Ruth Sadelle Alderson

I get enough (a) dudes and (b) plot/things happening from following hockey, so what I really want out of TV right now is (a) women and (b) emotions/melodrama. I also enjoy quiet, restful crime shows, like The Killing and Broadchurch, but none of them are current at the moment, so they got left out of this post. This is just stuff I'm watching right now. I've only picked up one new show for sure and two more maybes this season, so if you have suggestions for something else new I should try out, or if you want to talk about any of these, I would be into that! (Note: I haven't watched this week's ep of Revenge yet. I won't be upset if you spoil me, but I won't know what you're talking about until tomorrow evening.)

Shows I'm Watching

Nashville - I almost gave up on Nashville after two episodes. I started watching it because it had singing and Connie Britton, and then her character wasn't very interesting. I was bored, though, and watching a lot of TV, so I ended up watching a few more episodes, and eventually I was hooked, but not because of Connie Britton. Rayna's storyline is the most boring one on the show. The interesting ones are those of the other two women: Scarlett and Juliette.

( Spoilers )

Grey's Anatomy - I watched Grey's Anatomy for a couple of seasons and then gave up on it. A while back, I had an urge to watch the first ep of it, and then I ended up watching something like seven and a half seasons in about six weeks, so I was completely caught up, and I've been watching it ever since. It is definitely one of those shows where you can see the writers run out of ideas every so often, but when it's about Meredith and her people, it's really good (in a soap opera way). ( Spoilers )

Scandal - I don't know that I actually like Scandal all that much, but it's an involving enough melodrama and I do like reading the Racialicious posts about it, so I keep watching. ( Spoilers )

Reign - Reign was on my to try out list anyway, and then allegram suggested I might like it, so I watched the first episode. It is ridiculous, in a really good way. They really aren't trying to make it historically accurate, and it's obviously just a soap opera. But it's about Mary, Queen of Scots at the French court (somehow there's never any language confusion; see above, re: lack of accuracy), which means that not only do you get over the top, if inaccurate, outfits, but also that Nostradamus is a character. Nostradamus! Amazing. (I had to Wikipedia him to check and see if that was historically accurate - it is - or if it was just bonus ridiculousness they threw in there.) ( Spoilers )

Shows I'm Sort Of/Maybe Watching

Revenge - I don't know that I really like Revenge, but I keep watching it. I usually get caught up on TV over the weekend, and then this airs on Sunday, so it's there to be ridiculous melodrama for me to watch on Monday or Tuesday. ( Spoilers )

Haven - I used to really like Haven, but now I don't really care. It's one of those shows where it's gone on too long and they need to wrap up the story. ( Spoilers )

Hostages - The premise of Hostages is really interesting - a surgeon, who was chosen to operate on the president, and her family are taken hostage and told they'll be let go when she gives the president a drug that will kill him - and it has Toni Colette, who is great. (Also of fannish interest: Sandrine Holt!) The show is okay. I think it would be better as a movie or miniseries where they didn't have to keep stretching out the situation. I will probably watch another episode or two to see if I get into it more before I decide to ditch it altogether.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I liked the first two episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I thought the third one wasn't as good, and Andy Samberg's delivery being very, very Jimmy Fallon-like started to bother me. I don't know if that was more about the show or about me - I watched it on a different day than the first two - so I will definitely give it another episode or two, especially since I like having a half-hour show to fit into those times when I want to watch something but only for half an hour. For those of you who don't watch comedies because of an embarrassment squick, the first two eps (but maybe not the third) would be doable for you. There are places that seem like they're going in an embarrassing direction, but the characters aren't embarrassed, so it didn't feel embarrassing to me. It also has some good jokes, and some good, extremely subtle and easy to miss jokes (look for the binders behind Andre Braugher's desk). The biggest downside is probably that it thinks Andy Samberg should be the main character when Andre Braugher and Stephanie Beatriz are much more interesting.

Attitude Adjustment

I've been feeling very Bah, humbug!/No one cares so why bother? about fandom recently, and then yesterday I got an email with my extras for my bandgirlsbang story. They're amazing. I have made pleased gasping noises about them more than once. People took my story and made these incredible things for it, and I'm all full of joy again. I can't wait to share them with you next week.

Fic Reading/Recs Request/Recs Request Request

I have been doing a lot of escapist fic reading. Anyone have any recs? I really want to read romances in the 20,000-30,000 word range, but I will take other suggestions. I've been reading mostly Harry Potter (Harry/Draco), Star Trek reboot and reboot RPF (Kirk/McCoy, Spock/Uhura, Chris/Zach), Sherlock (John/Sherlock, Sherlock/Lestrade), Hawaii Five-0 (Steve/Danny, but I would read Kono and Chin things too, and would love Kono&Chin gen), and some Suits (I will read anything, even gen; the quantity has to do with snobbery on my part, not hard to find pairings). Again, I will take other suggestions too.

I read a lot of fic. Is there anything any of you want recs for? Do you like recs, or am I just talking to myself if I post/email them?

TV Watching

I had a random urge to watch the first episode of Grey's Anatomy, and since all of season one is on Hulu, that's pretty much what I did with my Thanksgiving break. (Note: Season one is only nine episodes.) I know it's cool to hate Grey's Anatomy for being soapy and melodramatic or whatever, but I'd forgotten how much I love it. I'm considering rewarding myself for finishing Yuletide (when I do) with a month of Netflix to watch more Grey's Anatomy and all the Star Trek I can handle.

This weekend, I wanted to keep doing nothing but watching TV, and since I didn't have anything else to catch up on, I wandered into the ABC Family shows available on Hulu. I have to admit a real love for ABC Family shows. They're kind of like YA novels, but as TV. Also, they have some very interestingly frank and progressive conversations about sex and birth control. Anyway, this weekend, I got myself hooked on Switched at Birth. As you might be able to tell from a combination of the title, the network, and my interests, it's a show about two teenage girls who find out they were switched at birth. One of the families is rich; the other is poor. Because this isn't enough drama and conflict, one of the girls is deaf and the other is hearing. Two warnings: 1. You might find yourself annoyed with the rich family's overwhelming sense of entitlement. 2. You might find yourself annoyed with the hearing family for not thinking they should learn ASL until someone else takes them to task for it several episodes in. Other than those two things, I love it, and it comes back for season two in January.

The other ABC Family show I'm working my way through is The Nine Lives of Chloe King. norwich36 and I saw a trailer for it at the movies quite a while ago, but I'd forgotten to go look for it again once it started. Chloe turns sixteen and suddenly finds out that she's one of the Mai, which are essentially cat people, meaning they have cat-like superpowers and whatnot, and there's something about Baset. Which doesn't make much sense because she was born in the Ukraine. Chloe is not just Mai, she's the Uniter. I'm only a few episodes in, and all I know about what that means is that she has nine lives to lead. Most of this is nonsense, and the real pleasure of the series is all the teenage girl with superpowers things: one of her best friends is very excited because he's into comic books, Chloe has a great relationship with her mom, and there's a boy who is, of course, connected to the people trying to kill the Mai. The internet tells me this has been canceled, and I can see why: it's kind of fun, but it's not the kind of thing I would be involved in for years.