In the interests of having a more integrated life, lemme talk about TV for a minute

My friend Kristina recently came clean about her Full Metal Alchemist fandom, and it's inspired me to bring up the topic here, too. Cuz the fandoms, I have them. Like, a lot of them. And I get tangled up in the mess that is distressingly deep emotional attachments and investments in people that don't really exist*, but the reason I love these shows so much is usually the writing, so I feel I can talk about them here for a post.**

See, I'm a writer. You may have noticed. And because of that, I can't excuse bad writing on a show unless there's something else going on that takes my attention away from the bad writing, and that's not as common as you'd think. Usually, if I don't like an episode of a show I'm reviewing, it's because something was hinky in the writing or the editing so that it didn't make sense in the context of what I've seen before (and then I start thinking I could be a really good continuity nazi for them, and why won't they just hire me already?).

I like character development. That's where the story is, and it's all about the story. Even slow character development, if it's done well--witness the number of shows I love that come from CBS, who have a really well-oiled pattern that shows follow, wherein things change believably and dramatically, but slowly, and over the course of, like, a decade (I'm looking at you, Tony and Ziva / NCIS***). But the best shows are the ones that are clever. Good characters, unexpected plotlines, emotional development as well as good back story--shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock, Firefly. Even X-Files, which, in my mind, seems to be sort of at the beginning of the whole idea that a show can be literarily good, and sort of misses it about half the time while somehow still keeping the hooks in you until it's stunning and mindblowing again. I've been rewatching it; it still holds up, and its good episodes are still fantastic.****

I watch a lot of TV. Like, a lot.***** But because I watch a lot of TV, I now have a pretty solid grasp on how TV works, and I can usually call what's going to happen. The good episodes, the best, are the ones that surprise me. Steven Moffatt and Joss Whedon continually surprise me, and JJ Abrams does about two thirds of the time. Rockne S O'Bannon always has something interesting to say. I'll watch shows by these four people no matter what they're about, and if I really like them, I'll watch any show the actors later move on to--hence, Suburgatory for Alan Tudyk, Castle for Nathan Fillion (and now just because it's a good show). I watched V even though I didn't like it.I watched Ringer for Sarah Michelle Gellar, until I got bored and other shows started.

It's all about how the show is written and how that writing is executed. There are levels of good writing, of course, but there has to be something about the show that I really connect to, and that's usually the first hook. Then I fall for the characters--almost exclusively because of URST******, because apparently that's all that interesting to me, week to week these days. But what keeps me around is the character development. A lot of the shows I watch are shows where they have a weekly problem to solve, and after a few seasons, that gets boring. Law and Order never caught me because it's all about the case, and the characters matter less. Also, it takes itself way too seriously. I watch for characters riffing off each other and navigating emotional minefields and coming together to be stronger than they were apart.

And that's in the writing.

And that's what I have to say about fandom. I may have wandered off the path I meant to keep here...



* I try really hard to separate the real person and the fictional in my mind...which usually results in devouring all the interviews I can find so I can see what they're really like...
** This will not become a TV blog. I already have columns on three different sites for that. And a Tumblr. But sometimes, things splash over.
*** Because I'm an old lady like that.
**** Though it's possible that I'm biased, I try to watch them with my mad television critic skillz now, to see if they're really good, and I think they are.
***** In any given week, I review any or all of the following, and watch them even if I don't have time to write up the reviews: Castle, HIMYM, Hawaii Five-0, 2 Broke Girls, Suburgatory, Person of Interest, Bones, The Mentalist, Big Bang Theory, Fringe. I watch Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Primeval, Hell on Wheels, Downton Abbey, and True Blood when their short seasons come on. Until they ended, I watched Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures, and will likely rewatch them if they're on. I watch Remington Steele every night. I watch entire afternoons of History Channel and Science Channel and Cooking Channel. I rewatch Firefly whenever it airs. I watch Supernatural when I can't sleep at night, and I've been slowly working my way through X-Files, Farscape and SG1 for various projects. A lot of TV.
****** Almost exclusively. Sherlock doesn't really have that, until recently, though the louder fans insist it's boy-boy URST, which I find amusing, but was never all that invested in. I can't see Martin Freeman making out with Benedict Cumberbatch. My imagination isn't that good.