Weekly update

[magnetic_pole]

Back again after the flu last week, flist. Why have I been so sick this year? Together, the better half and I have been sick five times since Christmas, which seems a little much, even for this time of year.

On the plus side, I've been watching a lot of Netflix while I've been in bed. I've now been through all seven seasons of Prime Suspect, which remains one of the most compelling mysteries I've ever seen. In addition to loving Jane Tennison, which I imagine most folks do, I adore the way they convey the positives and negatives of the teamwork aspect of detective work; important things happen without the main characters, and often again the main character's wishes. Not everyone works toward the same goal, and the small slights (both to Jane and, realistically, perpetuated by her onto the next generation, especially the women) are meaningful and stinging. On the downside: Tennison was modeled after the UK's first DCI, who was a lesbian. In this version, she's very definitely not.

I'm also following the final episodes of Lewis, which is coming to an end after this, its seventh season. The end of a series always gets me a bit sentimental. I got into Lewis because I loved Morse, which I watched religiously the semester I spent in London when I was in college in the 1990s. My roommates and I had BritRail passes, and we'd go away every weekend, only to rush home to watch Morse on Sunday nights. Lewis continues the architecture porn of the original (no hassling witnesses on ugly housing estates on this show), while promoting the young sidekick and giving him his own bagman to guide. It's comforting to see life progressing like that, and they did an excellent job of aging the sunny, pragmatic Lewis and providing a new foil in Hathaway, the young sergeant whose intellectualism mirrors Morse's in interesting ways. They've flirted for years with the idea that Lewis might get together with his dry-humored medical examiner (why are medical examiners always dry-humored?), and then, BAM!, it suddenly happened, which was disconcerting, to say the least. They seem like such a slow, tentative couple, not the kissing-in-pubs sort. Plus I think I've now read enough Lewis/Hathaway to experience a certain disjunction when the show heads in another direction. I'll be sad to see it end. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't supply a female love interest for Hathaway, whom they more-or-less described as bisexual in an early episode. (I know, I know, he can get together with whomever he'd like, he's lovely, but the cynical part of me says hell will freeze over before he gets a boyfriend.)

Anyone else watching Lewis end? Any hopes for this last half-episode?

In fannish news, I've signed up for hp_beholder again, and I'm excited for the sixth annual event. Does anyone else have a hard time coming up with a sign-up submission? I'm flexible to the point of being hard to match or write for, I suspect. Today's your last day to sign up, so hurry on over!

Comments

[liseuse]

I'm not watching Lewis, but I do follow Laurence Fox on Twitter, and am always amused by how fanboyish he is about a TV show he stars in. It is glorious. And I did love this twitter exchange, where someone asks if Hathaway will get a girl in the end.

I hope you're feeling better now!

[magnetic_pole]

Hee! Not just a boy, but the new DC, Gray! Excellent. I'd get behind that. He was very kind, which Hathaway would need.

I'm a bit sniffly, L. It's driving me crazy. *whines* M.

[liseuse]

Clearly I need to catch up on Lewis! (Why is there so much TV that I want to watch? Why?)

Awwwww! *prescribes cake, and pajama days, and lots of tea*

[magnetic_pole]

Because you're busy reading TEN THOUSAND BOOKS, that's why!

Thanks, L. As I was just saying to TRS, I'm actually at home today because I'm sniffling too much for the library. It's kinda nice. :) M.

[liseuse]

And that pesky thesis keeps getting in the way. I am now one TV show down, because the season of Borgen has finished (though that pains my heart because I love it), so now I just need to try and catch up with everything else. Once upon a time, I didn't watch TV.

I find the odd pajama day to be essential for maintaining any sort of mental stability. There's something about the "slightly sniffly, getting bored of it, but still too ill to go anywhere" atmosphere that is cosy. This only works in winter and autumn for me though, being sick in spring and summer is the worst.

[magnetic_pole]

I just saw your Borgen post on tumblr! I've been completely won over by your various comments here and posts on tumblr--I just need to figure out where to find it.

I think you're right about pajama days. I'm actually feeling much better for the quiet of today. M.

[liseuse]

Borgen is so good, M. So good! It should be available somewhere. I know it's out on DVD, so the internet must have it.

Hurrah, glad to hear you're feeling better.

[magnetic_pole]

Gah! I've got to find it. It's not on Netflix, Hulu, or in the DC library system. Perhaps I'll ask the library to buy it? (Never tried that with them, but it's worth asking.) It *is* available for sale on Amazon, I see.

Thanks! I think your cheerful tulips helped. M.

[liseuse]

Here, have a post with more info on why Borgen is amazing: Borgen, a love letter.

Includes the exciting news that first two seasons will air in a marathon February 14-21 on DirecTV. After the episodes air, they are available legally for streaming for two weeks!

They are cheerful and uplifting, I find.

[schemingreader]

I rewatched several of the Prime Suspect episodes recently. Somehow when I first saw them on television they didn't have me cringing in the way that they do now. I just felt really freaked out by people getting hurt. Jane Tennison is such an amazing character. I love the way she obviously cares more about her job than any lover or family member. It makes her just as flawed as all the male detectives, and just as badass too.

We've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. I hope illness won't be a reason you'll be looking for something to watch on there--if you never watched that show, you may be pleased to try it. I hope.

I'm not sure about hp_beholder this year. I have no idea what I'm doing from month to month and am afraid to commit. But--I also feel like I'm too open to a lot of things.

[magnetic_pole]

The better half feels the same way about the violence. I generally don't watch it (I actually cover my eyes for minutes at a time), so I'm oddly open to the show in a way she isn't. (She's stopped watching.)

Jane Tennison is such an amazing character. I love the way she obviously cares more about her job than any lover or family member.

Exactly. You can see her making "mistakes" in her relationships with various men, but you also understand how she couldn't work differently, given what she values.

There was a comment somewhere about how Jane Tennison exemplified the seven stages of women's relationships with their jobs, which I thought was interesting.

I hope you do Beholder! I understand the uncertainty about schedules and writing time, but you do unconventional characters so very beautifully.

Stay safe and warm tomorrow. M.

[venturous]

I am totally smitten with and angsting over the end of Lewis. I too was a Morse fan, before I knew waht fandom was. I found Robbie Lewis only mildly amusing, but loved the series.
In Lewis, he has ripened into a wonderful blend of gravitas and disarming charm, and Hathaway is *guh* the most delicious character - beautifully conflicted, angsty, intense and so very bi!
I started writing a little WIP after the end of Ramblin' Boy, when Lewis & Hobson have that kiss, and I can't watch anything else until I'm done! its killing me, but the tale is taking its time to unfurl. I'm working on the final three sections now.
Have you ever seen Laurence Fox' twitter? He's very kind to his fans. :D

[magnetic_pole]

I'm reading your WIP! (Where Hathaway visits his sister, right?) I'm sorry I haven't commented--I'm such a lurker in Lewis fandom, I'm not sure why when I try so hard to be supportive in HP. I'm enjoying the family connections (I never really believe Hathaway has none) and am really curious about where you're going with it.

he has ripened into a wonderful blend of gravitas and disarming charm

That's a lovely description of what's happened.

Liseuse pointed out his twitter above! With the comment about Hathaway perhaps finding a boy? If only that weren't relegated to Twitter. M.

[venturous]

eeee! thanks for reading. new bit just up. writing this is killing me. my productivity, anyway. off to non fannish world, ugh.
;-)

[magnetic_pole]

Enjoyed the latest installment! The bit where Laura had to spell it out for him was perfect. I'm not quite sure where it's going, pairings-wise (there's Lewis/Hathaway in the header, but perhaps that's for Hathaway's unrequited feelings?), but I'm really enjoying the dynamic right now, which is very close to what I imagine to be subtext to canon. (I'll be happy with whatever direction it goes, don't get me wrong, but I so rarely see this scenario, which feel very real to me.) Excited for the next installment! M.

[semielliptical]

I haven't watched any of the final season of Lewis yet, and I'm not sure if I will try to obtain it soon or wait until it's on PBS. Partly because I'm busy now, and also because then I can delay the end! Though I do think Lewis deserves to retire by now. (is he retiring?) I also really don't want to see Hathaway acquire a last-minute female love interest. Better to leave him unattached in canon and with all sorts of more interesting attachments in fanfiction.

I hope you and the better half don't get struck by more illnesses! I feel like I've had more than my share of colds this winter, though I can't complain too much as they have been fairly mild.

[magnetic_pole]

I'm super-impatient about this series, I'm not sure why. (I actually managed to wait for Downtown Abbey, which I'm enjoying legally via PBS.org this month.) I'm not sure how they're going to end Lewis, and it's not obvious, even with only one half-episode to go. We'll have to chat when you've seen it.

Colds, gah! You can complain, Semi! Nothing as aggravating as hour of hour of sniffling and sneezing. M.

[elsane]

Glad to hear you're feeling better! -- and sorry to hear you've been feeling sick. It's been a horrible winter for viruses. I just got smacked with a nasty cold in the middle of a job interview, sad to say. Adrenaline compensates for a great many things, but imperfectly.

I have not seen prime suspect (though I'm tempted to add it to my extremely long watching queue now), and watched only a few episodes of Lewis, and those casually, so have very little to say, but I wanted to say hello! and I'm sorry you've been sick! and I hope you're enjoying the winter as it swings to the sunnier side of the season.

[magnetic_pole]

Hello, hello! Gah, feeling sick is the worst. (I'm low-energy at the best times, and so I can only imagine being sick and trying to perform in an interview.) Keeping my fingers crossed!

Prime Suspect follows the career of a character based on the first female DCI in the UK, and it's does an excellent job of showing the kind of personality that can succeed in that sort of situation--driven, thick-skinned, neglectful of any personal life, gutsy at just the right moments. And they also have shown here being decidedly unhelpful, you've-got-play-by-the-boys'-rules to the next generation of women, which I found to be refreshing and a bit cathartic, given what I've experienced with that same generation of women in my field of academia. Bookmark it for a long weekend when you have nothing else to do! It's worth the time.

On an unrelated note, I'm going to be in your better half's part of the world soon--will e-mail to check see if the stars align! M.