my perspective fades

[aria]

Durham County: like someone beat the fuck out of Desperate Housewives and shoved it out naked into the cold. Where it made angry friends with Hugh Dillon.

Okay, to be fair, the only way it is really like Desperate Housewives is that Traci Prager is totally an escapee from that show, and also Suburbia Is Creepy. Really my brain breaks a little at the notion of landing Mike Sweeney in the middle of Wisteria Lane. But this is only the first episode and maybe it will be relentlessly not-suburban-USA enough that I will stop having deeply weird double-vision moments.

I wish I could watch Durham County with someone, though. I mean, even BSG I had a bit of trouble with if I didn't have someone there to hold my hand. So after that first episode I decided it really called for some comfort telly. Due South is exactly that, although I'm starting to run out of Kowalski episodes I haven't seen too many times. Happily I also find Vecchio comforting, so I finally watched The Edge, ie the only episode of due South I hadn't yet seen all the way through (besides Invitation to Romance, which I am not actually sure I will ever be able to watch).


I think the really important thing here is: I am super, super fond of s2 Fraser/Thatcher. I am mostly fond in a way that makes me go "Oh Meg" and marvel at their collective inept paralysis in the face of their mutual attraction, but I am fond. I'm also glad it didn't work out, because Meg needs to be with someone ... I don't know who Meg needs to be with. Someone who does not tie her up in knots. (Um. Metaphorically.) And Fraser needs someone he actually trusts and is comfortable with, which, y'know. But I really adore their awkward not-romance that is not really going anywhere.

You know what I miss most in s3? I mean, besides Vecchio. What I miss most besides Vecchio is the brown uniform. I do have the awkward Pavlovian response of YAY to the red serge, but goddamn the brown uniform. And, uh. Fraser. With a gun. Fraserwithagun. Guys, I went more than twenty years without a gun kink. I've watched plenty of shows where the pretty people I like have guns. And it's Fraser who does me in.

I -- I also really don't understand why I skipped this episode before. Yes, the dream sequence is ridiculous. Fraser's also hugging a pillow and a little bit of his hair is curling on his forehead. I realize that I first watched s2 before I ventured into the fandom, and I was not cognizant of the finer points of pillow-hugging and hair-curling, but I'm doing a good deal of fond melting over here. Oh yeah, and this time instead of wondering what the dream sequence is even doing there, I just sort of want to hug Fraser for reacting to anxiety the way he is.

Jeeesus, when our Episode Baddie attacks some guy in the airport bathroom, I totally braced myself to watch him get strangled on screen. Then the guy was just chloroformed. And I remembered that, hey, I'm watching due South, not Durham County. Maybe I should back-and-forth them? That might keep me sane.

RAY, DUCK. Ohhh my god there was an actual duck. I love that so much, because of course the normal joke is "Duck!" "Where?" and then someone gets hit. But no, Fraser has spotted an actual honest-to-god duck and just has to tell Ray about it! And Ray's reaction, too. "Duck! Duck means duck. Duck doesn't mean duck." This is actually making me giggle aloud. /o\



And oh, Ray. "Hey, don't be sneaking up on us like that! You could get hurt," he says to Agent Cortez. "I could take you out in a second, buddy," she tells him. His response: "Hey, I'll consider that." And it's just -- I love his weird combination of almost-insulting-except-he-means-it chivalry and his hit-and-miss charm. I can't imagine Ray Vecchio would be able to keep someone like Stella, being the way he is, but I like it. And I like that in this episode he magically gets Cortez to open up to him the way people open up to Fraser, and he just listens. Yeah, one of my favourite things about this show may be how Fraser makes both Rays massively better people.

And then Fraser and Thatcher go get coffee. I bet they have the most awkward coffee dates in the universe. <3

Comments

[sionnain]

Oh, my SHOW. ::beams:: I know that's very strange to say since it's very dark and totally fucked up, but, well--we've established that's how I like my shows, and this is just my FAVORITE. ::draws wee gothic horror hearts around it::

Mike Sweeney is a fascinating character--so flawed and dark and angsty.

Yes, it's very--well, it's going to get very, very intense. It will definitely get very non-suburbia, I promise. It does, however, get exceedingly creepy and this season is ever DARKER.

[aria]

Next time I watch it I am BRINGING A TEDDY BEAR. Seriously, it's really good but I desperately want someone to see it with, and -- even were I back at college, I probably wouldn't try to rope my friends into it? I mean, I'm already in small agonies trying to figure out who I can show HCL to. /o\

Also, I don't know if you read the and-then-I-watched-some-due-South! part of this entry, but doing it as a double feature with Durham County was special. In that "a guy gets attacked in an airport bathroom and I was completely surprised when he was just chloroformed instead of strangled in front of me" way. XD

[sionnain]

Yeah, I've got the same problem of getting non-fannish friends to watch it! My girlfriend saw part of it while I was watching the newest ep on my laptop, and she goes, "Honey, why do you watch these shows that make you yell at it?" ::giggles::

Haha, I will never, ever watch that episode of due South where everyone thinks Fraser is dead EVER AGAIN. I was so embarrassment squicked during that one omg.

I concur with your season 2 Thatcher!liking. I never really cared for her in season 3/4, but I really liked her in season 2. (I still kind of ship her with Stella. :D?)

[aria]

Hee. My friends often want to know why I'm interacting with my shows so much. It's just kind of fun to yell at the TV now and then.

Ohhhh 'Dead Men Don't Throw Rice'. That episode's Frannie makes me want to HIDE, but I'm secretly really fond of bits of it because that's the one where Fraser has a weird near-death experience and goes wandering with Bob through the Borderland. <3

...I wish to subscribe to your Stella/Thatcher newsletter, omg. I have never even thought of it before but for some reason it makes me melt a little and I don't even know why. Explain it to me!

[china_shop]

And then Fraser and Thatcher go get coffee. I bet they have the most awkward coffee dates in the universe. <3

Hee! I think the reason I veer away from them is because I can't clamber past the enormous piles of embarrassment and awkwardness. ;-)

Also: subject line = LOVE.

[aria]

At this point I just find it adorable, but I remember the first time through I was sort of hiding behind my hands. (I think this probably holds true for a lot of things Paul Gross does. The first time through, I'm hiding behind my hands, and then I get used to whatever it is and it's adorable. Heh.)

...also you have to understand here that I don't think I've listened to anything that's not the Headstones for ... about two weeks now. Seriously. /o\

[china_shop]

I find it very hard to read anything without a sense of humour as romantically promising, and Meg seems sadly devoid of even irony to me, so I tend to sit there going, "Nooo, Fraser, step away from the scary lady!" *mocks self*

I listened to the Headstones solidly for about, uh, 3 years or so... yeah. That said, I mostly listen to music at the gym, so it's only a few hours a week. But still -- I did discover that the Headstones' music is great RPS fuel.

[aria]

Yeah, I hear you. I mean, I really do love Meg, and I think she has a sense of humour, but she locks it up pretty tight around Fraser. (And you make a good point about humour being important, too, because the only time I genuinely ship them a bit is in We Are the Eggmen, when Fraser pretends to get electrocuted to cut down the tension. I just. <333)

I've been listening to the Headstones on the bus to and from work, mostly. And also as my iPod alarm, because it is weirdly lovely to listen to Hugh Dillon first thing in the morning. :D

[china_shop]

I can't remember how Meg reacts to the prank -- is she amused or tight-lipped? Oh! Oh, this reminds me of a theory I had ages ago about personality types and playfulness. Do you know the enneagram?

[aria]

Meg's frankly lovely reaction, screencapped for your viewing pleasure:



And yes! I know the enneagram. What is your theory?

[china_shop]

Awww! Okay, I like that.

My theory is here. (Note that this pre-dates my F/V love, so doesn't do Vecchio justice. I think I came around in the comments, though.) /shameless self-linkage

[aria]

Replying belatedly to your shameless self-linkage to make squeaky noises of glee, because I am now on the trail of all of your meta posts -- I've been ground to a halt on the AU F/K/V, and suddenly I've realized that if I just noodle around in your journal I will probably find absolute gems of character discussion in the posts and comments. I already have another two frantically typed pages, so you get some hearts for breaking my writers' block. <33333

[china_shop]

\o/ (This makes me sad I never mastered the art of tagging posts. Ah well.)

There's also some excellent stuff at ds_discourse, iirc, and on ds_workshop (which is more the writey end of things).

I already have another two frantically typed pages, so you get some hearts for breaking my writers' block.

Eeeeee, this makes me very happy! :-D

[aria]

...Of course then I wandered off and started watching Flashpoint instead. *facepalm*

BUT those two comms look like they will also be gems of making-me-write. Thank you thank you. <333

[polarisnorth]

I seem to remember you having something of a gun kink when we were watching SGA. Or perhaps it was just that one scene with Sheppard shooting the Wraith.

I noticed the posts for Durham County on I&heart; and wondered if I should mention it to you; I suppose I should have figured you'd find it anyway. Have fun with that? I would suggest interspersing it with Middleman or something, but that might be kind of too much of a mood whiplash.

[aria]

Yeah, I remember that! I think though that it was kind of more of a Sheppard kink and the gun was incidental, whereas here I'm like "Yay! Fraser! Oh, look, Fraser has a gun, how is that TEN TIMES HOTTER?" &c.

Yeeeah, I found it anyway. I have a whole file in my brain labeled THINGS HUGH DILLON IS IN, seriously. *facepalm* And -- oh my god if I switched off Durham and Middleman I might start having surreal technicolor nightmares, actually. But I will watch more Middleman. Just ... not as a double feature.

[carrieann]

You know what I miss most in s3? I mean, besides Vecchio. What I miss most besides Vecchio is the brown uniform.

I LOVE the brown uniform. I think he wears it like, once, in the entirety of seasons 3 & 4. :(

[aria]

He wears it in Spy vs Spy! I know this, because despite the fact that Spy vs Spy has the brown uniform and Ray playing chess and some a-maz-ing banter and also Martha Burns, it is still one of my least favourite s3 episodes and so I do not like to watch it much and then I miss the brown uniform. XD

[mergatrude]

OMG! Gun kink! Which I totally got from due South, as well. I think (for me anyway) it has something to do with the fact that it's Fraser! Fraser held a gun on the man who had his father killed and he didn't shoot him!!! Fraser is not just going to mindlessly fire off round after round into some random bad guy. When Fraser fires his gun he MEANS IT!

Then, of course, it was stupidly easy to segue into "Ray Kowalski (HANDS!!!) + gun = HOT!" And again, I think it was Ladies' Man, where he seems out of control and then, with Fraser's help &hearts , gets hold of himself and you want to hug him.

So, yeah. NOT using a gun is probably my real kink. ;-)

[aria]

I think you may be really, really onto something here. :D Although again it is an extremely Fraser-specific kink; like, I am easy for Ray Kowalski with a gun, but it's mostly just about Ray (and as you say, his hands sfdkldsjfd) but ... Ray often has a gun! Fraser doesn't, though -- I mean, there's the gun he pulls on Gerrard in the pilot (♥) and there's the brief glimpse of one in The Edge, and then there's That Scene in MotB (♥♥♥) but I think that's about it. So not using a gun might be part of it, but it's also Fraser specifically with a gun. I think -- it's sort of like how the fandom has a thing for trying to write Fraser into situations where he might conceivably use the word 'fuck' and then it's the hottest thing ever? It's the unexpectedness and rarity that makes it awesome.