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With the disclaimer that this is prone to change depending on mood except for the first two, and is in no particular order:

1) Scooby Road by

luminosity. Still the most awesome vid of them all, not only if you're a fan of BtVS and of the Beatles, and I am both. My detailed ravings on it are here.

2.) Ophelia, a Babylon 5 vid. I'll forever be glad to have lured

andraste into B5, and not just because she makes fabulous vids, but this vid - about the dead women and the way they return on the show - is definitely a part of why.

3.) Blank Space: a more recent favourite, to my mind, the best Doctor/Master vid to date, encompassing both Old and New Who.

4.) Savages: a magnificent vid that beautifully captures all I loved about The Borgias. (Not so coincidentally based on the first two seasons.)

5.) Virgin: it's Vorenus/Antony, yes, and I do have a soft spot for that pairing, but better than that, it's about Rome and Rome, and captures the essence of both.

6.) On your wings: Doctor Who again, this time a vid portraying one of my all time favourite companions, Ace. And beautifully so.

7.) The Unforgiven Ones: Battlestar Galactica, Ellen and Cavil, the Five and the Seven; a short vid that packs an incredible punch.

8.) We didn't start the fire: still BSG, this time on the hilarious side. I love this to bits, and the identifications (Lee as the Cather in the Rye! Laura Roslin as Richard Nixon! Athena as Lawrence of Arabia!) reliably crack me up every time.

9.) Half Acre: incredibly beautiful Six Feet Under vid that uses Claire's art to frame the entire show.

10.) Runner: aka the Connor from Angel character study which made me go "here I wrote lengthy posts about him and the vid makes all my points much better, and then some"!

December Talking Meme: The Other Days

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Location: Bamberg

Today isn’t father’s day in Germany (that was last month), but it is Bloomsday everywhere. Which means it’s also a certain poetical wedding anniversary day, see more here. I’ve just come from not one but two conferences, one in Leipzig, one in Lorsch, which were exhausting yet also very interesting. Met intriguing people, learned about more dire things in the world but in a captivating way, if that makes sense. However, it also means I’m not up to composing lengthy posts, and tomorrow it’s British Invasion day, aka I have the chance to show

jesuswasbatman Bamberg. (So if the poor guy ends up collapsing between Hill #4 and Hill #5 of the Franconian Rome, you know whom to blame.) And on Tuesday I’m going to Munich for the last few days before the Big Trip Of The Year, so when on earth I’ll be able to write my Borgias finale review, I don’t know.

Meanwhile, let me remind you again today isn’t only Bloomsday but also

twiceuponatime is a go. Considering Ulysses takes place on a single day, I suddenly wonder how a James Joycean take on Storybrooke under the curse would fare. But a better word acrobat than yours truly would have to try.

Also, have a Six Feet Under meta link: a beautiful analysis of one particular dream sequence in season 5.

Current Location: Bamberg

It's been over a week now, and despite my, err, reaction to the finale, I find I very much miss Being Human. Fortunately, there is some fanfiction. As it's impossible to describe without spoiling for the fifth season, I'll hide the links for three stories under the cut

( Being Human Goodness here )

****

The recent tv meme, which brought me Six Feet Under reminiscences, and

falafel_musings marathoning the show inspired me to a rewatch, and oh, the show holds up wonderfully well. As good as I remembered, and I just love the humanity of it - you have these characters who are all in varying degrees screwed up, but they also all try to make a life anyway, and you're not encouraged to condemm and dismiss any of them. Everyone has their ups and downs, their moments where they shine and moments where you make you facepalm. Oh, show. Sadly, there isn't much fanfic, but since the last time I checked, which was a while ago, there were some new stories posted, including this one, set pre-pilot and basically the story of how David originally met and got together with Keith:

The Picnic (18215 words) by xmarisolx
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Six Feet Under
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Keith Charles/David Fisher
Characters: Keith Charles, David Fisher, Claire Fisher, Ruth Fisher, Nathaniel Fisher, Nate Fisher, Original Male Character
Additional Tags: Jennifer Mason
Summary:

After David calls off his engagement with Jennifer, he runs into a childhood friend who invites him to come to church with him. The decision proves to be life-changing.

Current Mood: good
Current Location: Munich

Day 30 - Saddest character death.

And we conclude with a horrible dilemma of a question, given that the media I consume offers really a lot of death scenes, now that I think of it. However, let me specify in order to narrow the criteria: "saddest death" is absolutely not the same as "most shocking" or "most surprising". And of course, one viewer's sobfest is another viewers "hooray!" or "why hasn't X croaked it already?" Not to mention that there are some deaths which may be sad but also feel right, even necessary, i.e. no matter my fondness for the characters, I would have felt like the narrative was cheating or not giving them their due if they hadn't died. ( Spoilery examples for season 3 of AtS, season 4 of BSG and season 5 of SFU follow which are therefore not my choice. )

My other criteria for "saddest death": I have to be emotionally very invested in the characters involved. For example, among the many, many deaths that happen in Lost, the one I'd give the "saddest death scene in Lost" award ( happens in season 3 and is spoilery for same, then compared to two from season 4 ) It's not in any way an objective judgment or one dependent on writing, acting or directing of the scenes in question, but then "saddest" asks for an emotional judgment.

After trying my best to narrow it down, I came up with four scenes in close competition, which you'll find under the cut.

( Spoilers for season 2 of Torchwood, season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, season 1 of Deadwood and season 1 and 5 of The Wire ensue )

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: Munich

Day 27 - Best pilot episode

Ah, pilot episodes. They have to introduce a new ensemble of characters, deliver enough of a good story to get you hooked with the promise of more to come, and are usually written without the writer knowing which actors will pay the parts, and whether or not the proposed series is actually going to get even one season, let alone several. I have some favourite shows with pilots that make me cringe when I revisit them, shows with pilots that I would never use to catch a newbie, where I in fact recommend the newbie in question should not watch the pilot until she or he has clocked a season or several and is already a fan. (Pilots that fall into this category include: the original B5 pilot The Gathering, which isn't even on the s1 dvds for a reason, the ST: TNG pilot *CRINGE TO THE MAX*.)

And then there are the good pilots: not as good as the shows are going to get later (and since shows improving are better than shows declining, that's a virtue), but already full of promise, doing an excellent job of intriguing you and introducing the cast. Some of the characterisation might not completely fit with the later shows because they're a work in progress, after all, and usually you can tell that the writing and the actors adjust to each other over the course of the first season and the characters might change somewhat accordingly. (For example: the Buffy The Vampire Slayer pilot does a good job of setting up the show, but there are continuity gaps if you go back to it after having actually watched the entire series and its spin-off: notably regarding Jesse, who gets introduced as Xander's and Willow's best friend who shared their childhood and adolescence and never gets mentioned again, but also with the Darla characterisation - not just the personality, but that she doesn't appear to know about Slayers - which is hard to reconcile with Darla as presented later. Or: Alias has a great pilot, certainly for my money the best of any J.J. Abrams show, Sydney's personality and her central dilemma are there from the get go, ditto for Jack Bristow, but you can tell Abrams hadn't yet worked out the length of the backstory between Arvin Sloane and the Bristows yet.)

...and every now and then, a pilot is so good that it does not only do its exposition delivering, audience wooing job but holds up when revisited years later even compared to the glories to come, not because the show never improved but because the characterisation was certain from the get go and some threads were developed so well that new details, suddenly looking like foreshawing, may emerge. Three of the best pilots that come immediately to mind for me are:

a) The one for Dexter: which had the considerable task of selling you on the "main character is a serial killer of serial killers" premise while also selling you on the fact his sister, girlfriend and workplace colleagues all are unaware of this without making them morons, deliver a solved case and set up the season long case to boot. It managed all of this, used the Miami location well, has lots of good acting and has no moment where in retrospect you think, okay, that doesn't fit with what we find out later. I may be critical of the show post s4, but that doesn't mean I don't still appreciate what it used to be, and that pilot is fantastic.

b) The one for Six Feet Under: meet the Fishers (and Brenda Chenowith). About the only thing that the show later ditched completely were the fake commercials for undertaker products. Otherwise, we get a great introduction to the cast here, the death of Nathaniel Sr. which kicks off the plot has repercussions throughout the show, and the tone in its mixture between drama and satire, tragedy and comedy, is right there from the start, too. And just when you think the show is doing the expected, there is a turnaround: I'm thinking of the funeral scene where Nate has his outburst about the fakeness of American funerals versus the reality of emotion (he brings up the Greek woman he once watched), which I had expected... and then David has his counter outburst about having been the one to deal with the corpse of their father (intimately) so Nate's lecture on how funerals are all about not admitting the reality of death and wanting to keep our hands clean suddenly looks incredibly naive. This, I had not expected. (Nate seemed so clearly set up as the hero of the show until this point, the one in tune with his emotions etc.) The thing is, the show makes you understand where both Fishers are coming from, and that keeps being true for its entire ensemble throughout the series.

c) The one for Breaking Bad. I rewatched it after having marathoned through the first four seasons and was amazed that it was in fact better than I remembered. So very well done, again, with the selling of the difficult central premise, introduction of the characters, and use of cinematography. My absolutely favourite thing, though, is how a lecture high school teacher Walter White gives to his bored students turns out to be basically the key speech for the entire show. "Chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to think of it as the study of change. It is growth, then decay, then transformation."

...and the winner is: could be any of these three, in my estimation, but today I'm going with the pilot for Breaking Bad. Show, when is your mid season hiatus over again?

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Munich

Thank you for all the gloriously crazy prompts! Okay, here's the list:

1.) Natasha Romanoff (MCU)

2.) Gaius Baltar (BSG)

3.) Skyler White (Breaking Bad)

4.) Quark (DS9)

5.) Alfred Bester (Babylon 5)

6.) Joan Watson (Elementary)

7.) Emma Swan (Once Upon A Time)

8.) Caleb Temple (American Gothic)

9.) Amanda Darieux (Highlander)

10.) Arvin Sloane (Alias)

11.) Kima Greggs (The Wire)

12.) Birgitte Nyborg (Borgen)

13.) Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

14.) Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)

15.) David Fisher (Six Feet Under)

( And now behold the results! )

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: Munich

Day 19 - Best TV show cast

I take this to mean "best cast of actors", not "best cast of characters", which would be a very different thing. Even so, it's not easy to answer, not least because an actor just marking time or having cameos in one show might reveal he or she has actually amazing range in another. For example, I would never have guessed how good an actor Walter Koenig is before seeing him as Alfred Bester in Babylon 5, because Chekov in Star Trek wasn't a role in which he could do more than be cheerfully optimistic and talk in a fake Russian accent. And the two or so episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica I watched certainly didn't prepare me for Richard Hatch, who was the original Galactica's straight man Apollo, being great and utterly convincing as devious politician and ex terrorist Tom Zarek in the new BSG. Then there are cases where an actor might be good in one particular role but once you see him or her in another show/film/play, you realise it was the writing, not the acting, which made this character so memorable. Or at best a union between the two. *eyes James Marsters*

Conversely, there are cases where a show actually isn't that good but the cast is amazing. I would say Dollhouse is an interesting failure at best, but the ensemble of actors, both regular and recurring, with the notable exception of the leading lady (and oh, the irony that a show designed to show off Eliza Dushku's versatility instead pointed out she's something of a one trick pony as an actress), might actually be stronger than in any other Whedon show (and all the others were far better written). With Dinchen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj the standouts as Victor and Sierra, but Olivia Williams, Fran Kranz and Harry Lennix also did superb jobs, as did Amy Acker (and Alexis Denisof in his s2 appearance reminded me all over again of the mystery that post Angel, this best of all male Jossverse actors pre- Gjokaj didn't seem to get any roles).

Then there are shows where there are stronger and weaker actors but the parts for the weaker ones are either so small or play to these particular actors' strengths, and the overall writing is strong enough that the general impression is of a strong cast. (Case in point: Star Trek: The Next Generation. I don't think anyone else in the cast is as good as Patrick Stewart, but no one is bad, Brent Spiner really is excellent, and after the shaky first season the writing gets to a point where actor strengths and character happily meld for the entire ensemble, and most importantly, no one, be it a good episode or a bad episode, ever gives you the impression of just marking time and waiting for their pay check. And the general chemistry is really good.)

...and then there are the cases where the writing is not just good but great, and the actors are amazing in these and other roles. Which means I have to choose between:

1.) I, Claudius: as I said elsewhere, the cream of 70s British acting shows up there - Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies; and, again as mentioned on another day, Brian Blessed delivers one of the most amazing death scenes ever as Augustus in complete silence, acting only with his eyes and the most subtle of expressions and proves once and for all that if given the opportunity he can do more than shout.

2.) Six Feet Under: the wonderful Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher, Michael C. Hall as my favourite gay character of all time, David Fisher, Peter Krause as Nate, Lauren Ambrose being awesome as Claire (and in many ways Claire is the pov character throughout the show), Rachel Griffiths as Brenda, and those are just the regulars through all seasons. Terrific cast, great writing, and that goes for the recurring characters and one shot guest stars as well.

3.) The Wire: I marathoned it so recently that I'm hesitant to include it because usually I need some temporal distance to be sure about my jugment, but it really is everything that was claimed about it in fandom and in professional criticism, both writing and acting wise. And even though the earlier two examples make it hard, I think I'll still name The Wire as my end choice, because the format - five seasons, with each seasons introducing new characters in addition to the established ones and putting the emphasis elsewhere, which means, for example, a minor character in s1 can be a main character in s4, and the reverse, a main character from s1 can get only cameos in s4 - means that of all the shows I named, this one has the largest ensemble of actors, and the best opportunity to give each othem the chance to shine. This includes some teenagers played by actual teenagers, not adults playing teenagers as is the custom on tv, which, considering said teenagers have to do some heavy dramatic lifting, was a risky move that pays of amazingly.

...in conclusion: the cast from The Wire, who were, in the order that Wikipedia gives them and not limited to, Dominic West, John Doman, Idris Elba, Frankie Faison, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Wood Harris, Deirdre Lovejoy, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Andre Royo, Sonja Sohn, Chris Bauer, Paul Ben-Victor, Clarke Peters, Amy Ryan, Aidan Gillen, Jim True-Frost, Robert Wisdom, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, J. D. Williams, Michael K. Williams, Corey Parker Robinson, Reg E. Cathey, Chad L. Coleman, Jamie Hector, Glynn Turman, Clark Johnson, Tom McCarthy, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Neal Huff, Jermaine Crawford, Tristan Wilds, Michael Kostroff, Michelle Paress, Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Munich

Day 18 - Favorite title sequence

Impossible to narrow it down to one, but I shall try. Before I discuss the various top candidates under a cut because I shall use the vids to demonstrate, let me explain about one candidate which isn't there: the Dexter title sequence, which is witty and clever (making what turns out to be Dexter simply going through his morning routine of breakfeast, cleaning his teeth, getting dressed, leaving his apartment look incredibly sinister). However due to my increasing disaffection for the show I can no longer enjoy it as I used to. It's not the title sequence, it's me! Now on to the others.

( Share the wonders that I've seen )

Trying to decide between these is really hard, you guys. With a pistol pressed at my head, I shall say that artistically I admire the Carnivale intro most, am most mushy about the B5 season 5 intro, and in its mixture between the stylistic and the emotional appeal love the Farscape s3 intro best.

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: quixotic
Current Location: Munich

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show

As detailed here, I can't narrow it down to one favourite show, only one per genre. Favourite episodes are similarly difficult, but with an heroic effort, I can come up with:

Babylon 5 and Buffy: Dust to Dust and Restless, for reasons explained in more detail here.

Angel: Either Darla or Deep Down, when I'm in a noir mood; if I want to be cheered up, why, Smile Time, of course. :) (Despite the fact Gunn essentially makes the classic Faustian deal from hell in that one.)

I, Claudius: tricky, tricky, very hard to choose, but it's probably Queen of Heaven. Mostly for the two stunning Livia scenes; first the birthday dinner with Caligula and Claudius, and at the end of the episode her death scene, again first with Caligula, then Claudius. They accomplish to much. In the long term narrative, this is where the role of main villain gets handed over from Livia to Caligula (while various Little Bads abound; at ths point, it's Sejanus, played by Patrick Stewart), but that's the least of it. The dinner is the one and only time where our hero and narrator, Claudius, and Livia who was the main antagonist for most of the show until this point speak completely honestly to each other; it's a mutual revelation scene and the emotional build up which makes it possible is so wonderfully done. (Also, Caligula is around for a while being incredibly creepy, setting himself up as the next main antagonist.) The death scene accomplishes something very very few stories ever manage. Livia has committed various murders and ruined lives of people the audience cares about. She's not repentant about any of this. (Though she'd rather not pay for them in the afterlife, hence the importance to her to be declared a goddess once she's dead, as the gods can commit any crime they want.) And yet, when she dies, both the audience and Claudius, who has hated and feared her through his entire life, feel intensely sorry for her - again, without diminishing or prettifying any of her previous acts. Part of it is, again, Caligula, and the way he takes his leave of her, but it's also the acting and the state Rome is in at that point and - well, everything.

Six Feet Under: Again, very tricky, but I think I'll go with the s1 finale, Knock, Knock. Various themes of the first season (and some overall themes of the show) get a great showcase here, it has some of David's best scenes (and one of the show's most famous visual gags), the screwed up family dynamics (the Fishers among each other, Federico and the Fishers, Brenda and Billy) each get showcases, and it conveys that "life is a mess, but there is hope" atmosphere of the show so well.

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: Munich

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever

Great Maker, as Londo Mollari would say. How could I possibly narrow it down like that? I don't have just a single favourite show ever, I honestly don't. I suppose I could say one per genre. Yes, let's try that.

Science Fiction: Star Trek in its various permutations is my oldest fandom, and I love it with undiminished passion, but my loyalties for the top spot are split between DS9 and TNG, and thus it simply has to be the arc show to end all arc shows, the space opera to end all space operas. It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, you know. Why, Babylon 5 of course.

History: I, Claudius, no question about it, based on Robert Graves' novel. I mean, I have loved several shows since, but this masterpiece of 1970s British tv had it all: brilliant dialogue, the best British actors of the day in major and minor roles, and not type cast, either (if you've only ever seen Brian Blessed in shouty roles, check out Augustus' death scene, in which he doesn't utter a word the entire time and does it all with his eyes during Livia's monologue; you'll know exactly the moment he dies, and no, the eyes stay open, it's not that), Derek Jacobi delivering the performance that makes me still forgive much of his Oxfordian nonsense as the title character, Sian Phillips being the overlady to rule them all, and so forth. Also they were on a budget (as most British tv used to be) and thus there are no crowd scenes or spectacles at all (whenever someone watches, say, gladiator games, we stay with three or four spectators the entire time), and you don't miss it at all. The übergory Spartacus doesn't have anything so frightful as the short scene where Caligula opens the door to Claudius, where technically you don't see anything but John Hurt and Derek Jacobi in close up, but because of the information the audience has as to what Claudius sees over Caligula's shoulders, it haunts me to this day. And did I mention the dialogue is brilliant?

Tiberius: Did it ever occur to you, mother, that it might be you they hate, more than me?
Livia: Nothing ever occurs to you that doesn't occur to me first. This is the affliction with which I live.

Fantasy: Here my loyalties are split between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. It really depends on the day I'm having. Angel inspired more fanfiction, Buffymore meta from yours truly. Buffy is the greater achievement, no question, but the category isn't about a critical pov but one's own emotions on the subject, and I really love them both fervently.

Contemporary Drama: Six Feet Under. It had it all: messed up families (as Alan Ball once said, the Fishers were Scandivian drama, the Chenovitchs were Greek drama), black humour, fine actors, the two big canon romances - Nate/Brenda and David/Keith - being treated with equal screentime, and the various sibling and child-parent relationships getting just as much screen time - satire and emotional depth. Oh, and it taught me all about the benefits of clear instructions for my future funeral director. ( I promise not to demand favourite rare comics to be buried with me, too.) I'm a bit more uncertain about the other big SFU message, which is that either pot or LSD are great for enlightenment or family bonding, but there you go. :)

( The rest of the days )

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: Munich

What are your five favourite sibling relationships?

A challenge after my own heart. Though alas, some potential choices due to their shows devolutions aren't usable any more (say, the Petrellis or Deb and Dexter Morgan) when they would have been on the list in earlier times. After much pondering, and with the caveat I have more loved siblings to offer, but had to limit myself to five, here we go:

1.) Buffy and Dawn, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One reason why season 5 is my favourite is their relationship and the central focus it gets there. I remember how after the first Dawn episode, Real Me, got broadcast you could tell who'd been a younger and who'd been an older sibling by the reactions. (For the record, I was an older sister.:) From the comedy of Real Me to the tragic drama of The Gift, there was so much I recognized and identified with, I can't tell you. Not for nothing is my sole BtVS story that's set post show written around Buffy and Dawn.

2.) Claire, David and Nate Fisher, from Six Feet Under. I list all three rather than one individual pair of siblings among the fishers, because it's the combination which does it to me, and all their relationships with each other. Claire relates to her two older brothers differently and the way she relates to each of them changes as she grows up, Nate and David who are closer in age have some degree of the traditional competitive element, but what looks like a replay of the parable of the lost son in the pilot (one wild but most beloved by dad brother, one obedient stiff stay at home brother) turns out to be something quite different as they live with each other again. And for all that their respective love lives are important for the show (with the Nate/Brenda and David/Keith pairings providing key narratives, and Claire's, err, questionable taste in boyfriends becoming a tragicomedy of its own), Claire-David-Nate is its emotional core.

3.) The Endless, from The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Speaking of sibling combinations and scenes that are golden. Whether it's Death being no-nonsense concerned older sister with Dream in Preludes and Nocturens, the messed up clusterfuck that is the Dream/Desire relationship, Delirium and any of her older siblings who can't help being protective even when being driven insane by her, Despair remembering that one moment when Destruction kissed her cheek and his variable good-natured kindness, or the everyone-but-Destruction-bickers family gatherings: Neil Gaiman portraying various anthrophomorphic personifications as dysfunctional siblings is one of my absolutely favourite things about the entire Sandman saga.

4.) Rom and Quark from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I've said it before, I'll say it again; my favourite scene in the s5 finale is when Quark realises Rom hasn't left the station with Leeta, tells him to do so at once, and Rom objects Quark is staying, too. Quark says he's looking after the bar, Rom says he's looking after Quark, Quark says "you're an idiot" and kisses Rom on the head. It sums up their relationship, and why I love it, in two minutes.

5.) Lywelyn and Dafydd ap Gruffyd, both as portrayed by Sharon Penman and as portrayed by Edith Pargeter (aka Ellis Peters), with me slightly favouring the Penman incarnations. Sharon Penman is great with sibling relationships, good and bad, in general (my favourite thing about her first novel, The Sunne in Splendour, is the one between Edward IV. and Richard III.), so it's tricky to single one out, but this one still wins for the mixture of closeness/rivalry/betrayal/reconciliation. Also they make me cry. That's history for you.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: Munich

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Considering I have currently 156 stories listed at the AO3 archive, which don't include the occasional drabble, you'll forgive me if I can't narrow it down to one. However, after a lot of ponderings and narrowing it down etc., here's the short list I came up with:

The Burying Kind: this is a crossover between Angel and Six Feet Under. Well, technically I should say "between Angel, Buffy and Six Feet Under" since some BTVS characters show up as well and the BTVS backstory is important, but it does take place after BTVS has ended, during AtS' fifth season and the fourth one of SFU. It was born out of a remark

kangeiko made, that given both shows are set in Los Angeles, it would only make sense if Angel hired Fisher & Sons (who were Fisher & Diaz at that point) to ( do something spoilery for the fifth season ). This sounded like a fantastic idea to me, and the result was one quite ambitious ensemble story in which I could tackle grief, friendship, sibling relationships, post traumatic stress syndrome and the like, and take full advantage of the quirks of either show, such as SFU's use of "ghosts" (which is why David Fisher doesn't blink when he sees an AtS one, not realising this is the genuine article) and gleefully draw conclusions. (Come on, you just know Olivier would be a client of Wolfram & Hart's artist division, with all the lawsuits he's bound to get!) The greatest challenge for any crossover is to write it in a way that makes it enjoyable to read for people familiar with both canons but also for people who only know one of the canons in question, i.e. you have to give some background information but find ways of doing so that don't feel annoying to people who already know. Also, the character interaction should make sense and be about more than "wouldn't it be cute if X met Y?". And of all the many crossovers I wrote, this one to me feels where I achieved all these goals best.

Runaways: one of the two Heroes stories I'm proudest of and love best, with an actual plot (borrowed from Brian K. Vaughan) and again, what I consider an achieved goal of ensemble use and interaction in a way that works emotionally, providing both humour and angst. Plus I'm still smug about having come up with John Williams tunes as a method of communication. :)

Five in One: sometimes I write stories that are also meant as meta (sometimes on a character or several, sometimes on fandom; sometimes on a source, here it was all of the above). This BtVS one is a case in point, written not sine, but cum irae et studio; it dealt with several issues I had, was a great way to exorcise them (for the time being) and still works imo as a story. Or five. About five of Spike's victims, from their point of view.

City Girls: this, on the other hand, is a labour of love, for both Buffy Summers and the city of Rome. (Some Dawn love also contributed.) Inspired by the AtS episode Damage casually mentioning Buffy and Dawn were living in Rome. Having spent three months near the place myself in the mid-90s, something clicked in me. I still consider this my definite Buffy character portrait.

Quark's Day: inspired originally by

altariel's reply to a "describe a story I never wrote" challenge, this is my DS9 ensemble story par excellence, set directly after the Second Occupation arc of season 6 has ended, and of all the many DS9 stories I wrote the one that best declares my love for the entire show, not just one aspect or character. (I also think it's my best Quark character portrait, but then, I would. :)

In Vino Veritas: it's rare that one gets to pioneer a slash pairing. This is by no means one of my best stories (though it has some good dialogue), and definitely not my best Babylon 5 story, but it was the very first Londo/G'Kar slash story, and allow me to bask in my pioneer pride and love it for this.

Death and the Maiden: one of the rare stories where you feel you have taken your writing to another level. Not just limited to fanfiction. I had never written anything as dark before, not in a way that still, many years later, makes me feel I did justice to the subject(s) instead of not quite coming through. It's a Highlander story dealing with Cassandra's backstory (and thus also with Methos, rape, brainwashing and the reinvention/discovery of self). Aside from authorial satisfaction, this was the story that made

honorh write feedback the second time and thus brought me my second oldest internet friend, so I have an additional reason to treasure it.

aadler suggested two additional questions for this meme a while ago, to wit:

31 – Which fanfic authors and/or stories have had the most influence on your writing?

Back in ye olde Highlander days, when I was just cutting my teeth writing in another language (i.e. English), Mary Galasso a) was one of the few gen writers (HL was somewhat like Merlin today in that it was overwhelmingly a slash fandom, with some het thrown in, and not much gen), b) told me about this new show she was watching called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and c) kind enough to beta my early efforts, so definitely her. (Conversely, MacGeorge wrote fabulous and very hot D/M stories, but they influenced me as a reader in my early stage of slash discovery, not as a writer (seeing as I never wrote D/M).)

katallison wrote this absolutely fantastic HL story called Last Set Closing in which Duncan visits an aged Joe partly ravaged by dementia which stll is one of the best things I've read in any fandom and showed me you can tackle such subjects in fanfiction in a non-superficial, non-patronizing way. Without facile solutions, and without feeling like a gratitious angst pile, either. (As I imagine many people do, I had an elderly relation suffering from dementia at the time, so it really hit home.)

32 – Are there any stories you want to write that you’re afraid to tackle? If so, what and why?

One comes immediately to mind. Basically the first idea I had after finishing my West Wing marathon was that I wanted to read, or, since a satisfying version didn't exist, write a story about Toby, incensed that the President dared to pardon him and with a whole lot of other issues besides, drives out to New Hamsphire and gets conveniently snowed in chez Bartlet so that he and Jed can have it out. I still want to read or write that story, and it still scares the hell out of me, because you probably need to be a first rate playwright to do it justice, not least because these are two of the most verbally adroit and intelligent characters in a show full of great talkers, but also because there are so many things they wouldn't say without going ooc. In the end, I backed away, but I did use some muddled ideas about that relationship (which was the most fascinating one on the show to me) for my brief character study Words and the Men.

( The rest of the questions )

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: Munich

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

The Quark incident in Let it Be was the only time it happend in just that way, and I let it happen because having Quark as a foil to make sarcastic comments was far better than to write Julian moping on his own, or Ezri brooding on her own. Otherwise, as far as fanfic is concerned, characters tend to show up as planned, though I'm not above mini cameos to amuse myself, such as Connor turning up at the very end of my Angel/Six Feet Under crossover. It made for a nice concluding line and gag. Otoh I posted that story as a work in progress which I don't do often, and one of my readers - I believe it was ffutures - asked whether the fact a season 4 guest star in Six Feet Under was played by Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Dawn on BTVS, would come into play after the first or so installment. I hadn't originally planned to include Dawn (or use the Celeste gag), but the idea seemed irresitable, and it offered some great character moments for David Fisher and an ironic one for Wesley to boot. So basically Dawn (fond of her as I am) didn't insert herself, someone else did it for her!

Otherwise, characters in fanfic basically wait their turn. :)

( The rest of the questions )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Bad Brückenau

Name 10 characters without looking at the questions, then answer for them.

Characters:

1. Abigail Brand (first Astonishing X-Men, currently Marvelverse at large)
2. Jo Grant (Doctor Who)
3. Benjamin Linus (Lost)
4. David Fisher (Six Feet Under)
5. Kai Winn (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
6. Londo Mollari (Babylon 5)
7. Henry Hellrung (The Order, Iron Man)
8. Alex Drake (Ashes to Ashes)
9. Maria LaGuerta (Dexter)
10. Owen Harper (Torchwood)

( Questions! )

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: Bad Wiessee

The thing is, when you watch a show on dvd, i.e. one episode directly after another instead of one a week, then your mind insists on coming up with noticing patterns, and also with silliness. Thus, I give you, wether or not you've watched the show:

Life Lessons Learned From Six Feet Under

1.) It's a good idea to arrange your own funeral. Fill out a pre-need contract with your undertaker of choice as soon as you can, and don't forget, it should be a private one, as big companies are evil. This way, the post-mortem drama for your family is kept to a minimum.

2.) Embalming fluid also doubles as a sellable high school drug. Don't try it, though; the cops will be on to you in a minute.

3.) Stay away from cute boys in distress, especially if they give you the feeling that you and only you can save them from themselves. It's never worth it. At best, you have a screwed up relationship for some months, at worst, they carjack you, beat you up and play mindgames for hours, making you even more neurotic and defensive than you already were.

4.) Getting high is great for family bonding and self discovery. In fact, make sure there is a family member around when you take drugs, no matter the potential embarassment factor, because if you get high too often and on your own, you're bound to end up arrested and/or in a car crash.

5.) Coming out as gay won't solve all your emotional problems, but it will give you a really new way to interpret stainglass windows in a church.

6.) Finding out you're straight, on the other hand, might get you public humiliation.

7.) On that note: don't experiment sexually with performance artists, they're far too indiscreet. Pop stars, on the other hand, are more discreet, but they could fire you.

8.) Even if you're not a politician, don't nuzzle interns. It only ends badly, and at the worst moment for the family enterprise.

9.) Though the competition is tough, therapists really are the worst parents.

10.) Fanfic lies! If you had a screwed up childhood and have a very intense relationship to your sibling as a result, adding sexual feelings to said relationship won't get you mind-blowing incestous sex but only one awkward conversation or so per ~~season~~ year as the result.

11.) If you're interested in someone for more than casual sex, make sure to meet his surviving family and exes before you marry/move in with him/her. Not only will you have to deal with them forever after anyway, but they usually can tell you way more about your love interest than said love interest is willing to reveal.

12.) Kleenex is more helpful than a hankerchief, and less gross.

13.) Always take your meds.

If you have more SFU learned wisdom to contribute, comment away. If, on the other hand, you've never watched the show, do so now and find out why all of these instructions are true!

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: Munich

Sorry, had to use the quote because of its appropriateness. Bonus points if you recognize it; it's not from the three fandoms I'm going to talk about.

Between the SFU rewatching and the new Dexter episode, it occured to me that there are three shows I can think of that feature an important character who either gets killed off early in the pilot or is already dead in the pilot, and yet remain a powerful presence in the main character(s) life/lives; what's more, the audience gets to know them (nearly) as well as the living regulars: Nathaniel Fisher the elder in Six Feet Under, Lily Kane in Veronica Mars (well, in the first season of same), and Harry Morgan in Dexter (all seasons so far).

There are similar techniques involved on the part of the shows in all three cases; flashbacks, imaginary conversations with the living characters, and in the case of Harry Morgan and Lily Kane, one or several mysteries the living characters want or need to solve in order to deal with their own lives. (It occurs to me that Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks also falls into this category, but then Who killed Laura Palmer? is the question that drives one and a half seasons of the two seasons show. Oh, and Merlyn Temple in Twin Peaks, but that would be cheating, because Merlyn is literally around after her death, not just in her brother's imagination or memories.) There's also a lovely bit of the unreliable narrator question, because in each case we see the dead characters how the living need to see them, projecting their own issues? Since Six Feet Under, Dexter and Veronica Mars do not postulate actual ghosts. Nathaniel in Six Feet Under is remembered and seen by all regulars, not just one of them, so you can argue his portrait is probably the most reliable we get. In Veronica Mars, we see flashbacks featuring Lily from the perspectives of Duncan and Logan as well as Veronica, but Veronica's memories and imaginary conversations with Lily are still the dominant ones, and so I'd say the Lily we see is mostly how Veronica saw her; in Dexter, both the Harry memories of the first two seasons and the imaginary conversations with Harry in s3 and 4 are from Dexter's pov, so yes, this is Dexter's Harry, both when he's idealizing him, when he's going through his fall-of-pedestal/angry rebellion/rejection phase, with Harry as the bad guy, and when he makes Harry into his stern but understanding confidante again from the last part of s3 onwards. As the show isn't exclusively in Dexter's pov - there are scenes the audience is witness to that Dexter never finds out - I wonder whether we'll ever get a counterpoint via Deb's memories or imaginary conversations, especially considering she's currently tracking down Harry's old informants.

Nathaniel and Harry are both fathers and father figures, but Lily isn't. In a sense, she's the show's dead femme fatale. And yet you also get the impression that Lily not only dominated the four way relationships between herself, Veronica, Duncan and Logan but held them together; which makes the show's first two seasons a prolonged falling apart process, with none of the individual relationships working as they did when Lily was alive. Considering Lily is anything but a wise mother figure but a highly ambiguous character, this is fascinating. I'm trying to think of another dead - as in genuinenly dead, not literally present as a ghost or revealed not to be dead at all - female character of equally vivacity and narrative importance on a show, and again can only come up with Laura Palmer. If you change the status quo to "presumed dead", there is of course Irina Derevko on Alias, who is not literally present in the first season at all save for the last seconds, and for the majority of the season assumed (by the characters, at least) to be dead, but whose impact on the past and present of the show's heroine and her father is enormous even before the woman herself shows up for the second season. But like I said, Irina never is actually dead, so we're dealing with quite a different kind of story.

In conclusion:

Poll #1418 Dead Men and Women Walking

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

View Respondents

The most interesting dead-yet-present character for me was...

View Answers

Nathaniel Fisher, Senior (Six Feet Under)
0 (0.0%)

Lily Kane (Veronica Mars)
3 (75.0%)

Harry Morgan (Dexter)
1 (25.0%)

Someone else I shall elaborate on in my comment
0 (0.0%)

Bear in mind here I said "interesting" not "most likeable". I think Fisher Senior would probably win that one without much effort; after all, he never trained someone to be a serial killer for greater justice, nor did he cheat on a fannish darling with a relative.

Current Mood: calm

Spoilery for the show, in case you haven't seen it yet and are planning on seeing it.

- I have a lot more sympathy for Brenda during her s2 arc than upon first watch; partly because this time I'm watching with hindsight and all subsequent developments in mind, but also because this time it really connects for me with something her mother says early on (though she means it in a different way), that Brenda used to channel all or most of her issues via taking care of Billy, and once she's free of that, she has to face her demons alone

- this show really has most of its characters fearing to become or fall for their parents, if you think about it; Brenda has flashbacks to what she saw her parents do as a child at the same time she has her random sexual encounters, Keith admits to inheriting "anger issues" from his father and once compares David to his mother, Nate keeps associating Lisa with his mother (so does the show visually) and yells at Head!Nathaniel Sr. "I'm not you", Claire of course has Ruth's great hair and her bad taste in men, David makes his "...and I inherited doormat issues from Mom" joke , etc.

- one of the great achievements of SFU is that Claire really is that rarity on tv, a female teenager who credibly grows up - and just plain grows - during the show, and you realise by the time it ends that if there is a narrator in whose pov we were, it was Claire; I love how we see her relationships with her family - both her mother and her siblings - shift and change along with her growth

- the irony if you've seen s5 is that Nate actually wasn't any happier in his marriage with Brenda than he was in his marriage with Lisa (which isn't to say that the periods of happiness in either marriage weren't genuine as well), and ultimately, that wasn't because of either woman, it was because of Nate

- in retrospect, I should have seen the later Olivier/Margaret hook-up coming, because the show uses them in similar ways, as a mixture of very black comic relief (my favourite Margaret quote remains her attempt to cheer her daughter up: "Darling, don't you think I wanted to abort you and Billy both until your father convinced me otherwise?") and mind games experts

- I've said it before, I'll say it again: David and Keith have spoiled me for m/m relationships on tv and are one of the reasons why just the rare sight of two men kissing alone doesn't do it for me. It's not that their relationship is idealized, it's that it isn't; they go through miseries and character issues like the other couples on the show, and you want them to stay together and are glad they do not because "omg, a gay couple on tv" but because the show makes it credible that with all their flaws, they are really good for each other

- just as I had no trouble accepting Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan after knowing him as David Fisher first, I have no problem going back to David and not seeing Dexter when I see him; amazing actor.

- two details that somehow I noticed upon rewatch in a way I didn't during first watching, which have nothing to do with each other: in s2, when Nate figures out Brenda cheated on him with at least two strangers, his first immediate question isn't "how many?" or "who?", but "did you fuck your brother?" Which obviously is his biggest fear re: Brenda. In s3, in the night Lisa goes missing and Nate goes from being worried to starting to freak out, he rings up David because he needs someone despite the fact both Ruth and Claire are already in the house, which is a neat show, not tell about that particular relationship.

- in most other shows, Billy would have been the irredeemable villain considering his s1 role. But despite the fact Alan Ball in audio commentaries compares the Chenowiths to a Greek tragedy type of family (whereas he calls the Fishers Strindbergian), he actually sort of symbolizes the show's humane optimism that even if you're very screwed up indeed, you can make it through life without killing yourself or getting killed early on, and even can sort of repair some of your damaged relationships while you're at it. Unless you're the corpse of the week, that is.

- considering abortion is such a controversial issue in the US, was there much uproar over the fact Claire had one with the show presenting this as the right choice for her to make at this point?

Current Mood: sympathetic

I've started to rewatch Six Feet Under, and since

monanotlisa still has my season 1, I started with season 2. This put me in an "awwww, show" kind of mood, reminded me how much I love these screwed-up fictional families... and also reminded me that Ruth and Claire really have horrible taste in boyfriends. So, for those few on my flst who've watched the glorious Six Feet Under, two polls:

Poll #1385 Bad Boyfriends

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 2

View Respondents

Who was Claire's worst boyfriend?

View Answers

Gabe (he of the criminal career)
1 (50.0%)

Russell (when they screw your art professors, you know you should dump them)
1 (50.0%)

Billy (it's Billy; 'nuff said)
0 (0.0%)

Ted (really decent guy, but he's a Republican)
0 (0.0%)

Who was Ruth's lousiest lover?

View Answers

Hiram (she dumped him for Nathaniel's ghost!)
0 (0.0%)

Nikolai (too much vodka)
0 (0.0%)

Arthur (really, Ruth? really?)
2 (100.0%)

George (did you see what he did to Claire's birthday tree?)
0 (0.0%)

I'm putting Ted in there just for completeness' sake, btw, not because I expect anyone to vote for him. (Republican or not, he really is a decent guy.)

Current Mood: working
Current Location: Munich

Recently I've seen a couple of posts debating again whether or not the old adage that resolving sexual tension between a couple spells doom for a tv show. As I'm not familiar with the fandoms they cite - not named so I don't accidentally spoil fans of said shows - I felt inspired to some ponderings of my own.

Now, personally I might only rarely ship characters at all, but of course I'm aware that UST and "will they, won't they" stories are a big selling point for many a tv show for much of the audience. Still, I think the reason why some shows declined in quality wasn't really that their leading couple "got together"; on the contrary, my heretical theory is that the decline in most cases probably goes along with a scripts development that focuses on the romance of the couple too much. Take Farscape. ( Spoilers for all four seasons follow. )

Or let's take the X-Files for a counter example. Here I don't think the problem was that Chris Carter drew out the UST so long that the people stopped caring whether or not Mulder and Scully ever got together but that he couldn't plot long term conspiracy arcs to save his life and that Scully lost more and more of her life not revolving around Mulder. Moreover, if a couple, whether platonic or romantic in nature, becomes a show's selling point, we should see they these people are good for each other. I stopped watching around s5 and even then I couldn't see why Mulder was in any way good for Scully; they had in fact become both far more interesting in scenes with other people.

Now for the shows that brought couples together (and split them apart, that, too, reunited them, and everything in between) without simultanously losing quality (as always imo): Six Feet Under, for example. It's an ensemble show, but if you had to choose whom to label "leading couple", there probably would be an even split between Nate/Brenda and David/Keith; I didn't sit there with a stop watch timing screentime, but to my recollection the show treated them about evenly in terms of how important those relationships were. Brenda and Nate have sex in the pilot of the show, David and Keith are already a couple in said pilot, which echews the conventional UST/will-they-won't-they pattern entirely. Now, there were times during the five seasons of the show where I was annoyed by each of these four characters, though usually not simultanously. But I never had a problem with the place their romances had either in the overall narrative or in their personal storylines. Not coincidentally, at no point did Six Feet Under become either the Nate and Brenda or the David and Keith show.

The West Wing is a hybrid here in that one of the most popular couples, Josh and Donna, ( had a spoilery for s7 development ) The other canonical couples, though, either added sex to their relationship early on - i.e. CJ/Danny or Charlie/Zoey - or were already an established item years before the show started (i.e. Jed/Abby). (Fanon couples are incidental to the point I'm trying to make here.) Again, none of the romantic relationships ever overcrowded everything else; the various friendships (to which of course Josh/Donna also belonged) got far more room, and of course the show never forgot its central premise, that these people worked for the goverment because they genuinenly believed in the romance of public service. West Wing character X/saving the country always topped everything else. As a result, the show surely had its ups and downs, and its problems, too, but I never had the impression these were about romances (or lack of same).

In conclusion: to me, the recipe for a successful tv romance isn't how long or short the UST period between a couple is but whether or not the show in question gives the couple in question other things and relationships, or whether it expects the audience to care only about the central romance. If it does, it's bound to crash. For this viewer, at least.

Current Mood: okay
Current Location: Bamberg

Name five effective uses of songs in movies or tv shows.

Must not give only SCC answers. Must not give only SCC answers. Must not give... okay, I'll try. Also, because it's all about the matching of music with visuals, I've included every single scene chosen, courtesy of YouTube.

1) The West Wing, season 2 finale, Two Cathedrals. Song: Brothers in Arms, by Dire Straits. ( Spoilers would vote for Jed Bartlet )

2) Six Feet Under, season 5 finale (series finale). Song: Breathe Me, by Sia. ( Spoilers dig flash forwards in a sniffling way )

3) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, s1 finale. Song: The Man Comes Around, by Johnny Cash. ( Spoilers beheld a white horse. )

4) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, s2 opening episode, teaser of same. Song: Samson and Delilah, arranged by Bear McCreary, performed by Shirley Manson. I just had to use more than one SCC example, and I couldn't decide between these two. ( If spoilers had their way, they'd burn this whole building down )

5) Doctor Who, season 3 of New Who, season finale, but for once an early and not a late finale scene. Song: I can't decide by the Scissors Sisters. ( Spoilers are RTD's personal Master song vid. )

Current Mood: mellow

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December Talking Meme: Top Ten Favourite Vids

in haste

Fanfic recs

Thirty Days of TV: Day Thirty

Thirty Days of TV: Day Twenty Seven

Meme Replies, aka: Crossover Madness Ahoy

Thirty Days of TV: Day Nineteen

Thirty Days of TV: Day Eighteen

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Five

Meme from Astro

Life Lessons

Oh, how the ghost of you clings

Quick notes upon rewatching more Six Feet Under

SFU Poll

All you need isn't love, basically: meta on whether or not UST is essential for succesful tv shows

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