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!

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.