And speaking of poetry: two great takes on the fictional poets of that novel, Ash and LaMotte:

Shall I miss the selkies and the seals?

Vivien and Merlin

Casablanca:

Like last year, the Louis-Rick (or Louis/Rick, depending how you look at it) relationship produced lengthy and atmospheric fanfic, to be read and savoured:

Aux Armes, Citoyens

As Time Goes By

Deadwood:

The Most Faithful of Reminders: Al Swearangen, Dan and Trixie at Christmas. An anything but fluffy story, and yet it's heartbreakingly beautiful.


Dexter:

The Sunshine of your Love: Rita, post season 2, the things she knows and the things she doesn't, her past and present. A great portrait.


James Bond

Casino Royale continues to invigorate the franchise. Operating Instructions captures what interested me most about the film: Bond as a believably messed up secret agent, and the M-Bond power struggle as an ongoing red thread. Loved it.

Egyptian Mythology

Seven Songs: to use the author's description: "Horus, having overcome Set and bound him, has unwisely asked his mother Isis, Set's sister, to guard him. Set, however, has strong views on the value of brotherly love." This take on one of the most prominent of Egyptian myths from the point of view of the villain is one of the most beautifully written stories this year, and feels genuinenly Egyptian to boot.

Greek Mythology

And never without sacrifice: Artemis. And Apollo, but it's really the portrayal of Artemis, using many of the various partly contradictory myths, that slays me, no pun intended. Greek gods, without any attempt at camp or the postmodern irony which is usually unavoidable when writing about them today. Awesome.

And finally a non-Yuletide rec:

Dr. Who/Alias

Doctor Who and the Rambaldi Enigma: Brilliant, brilliant crossover which manages to provide a Whovian explanation for Rambaldi, a great teaming up of the Third Doctor and Sydney Bristow (which makes so much sense, if you think about it - given the Venusian Aikido, they had to meet!), excellent guest appearance by the Master (this is a Three story, after all) and a deadpan wry affectionate narrative voice. I love all the details, from the text that Sydney sees when she looks at the psychic paper (come on, guess!) to her take on the Doctor and the Master:

She finished reading and looked at the Doctor. "He really goes in for moustache-twirling villainy, doesn't he?"

"He's always been overly melodramatic," the Doctor sighed, flipping his opera cape over his shoulder.

Sydney opened her mouth to reply to that but thought better of it.