fray-adjacent

I was pretty disinterested when The Mindy Project came out because I'm not usually drawn to stories that focus on romance (no disrespect to those who are, it's just not my cup of tea), and the whole "professional woman succeeds in work but fails in love" added an extra layer of unappealing. However, I read an interesting interview with Kaling in a waiting room magazine a couple years ago, and I adored Kaling's character in The Office. In December we finally got around to giving it a try.

At first I had mixed feelings. I loved Mindy Lahiri almost immediately. Her boisterous charisma, her love for her job, her romanticism, and most of all her confidence and unwillingness to apologize for herself, are all my fannish catnip. Also, Mindy Kaling has incredible comic timing and writes and performs her character so well. But everyone else was completely unfunny and uninteresting, the Dianne/Sam thing with Danny left me cold (that trope usually does) hot with rage at what an asshat he was.

But the show evolved, something with the writing or acting gelled and it started to work better for me, maybe mid or late S1. Though Mindy is still the center of it for me, I enjoy the show as a whole more than I did at first. I'm not thrilled about recent plotlines and I maintain that ( spoiler for season 3 ). But really, as long as she keeps being a badass gynecologist and eating doughnuts and making me laugh out loud more than most things on television, I'll be fine with whatever this show does.

In February we watched Empire and fell under the spell of Cookie Lyon. There was a lot to like, but Cookie and Porsha's dynamic was my favorite. The finale was so upsetting though! I just want everyone to unite against Lucious and support each other. (Actually I'm not sure I want Andre in on that.)

One thing I liked about it was that despite having an ostensible anti-hero main character, the show avoided the things I hate most about that trope by giving it a strong ensemble with all the characters having agency. I never feel manipulated into rooting for someone I detest because the show actively encouraged me to root for Cookie, or Jamal or Hakeem, often against Lucious.

Also, I have never seen a show that appeared to be written not just about, but also FOR, Black people, to the extent that Empire is. Like I feel like this show really doesn't care much about its white audience and is very interested in Black points of view. To the point that the show even employs a Black stereotype of a scheming, manipulative white woman. It's refreshing to see (not so much the stereotype I suppose, but the rest of it).

After mourning the season finale of Empire and the series finale of Parks and Recreation, we watched all of Broad City. I predictably fell in love with Abbi and her goofy face and their friendship. It has an unrequited lady-love thing that for some reason doesn't bother me. The show is fun and adorable and I liked it a lot. The season 1 finale -- directed by Amy Poehler! -- was my favorite episode.

I recently started watching Bunheads with a friend -- I haven't had a tv date with a friend since I left Seattle, so I'm really happy to be doing that. I spent the whole pilot going "WTF is happening I hate this trope why does chaila like this show well I guess I better trust chaila not to lead me astray oh the lead is having sex she likes and now she's dancing with Emily Gilmore things are looking up WAIT DID I HEAR THAT PLOT TWIST RIGHT IS THIS SHOW MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR MEEEEE?????". I spent the next two episodes basking in the glory of those last few minutes of the pilot and delighting in the general absence of men *anywhere*. And adoring Bunheads!Emily Gilmore. And the teenage girls who are all very cute. I'm looking forward to more.

Finally, we've recently started Steven Universe and it's super adorable and fun. I would like it to spend more time with all the Crystal Gems, I don't enjoy the scenes with Steven without the Gems as much as I do the whole group. I'm like 6 or 7 episodes in so no spoilers!

I'm still watching and mostly enjoying Elementary, but I don't have anything to say about it. At all, ever, lately, now that I think about it. :/ I do enjoy reading fannish interpretations on Tumblr, and I always love Elementary fic.

I stopped watching Sleepy Hollow after the episode ( early/mid S2 spoiler ). I didn't hate quit (though if anything were to get me to, that'd be high on the list), I just lost motivation, especially when I kept hearing general fannish unhappiness at it after that. I heard the finale was good. I still intend to watch it, it's just a matter of carving out the time and motivation.

Mr Adjacent and I started a Buffy rewatch about a year and a half ago, and we stalled out on season 6. Which used to be one of my favorite seasons, but lately I don't have it in me to watch characters I love suffer like that. Anyway, we finally pushed through (I watched the last 4 episodes without him) and are enjoying S7 quite a bit. I'll never be a S7 detractor -- though I do tire of Buffy's speeches.

I can't wait for Orphan Black to start up again!

I've been enjoying Elementary, especially the last few episodes, which gave more attention to Joan and a likeable one-off character.  But is anybody else realizing we're damn near the S2 finale and it kind of feels like the season never picked up?  I mean, there have been a lot of fun character interactions this season, a few moments of important growth for Joan and Sherlock, and a few interesting plot threads that have been mostly left to dangle.  But it doesn't feel like a coherent season.  Like, if someone were to ask me what this season was about, I don't know what I'd say.

And it was an easy question to answer for S1.  Character-wise, S1 was about Joan and Sherlock meeting and developing trust and friendship.  It was about Sherlock's recovery and Joan's career change.  It was about both of them connecting with each other and, through their relationship, to other people as well (Marcus, Alfredo, Ms. Hudson, etc).  Plot wise, it was mostly one-offs, but the Moriarty plot was in the background for over half the season, and when you consider how it connects to Sherlock's recovery, it was there all along.

This season, I don't know.  I keep waiting for it to really pick up, and a couple of weeks ago I was a little surprised to realize that we're closing in on the season finale and it hasn't.  Not that I haven't liked watching it, not that Joan and Sherlock don't charm me every episode, but it's starting to wear a bit thin.  I want my slow burn just a little less slow, please.

Maybe this is normal for this kind of show?  I never really watched ER or Law and Order or other shows that seem close in genre to Elementary. 

I mostly enjoyed Elementary 2x12, but ( I worry, with spoilers. )

 

( Elementary -- through 2x09 )

( Person of Interest -- through 3x09 )

( Agents of SHIELD -- no spoilers )

( Once Upon a Time -- through 3x08 )

( Doctor Who -- through the 50th Anniversary special )

I also watched S6 of 30 Rock on Netflix, and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I stopped watching at the end of S5 because I thought the show had seriously degraded in quality. Now I'm not sure if it improved again in S6 or if my expectations just went down, what with the early seasons fading to a distant memory. I was particularly enjoying Jenna, and especially Jenna/Paul. They're a fabulous couple and so much fun to watch.

In the future: I kinda want to check out Northern Exposure? It's in that fuzzy realm of shows I saw sometimes as a kid, as my dad regularly watched it. Sometimes I wonder if I'd enjoy it as an adult. Also, after four years of badgering, Mr. Adjacent finally agreed to re-watch Buffy with me. At which point I immediately decided I wanted to watch something else...

( Brief but spoilery squee behind the cut. )

Basically, S2 is totally working for me, and giving me high hopes that S1 wasn't just a fluke.

PS: I have internet!  I might try this 30-day posting meme now.  And S2 of PoI is downloading as I type!

 Two weeks of no internet just became "we'll let you know within ten days when you'll get your internet".  Ten days on top of the two weeks, mind you.  And it's not "you'll get your internet within ten days."  It's "you'll find out when you get your internet within 10 days".

I'm trying to keep some perspective here: I have my smartphone, I have internet at work (though setting up a fully functional computer account is taking quite a while as well), and there's wifi at cafes and other places.  Of all the basic things that could have been significantly delayed in this move, home internet is probably the lowest impact.

But actually this is sort of aggravating me, and more importantly I'm wondering if it's a sign of shitty service to come, as I'm starting to get the sense that my ISP-to-be, Optus, is generally considered worse than at least one other provider.  Fellow residents of Australia -- should I try to get out of my contract?  

I've had enough with waiting and am going to try to get last week's Breaking Bad and Elementary episodes from iTunes at a cafe or something.  I'm not sure if that wifi will support large downloads though -- we'll see.  I was mostly worried about not getting to watch Breaking Bad, but now watching Person of Interest has got me missing Elementary.  It didn't help that I rewatched my vid a few days ago.  Instead of scratching my Elementary-itch, it had me longing to see those two again, bantering and solving problems and hanging out with Clyde and making me so so happy.

On the other hand, clipping for Sekrit Vid is going well!  I have a long way to go before my self-imposed deadline, though.  Not having internet does admittedly help.

Speaking of vidding, when I set my new desk up to start vidding again, I had to decide whether to focus on Sekrit Vid or my Hunger Games vid idea.  I wanted to finish the latter before Catching Fire is released, which means I need to get working on it now.  I am not a make-a-vid-in-a-day -- or a week -- sort of vidder, even for a film.  But I realized that I just didn't have the motivation.  I'm much more excited for my HG vid ideas that will require more of the films than I was for this one, even though it was a decent idea.  So I decided to abandon it, which is always at least as much of a relief as it is sad.  Especially for vids I've only thought about but not yet put any work into.

I've been thinking a lot about how to increase my vidding productivity, not only because I think about it a lot but also because heresluck and jetpack_monkey have been posting about it as well.  For me, of course, the number one thing is to have an arrangement where vidding does minimal damage to my wrists.  I have that now -- a much better setup than I had in Seattle, where I never wanted to splurge on a real desk since I was planning to move.  So now it's about staying focused and motivated.  The thing that distracts me the most from vidding is not so much television, but internet.  I can easily surf the web for ages when I was planning to vid.  So, like I said before, not having internet right now has a silver lining -- maybe it'll help me establish better habits in my new environment. 

Also, for work I sometimes use the productivity apps Anti-Social or Freedom.  The latter prevents access to social networking sites (an any other of your choosing) for a specified time, while Freedom blocks the whole internet.  And they both require you to reboot if you want to turn them off ahead of time.  I've resorted to using these for vidding a few times in the past and I might start making it a semi-regular part of my computer use.  Once we have internet, anyway....

1. A 30 minute BtVS S2 behind-the-scenes home video by former stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt.  (Who apparently left under questionable circumstances; I don't pretend to know, at any rate the video is fun.)  It focuses on the stunt-work and has some great shots, a "wow, he really did hit that tree that hard" moment, and the requisite you're-not-as-funny-as-you-think-you-are clips.  

2. loudmouthgeek's Elementary/Orphan Black crossover fic making nice use of both shows having a Detective Bell.  May or may not continue as a series.  (I hope it does!)  Also, check out sanguinity's post of Elementary finale-fic -- it's great stuff!