Operation Reclaim Fandom!

[deannie]

I was born into fandom. Seriously. My parents were Doctor Who and Star Trek fans back when William Hartnell was The Doctor and William Shatner was the Captain. Star Trek was my lunchtime fare as a kindergartner. I'd come home from school and plop down on the kitchen stool in front of reruns of the adventures of the Starship Enterprise while I downed my PB&H sandwiches.

My parents bought me a TV/radio/minitape recorder combo unit when I was a tween and I used the minitapes to record the audio of Blake's 7 off of the local PBS station so I could listen to Avon's mellifluous tones again and again and again.

My dad took me to my first StarCon when I was 15.

It's in my blood, I guess. I've been writing fanfic since I was a tween, too. Thank God for you all I didn't post THAT on AO3!

But almost seven years ago now, stuff started happening. We started a family, lost a child, had a few more... I got busy. And I thought I grew up. And honestly, for that first year after our son died, I was kind of... Chris Larabee with less brooding anger and more depression.

I didn't watch, I didn't read, I didn't write. Fandom was dead to me *throws up hand in warding*! Dead, I say!

Except it wasn't. It was sleeping.

About this time last year, I starting watching some Magnificent Seven, which I'd liked but not ficced, at the time it was running (I was busy with Sentinel and Stargate Atlantis at the time), and was overcome by the powerful need to FIC IT! Which, of course, I did. At the same time, my wife started watching the four-plus years of Supernatural we were behind... I caught up toward the beginning of season nine and now wait with everyone else for the next season. SIGH!

Arrow is cool, and I watched the first two series of Sherlock, though I haven't gotten to more than the series opener for three yet. I'm looking forward to NCIS:NOLA and Flash, and contemplating MORE Losers and Magnificent Seven fic—that last prompted by evil people like those what run fic_promptly ...

Anyway, my point is, my brain has decided that I need to fan and thinks it's missed some big things. It's probably right. So I'm falling back on my teenage years for a way to deal with the problem.

When I was 14, I decided that I was woefully under-read, so I made up a list of "summer reading" that had a ton of books I should have read by that age. I slogged through it between school years. Some of it I loved (Shakespeare, pretty much in his entirety) and some, not so much (two words: Herman Melville). I figure, while I'm waiting for next season, I'll do the same this summer. 

And I want you to help me.

Here's the simple rules. Feel free to OpReFan yourself! I can help with older fandoms you might have missed. :)

1. Ideally, it must be free for me to watch. Cable, Netflix, and Amazon Prime are currently paid for and therefore "free". HuluPlus is not, but Hulu on the computer is fine.
2. I can bail on a series after three episodes (If, like Stargate Universe, it doesn't get good until episode five, do let me know now).
3. I can't be expected to watch the entire run of a series. One season only. I'll watch more later if I can, but dude, I got KIDS!
4. I must comment. Will post here and crosspost on LJ. Possibly will #OpReFan on Twitter.

Here are the things I already have on my list, including the ones people have suggested that I want to check out:

Fargo (the series)—Heard a scene from it on Fresh Air on NPR today and now I wants.
Falling Skies—Can't imagine why I wasn't immediately sucked in to Noah Wiley fighting aliens!
The Hobbit movies—Can you have too much Tolkienesque...nesss...? No.
Vikings—I started it a few months ago and ran out of time. Liked what I saw, though!
Castle—We stopped watching during second season, I think. Kind of a long way to go there, eh?
Survivors—Sounds like a post-apocalyptic show I can get behind, though my plague squick might get in the way. We shall see.
Fringe—Not sure about this one. Sometimes Cop Falls Into Chasing Monsters doesn't work for me. I give you Grimm.
Orphan Black—I'm gonna try it because so many people like it, but it doesn't really sound like my thing. Y'all mostly have not sucky taste, though, so we'll see :).
Luther—Hell, like I was gonna pass up an Idris Elba vehicle?
Haven—Sounds like Eureka Goes Darkside (which it sort of did all on its own, but I digress). I'm in.

What else, people? Talk to me! Leave a show or a movie in the comments and let me know why you think I should watch it. I'll do books in the winter, maybe, but for now, TV and film, baby!

Comments

[aj]

I'd definitely put "Survivors" (UK/2008) on that list! It's two seasons of 6 episodes, so not a huge commitment. I like to call it The Walking Dead without zombies and with a female leader. Last I checked it was on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

I'd also make the case for the first season of Murder, She Wrote. I was surprised to go back and see how formative it was in terms of procedural and female-run narrative. There is some -.^ stuff in terms of sexism, but it's a really good solid look at TV narrative history. (Netflix.)

Lastly, I'd recommend the first season of Life. It's on Amazon and Netflix, and is an absolutely brilliant character narrative. It's another procedural, but it's one that has basically laid the groundwork for the recent crop of smart procedural that rely much more heavily on character development and consistency in storyline than the L&O model. But mostly? THE CHARACTERS OMG. Season 1 is only 11 episodes, and has a fairly satisfying finale. Season 2 got smacked with studio notes and doesn't really find it's honest feet until about episode 15. (There's good stuff in the first half of the season, it's just not ~the same~.)

Have fun and enjoy!

[deannie]

Wow... That's a lot. I remember Murder, She Wrote fondly, but more from an I loves the Angela POV, you know? Survivors sounds cool—I like the Jeremiah-type storyline (minus the only killing off adults). Life might be a hard sell, but I'll give you at least three episodes. :)

Thank you!

[aj]

Hee! I'm always of the opinion that people are more than welcome to hand-wave my suggestions. And Life might be, but I'll admit that I fell deeply and truly in love with the main female lead in about episode 3. The pilot is a bit... ~pilot-y~ but otherwise, it holds up surprisingly well. Anyway, haven fun and enjoy!

[epeeblade]

Fringe, but stop before the last season. The first season is excellent:)

Orphan Black, but I'm not sure if it's up on Prime yet. It's got the bonus of being short. 10 episodes first season, same the second, which is airing now.

[deannie]

I've heard Fringe is good.

I also find it interesting that so many people are suggesting procedurals (and mysteries like Orphan Black) to me. I guess procedurals are the scifi?

[singe]

Try the Marvel movies, if you haven't yet. I didn't think I'd go for the KABLAMMO of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, or the Avengers etc... but I got sucked in pretty easily. Mostly because Tom Hiddlestone is so darn cute.

I'm glad you're back!

[deannie]

Ah Marvel! I didn't get into the Marvel comic books too much—was a Vertigo girl in my youth and a Batman fan before that—but I does love me some Tony Stark. And Loki is just... I'm amazed I'm so completely taken with the characters, because I really felt like I'd be bored to tears by Thor and his Heroness and Loki would be hopelessly one-dimensional... But then they weren't.

They're lovely!

Captain America gives me pause, though, Chris Evans and his awesomeness aside, but the Hulk is just right out. If he's not talking to Tony? I don't care.

[singe]

Believe it or not, 'The Incredible Hulk' film starring Edward Norton and Liv Tyler show a more refined, sympathetic Hulk than the Avenger's hairy nut. It borrows A LOT from the tv series (including Lou Ferrigno) and that made me sooooo happy. It's worth seeing for the awesomeness of Tim Roth as the villain alone.

[natlyn]

"Avenger's hairy nut"

Really, Singe? You and Deannie make me cry. 8(

[singe]

Awww, don't think I'm discriminating against guys with body hair. I ain't! And I love the actor's portrayal of Banner. Buuuut I felt the Avenger's Hulk was a bit more mindless and brutal than he needed to be, especially when he tried to kill Natasha for no reason. It made his later 'calm' (smiling, talking, and pounding bad guys during the battle of New York)out of character.

I'm annoyed by the inconsistency.

[natlyn]

Rather than an inconsistency, I see a depth of characterization for Hulk that hasn't existed before. All anger is not the same. There is the destructive anger wherein one loses all reason (Hulk on the helicarrier) and then there's the determined anger that fuels focused action (battle of New York). I think this goes a long way to making the Hulk--as a character--interesting, which hasn't been done before that I know of.

I will now stop hijacking Deannie's journal. :-)

[deannie]

Yeah—cause y'all know how much I hate meta discussions. :P

[natlyn]

8D

[kronette]

Luther, a British cop show. Idris Elba is brash, scary, heroic and the writing is pretty strong. First season has 6 episodes, 2nd has four. I haven't watched the 3rd season, but they're all on Netflix.

I will spare you my obsession with Red Dwarf, but if you like Hitchhikers GTTG, then you might like it. Again, six episodes in the first series, and available on Netflix. It has a good scientific base and some truly laugh-out-loud moments.

Welcome back to the fold :)

[deannie]

You had me at Idris. :)

But yes, I'll pass once again on Red Dwarf. It and Black Adder were ones I just couldn't get into for some reason.

[kronette]

We can fangirl over Idris, then? I still need to see Prometheus. Must find out if it's on Netflix yet...

[deannie]

I will fangirl over Idris any time you want. He's pretty and voicey. PacRim was AbFab (hey, he was in that, too, you know?), but I haven't seen Prometheus.

I'd watch him read the phone book, though. He's that worthy.

[kronette]

I heartily concur. Now that sis' wedding is out of the way, I can hopefully get back into writing and watching stuff again. I'm in sort of a rut.

[pepperjackcandy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that with your pedigree you've seen The Prisoner.

If not, it looks to be available at Hulu (or something called "Crackle," apparently) and at 17 episodes, you can watch the entire series and keep yourself to one season!

Just skip the first episode ("Arrival") until after you're hooked. The first episode of so many British series are lackluster compared to the rest of the series, and The Prisoner is no exception.

[deannie]

*waves*

Oh, now see, this is where I'm weird. I actually really enjoyed the... denseness... of the first ep of Prisoner. Really the whole show.

Tomorrow People (a contemporary, at least on my teenage PBS station) was by far the lesser show.

[kronette]

There's a western on AMC called Hell on Wheels. I couldn't fully get into it, but I'm not a western fan. description: Cullen Bohannon, a former soldier and slaveholder, follows the track of a band of Union soldiers, the killers of his wife. This brings him to the middle of one of the biggest projects in US history, the building of the transcontinental railroad.

You know what I mainlined this year? Leverage, and I really enjoyed it. Bad guys taking on worse guys and helping the helpless. Funny, smart, and with Christian Kane :)

[kirbyfest]

Orphan Black, as others have suggested.

I've been watching Haven on Netflix-- not high concept, but pleasant sci-fi MOTW. It seems just right for relaxed summer viewing.

I've also just started Continuum (Netflix) so I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, but I do like time travel stuff so I'll probably keep up with it.

Have you watched Sleepy Hollow? Dumb as all get out but a totally charming cast with chemistry to burn. It's on On Demand, I think.

Person of Interest. Lots of slash potential and an interesting mytharc. I nearly walked after a controversial plot point, but they've done some really cool things as a result of it.

[natlyn]

You probably wouldn't have time to watch more than two Luther eps in a sitting, but even if you do, don't. They are intense episodes and you will need the down time.

You may not care for the first half of Fringe. I didn't get into it until the last third of the first season and then because I loved the relationship between Peter and Walter.

I also love Survivor. It's actually a quasi-remake of a Terry Nation 1970s show that ran three seasons. I loved it so much I bought the original series and watched it too. The plague IIRC isn't very graphic and its effects are seen mostly in the first ep (although I think there is a corpse or two later).

[deannie]

Yeah, I'm finding that with Luther, which I LOVE. It's just too much... muchness... for chain-viewing.