aderam: (Penguin Mounties - troyswann)
So I’ve been thinking a bunch about characters lately (clearly now that I don't have schoolwork to occupy my brain I have to analyze something else) and what makes me like one more than another. I think what I like best in a character is the same thing I like best in stories, which makes sense because I’ll love almost any story if I love the characters enough. I like stereotypes that don’t quite fit. That’s my favourite. And I think that even more than that I like the dumb jock who isn’t. So Daniel Brady from Shadow Unit, Colby Granger from Numb3rs, Tony DiNozzo from NCIS, Dean Winchester from Supernatural, and even to a certain extent Arthur from Merlin. This is probably why I like TV so much actually, since most of the good shows that last take stereotypes and then make them more interesting. I have no problem with this because I like it.

But most of my favourites are all men, I realise. So I got to thinking about why. Part of it is that there are usually way more men than women in the shows I watch. I like SciFi and Cop shows the best so that makes sense because there are more men than women in the military and the police. But even the women they do have just aren’t as interesting most of the time. Sometimes they’re just there to be pretty, sometimes they’re around to be love interests (which is almost invariably lame), and sometimes they’re there to be the strong female character who can do everything and do everything well because women are clearly as good as men at all these things (also remarkably lame). And I understand where the writers are coming from, because people (and not just women) have been sidelined so much in television until recently. A lot of new shows have over-arching storylines and character development and that is awesome. But women are hard because people are hard, and I think a lot of TV writers are more comfortable writing men than women – I’m more comfortable writing men than women.

Anyway, instead of going on and on about gender!fail and depressing everyone - not in the least myself because I’m not sure I approve of all this binary gender business anyway – I decided to make a list (with reasons) of some of my favourite female characters in TV. Here is a celebration of doing things right.

Awesomeness - warning Long )
aderam: (Elephant - aderam)
Okay, so I'm still feeling a little under the weather (and on a side note I just wrote under the whether and that's making me wonder just what exactly that would mean... but that's a thought for another time) so I came home early from class after handing in one of my mini-papers (I am so taking a late on the other two, they're a package deal) and watched Highlander - The Source on the internets. Apparently it's the fifth Highlander movie and it was just as bad as I was expecting. C actually came into my room to see what the hell I was laughing at because "Nothing can be that funny."

But it is. So terrible.

I mostly watched it because of Duncan MacLeod (of the Clan MacLeod), Joe and Methos. Because I love them all and they're all really good actors too. There were many a scene in the Highlander Series that they saved solely because they were that good. Unfortunately for Highlander - The Source, no one is that good.

It held all the important things for a Highlander movie. Duncan had a new woman who was apparently the true love of his life (no, none of those other ones count) and apparently they got married, and then she left him because she really wanted to have his child (damn), so now Duncan was angsting over it (he's so good at it, but hey I'm not complaining. He's got soulfull eyes).

(Also her name was Anna which is just too close to Anne, methinks. A little more originality, please.)

Methos had joined up with a bunch of other Immortals searching for The Source which in true highlander fashion is some unexplained thing that involves the planets (and other celestial bodies) aligning and radiation and a gaurdian with ridiculous dialogue, which is apparently the Source of Immortality and will do something crazy when they find it (it also has something to do with the One but that was even less clear than whatever the hell it was). Of all of these other immortals the only one who would've been interesting to see again was Reggie but of course he died (as did them all, but that's not really unexpected is it?). He was a short brit astronomer with a cockney accent and that twitchy short person personality that says that he may be haf your size but he can still kick your ass. I liked him. There was also an annoying Cardinal with terrible hair and an archaeologist who died too quickly for me to have an oppinion about him.

It was set "in the near future" so it meant that they could have some cool new gizmos and have a weird (also unexplained) post-apocolyptic type setting. They also used this as an excuse to put Methos in a leather jacket and on a motorcycle (part of my fangirl says "Yes!" and part of me says "Oh that's so wrong.") which at least Joe and MacLeod madefun of him for.

This would have been an enjoyable terrible movie in the Highlander tradition except they commited two cardinal sins that I just can't ignore. And they did them at the SAME TIME. First they broke the katana!!!!! And second they killed Joe!!!!! (More accuratly Mac threw the katana into the Gaurdian's throat and then G pulled it out of his neck and then broke it in half before stabbing Joe with the broken blade. Totally uncool.)

Anyway now I want to go and watch some of the good Highlander eps that I have on my external hard drive.
aderam: (Default)
And it's entirely homework's fault.

I have to read some Plato for my Greek Tragedies class and it reminded me about how much I hate the man and for some reason I ended up with this stuck in my head and screaming to get out. It's short and a crossover between Stargate and Highlander, but the important thing is really the diss that I'm giving Plato (because I'm imitating an imitation!!! Take that you nunce!). Also no beta and barely any editing so it's probably crap, but whatever. General spoilers for Stargate Season 8 Moebius and none for Highlander.

In which Aderam uses Daniel Jackson and Methos to diss Plato royally. )
aderam: (Default)
So I just finished reading (at work so it took me the better part of an hour to finish the last few pages. Grrr...) Making History by Stephen Fry, which leads me to believe that that man is far more talented than he should be. It's hilarious, but also serious and lovely since they are talking about going back in time to make it so that Hitler was never born. I'd say it was "gripping" if that wasn't so very chiche. Anyway if you ever get the chance (or the opportunity to manufacture the chance) then you really should read this book!!! I'm very tempted to buy it and look up the other things he's written. I'm still in that just-finished-a-good-book afterglow where half of you is completely satisfied and the other half is itching to hear more about the characters. That may have something to do with my character fetish.

Anyway...

In Highlander News I've just finished up the fifth season and am in lust with the Horsemen Episodes )

And the Stargate Weather Report. )
aderam: (House Wooster - weaselwoman13)
... Or in this case many friendly and exciting immortals hanging out together and fending off the advances of the evil immortals (who stop in on a weekly basis) and the Watchers.

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm downloading Highlander. Which makes me squee in my happy place! (I think that I might have one too many fandoms in the end... that survey earlier, total rubbish) To be really exact, I'm DLing all of season three as we speak (... er as I type). Right now I've got 85% done and apparently nine hours to go, which is not really that bad when you're working on 8 gigs or there abouts. I can't wait for MEEETHOS!!! I mean he was one of my favourite characters of all time before I went all fangirlish. This would of course be one of the reasons why I skipped ahead to the third season, since he comes in in an episode intitled (rather originally I think) "Methos". I've also realized that I don't think I've seen any of seasons five or six, 'cause there's this whole stoy arc with Methos that everyone and their goat talks about on the internet that I've never heard of. It makes me curse my younger self for not being more attentive to the good old H L.

(Did I mention that I've been reading the Jeeves short stories by P. G. Wodehouse? I fear that this dashingly wonderful turn of events is causing a rather interesting turn of phrase to creep into my language. Rather rummy really...)

Profile

aderam: (Default)
Aderam

October 2020

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
181920212223 24
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 12th, 2025 11:48 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios