Worlds Enough and Time

For Shes-a-voodoo-child: Crews and Reese

( Say 'is it' one more time and I'll shoot you. )

Rest of the December Talking Meme

I knew I liked Charlie Francis for a reason! Turns out we share a birthday!

( Spoilery image for season 2 )


-/-


There are some awesome people with fantastic Fringe meta out there (although, not as much as I want to) let's start with the basics first:

beccatoria has a wonderful and comprehensive Fringe rec post complete with video clips!

ignipes has a great meta on Olivia Dunham and why she is awesome.

She also has a wonderful description of Olivia:

imyriadbits is exactly right about Olivia not being immediately accessible, not in the way we usually see main female characters in TV shows being presented. She's so very serious, and we only see her lighter, more joyful and playful moments rarely (usually with Ella and Rachel, occasionally with Peter). She comes across as very stoic, but it's the kind of stoicism that's marred by ever-widening cracks that let her incredible grief and anger out (and, hoo boy, does she have good reasons to be grieving and furious), to the point where there are times she's wound so tight and carrying so many burdens it's a wonder she doesn't break.

Then sometimes she does - she breaks down, she cries, she loses her temper, she lashes out, she makes ill-advised decisions out of desperation and fear.* It can be heartbreaking to watch because, seriously! Olivia! You don't have to carry the burden of THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE on your shoulders! But the show doesn't pull any punches, so she keeps carrying all those burdens, and we keep watching because we love her.

Vid Rec:

Etheric Messages by thuviaptarth
Summary: The recruitment of Olivia Dunham.

This has been recced everywhere but I must rec it again because its so good!

There's a Fringe rewatch community starting on June 21 come and join!


(click image)

Speaking of rewatching... I tried reading the TWOP recaps of Fringe and boy, was that a mistake. It's not that the recaps aren't bad its that... I get the sense they don't appreciate Olivia all that much and they keep using words that don't suit a scene like, when Broyles congratulates Olivia for a job well done and Olivia immediately says, 'It was the whole team.' or something like that the recapper uses the word: grumbles. Grumbles. Really recapper? Grumbles???

Olivia wasn't grumbling or whining or whatever words you keep using, she genuinely felt like she doesn't deserve getting the praise Broyles heaped on her, especially when there's a team who supported her during that case.

*gnashes teeth*

That's the last time I'll visit TWoP.

-/-

There's a 30 Day TV meme going around and while I couldn't participate due to my irregular schedule and the suspicion that I wouldn't be able to answer most of the questions I enjoy reading about them.

aj recently answered the Day 11 question: 'A show that disappointed you' and her answer was Life.

And, oh, I was right there with her because this was one show that really broke my heart.

I'm just gonna quote her wholesale here:

But I have to say that season 2? Really kind of crushed me. Partially because (I'm pretty sure due to studio interference) it took a lot of the small, quiet things that I absolutely adored about season one (Dani's hair and wardrobe, the internal emotional continuity, the relatively not-batshit deaths, the cinematography, et al) and chucked them. Moreover, it honestly dumbed Dani down a lot, dicked Charlie and Jen around and then dropped the whole story line, and ramped up the ~weird~ deaths by a lot. Still, I think the worst part about the whole season is that I couldn't entirely dismiss it. Because whenever I turned my head away and just couldn't take it anymore, the damn show did something awesome or pulled itself back to season one. "Did You Feel That?" was fucking hardcore, as was "Trapdoor".

That's it my whole frustration and heartbreak. It's hard to watch a show that started out so good and end up... end up what happened to Life's season 2. It's the reason why I've been so guarded about Fringe is because I live in perpetual fear that the showrunners would do to Olivia Dunham what happened to Dani Reese.

I have never loved a character as much as I've loved Dani Reese, she was fierce, strong, complicated and never easy. She had an even more complicated relationship with her Lieutenant, a woman who saved her life and career by pushing for rehab and who leaned on her to betray her partner. And that was the straw the camel's back because if there is something she won't do its betray her partner.

Then season 2 came around and-- *sigh* see above.

Then here comes Olivia Dunham and I don't think she'll ever dislodge Dani Reese from my heart because she was the first character I loved so fiercely (just like how other people loved Aeryn Sun and or Dana Scully) but I think Olivia's getting the spot right next to Reese with her stoicism, her strength of will and the ability to get up despite the incredible knocks life keep giving her.

And if you're thinking there's a Bound picspam some time this week then you're right:)

Do you know what I love? Aside from Life, that is? VLC media player. That's right. VLC. Before this program I didn't know how to screencap, then I discovered VLC and a few months ago discovered it has a snapshot *and* slow motion function. I can cap a scene and watch it again, slo mo and discover a lot of things.

Watching Dani make faces real time is fun but watching Dani Reese make faces in slow motion is more fun! Also, you discover a lot of things watching certain things in slow motion.

Reese took a while before she came to like Charlie and despite her crankiness towards him and sometimes, despite herself, finds him very amusing. Here are a few caps I culled showing Dani getting amused with Charlie.

Merit Badge

It seemed like the partnership was doomed from the start, something Davis was counting on so she could easily get rid of Crews, Reese seemed inclined to agree especially after his careless comments about divorce papers in the mail and informing the grieving dad to dump his marijuana stash. His methode with the dog didn't impress her either but when Charlie started spouting Zen at the guards instead of clocking them,Reese is suddenly impressed despite herself.

( Yes, this is a whole post on Dani smiling at Charlie. What? It's going to take a while before I see new episodes, I have to have *some* fun! )

Another thing I noticed about Reese is that she wears the same set of shirts, I like that she doesn't have incredibly expensive and oh, so beautiful shirts she just wears what she already has in the closet, which are all functional, work day clothes. Like raincitygirl said, she's busy, she doesn't have time to go shopping around for clothes. She's not like Charlie who can afford to buy new suits everyday.

Sarah Shahi smiling widely really, really wigs me out. Not because I find her scary (well, okay, I do, as Dani Reese she's awesomely scary) but because I keep remembering that scene in Farscape where Aeryn returns to Moya and suddenly smiles very widely and suddenly you know, just know something scary is about to happen and something does, leading to eyes being plucked out by the thing with the-- *shudders*. Yeah.

I get the same knee jerk feeling when Sarah Shahi smiles, like I know she's just smiling widely to distract me and then the next thing I know *ZAT* 900,000 volts of electricity, baby.

What? You knew I was obsessed with the show!

In other news my cousin's leaving for the US tomorrow, had a lovely time hanging out with her tonight. God's speed, Cuz, don't be stranger! See you in a year's time or less!

Yes, I think I've officially gone overboard. I may have to cut down a bit in this post.

( Here endeth the Tear )

Apparently my post was too big so this might be broken up in to three parts rather than the two parts I thought it would be. I may have gone over board with the capping...

( Tear Asunder, part II )

Part III