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icepixieI know one of you people would like to take on the task of addicting me to Gilmore Girls. See, now that I've finished rewatching all the seasons of Northern Exposure that I consider my personal canon, I'm looking for shows with similar qualities. (Yes, Twin Peaks is at the top of my Netflix queue. I don't know why I didn't watch it earlier. And I tried a couple episodes of Men In Trees, which is billed as NX-meets-Sex & the City. Yeah, well, it's way more S&C than NX, and I can't stand that show. Hence being unable to make it through a complete episode of this series without rolling my eyes and changing the channel.) The TV Tropes Wiki, a fascinating site in its own right, cites both GG and NX under the category of "Quirky Town."
My question is, how quirky? And what's the show about, besides, "Single mother in small town; massive UST with some guy named Luke"? (I know nothing about this show beyond what I've gleaned from skimming y'all's posts about it over the years. Well, that and the fact that whoever plays the daughter bears a remarkable resemblance to Sasha Cohen.) I've never been able to get into a show about high school students, so I'm wary of that angle. And I get the impression that this season took the express train to hell. Should I bother if it'll all end badly?
I'm willing to try out a variety of shows in order to find one or two to fill the NX void in my life. I'm already a fan of Wonderfalls and Ballykissangel, and neither Corner Gas nor Ed are on DVD in any way that I can access them, so in absence of those particularly good candidates, I'm looking for suggestions. Broadly, the three things I'm looking for most, singularly or in combination, are:
1.) Quirky characters/quirky town
2.) Magical realism (this can include dream sequences)
3.) Stories obviously written to make English majors happy. Basically, writing that's already excellent, but also with a penchant for metaphor, symbolism, and/or quotation from and allusion to literary/philosophical/mythological works. The ability to play games like "Spot the Jungian Archetype" can only be a plus.
...4.) Okay, the UST and ensuing 'ship doesn't hurt.
...This means I should really give Buffy a fifth try, doesn't it? I don't know what my problem is with that and Angel. I don't actively dislike them; I just can't get into them. Firefly was a near thing as well.
Anyway, if you know of something I should try, let me know. Perhaps Slings and Arrows? I've heard good things about that one...
Book and movie suggestions along these lines are welcome as well!
(Okay, now that I've actually taken steps to make use of my unemployed free time, surely I will get a dozen calls offering employment, my dead-in-the-water freelancing career will take off, and I'll start racking up volunteer hours. This is the rule of the universe.)
My question is, how quirky? And what's the show about, besides, "Single mother in small town; massive UST with some guy named Luke"? (I know nothing about this show beyond what I've gleaned from skimming y'all's posts about it over the years. Well, that and the fact that whoever plays the daughter bears a remarkable resemblance to Sasha Cohen.) I've never been able to get into a show about high school students, so I'm wary of that angle. And I get the impression that this season took the express train to hell. Should I bother if it'll all end badly?
I'm willing to try out a variety of shows in order to find one or two to fill the NX void in my life. I'm already a fan of Wonderfalls and Ballykissangel, and neither Corner Gas nor Ed are on DVD in any way that I can access them, so in absence of those particularly good candidates, I'm looking for suggestions. Broadly, the three things I'm looking for most, singularly or in combination, are:
1.) Quirky characters/quirky town
2.) Magical realism (this can include dream sequences)
3.) Stories obviously written to make English majors happy. Basically, writing that's already excellent, but also with a penchant for metaphor, symbolism, and/or quotation from and allusion to literary/philosophical/mythological works. The ability to play games like "Spot the Jungian Archetype" can only be a plus.
...4.) Okay, the UST and ensuing 'ship doesn't hurt.
...This means I should really give Buffy a fifth try, doesn't it? I don't know what my problem is with that and Angel. I don't actively dislike them; I just can't get into them. Firefly was a near thing as well.
Anyway, if you know of something I should try, let me know. Perhaps Slings and Arrows? I've heard good things about that one...
Book and movie suggestions along these lines are welcome as well!
(Okay, now that I've actually taken steps to make use of my unemployed free time, surely I will get a dozen calls offering employment, my dead-in-the-water freelancing career will take off, and I'll start racking up volunteer hours. This is the rule of the universe.)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 04:44 am (UTC)DW with an American teenager, then.
It's more vague borrowing than RTD-style blatancy, but yeah, it's similar.
Heh. Seems like a lot of shows in the mid-nineties did that. Ballykissangel, for one, where I can and have already written an essay on the similarities. And I think there was one that was an officially licensed takeoff...set on a tropical island somewhere, maybe? I can't remember anything about it.
Ed's different from Fleischman, though, in that Ed came to Stuckeyville after going a little bit insane and having an early mid-life crisis and really really really wanting to stalk his old high school crush.
Hee. I'd heard that. He sounds...a little creepy, actually. Although when given a choice between vaguely creepy not-quite-stalking and a vaguely icky sometimes-present aura of sleaze, I'm not sure which I'd choose.
The supporting cast, though, is very Cicely, as is Stuckeyville in general.
Wheeee!
I very badly hope that that's a Wikipedia hack, because OW.
I checked on Google. Unless the same person hacked every site ever to mention Rob Morrow, it's not a hack. And that makes me HURT.
I don't think my expectations go low enough for most of the shows you try to push on me...
WOE UNTO YOU.
And yet I seem to watch better TV...
Alas. Maybe you just need to get verrrrrrry bored one day, and mainline half a season.
This may be a solution.
That, and Whedon is becoming practically classic literature in the television-culture sense, and not having watched at least a good-sized chunk of Buffy is like never having read Romeo and Juliet.
You're so right. It's been that way since about 2002, actually; you can't use a multi-fannish resource without at least some background knowledge of Buffy. It's as ubiquitous as Star Trek. Maybe moreso, since Trek fans are sometimes ostracised even in the fan community.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 06:43 am (UTC)Wasn't Ace American? Or did my brain just label her like that because the only other label I have for her is "Ace: The One Who Likes to Blow Stuff Up."?
And I think there was one that was an officially licensed takeoff...set on a tropical island somewhere, maybe?
Lemme guess... "Southern Exposure"? Because, NO.
He sounds...a little creepy, actually. Although when given a choice between vaguely creepy not-quite-stalking and a vaguely icky sometimes-present aura of sleaze, I'm not sure which I'd choose.
Ed is a very sweet sort of creepy. Like... a creepy puppy? Okay, that's not helping at all... But yeah, Ed leans toward pathetically adorable instead of sleazy. In fact, it just occured to me that he's like a more focused (and less successful) Eric, from Wonderfalls...
And yet I seem to watch better TV...
That's debatable...
since Trek fans are sometimes ostracised even in the fan community
Awww.... too dorky even for dorks...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 04:51 pm (UTC)No, Ace was British. But Peri was American. I forgot about that. (Most people do try to forget about Peri.) But I think she was also 21 or 22...
Lemme guess... "Southern Exposure"? Because, NO.
I don't think it was anything quite that cheesy.
Ed is a very sweet sort of creepy. Like... a creepy puppy? Okay, that's not helping at all...
*tries to imagine a creepy puppy* *fails*
But yeah, Ed leans toward pathetically adorable instead of sleazy. In fact, it just occured to me that he's like a more focused (and less successful) Eric, from Wonderfalls...
Now that I can see. He did sort of have a creepy puppy vibe towards the beginning,w itht he whole, "I'm numb enough to start something on the rebound" thing.
That's debatable...
No, I don't think it is.
Awww.... too dorky even for dorks...
Pretty much.