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Caught up!

2013-04-15T14:44:11Z

I watched too much TV yesterday, when I should have been doing more remunerative things. But, since I did, I thought I’d seize this rare moment of being caught up with four (4!) shows.

Okay, I am caught up with Southland, and...I kind of wish I wasn’t. Or, maybe I wish I’d been spoiled for the latest episode (5.9) before I watched it. ( spoilers )

I am also caught up with two mystery miniseries—just because I totally can’t wait to find out what happens next/who did it. Top of the Lake and Broadchurch are both variations on the old Twin Peaks formula of “dead child in a tiny community that is not as bucolic as it seems; outside detective (with demons of their own) arrives to solve the case." You've seen the formula many times—but these shows do it well.

Top of the Lake. There’s this moment in Patrick O’Brian’s Post Captain when, Jack Aubrey asks a young girl who's in a ship that has been taken by the French, "I hope I see you well. Quite well?" and the narrator points out that what he really means is "no too much raped?"

So, okay, that’s not a question you’d want to ask any of the female characters in Top of the Lake. ‘Cause you’d get some pretty explicit answers. The show has maybe the harshest worldview I’ve seen on TV—no one is trustworthy, violence is around every bend.

There are a bunch of reasons to watch it, though. 1) Elizabeth Moss is astonishingly good—strong, smart, vulnerable, violent, complicated, sexy. The other acting—particularly by Peter Mullan—is excellent as well. 2) The New Zealand scenery is as spectacular as you’d expect. The human scenery is also amazing: the show is probably worth watching for the tattoos alone. 3) Aside from the preoccupation with rape (or along with it?), the show’s take on sexuality is really interesting. You see a lot of middle-aged people, with realistically middle-aged bodies, having sex. This never happens on TV.

Another thing about Top of the Lake is that it makes the ongoing family angst of Broadchurch seem fluffy by comparison. This is the ITV series with the Dr. Who actors—David Tennant and Arthur Darvill—and a whole bunch of actors you’ve seen before somewhere. It’s total crack: everyone is alternately suspicious and sympathetic, and the seaside landscape shimmers endlessly. The last two episodes have been a little draggy (montages, slow motion walks, etc.)—but who am I kidding? I’d watch these guys stare moodily into the sea forever.

I am also caught up on Grimm, and I don’t have much to say about it, except that much as I like Juliette and want her and Nick to get together again, the Nick-Monroe domesticity is endlessly pleasing (plaid flannel bathrobe!) and I can’t believe there aren’t a million fics about it.

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Jumpers and Hundjagers: Or, Sixty-Three Hours in Portland (Grimm/Sherlock, gen)

2013-02-07T21:50:27Z

Just re-posting my xover_exchange fic.

Title: Jumpers and Hundjagers: Or, Sixty-Three Hours in Portland
Fandoms: Grimm, Sherlock
Rating: PG
Word count: about 4.5K
Spoilers: Story takes place somewhere in the middle of Sherlock 2x01 and sometime after Grimm 1x18 and before the events of the S1 finale.
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: Grimm and Sherlock belong to their respective creators
A/N: thanks to alizarin_nyc and garry_owen for the beta and encouragement—all remaining mistakes are my own.

Summary: Mycroft sends John and Sherlock on a diplomatic mission.

Jumpers and Hundjagers: or, Sixty-Three Hours in Portalnd (link goes to AO3)

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Dear Purim Gifts Author

2013-02-01T14:55:49Z

Dear Purimgifts Author:

First of all, thank you so much for writing a story for me! Any fic in these fandoms would make me happy, so please just write what seems fun and interesting to you!

If it’s helpful, here are some things I like:

( optional prompts for Homeland, Lewis, Sherlock, Grimm, H50 and the Aubreyad )

Most importantly, though, have fun, and know that I really appreciate the time and energy you’re taking to do this!

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The Poignant Dreams of Ninja Moms (H50 3x01+ Grimm 2x01)

2012-09-28T10:42:16Z

So, I broke my Yom Kippur technology/media fast by watching H50 3x01 with the boys. In the interests of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I never saw most of the S2 finale; I think I got the gist, but it may be that I missed some of the subtleties of this episode.

( spoilers )

I like to think there’s a world where Doris McGarrett and Kelly Burkhardt from Grimm get together for some unsweetened ice tea and a few diet-breaking cookies.

Let’s call it the Land of Over-used Plot Devices.

( the poignant dreams of ninja moms )

Next: Danny and Monroe meet in a bar and discuss appropriate forms of address for your BFF’s mother when she comes back from the dead. “At least she isn’t sworn to kill you and all of your kind,” says Monroe. “I’m not too sure about that,” says Danny.

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Extreme Ways (or, I'm so glad they kept the song)

2012-08-17T12:34:18Z

Monday afternoon, when we were still exhausted from travel, the boys and I saw The Bourne Legacy, which we enjoyed very much, though I may have to go back and see it without small squirmy persons who I have to take to the bathroom during crucial character bits.

( more, w/ very minor spoilers )

Son #2 and I watched Grimm 2x01 and enjoyed it, though there was so much new story arc dumpage I think I might have to go back and take notes. Monroe, as usual, was the best part, with his running commentary on Nick’s maternal reunion.

I finally finished Generation Kill, both series and audiobook (with the addition of reading Wright’s 2008 afterward in the print book).

( my usual grumpiness about such things )

I finished both seasons of The Killing and have only about 15 minutes to go in Blackout. I may have exhausted all TV dramas about corrupt mayors in extremely rainy cities. If you have any suggestions, though, please let me know!

hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Four Sides Don't Make a Square (Nick/Juliette/Monroe/Rosalee, NC-17)

2012-07-20T15:52:37Z

I've finally finished this--at least two months after I promised I would. H/C and kink, but sadly not eligible for any of my bingo cards. Please note that this is a foursome, with pretty much all the possible pairings that implies.

Title: Four Sides Don't Make a Square.
Fandom: Grimm
Pairings: Nick/Monroe/Juliette/Rosalee
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~5.7K
Warnings: sex while under the involuntary influence of illicit substances (dubcon the way sexpollen is dubcon).
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit.

a/n: written for this prompt at Running Hot II. The first part was posted over there a few months ago *facepalm*.

Summary: "What’re we supposed to do: go knock on the door, and say, sorry you’re not feeling well, dude, but we’re your friends and we’re here to fuck you?”

( Four Sides Don't Make a Square )

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in which I am up to date with Game of Thrones but not sure why

2012-04-27T16:18:02Z

So, I have watched the first four episodes of season two of Game of Thrones and I have learned two things:

1. HBO likes boobs

2. Richard Madden somehow upped his hotness quotient greatly since season one. Or maybe everyone just looks hotter with a giant CGI wolf following them around.

I think that might be it for me, though. I don't ~~entirely~~ blame HBO. This is just the point--the rise of the Theon Greyjoy plot arc--at which I lost interest in the books. The gratuitous sour grimness perhaps? The increasing ratio of torture scenes? YMMV, obviously.

I am also up to date with Grimm, though I haven't posted on it for a while. I clicked on the Grimm tag on tumblr the other day, and was dismayed to find if not shipping wars, at least shipping skirmishes. I think you all know how I feel about that.

( but let me just say (spoilers) )

And I think I've mentioned how much I've been enjoying Awake? It's like someone turned Freud's essay on "Mourning and Melancholia" into a TV series.

( mild spoilers )

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'No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home.'

2012-03-16T14:52:45Z

The boys got Men in Black out of the library. I’d forgotten how wonderful Tommy Lee Jones is in it.

The River

( spoilers through 1x07 )

Grimm 1x14

( spoilers )

Let me also rec you a lovely m/m romance novel, Bonds of Earth. This is straight-to-the-vein h/c id!fic.

( more )

Also relevant to your interests: another great Casey-centric (with Casey/Walsh friendship) Unusuals fic, this one by topaz119

Happy weekend, folks!

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mostly bookish

2012-03-05T22:08:20Z

Usually, when I have a free Sunday morning, I try to get up reasonably early (~7:30) and go to Mysore. But this weekend I practiced the yoga pose of sleep. I was out latish Sat. night at a work-related dinner, and then up even later finishing my purimgifts fic, and so didn’t go to sleep until 1:30. I woke up at 7:30 or so, and thought screw this. And I didn’t wake up again until 10:30. Can’t remember the last time I did that. It might have been in high school.

Anyway, 28 hours of freedom is not so much when you spend 9 sleeping and 4 at a work dinner, so I hardly caught up at all on TV. I did watch, out of curiosity, the House episode in which Jeremy Renner plays a dissolute rock singer. And enjoyed it very much—I forgot how much I like S4 House and I don’t think I’d seen that one before.

Nor did I realize that this image, that you see all the time on the interwebz, if from House of all things!

Also Grimm
( spoilers )

Have two book recs, though (both about doctors, as it turns out).

My Own Country, by Abraham Verghese.

( cut for length )

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
( cut for length )

Even though I'm going to be out of town from basically March 23rd to April 1, I signed up for remix again. Possibly stupidly.

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This is a Grimm post

2012-02-27T03:27:06Z

( spoilers and love for Grimm 1x12 )

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Comfrey and Lavender (Grimm fic)

2012-01-16T16:08:10Z

It's been an exhausting week and next week promises to be no better. But I wanted to write something--so here, have some h/c, inspired by rabidchild67's lovely piece of OT3, Lullaby. It's an episode tag for "Game Ogre."

Title: Comfrey and Lavender
Rating: PG
Pairings: none, but pre-OT3 if you're so inclined
Warnings: spoilers for "Game Ogre."
Word count: ~2.2K
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit.

Summary: She opens the door, though Monroe really wouldn’t have blamed her if she hadn’t.

Comfrey and Lavender (link goes to AO3)

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Yuletide recs

2011-12-30T15:33:26Z

I didn’t think I’d be able to do a Yuletide rec list this year, but before I knew it I had a bunch of fabulous fics I wanted to spread the word about, especially because a few of them are from fandoms that I don’t think have been mentioned in the com's rec posts yet.

I’ve already flailed over my own gift, No Rules for Fools from the Hour fandom here.

Here are six more, arranged alphabetically by fandom.

Grimm
Wolves in Waiting
Author’s summary: Nick has a key, and a lock. (Nick/Monroe, E, ~5.7K)

I go back and forth on whether I really want this to be a sexual pairing, but this fic has definitely done a lot to help me make up my mind. Amazingly hot, but also filled with perfect character notes.

Jane Austen Fight Club
Jane Eyre Has a Posse
Author’s summary: After an initial success, Jane Austen's Fight Club has become tedious and routine. If fight club is to thrive, the ladies will need a serious intervention, Brontë-style. Featuring exciting crossover action! (All the Austen and Bronte heroines—all of them!, G, ~3.8K)

This story is hysterical, edifying, and pretty much makes all the literary criticism on why Austen was not on Charlotte Bronte’s list of favorite writers beside the point.

Regeneration
Where Unknown, There Place Monsters
Author’s summary: “He had the rest of the day to get through before he could talk to Rivers, but he was glad of that. It was right that the first confusion and pain should be borne alone."
This is what happens at the end of that day. (Prior/Rivers, M, ~5.2K)

It wasn’t written for me, but this story exactly fills one of my prompts. Even if that wasn’t the case, though, I would still adore it. I guess it has a somewhat limited audience, since it takes place at a very specific point towards the end of the second novel in the trilogy. But the language is pitch-perfect and the current of feeling is amazingly strong and intense. If you’re at all interested in the relationship Barker suggests between these two men, this story is a must-read—I don’t have the words to recommend it strongly enough.

Sherlock RPF
The Scene is Now
Author’s summary: They told him: "It will change you, if you let it." (Benedict, Martin, Amanda, M, 5K+ words)

Pitch-perfect fic featuring a confused and poignant Benedict—all UST, which is how I like this pairing. A flistie steered me to this fic, and I’m so glad she did.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Felicitations
Author’s summary: If this were a mission he would assume it was compromised
(Haydon/Prideaux, M, ~2.5K, book ‘verse, but I think expect it works for the movie)

Killer fic for a killer pairing. Great Jim POV and voice—and the ending packs an emotional punch.

Wicked Gentlemen

Bliss is an Abyss
Author’s summary: There are things worse than pain. A peaceful life in the country, for one, and an honest man. (Explicit, Harper/Sykes, ~1.4K)

Lovely snippet of post-novel Harper/Bellimai.

Happy New Year, all!

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Merlin 4x12, Grimm 1x07 and Homeland 1x12

2011-12-20T19:04:14Z

Very brief thoughts on three episodes I think I'd like to see again.

( Merlin 4x12 )

( Grimm 1x07 )

( Homeland finale )

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