Multi-fandom post

[briarwood]

Happy birthday to betagoddess! May you have all the happiness you could wish for, darling.

I changed my banner and layout colours again. I was getting bored with blue, and needed something colourful.

Apparently SPN fandom is imploding over some rumoured S3 spoilers. I don't know what they are (and if you tell me I will beat you to death with a damp lettuce leaf) but hell, you'd think the fandom would have learned to trust Kripke by now.

Supernatural has a lot wrong with it, and they've made mistakes (*cough* Heart *cough*) but despite the occasional bobble the show still delivers, over and over. Fact is, Supernatural at its worst is better than most current shows can come up with at their best, and Supernatural at its best rocks like a rocking thing.

This is coming from me, the fan least likely to trust TPTB in any fandom: Trust the Krip. At least until he proves we can't. For a man with virtually no track record in TV to deliver two spectacular seasons is a good sign. I'm not saying the show might not jump the shark, but I'm willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt and say he probably knows what he's doing.

I finally got around to watching the rest of Blood Ties. I really must get hold of those books. I'm turning into an urban fantasy addict. Anita Blake got me started, then Kelley Armstrong's wonderful Women of the Otherworld books, Kat Richardson's fantastic Greywalker, Carrie Vaughn's werewolf stories...and I just started reading the Rachel Morgan books. Guess this is one to add to the list. But that's books. As for the TV adaption...

The good: I loved the characters and the basic setup of the plot. I can't figure out whether or not it's meant to be a "everyone knows about the supernatural" verse. The pilot implied not, but as the season went on there was way too much acceptance of the weird among the supporting characters. Yay for strong female leads, and I love that Vicki is a disabled character and still kicks ass with the best of 'em. Henry's a cool character, too. The background mythology is very different from most of the supernatural shows I've loved.

The bad: The film quality (and admittedly this might be because my copies are downloaded) is really poor, and the scripts are pretty weak (can't blame that on illegal downloads). Worst of all, there's very little chemistry between the leads, and I get the impression there's supposed to be a lot of sparkage there. I just don't see it.

I finished reading The Harlequin. It's a huge improvement over the last few AB novels, proving my theory that the AB books are no longer worth reading unless it's an Edward story. But even Edward's presence failed to save it. The awful thing is I can see how easily a decent editor could fix this novel: just talk LKH into giving the plot as much loving attention as she does the sex, and actually explain what's really happening occasionally and this one would be really, really good. It's not that sex is bad. It's that sex is not plot. A novel-length story requires plot.

The Harlequin actually has plot. And mostly the sex is relevant to it. I was all set to give the book an amazing review until I got to the last few chapters where Anita & Co are in the middle of a confrontation with the scary bad guys and take time out to talk about their feelings. I mean...seriously? And where the hell was Edward in that sequence? He was there, but the author ignored his presence totally until she needed him - which is wrong, Edward is action-guy, not stand-around-listening-while-the-bad-guys-do-bad-shit guy. So it ends up with 6/10. Best since Obsidian Butterfly but it's ample evidence that it's not worth buying any more of them.

I gave in to temptation and am downloading the next season of Numb3rs. I've found it's a great series to write to (to, not about - I write in front of the TV). It's interesting and exciting without being distracting. This may not be a compliment to the show, but it's good for me :-)

Comments

[admiralandrea.livejournal.com]

I know nothing about SPN spoilers, as I don't frequent the places they appear, but I'm happy to adopt a wait-and-see attitude...

And good to hear you're enjoying Numb3rs. Which season are you on? Second?

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes. =>}

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

"... confrontation with the scary bad guys and take time out to talk about their feelings."

I made a rec to a friend for your SPN stories and I was ineptly trying to explain how much I enjoyed your writing style and sensibilities. While I was reading this post your complaint above jumped out at me. That is something I would trust you to the end of the earth to never do in a story. You understand the dynamics of the action of a tale so well; the build, the flow, the payoff and that is one of the things I enjoy best about your writing! You achieve a believable balance in the story elements and you never sacrifice the story and the clutch you have on my brain to throw in a sex scene or a relationship discussion where they don't fall realistically and naturally! Brava!

LOL

I may have to go post this into my comment to T so she gets what I was ineffectually driving at in her lj yesterday.

TTFN

multifandom comments

[(Anonymous)]

Supernatural: I love the show and first ran into your site because of the fanfiction of this fandom. However, I blame you for now reading Sentinel fanfiction--a whole new arena I had hardly ever watched and wasn't interested in reading about--because of your Cry Wolf story, which I hope you will do a sequel to. It is a great show that holds my interest like few others do. I do wish that it was a little more creepy like the first few seasons of X-files were. I love the show's emotional content but sometimes it does seem too emo for typical guys, more like something for women viewers. But what was your problem with Heart? I loved that episode, though I did think it may have been a bit too emotional on Sam's part, I don't think he would have visible cried as much, more like a few tears as shown by Dean.|

Harlequin: I have been a long time fan of Anita, since her second book. Like many others, I think that the writer has lost some direction in the series with the focus on sex and less on action and plot. But I do think this is one of the better books in the last few. Edward is a great character and his family expansion is fascinating.

Richard seemed to be making progress in this book only to regress majorily. The writer may be working out some of her own problems with regards to her ex-husband in this character, but I think it really is a detriment to the storyline. Someone, who isn't emotionally charged in his life -- like his rat friend whose name I can't remember off the top of my head-- should call him on his hypocricy of thinking only humans are good and all "monsters" are bad. He's seen enough of humanity to know that humans can be as evil and his friends amongst the "monsters" aren't evil. Never mind, his own secret "deviant" sexual behavior isn't evil, just not the conservative accepted view of what's right. Even the conservatives don't normally conform to that, just look at politicians.

Blood Ties: The series was kind of intriguing, though I didn't watch the entire series. I hope they continue it. However, like it most situations, I think the books are usually better than the series. Some of the shows have better aspects than the books and of course some of tv episodes were not books but still good shows. You should read some of the books. In some cases, I actually think the portrayal on tv was better than the books.

I hope you post more supernatural stories soon.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

I'm only a few chapters into Harlequin and man... I am SO sick of the sex. I know it's (mostly) plot related... but DAMN... It's old and I'm mostly eye rolling and not even enjoying THAT anymore.

It's nice to see Edward again but yeah. I miss the real plots. Stuff that wasn't about her needing sex for this or that, but hunting baddies like she used to.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I always love it when you change your layout colours and banner - they're always gorgeous *g*