I've got a rec for Wimbledon and other tennis fans: A Study in Winning. The author claims to have written a Sherlock BBC tennis AU "inspired" by the movie Wimbledon. This is not true. She's written a lovely, lovely Peter Cole, whom she has called John Watson, and an OC love interest who is part SherlockBBC Sherlock (not the arsehole misogynist part), part French (from Holmes canon), part tennis RPF and mostly a character with OCD who has been hurt a lot and learns to love thanks to the constancy of a good man with a splendid penis, which is what we like in our romantic fiction, right?

I recommend this for tennis fans because the author does pretty good tennis action, great tennis commentators (Tim! Ann!) and clearly knows her tennis, though her training/post match facts are a bit rubbish. On par with movie tennis though, so it's probably deliberate. I found myself skimming and skipping the sex (there's a fair bit) because I was enjoying the tennis story so much more. I love the movie, so I was fairly doomed to enjoy it being re-written gay.

Gatiss turns up in his "Mycroft" self-insert role which will delight Gatiss fans. I skimmed. What a pompous and creepy yenta.

But the only thing I really don't like about this story is Moriarty. There is no room for unsportsmanlike behaviour in my tennis world. They're just - they're not there now. The top seeds are sportsmanlike and sportswomanlike. There is no place for Moriarty's spiteful evil in tennis and his part of the plot annoyed me because I refused to believe it. Such a man could not become world number one tennis player.

Fortunately he's mostly off-screen, though he does get a lot of the finale action. But you know, if you don't have my firm opinions about how sports people should behave, it adds some more tension and drama to the story.

Thanks to hope for the link.

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( spoilers )

Come back soon, show.

Hey, did you know that the Dreamwidth web posting interface entry text box has a little handle in the bottom right corner you can used to make the entry text box bigger? No, me either until just now. <3 Dreamwidth <3

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Tumblr, I know I can block people on you. Why aren't you showing me the option?

(Don't need reblogs of tedious haters on my dash, but quite like the person who reblogged them. Dilemma!)

In other news, what is Monday without Once Upon A Time? Sad is what it is. When do my other shows start again? Where are you shows? Everything else I care about is ending/has ended and nothing new has grabbed me.

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Firefox crashed and it did not save all my tabs. I think a recent update has undone that function and when I'm feeling less cross about it I'll go in search of how to fix it. Ah, technology, like a busy garden, always requiring fussing and fixing.

Now, TV. Things are ending which is always an emotional time. Some of my shows have had the kind of shark jumping season finales that make a girl WTF out loud. (Why yes, CSI, I'm looking at you. What the hell was that?) Others are so adorable they are like to melt even the hearts of haters. (Community, you are far from perfect but your good things are ponies and rainbows.)

Shows that aren't returning
I'm quite sad about Alcatraz. Not just because it ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger: ( spoiler ) but I liked the actors, I enjoyed their characters and I was being engaged by the story.

Less sad but still disappointing: The Secret Circle. Sully, the evil warlock dad was entertaining and I was holding out for some Melissa/Faye. They weren't really an engaging bunch and the weaknesses that lost the show the second season guernsey were obvious.

CSI:Miami was put out of it's misery. I'll miss the characters and the colour saturation. This season was so over the top misogynistic that, added to the jingoistic violence, vengeance narrative and abuse of power that are the hallmarks of current US police/authority shows, I was pretty much over it. I just don't love you enough, show.

Shows that are returning
I got one thing to say to you, CSI: What the hell was that shark-jumping exercise in blisteringly ludicrous story-telling? Seriously? That's how you're going out of the year. Man, George Eads, Jorja Fox, ILU but maybe not that much.

Nikita, my love, my darling show. You are so splendid for a number of reasons. You're not about how Dad will punish the wrong-doers. You have an awesomely fabulous and well-built cast of scenery chewers. You have Maggie Q. You love giving actors of colour roles. You changed the game this end of season and you did something I never expected you to do, something I wished for, and you did it intelligently and in the service of the plot. ( Finale spoilers )

Once Upon A Time gets mixed reviews around and about. It seems to go from fantastic episodes to filler episodes, that are there to set up plot fixings. I take the point of view that the curse makes otherwise clever people bad at making good decisions. It's really the only way to explain some of the things - okay many, if not all of the things that Emma and David do. The season finale was ( spoilers )


As for Community, I'd just like to say <3. Thanks for that, show. Thanks for everything.

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Ahahahaha! Apparently the name smush for BBC Merlin RPF pairing Bradley/Colin is Brolin.

You know, you can't always have name smushes as perfect as Kock (Kirk/Spock) or as whimsically sideways delightful as Trickyfish (Chris Kirkpatrick/Lance Bass). Sometimes they're just a bit bland. Other times? Other times you just have to say no.

Gonna be snorkling about this one for a while, I think.

Though I guess it's obvious why the fandom didn't go with Codley.

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Tonight, while wrangling tags on AO3, I learned about McFassy, a fandom for Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. There seems to be McFassy fanworks in most fandoms that have Fassbender or McAvoy playing a character. Obviously bonus points if they're both canonically playing characters in the same movie. They attract 'you don't need to know canon' tags on AO3.

She says, a tiny little bit cynically.

Not that I don't understand the delight of playing dress ups with pretty people, but my poor little movie hasn't screened anywhere in the world yet and it's got a bunch of canon? who the hell cares about canon? stories. I care, little movie. I care and I've been waiting a long time for you.

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I was thinking of doing the AO3 but I it's interesting to report the story that has the most hits: Switzerland is Neutral - a porny Barney/Robin/Ted How I Met Your Mother short I posted two years and two days ago today. It's been the highest hit count story on my AO3 account since I posted it. I have no idea why. I posted it to my journal, to AO3 and to a HIMYM community. What's odd is that it doesn't get comments or kudos, just hits and it's way out of scale with other stories I've posted to AO3. The next story down is also in the 900s, a Leverage threesome for I Saw Three Ships. Down at 600+ is a McShep remix (I got astolat, so I think you can tell what drove that one!) and all the other hit counts are under 300. Bizarre is what it is. I've always supposed it must be something mechanical to do with the LJ community I posted to. Maybe? Not people but page reloads or something? Or perhaps there's a well trafficked Barney/Robin/Ted master list that I've never found.

I also discovered that I am pants at responding to comments on anon exchanges/challenges post-reveal. So this is a blanket apology and I'm off to reply to some comments now.

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My remixer chose one of my favourite stories. I remember staying up late one night writing in that lovely fugue where the story seems to already exist and your writing is breath on glass, revealing what was traced, invisibly, before. I was in such a passion of love for Smallville that year. It was the end of mailing lists and the beginning of LJ as my corner of fandom's rallying place and base camp. I used to read the TWOP recaps (was it TWOP then?) before I got to see the episodes.

They chose "another POV" style of remix, drawing out series one Lex, exposing his glittering facets, then twisting the tail of the story and delighting me with the surprise. Good work, remixer.

Relief (Cotton: Lex's Remix)

You don't need to have read the original to understand the remix.

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Things I think you should watch and why:

Smash - because Angelica Huston is delightful and Jack Davenport is bitchy and the music is great.

Person of Interest - because even though Jim Cavaziel Caviezel (reasons you should look up the spelling instead of thinking, sure, I know how to spell that) is a kind of creepy, ultra religious Mel Gibson kind of guy, he plays a great vigilante with a tortured past, a heart of gold and a sidekick whose bone-dry wit is delicious. Not to mention Taraji P. Henson is awesomecakes and makes the best faces and she should have her own show. Hold on a minute... she does! She does have her own show. That's why you should watch this.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - because the costumes are to die for. Miss Fisher is a rich and stylish lady in 1930. OMG. Here's an interview with Marion Boyce, the costume designer. I've been posting caps to Tumblr, so check out the tag Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Ilthit does some lovely femslash work but loads drabbles up on AO3 in massively chaptered single story posts. It's worth looking through them for your fandoms and there's some lovely book-verse work. If you've time to browse, I promise you will be rewarded:
Femslash100 Pulp Titles Cycle - Phryne Fisher Mysteries
Femslash100 Greek Mythology Cycle - other fandoms are included here. The stories are Phryne Fisher bookverse rather than TV-verse, but there's no TV-verse I've seen yet.

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Did I mention how much I love cheesy lush cgi? I love that OUAT seems to have made the decision to go for lots of bad cgi rather than a smaller amount of good cgi. ( OUAT 01x17 )

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( The Wire season 3 spoilers )

I am totally on board with this being the best TV ever made. Best.

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I've only seen the first series of The Wire. A buddy loaned me a box set, yay. However some of the disks won't play on my DVD player and some of them won't play on my laptop and some of them won't play on either.

Curses.

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It can be hard for me to make a decision to stop watching a show. It's rare a show will do something so egregious that turning off and walking away is easy. East West 101 did that in season 3. On the other hand, I'm still watching CSI: Miami. These things sometimes make no sense, but perhaps I have much lower expectations for CSI: Miami than I did for EW101.

Fairly Legal is pretty much at the walking away stage. I love Sarah Shahi. Man, I love her, she is a fine actress and she played great characters in Life and in The L Word. Her character in Fairly Legal is awful. In 02x01 ( spoilers ) I would totally watch the Lauren and Leonardo show, however. There's a pretty good story here about how a widow dismissed as a trophy wife keeps the law firm going after her lion of the legal trade husband dies. AND her awesome geeky personal assistant. Unfortunately this is the story of a woman grieving her dad, behaving incredibly badly, treating everyone in her life like shit and the show approving her.

Please, let this show tank and free Sarah Shahi up for a new and better role.

Nikita, on the other hand, is being splendid like the fire at the heart of stars.

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The problem with Arctic Air-- Okay, my problem with Arctic Air is that every second episode is an arctic disaster plane crash rescue disaster plane crash disaster movie. This would be my least favourite kind of anything. I've been enjoying the ensemble to bits - diverse, engaging and no shortage of lady pilots! Also scenery to die for. But I don't think I can bear the regular battling with the elements, regardless of how pretty they make the landscape. Maybe if I just watch every second episode? Well, we'll see.

In other news, ( Body of Proof 02x17 spoilers )

I posted a cap of a sweet Kate/Megan non-spoilery moment from the ep on tumblr.

I understand why tumblr won't let you img src from it but bleh, so annoying. Roll on, DW image hosting. I want to go back to posting caps to my journal.

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It has been my intention to add recs, links and other useful things to my posts, particularly if the post is mostly me talking about TV shows that I have seen. This belongs to two posts ago: grimm_daily should you be interested in seeing what Grimm fandom is doing.

It's day two of not knitting or crocheting to give my shoulder a rest. Oh, I hate this inaction. I've formed the productive habit of working yarn while watching TV and now it seems wasteful to watch TV without making something.

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From month_of_meta

10 Things About Living In Small Fandom Town by dagas_isa

Building It Doesn't Always Mean They'll Come or So You Want To Start A Fandom by amaresu

You'll find it interesting to read these two small fandom focused posts together.

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( Grimm 01x14 )
I wish Nick were an interesting character. He's pretty but bland. Hank is gorgeous and his face and actions are full of character and he gets the great sidekick lines. Sexy, mysterious evil Captain Renard is sexy and the mysterious hints mean I'm keen to know his evil story. The ME (Dr Harper or Parker) gets all the cool lines that Hank and Monroe don't get. Sargeant Wu has the thankless task of providing most of the crime exposition but he still seems to have more character than Nick. Maybe because he's not so plainly pretty as Nick and has better face acting. David Giuntoli does look like a sad puppy most of the time.

I know Once Upon A Time has faults, but the continual forefronting of female friendships is so good for my soul. It doesn't matter that one third of the show time women are talking to other women about men because another third of the time they're talking to other women not about men and the other third they're talking to men, all the time driving the plot, being the heroines, making things happen. And this is a fantasy show, people. FANTASY! How long has it been since Buffy and Xena were on our screens? The Middleman only lasted one (beautiful, perfect awesome) season, likewise Eastwick. You get plenty of women talking to women in shows that are all about neurotic women looking for love in all the wrong places (some of which I love, too) and in drama but not so much in genre tv. Detective TV has done some good work in this area (I recommend the UK show Scott and Bailey - female cop partners with a female boss - and Rizzoli and Isles which has canonical undercover in a gay bar, IJS) but SF and fantasy are behind at the moment. Just compare it to Grimm where there are no female cops with speaking parts and only two women with recurring roles (Juliette and Dr Harper/Parker). If you want to see a female character she'll be a guest character: a villain of the week, a victim of the week or the family member/friend of same.

I'm so happy with this glorious excess. And there's Lost Girl and Leverage and Pretty Little Liars with their fab female casts. Ah, TV. I do love you right now.

( Once Upon A Time 01x15 )

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It occurred to me last night that the 'invite a friend' link that greets me when I log on to AO3 might actually mean something. It does. I have 1 invite and am happy to send it to anyone. Comment with email or DM me if you want it. Comments screened for email privacy if that is of concern. (I think they're screened. I'm using beta Create Entries and I could be choosing the wrong option!) (Correct option chosen!)

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Arctic Air is up to episode eight and I've just now seen enough of the large cast to be fond of them and to enjoy all the moments. It's a pretty show: pretty actors, of course, but pretty landscape, too. Like White Collar it does lovely things with colour, particularly when Pascale Hutton is outdoors. Kandyse McClure has joined the cast.

White Collar just woobied harder than Lex Luthor in a cornfield.

Body of Proof has introduced Jamie Bamber as Dana Delaney's toy boy. Good work, show. Recent plot developments also mean that Jeri Ryan is spending more time with Dana Delaney on screen. Two thumbs up there.

Smash is a show where someone thought, 'I want to make something like Glee but which Vera will love like burning'. Well done, someone. Well done.

Person of Interest presented another shipper episode with Finch kneeling at Reese's feet, fitting his trouser cuffs and lecturing him on sartorial matters. It was part of the plot, people.

Grimm also served up some excellence in subtext with Monroe and Nick going above and beyond for each other .

Pan Am has only served up titillation. I am disappoint.

Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game continue to walk that line between frustrating and gripping. PLL is winning me again with excellence in the parental roles. The Lying Game has Charisma Carpenter being sneaky.

Protector of the King's Peace - a neat Vimes story. The author doesn't have the Pratchett style down and it's a long time since they read any of Twoflower's dialogue, but they do have Vimes character nailed. The punchline is splendid.

Sally Sparrow is one of my favourite new Who characters. New and Used is a great Sally character story. Sally/Amy, Amy/Rory. AMTDI if that's a lure or a deal breaker.

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