Showing posts with label farscape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farscape. Show all posts

Monday, April 23, 2012

And it's not just because I want to bang the male lead, I swear

Seriously, look at this dude.
It's Monday. Know what Monday has become to me? Lost Girl night. This post will come as no surprise if you follow me on Twitter. I cannot shut the fuck up about this show.

It started in college. Or maybe not. Maybe it started when I was six and obsessed over Fraggle Rock. I didn't want to go to bed; I just wanted to spend more time with the Fraggles. It got so bad my parents took the TV away until I was 14. I read books. I went outside to play.

Then in college I got my own television.

One day I flipped some channels and found a show where some girl was holding two Pez dispensers up - one a witch and one a wolf, because she was a witch and her boyfriend was a werewolf. And I decided not to change the channel.

Probably in the same week, I saw a tiny gray puppet wandering around on a space ship calling himself a "Dominar" and negotiating with a gigantic space bug.

So I don't remember which came first, Buffy or Farscape, but in both cases I remember the exact episode that got me hooked. I'd been out of the TV loop for so many years that this was fucking amazing to me. And I started to obsess. I wanted more, always more. When Buffy gave her life I cried. Shit, I still cry even though I know she's coming back. When John Crichton destroys entire armadas to get Aeryn back in his arms, I cheer.

And that's probably when I really began to appreciate moving pictures. I write features, not TV, but the truth is, my love of visual story telling began with two great genre TV shows.

Remember when Veronica Mars opened the door at the end of season one and we had to wait an entire summer to find out who she saw? That shit drove me crazy. I thought about it all the time. Who's at the goddamn door?

And the horror I felt at the end of the last episode of Firefly as I realized there would be no more story - I don't want to relive those moments.

But then I became a very mature adult. I still enjoyed television. I loved Lost and enjoy Doctor Who very much, but I don't download wallpapers or search for spoilers or join fan forums. I moved on with my life. If I missed an episode of television, that was okay. I had a life to live and these people weren't real. I was a grown-up now, not a kid who imagines what character she would be if she was in this show. Not that I ever did anything so nerdy as that. I mean, come on, I'm pretty cool.

Then one day after Being Human on Syfy, I stuck around to see the pilot for Lost Girl. And fuck me. The little genre-obsessed girl inside never left. She was just waiting for the next great show. I was in from the minute the credits rolled.

I am obsessed with this show. In case you don't know about it, it's an incredibly popular Canadian production about a bisexual succubus named Bo (Ana Silk) learning about a Fae world hidden from humans. They're already filming season 3 in Canada, but Syfy's only beginning to air season two now.

I couldn't wait. I kept going online and looking things up and getting spoiled. As soon as I found out about Dyson (the wolf man pictured above, played by the sweltering Kris Holden-Reid) giving up his love to protect Bo, I immediately went online to see if he ever gets it back. And of course I spoiled myself on that and other things in the process.

I realized at this point that if I didn't go ahead and find these episodes and watch them, I was going to ruin the show for myself. It was the whole "Who's at Veronica's door" thing all over again, only now I can actually look it up and find out. And that just makes watching it later not as much fun. So this weekend I found them online and marathoned them all. I have now seen all of season two, and I am relieved. But now I can't wait for season 3.

But it's Monday today, and that means I can watch the episodes again on Syfy. And I will. Because I am once again reminded of how easily I get addicted to good stories. Some people can't stay away from their cell phones. Some people need food or booze or meth. I just need a weekly injection of a genre show with a great love story and some action.

And I am Team Dyson all the way.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Kids need good TV

The other day I was sitting in my classroom during my planning time, making the most out of my opportunity by grading papers watching Farscape on my laptop. A couple of girls who love me asked if they could use my room to work on their sewing assignment, and since they promised not to get in the way of my vital TV watching, I agreed.

Before you get all "Teachers don't do shit and get paid too much" rant, you should know that it was a Friday.

Anyhow, when I told the girls I was watching episodes of an old show, they rolled their eyes. I tried to explain by asking them what was their favorite fictional show. The plan was to tell them that one day they'd enjoy watching old episodes of that show to reminisce about how awesome it was.

Know what shows they immediately named? A bunch of reality shit. The first show one girl mentioned was Fact or Fiction, so I said No, girls, and actual fiction show, with a story. What shows do you watch with a story?

Know what one girl immediately said? Jersey Shore. Dammit to hell.

Eventually I got her to mention The Office, but then she confessed that she doesn't actually like The Office.

People, something has got to be done. This is just wrong.

So as they cut the shapes out of their pattern or whatever they were doing, I continued to watch Farscape. Then one of the girls asked what I was watching. "It sounds interesting," she said. "I want to watch that."

So I told them the premise of the show and that it was made by the Jim Henson company and included puppets and crazy creatures, and they both looked like they wanted to check it out. "That sounds cool," they said.

I don't know if they'll go home and watch Farscape today, but at the very least I planted a seed.