What happens when you don't watch where you're going

[icepixie]

So. I appear to have tripped and fallen headfirst into The Mentalist fandom. Well, just the fic, really, and nothing else. I...actually have no plans to watch the show, for the following combination of reasons:

1.) I need another cop show like I need a hole in the head.
2.) I need another cop show with an unorthodox investigator like I need a really big hole in the head.
3.) Patrick Jane appears to be a dick of the highest caliber, and while they can sometimes be amusing and lovable if written with a certain amount of sympathy (see: my GIANT AND INEXPLICABLE LOVE for Megan Hunt), in general, I'm not a fan.
4.) I am especially not a fan of The Jerkass character with the oh-so-angsty past, and Jane falls squarely into that category. Again, I need a character bent on revenge for a serial killer's murdering his wife and child about as much as I need a puncture in my pate.
5.) Between Jane's past, Lisbon's past (dead mother and abusive/alcoholic father, wheee), and Rigsby and Van Pelt's star-crossed lovers thing, it sounds angstier than BSG. That's saying something.
6.) What I have gleaned of the emotional dynamic of the two lead characters reminds me waaaaay too much of the codependent angst-fest that was Mulder & Scully: The Later Years, without the sci-fi and the goofiness to leaven it. (I don't mind that so much in fic, but on a show itself it drives me a bit mad.)

BUT, I have somehow gotten sucked into the world of Jane/Lisbon fic. I don't. even. know.

However, this one is quite nice. And there is a steampunk AU novella that I haven't read yet, but which is very intriguing.

(Dear Self, you could be being productive, why are you doing this, why why why)

Comments

[bessemerprocess]

The Steampunk AU is really good and totally worth reading, I think, even if you aren't into steampunk.

Jane is totally an ass. But I feel like once his and Lisbon's dynamic changes from asshole!genius and minder to asshole!genius and co-conspirator that I end up liking the show more. (I didn't watch later X-files, but, oh yeah, to me, Jane and Lisbon can be pretty co-dependent. For me, it's totally in ways that hit all my buttons, so YMMV. And when they break out of that mold, well, the things that happen are even more interesting.)

[icepixie]

The Steampunk AU is really good and totally worth reading, I think, even if you aren't into steampunk.

I'm enjoying it so far! I'm kind of iffy on steampunk; I really liked the short-lived Secret Adventures of Jules Verne show that was on about ten years ago, but I haven't really found many steampunk books I like.

I didn't watch later X-files, but, oh yeah, to me, Jane and Lisbon can be pretty co-dependent. For me, it's totally in ways that hit all my buttons, so YMMV.

Co-dependency drives me a little nuts--it's one of the things I really don't like about Mulder & Scully, now that I'm no longer a teenager and can see it as rather unhealthy rather than as PROOF OF THEIR LOVE--so I try to just avoid shows and ships that look like they're going in that direction. But somehow these two are interesting in fic. I don't know why.

[bessemerprocess]

I think the co-dependancy works better when both people involved have opposing goals, which the tv writers may not be so interested in, but the fic writers totally are. (Jane wants to kill Red John, Lisbon wants to arrest Red John alive, and they are never ever going to come to an agreement about this no matter what they go through or how entwined they get in each others lives.) Also, fic writers are way better at realizing that the codependency can be a bad, bad thing.