CAPSLOCK RAGE & an unrelated rec

[aria]

Flash Forward finally did something to merit an actual reaction with words from me! I see they made Janice actually a lesbian and handled it with decency! But this is entirely undercut by the knowledge that IF THEY KILL JANICE I WILL STOP WATCHING THIS FUCKING SHOW. IF YOU MAKE SOMEONE A LESBIAN AND KILL HER IN THE SAME GODDAMN EPISODE/AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT ONE, YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO EVEN FDS;LDSLKJDFS AUUUUGH.

Okay, I feel better now.

In other better news, polybigbang has already done awesome things like produced the Slings & Arrows fic I never knew I desperately needed. It is, mm, canon-adjacent rather than really canon-compatable, but my god, I don't even care, it is fabulous. Trespass sweetly urged, Oliver/Geoffrey/Ellen, be still my heart.

Comments

[were_duck]

Appropriate icon is appropriate!

UGH FLASHFORWARD NO! I have not bothered to watch more eps since the pilot, but... yeah. It would be awesome if any of the genre-esque shows on this season had good lesbian portrayals. You wouldn't believe my rollercoaster last night re: Penny on Eastwick.

:(

[aria]

They actually set Janice up well, ie bringing it up briefly in previous episodes and everything. And for the first half of this one it was good too, because it was two competent adults being kind of amazingly sweet and flirty, and Janice was up-front about how she was cool with herself but couldn't exactly advertise her orientation at her government job. A+, show! Then she had a spontaneous breakup with her new maybe-girlfriend because said girlfriend looked up Janice's flash-forward, saw that there was a baby, and asked about it extremely tactfully, whereupon Janice freaked out; because of an invasion of privacy? her own inability to deal with her flash-forward? the show's complete reluctance to have a main character in an actual relationship with another woman? You decide! AND THEN THEY SHOT JANICE. I mean, if her flash-forward is going to come true she has to live, but if they want to introduce "Maybe not all the flash-forwards will come true!!" as a plot point, which I suspect they will at some point, they may as well get rid of the lesbian at the same time! ARGH I DUNNO.

Anyway, um, sorry for the wall o' text, apparently I feel strongly about this. Want to talk to me about Penny? I would love to figure out how I feel about what they did with Penny last night.

[were_duck]

Yes please! Okay, I'll admit there was glee over the kiss because I am shallow. I'm not sure what to make of Joanna's reaction to Penny's being upset about it the next day. I think we're supposed to think that Joanna doesn't remember the kiss for some reason, but... nobody else forgot anything about the night. Does that mean Joanna's just cool with it?

Also, my GF is hopeful that Penny's weird tirade is really the result of repressed homosexuality, and not just outright homophobia. I don't have nearly that much faith in this show, but yannow. I'm not really happy with Joanna's plots lately though I do love her to pieces. Like, why was it that everyone else had public sex or sang in sexy dresses while her wild-n-crazy was to... do her job poorly? I'm unsurprised she got fired but the scene with Darryl being all weird and paternalistic to her really wigged me out. He's paternalistic with all of them and it grates on me, but that scene in particular. I am starting to really dislike how he creepily hits on all three of them all the time, especially since he does so by bringing up how much they depend on him and how he owns everything. Way to woo the ladies, Darryl!

I wish they hadn't done the Kat/Will thing. I don't like Will, he doesn't strike me as remotely interesting, just a blank slate for the writers to use for plot purposes re: Joanna. Where is his actual personality? And why are either of those women into him when they're living with each other?!?

I pretty much love Chad right now. I like Roxie's relationship with him, it feels natural and realistic and I like that the show doesn't seem to be making a 'cougar' caricature or castigating her for sleeping with a much younger man.

[aria]

Oh, when it happened I absolutely went "YES!!" very loudly. This is my go-to show for femslashy subtext right now and I am delighted when they deliver. Re: Joanna's reaction, I wasn't under the impression that she forgot it? I was under the impression that she was operating in her usual Joanna Tunnel Vision, ie when she is concerned about Will & boy troubles she forgets all about her expose on Darryl, and therefore when she is freaking out about her expose on Darryl, she's not even bothering to worry about Penny kissing her. This either means there will be freaking out later (unlikely, because she has her unemployment and Kat kissing Will to contend with) or it just doesn't register. In either case, poor Penny.

I did, by the way, read Penny's tirade as repressed homosexuality, not homophobia. Retrospectively I am worried about it, but at the time I was mostly like, "Honey, it's okay, you're allowed to like girls."

Joanna just makes me MAD UNCOMFORTABLE most of the time. Meanwhile Will is boring and saintly and BORING, and I think the show would massively benefit by getting rid of him entirely and just having Joanna and Kat have a thing. Re: Darryl ... flklsakds yeah everything with Joanna's plotline makes me mad uncomfortable. Maybe it's that I get the sense that when he pulls the creepy-hitting-on, I-own-everything card with either Roxie or Kat, they're smart cookies and call his bullshit. Joanna, not so much. Eleanor's eager squirrel analogy was sadly prophetic?

I am so afraid for Chad! I will be so unsurprised if he dies next episode. But god, I love him, and I adore, adore Roxie and absolutely everything they're doing with her.

(Now I want to make graphs of Roxie's and Kat's and Joanna's decisions in the series so far. I think I like each of them based on how much I approve of their life choices.)