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chase820I've been cleaning all day, which of course requires a soundtrack. In this case, it's my '80s pop mix, which has all the good stuff from my teenage years carefully curated into one iTunes list. The '80s had some good music, didn't it? Despite my personal distaste for Michael Jackson, I can't help chair-dancing when "Billie Jean" comes on.
I'm finally feeling better, almost two weeks after being infected with Martian Deathflu. (Thanks to rahirah for the apt description, so much more poetic than H1N1, and less degrading than Swine Flu.) I don't know who infected me, but I have suspicions of a certain work colleague, who besides being a germ factory is also one of those Eeyore-type personalities that gets on my last nerve. If you must be depressed, at least inject a little gallows humor into the situation. Otherwise, you're just a buzzkill.
By the way, I really enjoyed the last episode of Sherlock.
The episode was so good, it brought the grade of the entire season from a C+ to a B+. Plenty of things that really didn't make sense in the other two episodes, like Sherlock and Mycroft's 'normal' parents and Mary's strange acceptance of Sherlock, finally made sense. My favorite scene was probably John's realization of what his wife really is, and what that means for him. Like Xander on Buffy, John is a demon magnet. The big difference was while Xander was whiny and annoying, John is awesome.
The only thing in the episode I wasn't crazy about was the ending sequence, where Mycroft gets so bent out of shape over Sherlock killing Magnusson. He knows quite well that John shot Jeff Hope, and Mycroft never did a damn thing about that. The only way his reaction in "Vow" makes sense is if he's irritated that Sherlock killed Magnusson in such a public fashion. That would fit Mycroft's tidy and discreet way of doing things. But the way Gatiss plays those scenes suggests a kind of moral outrage I think Mycroft is entirely too pragmatic to feel. This is, after all, the man who calmly threatened Irene Adler with torture and death over the contents of her camera phone. Why would he be kinder to another blackmailer? All things considered, it's amazing he didn't take out Magnusson himself, once he realized the man was fixated on Sherlock.
That's probably my main peeve with Sherlock: the character inconsistencies. It's as if Moffat and Gatiss are so eager to get to certain moments, they refuse to consider whether those moments scan with previously established history. Most inconsistencies have to do with Sherlock, who is supposed to be simultaneously a savant of human nature, and also borderline autistic. For instance, funny as his cluelessness over John's best man request may have played, it makes no sense that he wouldn't have guessed John's intentions before he walked in the door. That he didn't contradicts, oh, just about every other scene in the whole fucking show.
Don't me wrong, I really liked Season 3. But I hate to see characterization sold down the river for the sake of a plot twist (or worse, a one-scene gag). In my own writing, I sweat every wrinkle of a character's psyche, and it irritates me when other authors don't do the same. It's not as if it's hard: All that's required is a decent memory. Also, I suppose, a refusal to compromise just to hit certain cheap dramatic notes. I'm probably asking too much of what is, essentially, merely a fun pastiche of a show, but it would be nice to see the writing match the strength of the acting.
In other fannish news, I've been immensely enjoying astolat's Loki/Thor series over at AO3. This despite the fact that I've never seen Thor, The Avengers, or anything else in the film series. But I did read D'Aulaires Book of North Myths quite a lot as a youngster, and Loki was always my favorite Norse god. In fact, childhood exposure to Loki, as well as an unhealthy number of Bugs Bunny cartoons, are likely responsible for my adult love of sexually ambiguous tricksters.
Astolat has written a ton of Loki/Thor, but if you were going to start with one, I'd suggest Moral of the Story, which is both incredibly funny and incredibly dirty. Even if you haven't seen the films, the characters have saturated pop culture enough that you'll be able to keep up. I think this is something like the 11th in the series, but the stories are only linked thematically, not plot-wise, so it doesn't matter where you start. I rec fic almost never, so believe me when I say astolat is really good. I'm going to have to leave her some enthusiastic feedback when I get time.
In terms of my own fic, I've made a start on the next section of Miracle Year, which I hope to dive fully into this weekend, now that I'm recovered and somewhat caught up with school. This section isn't going at all how I originally conceived it, but I don't mind. I love it when characters surprise me, and I always rather suspected that my new narrator would be surprising, once I let him have more of a say. Anyway, I'm planning to post a big chunk for the next update, so it may be a few weeks before everything is finished. I can't predict output any more than I can predict certain elements of plot, so we'll just have to see how it comes out.
Anyway, enough nattering for now. I have dinner waiting, as well as two pudgy cats giving me the big starveling eyes, and you know how easy those are to resist. I wish you all a lovely weekend, accompanied by your own favorite soundtrack.
I'm finally feeling better, almost two weeks after being infected with Martian Deathflu. (Thanks to rahirah for the apt description, so much more poetic than H1N1, and less degrading than Swine Flu.) I don't know who infected me, but I have suspicions of a certain work colleague, who besides being a germ factory is also one of those Eeyore-type personalities that gets on my last nerve. If you must be depressed, at least inject a little gallows humor into the situation. Otherwise, you're just a buzzkill.
By the way, I really enjoyed the last episode of Sherlock.
The episode was so good, it brought the grade of the entire season from a C+ to a B+. Plenty of things that really didn't make sense in the other two episodes, like Sherlock and Mycroft's 'normal' parents and Mary's strange acceptance of Sherlock, finally made sense. My favorite scene was probably John's realization of what his wife really is, and what that means for him. Like Xander on Buffy, John is a demon magnet. The big difference was while Xander was whiny and annoying, John is awesome.
The only thing in the episode I wasn't crazy about was the ending sequence, where Mycroft gets so bent out of shape over Sherlock killing Magnusson. He knows quite well that John shot Jeff Hope, and Mycroft never did a damn thing about that. The only way his reaction in "Vow" makes sense is if he's irritated that Sherlock killed Magnusson in such a public fashion. That would fit Mycroft's tidy and discreet way of doing things. But the way Gatiss plays those scenes suggests a kind of moral outrage I think Mycroft is entirely too pragmatic to feel. This is, after all, the man who calmly threatened Irene Adler with torture and death over the contents of her camera phone. Why would he be kinder to another blackmailer? All things considered, it's amazing he didn't take out Magnusson himself, once he realized the man was fixated on Sherlock.
That's probably my main peeve with Sherlock: the character inconsistencies. It's as if Moffat and Gatiss are so eager to get to certain moments, they refuse to consider whether those moments scan with previously established history. Most inconsistencies have to do with Sherlock, who is supposed to be simultaneously a savant of human nature, and also borderline autistic. For instance, funny as his cluelessness over John's best man request may have played, it makes no sense that he wouldn't have guessed John's intentions before he walked in the door. That he didn't contradicts, oh, just about every other scene in the whole fucking show.
Don't me wrong, I really liked Season 3. But I hate to see characterization sold down the river for the sake of a plot twist (or worse, a one-scene gag). In my own writing, I sweat every wrinkle of a character's psyche, and it irritates me when other authors don't do the same. It's not as if it's hard: All that's required is a decent memory. Also, I suppose, a refusal to compromise just to hit certain cheap dramatic notes. I'm probably asking too much of what is, essentially, merely a fun pastiche of a show, but it would be nice to see the writing match the strength of the acting.
In other fannish news, I've been immensely enjoying astolat's Loki/Thor series over at AO3. This despite the fact that I've never seen Thor, The Avengers, or anything else in the film series. But I did read D'Aulaires Book of North Myths quite a lot as a youngster, and Loki was always my favorite Norse god. In fact, childhood exposure to Loki, as well as an unhealthy number of Bugs Bunny cartoons, are likely responsible for my adult love of sexually ambiguous tricksters.
Astolat has written a ton of Loki/Thor, but if you were going to start with one, I'd suggest Moral of the Story, which is both incredibly funny and incredibly dirty. Even if you haven't seen the films, the characters have saturated pop culture enough that you'll be able to keep up. I think this is something like the 11th in the series, but the stories are only linked thematically, not plot-wise, so it doesn't matter where you start. I rec fic almost never, so believe me when I say astolat is really good. I'm going to have to leave her some enthusiastic feedback when I get time.
In terms of my own fic, I've made a start on the next section of Miracle Year, which I hope to dive fully into this weekend, now that I'm recovered and somewhat caught up with school. This section isn't going at all how I originally conceived it, but I don't mind. I love it when characters surprise me, and I always rather suspected that my new narrator would be surprising, once I let him have more of a say. Anyway, I'm planning to post a big chunk for the next update, so it may be a few weeks before everything is finished. I can't predict output any more than I can predict certain elements of plot, so we'll just have to see how it comes out.
Anyway, enough nattering for now. I have dinner waiting, as well as two pudgy cats giving me the big starveling eyes, and you know how easy those are to resist. I wish you all a lovely weekend, accompanied by your own favorite soundtrack.