Ruth Sadelle Alderson

I've decided that today should be a five things Friday. So prompt or ask me whatever you want. This can be a fic prompt (five pick-up lines that didn't work on Jensen) or a getting to know you question (five movies I love) or anything else you can think to ask (five alternate uses for pipe cleaners). If you want to ask/prompt more than one five things, uh, thing, I'm cool with that. Anyone who gets their prompt/question in before 7 pm Pacific Time will get an answer before I go to bed (unless it gets so long it needs to be its own thing, but if that happens, I'll tell you about it).

In my two-a-day weekend bonuses, Sundays are for superstars. These are fics that go above and beyond. These are the if you only read four of this month's recs, read these four recs.

I promised you a fandom I hadn't recced yet, so today's superstar is "Your Fingerprints, Everywhere" by lazy_daze, which is Supernatural, Sam/Dean, so don't click if incest freaks you out. This story is unbelievably hot. Seriously, incredibly, truly hot. (I have it bookmarked with a three-letter keyword for super-easy access.) It's also about how Dean submitting to Sam is part of what makes them okay:

Dean's no different, except he is, in subtle ways - he's just that bit looser, easier, cheerful and relaxed, like some long-carried weight has lifted. Sam remembers watching Dean break apart underneath him, and it's like he's been put back together the right way, this time, something slotted into place instead of forced.

And, oh, yes, that's what I want in my kink.

Two weeks ago, I said to archivecats (in a forum other than LJ) in response to a comment she made about feminist Joss fans finding the treatment of women on Dollhouse problematic:

As a feminist Joss fan, I don't think the treatment of women is its biggest problem - it's certainly problematic, but Joss has said it's supposed to be disturbing, so I'm willing to entertain the possibility that it's going somewhere. The three biggest problems I see with it:

1. They haven't made me care enough about any of the characters to care very much about what happens to them. I sort of care about the doctor, but that's less about her and more about the fact that I adore Amy Acker.

2. It's not funny. I can't understand why Joss would make a show without humor.

3. It suffers in comparison to Sarah Connor Chronicles. I actually liked this week's ep a lot better than any of the others, but I think that's less about the ep itself and more about the fact that I wasn't home last night and watched it this morning, while I'm saving SCC for this afternoon.

Last week's episode was better, this week's episode was even better, and next week's episode looks to be really good. Part of what made the last two episodes good was that Joss finally started writing them, and they were consequently funny. The ( Spoilers ) were the funniest things I've ever seen on this show, and ( Spoilers ) nearly made me do a spit-take all over my keyboard. The humor helps with the comparison to SCC, too, because it means there's enough of a shift in tone that it's not such a direct comparison. They still haven't made me care about anyone, though, and that's a real problem.

I also have an issue with how they've handled the set-up/payoff of Joss writing. There have been interviews and whatnot for weeks saying, "Well, it really gets good with the sixth episode where Joss takes over." To me, this reeks of petulance: "You won't let me do what I want, so I'm going to give you a crappy show until you do." It's also a little cultish in how it treats the audience: "WHOSOEVER believeth in JOSS shall be REWARDED with a quality TV SHOW."

Of course, the downside for Joss of the show being better in other ways is that my focus is now free to pay attention to the problematic treatment of women. I've been reading a lot of discussions/resources about race, racism, and anti-racism recently (partly because I was leading my [all white] writing group's craft chat about writing race/ethnicity and partly because of a the link to debunkingwhite I followed from the discussion on hederahelix's post about anti-racism work and white allies), and, to attempt to connect oppressions without playing Oppression Olympics, it's having the side effect of resensitizing me to issues of sexism. I'm having a real problem with violence against women as entertainment. Part of it is that I don't have the stomach for violence I used to. (Although Supernatural's violence and gore doesn't bother me at all. I think it's because it's kind of cartoonish in my mind.) But part of it is specifically about violence against women.

Dollhouse is, in some ways, all about violence against women, so why is the violence bothering me so much? There are two specific instances from the last two episodes that I'm having the biggest problem with: ( Spoilers ) In both those instances, the violence is presented as-is, with no commentary in the text and no sense that it was anything other than just another plot point. If Joss is trying to make some point about violence against women, he needs to make it instead of dragging out instances of violence across episodes. I'm also troubled by something I remember reading in a women's studies class long ago (so long ago I don't remember specifically which class and don't have a reference for it) that cited a study that found that people with racist views/actions found any portrayal of racism/racist acts on TV (I think; possibly TV and movies), even in a clearly negative context, to reinforce their racist belief/conviction that their racist act was okay. This is what's in the back of my head, making me cringe, every time I see Joss (or anyone else - a recent local theater production is also a grave offender) just showing us violence against women.

In a more subtle bit of problematic treatment of women, the creepiest line of dialogue in this week's episode was ( Spoilers ) It's the kind of line that, in the right context with the right delivery, could be romantic/sweet, but came across to me as seriously creepy, especially since ( Spoilers. )

Only one more to go after this one!

( Origins (sort of contains spoilers) )

***

( John/Jo )

Spoilers for "In the Beginning."

( Notes )

( Mary Sleeps )

So I've been hiding from real life in SPN, so I decided that as long as I was hiding, I should just power my way through until I was caught up, which was kind of good and kind of feels like an overdose.

Overall, I didn't like S3 as much as S2, but it had some really good episodes.

( SPN S3 )

Alternate post title, rejected for length and incompleteness (because I wrote it only halfway through the season): SPN S2: in which Sam spouts psychological theories, Dean becomes "baby," both of them ask to be hit, they have a lot of conversations over the roof of the car, and Dean's S2 Trembly Lip of Doom makes repeated appearances.

I'm sold on S2 for its own merits. I have to admit, I'm not sure how I feel about the setup for S3 (and, of course, I have some ideas about what must be going on in the S4 opener), but S2 is a great season. It's a strong mytharc season, and, as we know from S1, I'm big on the mytharc.

( SPN S2 )

norwich36 very kindly loaned me Supernatural season 1. I'm in the process of mainlining it, and I'm through episode 10. I half-heartedly thought about liveblogging the pilot, but instead sent only a couple of observations on to other people, which I will reproduce for you here (spoiler-free; I promise to put spoilery things behind a cut):

• JDM is only hot with stubble. (norwich36 said also with a beard. Later in the season he shows up with a beard, and I said, "No. Still only with stubble.")
• I had no idea this was a McG production. You may have some idea about how much I loved The O.C., which will let you realize that this actually means something to me.
• Jared's voice was somehow not what I was expecting. I can't be more specific because I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting.

Nora warned me that it was a women in refrigerators sort of show, which, uh, yeah. Apparently if you're an actress and you want to be on this show, the main criterion is that you be able to scream.

If you find the show scary but you like the concept of Sam and Dean, you can always watch the last five minutes of each episode, wherein the woman they've saved kisses Dean (usually) on the cheek and then Sam and Dean have a nice bonding moment in the car on their way out of town. (Be forewarned that you may occasionally be distracted from their bonding by the bad greenscreen work.)

One of the things I really like about the show is the way they acknowledge their debt to The X-Files. I dislike the way they're idiots about some things, but then Scully was always going down into a dark basement in heels with no lights.

All of this babble is to make it seem like I have more to say than I really do. What I really came here to say are the following two things:

1. Talking back to Papa Winchester.
At the end of "Home," ( there are spoilers. ) I've been enjoying the monster of the week thing, but now that I have a handle on the characters, it's like, "Okay, okay. Get to the mytharc already, and don't be like Burn Notice where they just tack five minutes of mytharc onto the end of each episode."

2. I think I can read SPN fic now.
I think I have enough of the handle on the characters now (although the mytharc in my head may not end up being the real mytharc) that I can read fic without it messing with my experience of the show, but only if there are no spoilers for things I haven't seen yet. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying Sam and Dean as non-sexual brothers, so while I don't object to incest fic on principle, you might have to talk me into the Wincest.

norwich36 said there's lots of SPN mpreg. My guess would be that Sam's the one pregnant in a lot of them. Personally, I'd rather see Dean pregnant. You know he'd be the crankiest pregnant man ever. Actually, what I'd really like to see is Dean pregnant and Sam having to deal with him and it not being Wincest.