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grading papers indeed
Resuming the due South rewatch, under the possibly mistaken notion that I can totally balance my summer job and some sort of cognizant commentary on Mounties in Chicago.
2x11 Starman
Oh man, the first time I watched this episode -- well, I'm pretty sure the first time I got to this part of s2, I was getting mildly impatient and wanted Kowalski for some reason -- but let me tell you, after a Fraser-and-Vecchio-less week, I am grinningly enjoying every single moment they're onscreen together.
"Great scot, turtles!" WHAT! WHY IS FRASER'S FIRST DIVERSIONARY TACTIC TO POINT OUT IMPROBABLE TURTLES? I mean, at least with Kowalski on the plane, Look, Ray, turtles! was absurd, but it had some internal logic. I love that the turtle joke is older than s3.
And again with Fraser having acquired an edge of snark post-Victoria: when Ray expresses the hope that maybe Ian will keep talking to the military until they shoot him, Fraser does one of those tiny facial movements that signals complete exasperated agreement. But he doesn't really mean it; he's wonderful to Ian, even if he's deeply uncomfortable when his understanding makes Ian give him a big hug. (And again, if this was Harry Potter fandom, there would be an entire tiny fervent cadre of Fraser/Ian shippers. I am still glad dS fandom is not HP fandom, but if there was Fraser/Ian fic in the world I would read it with joy and laughter.)
What I like most about this episode, though, is that the aliens are real. I like how a lot of the time due South gives you the magical realism in sneaky insidious doses, dead Bob aside; I do not remember being bewildered by the aliens being real, although it was still surprising in the fun twist way. (I think this episode specifically made me honestly surprised when Mountie on the Bounty went the 'pirates disguising themselves as ghosts to further their illegal activities' way rather than the more literal 'pirate ghosts a la Pirates of the Caribbean' way. It is probably a good thing, though, because any more s3 absurdity and our collective brains would probably implode.)
The other thing I really like about Starman, by the way, is BABY AMANDA TAPPING AT AN ALIEN RESEARCH FACILITY. I maintain that Audrey McKenna is absolutely a fake name she told Ian, because clearly she is tiny Sam Carter.
2x12 Some Like It Red
Before even starting this one, I think I would like to categorically state that it is absolutely in my top five due South episodes ever. And I am fond of the fact that apparently the makeup people never really bothered to get all the mascara off Paul Gross's face for the scenes before he cross-dresses, and of course by "fond" I mean "Yes, I'm shallow, this is in part one of my favourite episodes because I not-so-secretly want Paul Gross to be wearing mascara all the time." I'm not sorry.
Also, honestly, I just fucking adore a show that allows its male protagonist to pretty much immediately think that cross-dressing is the obvious solution to Ray running out of women to ask undercover favors of. I mean, it literally takes Fraser two seconds to come up with the "I'll dress as a woman!" idea. (I love it even more because apparently the "I'll dress as a woman!" idea was originally put forth by Paul Gross, although I think he lived to repent the bra and pantyhose.) Basically I adore that the show cheerfully went there, and I adore even more that it doesn't even ping as weird to Fraser. I am glad that Ray also takes it in stride fairly quickly, but it's self-evident that the longer Ray spends around Fraser, the more he just learns to take a deep breath, get his five minutes of requisite flailing out of the way, and then just accept it.
Oh, yes, and goddamn but Fraser has really great legs. No, seriously, the first time I saw this episode, I thought, "Wow, legs. Okay, here comes the attractive woman of the day." I think I twigged before Fraser turned around, but, y'know, I wasn't wrong. Although I am visited by the nagging feeling that they could've found a wig that was better suited to his face shape, and nah, Frase, teal is not your color. But that's okay! Mostly Ms. Fraser just looks a hell of a lot like Lucy Lawless to me.
Oh, what the hell, bad wig choice or not he is all pretty. Look!
Sdflfd FRASER PUT HIS WIG TAG IN HIS CLEAVAGE. I possibly should also have warned for incoherent laughing glee at the beginning of this episode. Sorry, I just -- it makes me really happy. I think this episode makes me happy because it has the same inherent air of absurdity as a lot of due South does, but it's not the fact of Fraser in drag that carries the humor -- there was just as much, and possibly more, inherent humor in the absurdity of Fraser being undercover as a used-car salesman. And that's so good. I suspect it also makes me happy because, while there's probably ample evidence from basically everything Fraser does ever to support the notion that being attracted to men wouldn't be any more inherently problematic to Fraser than anything else about his own sexuality, this episode makes it really damn obvious. A man who finds it perfectly reasonable to dress in women's clothing at an appropriate juncture is really, really not going to be upset about liking other men, and will probably even have a few relevant cultural citations about how not-weird it is. I don't know how I got from cleavage to here, but basically I really approve of everything about Fraser.
...Even the part where he seriously tells Melissa, "Save your energy; you're going to need it in your childbearing years," and flips his scarf over his shoulder and walks off. Anyone else and I suspect that line would annoy the hell out of me, but since it's Fraser it just cracks me up.
Another thing I like about this episode is how amazingly slashy it is. And I don't mean the part where Fraser and Ray disco dance together (somewhere Kowalski's eyes are bleeding, okay) or the part where they get all wonderfully flirty at the end; I mean that I ship Celine/Melissa way out of proportion to how much screen time either of them get, and I am also willing to put forward a theory of Tiffany/Wanda, and really Melissa's crush on Ms. Fraser is really screamingly obvious, and her horrified disappointment with Fraser being a man makes a lot more sense to me re: said obvious crush. I just. Girl-love everywhere! *hands*
Oh, and of course Tiffany and Wanda's whole "We're onto you," deal when they corner Fraser. "We've seen the way you're always opening doors for women. The way you're, like, incredibly tall. And polite. Totally. We hear the way you talk. You know you can't fool us. We should've known it right from the start. You're ... a Canadian." And obviously the surface joke is that Fraser's afraid they've caught onto his cross-dressing, but the real joke is really obviously about Ms. Fraser being a lesbian. I am kind of fond of 'Canadian' as code for 'queer' any day.
And here is another of my favourite single scenes in all of due South! Fraser out of his wig and in makeup in the back of the Riv, reading purple prose porn whilst Vecchio makes snarky comments. Seriously, it is like magical crackfic. Any single one of those three things makes me happy by itself, and combined, yaaaay. Also, Fraser in the serge with earrings and mascara and lipstick and mussed hair? Yes please.
I love that the evil antique dealer assumes that Fraser and Ray are Celine's parents. S2 really is just a shiny grab-bag of awesome Fraser/Vecchio moments, isn't it. Argh, and I love also that when Fraser is a woman that he insists on Ray treating him with door-opening chivalry. In s1 it might have made me facepalm a little, honestly, but obviously Fraser knows a bit more than that by now, and he's definitely doing some good-natured yanking of Ray's chain.
I also just realized that I kind of like the bit of scene where an awkward male teacher asks Fraser to dance. I think I had a facepalm reaction the first time I saw it, because I thought they'd descended into one of those "haha, a slightly unattractive man is hitting on our disguised main character, how uncomfortable this hilarious genderswap suddenly is!" moments, but that's ... actually not it. I think Fraser realized that in cross-dressing he downgraded himself from 'amazingly attractive man' to 'mildly attractive woman if you really go for that sort of thing' and was so relieved to not have everyone pay undue attention to him that he forgot some people still might. It's like slightly-less-forward man-Frannie just asked him for a dance.
AND NOW FOR A TANGO INTERLUDE. (I'm sorry, this episode just demands screencaps.)
It's funny -- one of the bad guys corners Fraser, and says, "Shouldn't you be grading papers or something, gorgeous?" whereupon Fraser twists the gun out of the guy's hand, elbows him to the floor, and, flipping hair over his shoulder, says, "Grading papers indeed." My immediate reaction? is the same sort of punch-the-air HELL YES that I used to get when I was watching Buffy or something and one of the baddies underestimated the cute-looking girl who promptly kicked ass. I kind of like that that's the reaction invoked, possibly because the relevant components of that reaction are that we the audience [a] are in on the joke and know the protagonist is about to kick said ass, and [b] really don't like the baddie for underestimating the protagonist, hence the immense satisfaction when ass is kicked. The fact that Fraser is actually a man doesn't really take away from this; in fact it's possible that seeing Fraser called 'gorgeous' evokes pretty much the same sort of indignation I'd get for female characters in the same situation, because seriously, it's high time Fraser elbowed someone in the face for objectifying him.
And, um, I just need to transcribe the entire last conversation. Because.
RAY. You know, Benny, you weren't a bad-lookin' woman.
FRASER. Thank you, Ray.
RAY. Of course, you weren't exactly my type either, you know.
FRASER. Well, what exactly is your type, Ray?
RAY. Well, I like a woman who is kind and honest with a good sense of humor.
FRASER. What, I don't have those qualities?
RAY. No, no, you do, I just like a woman who is, you know -- a woman!
FRASER. Oh, that -- that's picky, Ray.
RAY. Don't get in a snit.
FRASER. I'm not. I'm fine.
RAY. So what're you doing after work?
FRASER. Nothing with you.
RAY. You're so sensitive.
Look, look, Fraser is totally Ray's type and Fraser thinks that preferring a woman to be a woman is picky and there is flirting and I do not ship them that hard but I really do think I ship them. CATCH A CLUE, GUYS.
2x11 Starman
Oh man, the first time I watched this episode -- well, I'm pretty sure the first time I got to this part of s2, I was getting mildly impatient and wanted Kowalski for some reason -- but let me tell you, after a Fraser-and-Vecchio-less week, I am grinningly enjoying every single moment they're onscreen together.
"Great scot, turtles!" WHAT! WHY IS FRASER'S FIRST DIVERSIONARY TACTIC TO POINT OUT IMPROBABLE TURTLES? I mean, at least with Kowalski on the plane, Look, Ray, turtles! was absurd, but it had some internal logic. I love that the turtle joke is older than s3.
And again with Fraser having acquired an edge of snark post-Victoria: when Ray expresses the hope that maybe Ian will keep talking to the military until they shoot him, Fraser does one of those tiny facial movements that signals complete exasperated agreement. But he doesn't really mean it; he's wonderful to Ian, even if he's deeply uncomfortable when his understanding makes Ian give him a big hug. (And again, if this was Harry Potter fandom, there would be an entire tiny fervent cadre of Fraser/Ian shippers. I am still glad dS fandom is not HP fandom, but if there was Fraser/Ian fic in the world I would read it with joy and laughter.)
What I like most about this episode, though, is that the aliens are real. I like how a lot of the time due South gives you the magical realism in sneaky insidious doses, dead Bob aside; I do not remember being bewildered by the aliens being real, although it was still surprising in the fun twist way. (I think this episode specifically made me honestly surprised when Mountie on the Bounty went the 'pirates disguising themselves as ghosts to further their illegal activities' way rather than the more literal 'pirate ghosts a la Pirates of the Caribbean' way. It is probably a good thing, though, because any more s3 absurdity and our collective brains would probably implode.)
The other thing I really like about Starman, by the way, is BABY AMANDA TAPPING AT AN ALIEN RESEARCH FACILITY. I maintain that Audrey McKenna is absolutely a fake name she told Ian, because clearly she is tiny Sam Carter.
2x12 Some Like It Red
Before even starting this one, I think I would like to categorically state that it is absolutely in my top five due South episodes ever. And I am fond of the fact that apparently the makeup people never really bothered to get all the mascara off Paul Gross's face for the scenes before he cross-dresses, and of course by "fond" I mean "Yes, I'm shallow, this is in part one of my favourite episodes because I not-so-secretly want Paul Gross to be wearing mascara all the time." I'm not sorry.
Also, honestly, I just fucking adore a show that allows its male protagonist to pretty much immediately think that cross-dressing is the obvious solution to Ray running out of women to ask undercover favors of. I mean, it literally takes Fraser two seconds to come up with the "I'll dress as a woman!" idea. (I love it even more because apparently the "I'll dress as a woman!" idea was originally put forth by Paul Gross, although I think he lived to repent the bra and pantyhose.) Basically I adore that the show cheerfully went there, and I adore even more that it doesn't even ping as weird to Fraser. I am glad that Ray also takes it in stride fairly quickly, but it's self-evident that the longer Ray spends around Fraser, the more he just learns to take a deep breath, get his five minutes of requisite flailing out of the way, and then just accept it.
Oh, yes, and goddamn but Fraser has really great legs. No, seriously, the first time I saw this episode, I thought, "Wow, legs. Okay, here comes the attractive woman of the day." I think I twigged before Fraser turned around, but, y'know, I wasn't wrong. Although I am visited by the nagging feeling that they could've found a wig that was better suited to his face shape, and nah, Frase, teal is not your color. But that's okay! Mostly Ms. Fraser just looks a hell of a lot like Lucy Lawless to me.
Oh, what the hell, bad wig choice or not he is all pretty. Look!
Sdflfd FRASER PUT HIS WIG TAG IN HIS CLEAVAGE. I possibly should also have warned for incoherent laughing glee at the beginning of this episode. Sorry, I just -- it makes me really happy. I think this episode makes me happy because it has the same inherent air of absurdity as a lot of due South does, but it's not the fact of Fraser in drag that carries the humor -- there was just as much, and possibly more, inherent humor in the absurdity of Fraser being undercover as a used-car salesman. And that's so good. I suspect it also makes me happy because, while there's probably ample evidence from basically everything Fraser does ever to support the notion that being attracted to men wouldn't be any more inherently problematic to Fraser than anything else about his own sexuality, this episode makes it really damn obvious. A man who finds it perfectly reasonable to dress in women's clothing at an appropriate juncture is really, really not going to be upset about liking other men, and will probably even have a few relevant cultural citations about how not-weird it is. I don't know how I got from cleavage to here, but basically I really approve of everything about Fraser.
...Even the part where he seriously tells Melissa, "Save your energy; you're going to need it in your childbearing years," and flips his scarf over his shoulder and walks off. Anyone else and I suspect that line would annoy the hell out of me, but since it's Fraser it just cracks me up.
Another thing I like about this episode is how amazingly slashy it is. And I don't mean the part where Fraser and Ray disco dance together (somewhere Kowalski's eyes are bleeding, okay) or the part where they get all wonderfully flirty at the end; I mean that I ship Celine/Melissa way out of proportion to how much screen time either of them get, and I am also willing to put forward a theory of Tiffany/Wanda, and really Melissa's crush on Ms. Fraser is really screamingly obvious, and her horrified disappointment with Fraser being a man makes a lot more sense to me re: said obvious crush. I just. Girl-love everywhere! *hands*
Oh, and of course Tiffany and Wanda's whole "We're onto you," deal when they corner Fraser. "We've seen the way you're always opening doors for women. The way you're, like, incredibly tall. And polite. Totally. We hear the way you talk. You know you can't fool us. We should've known it right from the start. You're ... a Canadian." And obviously the surface joke is that Fraser's afraid they've caught onto his cross-dressing, but the real joke is really obviously about Ms. Fraser being a lesbian. I am kind of fond of 'Canadian' as code for 'queer' any day.
And here is another of my favourite single scenes in all of due South! Fraser out of his wig and in makeup in the back of the Riv, reading purple prose porn whilst Vecchio makes snarky comments. Seriously, it is like magical crackfic. Any single one of those three things makes me happy by itself, and combined, yaaaay. Also, Fraser in the serge with earrings and mascara and lipstick and mussed hair? Yes please.
I love that the evil antique dealer assumes that Fraser and Ray are Celine's parents. S2 really is just a shiny grab-bag of awesome Fraser/Vecchio moments, isn't it. Argh, and I love also that when Fraser is a woman that he insists on Ray treating him with door-opening chivalry. In s1 it might have made me facepalm a little, honestly, but obviously Fraser knows a bit more than that by now, and he's definitely doing some good-natured yanking of Ray's chain.
I also just realized that I kind of like the bit of scene where an awkward male teacher asks Fraser to dance. I think I had a facepalm reaction the first time I saw it, because I thought they'd descended into one of those "haha, a slightly unattractive man is hitting on our disguised main character, how uncomfortable this hilarious genderswap suddenly is!" moments, but that's ... actually not it. I think Fraser realized that in cross-dressing he downgraded himself from 'amazingly attractive man' to 'mildly attractive woman if you really go for that sort of thing' and was so relieved to not have everyone pay undue attention to him that he forgot some people still might. It's like slightly-less-forward man-Frannie just asked him for a dance.
AND NOW FOR A TANGO INTERLUDE. (I'm sorry, this episode just demands screencaps.)
It's funny -- one of the bad guys corners Fraser, and says, "Shouldn't you be grading papers or something, gorgeous?" whereupon Fraser twists the gun out of the guy's hand, elbows him to the floor, and, flipping hair over his shoulder, says, "Grading papers indeed." My immediate reaction? is the same sort of punch-the-air HELL YES that I used to get when I was watching Buffy or something and one of the baddies underestimated the cute-looking girl who promptly kicked ass. I kind of like that that's the reaction invoked, possibly because the relevant components of that reaction are that we the audience [a] are in on the joke and know the protagonist is about to kick said ass, and [b] really don't like the baddie for underestimating the protagonist, hence the immense satisfaction when ass is kicked. The fact that Fraser is actually a man doesn't really take away from this; in fact it's possible that seeing Fraser called 'gorgeous' evokes pretty much the same sort of indignation I'd get for female characters in the same situation, because seriously, it's high time Fraser elbowed someone in the face for objectifying him.
And, um, I just need to transcribe the entire last conversation. Because.
RAY. You know, Benny, you weren't a bad-lookin' woman.
FRASER. Thank you, Ray.
RAY. Of course, you weren't exactly my type either, you know.
FRASER. Well, what exactly is your type, Ray?
RAY. Well, I like a woman who is kind and honest with a good sense of humor.
FRASER. What, I don't have those qualities?
RAY. No, no, you do, I just like a woman who is, you know -- a woman!
FRASER. Oh, that -- that's picky, Ray.
RAY. Don't get in a snit.
FRASER. I'm not. I'm fine.
RAY. So what're you doing after work?
FRASER. Nothing with you.
RAY. You're so sensitive.
Look, look, Fraser is totally Ray's type and Fraser thinks that preferring a woman to be a woman is picky and there is flirting and I do not ship them that hard but I really do think I ship them. CATCH A CLUE, GUYS.
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<3<3<3!
*ignores everything else in order to make an icon right. this. second*
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(The post also has different songs from Due South! Just for you! (And whoever else may be interested. :D ))
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And I am curious whether you have any additional Thoughts on Some Like It Red! Word on the comfortable bit; it's kind of magical, and I had already decided that I really loved dS but it was sort of the cherry on top?
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Sadly enough, I really don't have many additional thoughts. You covered pretty much everything I'd want to talk about. I should rewatch the episode, though, and see if I have anything useful then.
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b) FRASER IN MAKEUP. GUH.
This comment devoid of actual thought. Filling provided by desire to drool after Paul Gross in makeup and Mountie clothes.