I told you when I came I was a stranger

[rachg82]

Oh, High School reunion tropes. ♥ Show, you shouldn't have! It's not even Christmas yet. I do love you so.

However, with that said, I wish that you would stop trying to torture me by throwing man-shaped suitors at my ladies all the time. At least when it comes to Jane, anyway. With Maura, I get it--I can easily see her as bi--but with Jane it wigs me out. It just doesn't feel right. I want to start yelling at her to come out of the closet or something. Haha.

Gotta appreciate the show's obvious nod to us shippers though with the return of the mechanic. Ahh. ALL THE JOY IN THE WORLD. I can't even. And seriously, Angela's face in response to the "you can appreciate her tits too" comment? HA.

Also: HOW MANY TIMES DID JANE BASICALLY FEEL MAURA UP IN THAT DRESS. FFS. I counted at least two boob swipes, not to mention her ushering her around with both hands on her hips/ass. Subtle, Rizzoli. Real subtle.

(You know she totes turned around to ogle her tennis outfit at the end, too)

Ooh, and! Right after I mentioned her last week? Dana from The L Word showed up! ~Like magic~ Only unfortunately without Tegan & Sara this time.

I love, too, how Maura phrased it as "she broke up with you" when asking about Jane's ex BFF. I legit gasped over that. It's like the writers got together and were like, "we've GOT to throw in a bit more ambiguous subtext -- there's just not enough. Let's have Jane reunite with an old "friend", and then she can mention her boobs a hundred times…y'know, just like a typical straight woman would do. Ahaha. Sounds like a plan."

P.S. Did we already know Maura went to an all-girls school? I can't even imagine the fanfic to come out of that.

I don't have much else to talk about today, so let's skip right to that meme now.



The X-Files

I must be some kind of masochist to have come up with this meme, I swear. Choosing only three eps for this show is SUPER difficult. But here are the three I'm goin' with:

-"Eve" (season 1)
-"Pusher" (season 3)
-"Bad Blood" (season 5)

Choosing between "Ice" & "Eve", btw, was especially hard. I wanted to include an early classic, and they're both excellent options. There are so many wonderful dramatic AND comedic eps from which to choose, too, but I really don't think you can go wrong with the ones above, so, hey. For what it's worth, "Bad Blood" is still probably my favorite episode from ANY series, period. And Pusher is one of my fave baddies from the show overall. CERULEAN BLUE IS A GENTLE BREEZE. Heh. I'll never forget that.

Luckily, picking three vids was pretty easy, because anything by LyleXF is pretty much a winner. Hence why all three of these were made by him. One could consider the third as being spoilery, just as a heads-up, but I doubt anyone out there has existed online since the '90s without knowing about this plotline in some capacity.

1.

2.

3.

…I may have to start up my XF Rewatch again, yo. These vids are striking a sentimental nerve like nothing else. I don't know if I'd have the motivation to keep up with the recaps anymore though. Maybe I could just recap specific eps? We'll see. I still have the second half of the BSG finale to recap, from way back, so I should really do that first. Otherwise it'll bug me.

Community

Here's where it comes in handy to only be on season 3 of a show. Fewer episodes, fewer choices -- less hand-wringing. Still tough, however, because the first two seasons were so brill. But I shall perservere!

-"Pilot (Extended Cut)" (season 1)
-"Modern Warfare" (season 1)
-"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" (season 2)

I can't even convey how hard it is for me to leave out some of my other favorites here, because there's a few that *really* touched me, emotionally (e.g. "Introduction to Film", "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons," "Critical Film Studies"), and a few that made me laugh harder than these did, but nevertheless, the pilot sets the tone & the next two are just plain epic. It wouldn't feel right to leave out one of the paintball eps. Plus, "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" both moves me AND makes me laugh, so it covers all the bases.

For vids, I'm gonna let the show kinda speak for itself here. The first vid includes clips from season 1, the second focuses on season 2, and the third is a single extended clip from "Introduction to Film" (which I mentioned above -- it's the short film Abed creates within the episode, wherein he casts Jeff & Britta as his parents. The first time I saw it, *before* I'd even watched the episode, I cried.)

1.

2.

3.

Comments

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

I object to the total lack of Darin Morgan episodes in your X-Files list!

Poor Abed. The parents-divorce movie kills me every time. :*(

[rachg82.livejournal.com]

Hey, I said it was a hard choice! Ha. Let's see your list, missy.

And I know. It's the ending that kills me -- the flatline sound & then his dad, ugh.

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

Let's see your list, missy.

For X-Files? Hmm. I'd definitely include either Humbug or Jose Chung to demonstrate the show's humor and weirdness. I'd want at least one really scary one, so maybe Irresistible or Home (or even Our Town or Unruhe). And then I'd probably go back to something quirky/relationshippy, maybe Bad Blood or Small Potatoes.

Although rethinking this, both Bad Blood and Jose Chung are deconstructionist episodes of the show, so they're probably best appreciated by someone who already loves the show and is familiar with all its conventions. You can't really enjoy a parody of a show unless you know the show. So I don't know; maybe it would be better to start people off with some random fun or twisty MotWs (Syzgy, Post-Modern Prometheus, Ice, Triangle, etc.). Idk. You're right; I can't do this, lol.

[rachg82.livejournal.com]

I almost chose War of the Coprophages or Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose for the same reason, but yeah, too many dang choices. Unruhe was in the running as well, and I was kicking myself for not thinking of Irresistible until after.

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the stuff with the dude was a bit annoying! Particularly as it had the half dressed Jane in bed with Maura picking clothes scene. But at least they balanced out the "potential boyfriend" with lots of innuendo for us. And Maura totally grabbing Jane and throwing herself into her boobs and not letting go when the mechanic showed up was priceless. It wasn't quite as fun as last week but still brilliant.

[rachg82.livejournal.com]

Ha, Maura was definitely eager about "pretending" to be Jane's girlfriend again, wasn't she?

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

Or rather enjoyed not having to pretend not to be her girlfriend ;) But instead was able to let her true feelings show. And there was much boob grabbing!!!

[lytab5.livejournal.com]

Dear God, the "Have you seen me lately" video is the BEST video of Scully's struggle with cancer and her beliefs out there! ♥
AMAZING.
Thank you for the reminder, Rach!

As for Rizzoli & Isles... I have to admit that I was super annoyed by the out-of-nowhere revelation that Jane kept on contact with the military dude and now he's kinda her boyfriend. Accept it, people. Like, huh?

[rachg82.livejournal.com]

Accept it, people

Seriously. It felt like the show being all, "Haha, all that queer subtext sure is fun, but JUST SO YOU KNOW, SHE'S REALLY STRAIGHT."

[lytab5.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY.
It's like they get scared to appear too gay. Gets on my nerves, honestly. Why not just go with the flow?

[rachg82.livejournal.com]

This is what I'm saying. They need to just embrace it. It's obvious they're on the fence, but damn, at least keep your message clear. I mean, you can't constantly imply Epic Love between these two women & have Jane make barfy faces at every mention of the opposite sex she hears, and then randomly be all, "BUT SHE IS STRAIGHT" without expecting it to be jarring. Like I was saying with Maura, they portray her in such a way as to have it feel believable if she flirts with either a man or a woman, but they've REALLY pushed Jane as having icky feelings towards men (non-platonically, I mean) & being Super Butch, and so when they backtrack it's just kind of like WTF, yo.

[lytab5.livejournal.com]

but damn, at least keep your message clear.
Man, perfect words, Rach! I can only agree.