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Day 31: Favorite imaginary TV show
Aug. 3rd, 2014 12:02 amDay 31: Favorite imaginary TV show
Okay, favorite imaginary TV show is not an actual question from the meme, but I am including it because I have a whole imaginary TV channel. It is called “The History Channel,” and unlike the History Channel as we know it in this fallen world, my version consistently produces excellent miniseries with high production values, talented actors, and an occasionally tenuous grasp on historical accuracy. Also it means that there are reams of other people with whom to discuss all my weird historical interests, even if filtered through the lens of shipping.
Last season’s break-out hit was Flaming Youth, a sublime miniseries about American ex-pats in 1920s Paris. And by ex-pats I of course mean the Fitzgeralds and Ernest Hemingway, although I sympathize with the complaint that Alice Toklas and Gertrude Stein were criminally underutilized. Criminally! But how could they compete with the lustrous loveliness of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald - or the magnificent dysfunctionality of their relationship?
Not that I want to start yet another Scott/Zelda vs. Scott/Hemingway shipwar. (It’s not for nothing that the fandoms members took Flamers as their name.) Both ships are unstable and unhealthy! No ship containing any of these three people could ever be anything but!
But speaking of ridiculous History Channel shipwars, nothing will ever dethrone the Roger Williams/John Winthrop vs. John Cotton/John Winthrop battle from City on a Hill. (I’m still stunned that John Cotton/Roger Williams didn’t get more foeyay traction, but I suppose this is an object lesson to us all on the foolish vanity of trying to predict ships.)
You would think the JohnJohn shippers would eventually feel at least a little embarrassed about giving their ship such a silly name, but they never did.
But the show that I’m most excited about for this upcoming year is season two of Bolsheviks, although they did such a superlative job in the first season that I’m almost afraid they’ll never be able to match it. It’s a Veronica Mars problem, if you will.
The final scene, where mourners clad in heavy coats file past Lenin’s coffin in the bitter cold, while all the Politburo stands ranked behind? And Trotsky, late, tries to come through the crowd - still adjusting his coat - and Stalin catches sight of him and watches his futile struggle? Brilliant.
After that scene, of course the show skipped over the rest of the twenties to pick up again with Trotsky’s exile. I know it’s been a controversial decision with fans (*cough* Stalin/Trotsky shippers - why does it even surprise me that Stalin/Trotsky is the juggernaut, given how fandom feels about obsessive I-will-pursue-you-to-the-ends-of-the-earth pairings?), but all the reasons for that exile were perfectly encapsulated in the funeral.
And all those years the show skipped over - think of them as a gift! Empty time, unfilled by show canon, to be filled with hatesex fics, worst break up ever fics, bizarrely fluffy domestic fics, even though this is probably the least fluffy pairing ever, but people write fluffy Will/Hannibal so, you know. What are you going to do.
Okay, favorite imaginary TV show is not an actual question from the meme, but I am including it because I have a whole imaginary TV channel. It is called “The History Channel,” and unlike the History Channel as we know it in this fallen world, my version consistently produces excellent miniseries with high production values, talented actors, and an occasionally tenuous grasp on historical accuracy. Also it means that there are reams of other people with whom to discuss all my weird historical interests, even if filtered through the lens of shipping.
Last season’s break-out hit was Flaming Youth, a sublime miniseries about American ex-pats in 1920s Paris. And by ex-pats I of course mean the Fitzgeralds and Ernest Hemingway, although I sympathize with the complaint that Alice Toklas and Gertrude Stein were criminally underutilized. Criminally! But how could they compete with the lustrous loveliness of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald - or the magnificent dysfunctionality of their relationship?
Not that I want to start yet another Scott/Zelda vs. Scott/Hemingway shipwar. (It’s not for nothing that the fandoms members took Flamers as their name.) Both ships are unstable and unhealthy! No ship containing any of these three people could ever be anything but!
But speaking of ridiculous History Channel shipwars, nothing will ever dethrone the Roger Williams/John Winthrop vs. John Cotton/John Winthrop battle from City on a Hill. (I’m still stunned that John Cotton/Roger Williams didn’t get more foeyay traction, but I suppose this is an object lesson to us all on the foolish vanity of trying to predict ships.)
You would think the JohnJohn shippers would eventually feel at least a little embarrassed about giving their ship such a silly name, but they never did.
But the show that I’m most excited about for this upcoming year is season two of Bolsheviks, although they did such a superlative job in the first season that I’m almost afraid they’ll never be able to match it. It’s a Veronica Mars problem, if you will.
The final scene, where mourners clad in heavy coats file past Lenin’s coffin in the bitter cold, while all the Politburo stands ranked behind? And Trotsky, late, tries to come through the crowd - still adjusting his coat - and Stalin catches sight of him and watches his futile struggle? Brilliant.
After that scene, of course the show skipped over the rest of the twenties to pick up again with Trotsky’s exile. I know it’s been a controversial decision with fans (*cough* Stalin/Trotsky shippers - why does it even surprise me that Stalin/Trotsky is the juggernaut, given how fandom feels about obsessive I-will-pursue-you-to-the-ends-of-the-earth pairings?), but all the reasons for that exile were perfectly encapsulated in the funeral.
And all those years the show skipped over - think of them as a gift! Empty time, unfilled by show canon, to be filled with hatesex fics, worst break up ever fics, bizarrely fluffy domestic fics, even though this is probably the least fluffy pairing ever, but people write fluffy Will/Hannibal so, you know. What are you going to do.
