Elizabeth/Lidabet

I watched all the Brooklyn Nine-Nine that exists so far in about two days, so it's that kind of good. I am interested in the fact that it doesn't hit my giant embarrassment squick anything like as badly as it could have, despite being the story of a bunch of people who are very, very interested in embarrassing each other. This confuses me! Even Benton Fraser's refusal to be embarrassed by anything he did didn't always prevent me from cringing on his behalf! But everyone is so good at taking on the embarrassment, clearly hating it, and then moving the fuck on while actively demonstrating that there aren't consequences beyond people being a pain in the ass.

On a more general note, as everyone has already said, the show does a good job having a decently diverse bunch of cops who generally don't get to do horrifically illegal things on a whim. Being too cool for paperwork is an issue that fucks you over, even if paperwork is boring. You have to do just as many extremely boring cases as you do exciting ones, and it's all important work.

I could do with less Peralta, it's definitely not deconstructing the white cisdude=protagonist trope anything like as well as Community does, but at least there's a reasonable amount of screentime for all the other characters, who I mostly adore. I still think he wins just a smidge too often to get away with the shit he pulls, but at least he does get called out sometimes. Everyone else is pretty delightful (or if they're awful, usually the writers clearly agree), which does make up for it some.

I don't know if I could be fannish about it, but I could do with a regular 20mins of fluffy tv that generally doesn't make me angry.


Finished Dawn French's memoir, Dear Fatty*. Not a surprise that she's funny and charming and delightful, but I was particularly struck by her ability to tell funny stories about inexperienced sex had with entirely the wrong person in a way that was both humourous and not so caught up in making it funny that it sounds like she's never had mutually enjoyable sex in her life, which is an astonishingly rare skill in published autobiographical writing, for reasons I've never been able to fathom. Of course, there are also lots of fantastic showbiz stories and amusing family ones (and some sad family ones, told affectingly), and in general, recommended.

*Fatty=Jennifer Saunders, her comedy partner, and is an affectionate and consensual nickname. Not a book at all about weight issues, if that's a concern for you!

Cautiously pleased with this week's Community!

( spoilers )

Definitely feeling better about everything than I was!

(Image stolen from wendelah1, thank you for everything!)

fringe_exchange gifts are finally posted! (Well, last night, but I made too many posts then to want to type one for my own journal.) Thanks to everyone for participating; you made being a mod so easy. The masterlist is here, and I encourage you all to go read and comment because there's some great stuff!


It makes me want to do a rewatch, but given how many shows I'm only halfway through watching for the first time (shows I love, even! I'm just horrible at getting back to things if I ever take a break!), I don't know when I'll have the time.


Also, thanks to my fic betas for my exchange fic, I promise I'll credit you properly when I put it up on my AO3 in a week after we deanon. <3

I'm enjoying Welcome to Night Vale a lot. I'm not very far into it so far, but the pastiche of community radio is spot-on, and I really appreciate that it punches up its shadowy and inexplicable conspiracies with an onslaught of cryptic details, rather than trying to wring too much drama out of a small number of very creepy things. I hadn't previously thought about it, but once they do it, it becomes obvious that audio horror needs to take the opposite tack to visual horror and talk all the time about what is there, rather than trying to keep everything in the shadows as much as possible. Very interesting.


People keep recommending Orphan Black to me, and it sounds good, but, well, I watched about half the first ep and I really need someone to tell me if it's all going to be people trying to pass themselves off as other people. I just get too worried and twitchy to watch hours of that kind of infiltration. It's irrational, I know.


The NHL is having wild flailing drama over trades/signings as was anticipated. I find it hard to do anything but laugh, because it's all so ludicrous, and the interesting narratives won't shake out properly for another few months. Kind of mad that the Avs didn't take Jones, but on the other hand, the likelihood that they wouldn't have done something batshit with him is low. Also the Oilers seem to have done nothing truly inexplicable yet, which is better than I would have expected.


I love the hell out of genderswap in general, but I am baffled by the number of hockey genderswaps where players have some kind of elaborate system of braids or buns to keep their hair back when they play. Firstly, think about how long tons of male players keep their hair, and secondly, have they not seen female hockey players who mostly manage to keep long hair out of their faces just fine with a ponytail? (See also: 90s Jagr.) Hair is just not that big of a deal once you've got a helmet on top of it. Braid crowns are difficult to keep in place, and mean that there's a pointy-ish bit of metal against your scalp if something smashes into your helmet.

Also I don't understand the point of genderswapping Elizabeth Bennett because that removes the entire impetus of the plot of P&P.