So obvs I don't watch either Voyager or Xena, and I'm not sure I'd ever be able to get into either, but this is still an interesting post for what you're saying about these shows vs. current shows, and fandom.
It's presence in Voyager and Xena, though unremarkable in the long history of television, feels remarkable because of its absence or mutation within the current tv screenscape. Contemporary shows with an episodic structure are almost certainly procedurals, and usually feature B or C storylines that are isolated from the A story. If the premise is simple, it will be some (exotic) form of "they solve crimes." If the premise is more complex, it's probably a medical soap. Everything else, episodic or not, is a fucking endless mystery or question requiring more attention than my level of trust allows.
This seems pretty spot-on to me, if only because I often can't get into these kinds of shows with episodic structures and there are so many now working off the same formulas. I think there are some things that fall in a middle ground, but they're probably British and short, more like self-contained mini-series rather than US seasons of TV. I think what's also missing is characters who are not some kind of cop/investigator figure with this unquestionably heroic bent. Now everything that's not about solving crimes has to be morally gray, and that is so often a Lead Dude Struggling With This Current World. And I'm not actually sure I'm complaining about this per se, but it does lead to a lot more unpredictability and makes it really difficult to trust shows. Especially since it's almost always the ladies who are more expendable and malleable to the plot, and thus more in danger of character assassination/stereotype/plot device choices. Because Patty Hewes is the only real female lead I can think of in this new post-Sopranos kind of morally gray show, and maybe that's why I like it/trust it so much, even when it does some things I am not the biggest fan of.
I also feel like everything has gotten INCREDIBLY retrogressive in terms of romance, but that could just be my bitterness and own preferences talking. But now at least half of every female lead's story is who the love interest is, or when they're going to hook up with the obvious love interest, like we won't care enough about her or be interested enough unless she is validated by a dude. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's the case with characters like Janeway and Xena, even when they did have love interests.
Long story short, I do want the things that require investment in the long arc and the long characterizations, but they are almost never the things with awesomely independent ladies and so they do not make me fannish. So I'm just casually, not very fannishly, watching things now, or continuing to watch things that are doing it all wrong, like Fringe, because there is literally nothing else to replace it in my interests. People keep trying to sell me GOT on these terms, and it's dire enough that occasionally I think about trying it again, knowing all along that that way lies heartbreak, or at the very least, very, very compromised standards.
Anyway, the real point was I'm kind of jealous of your renewed sense of purpose. I agree wholeheartedly with this: As fandom evolves with newer social networking sites, like Tumblr, it is easy to feel a projected threat looming over what has been built in DW/LJ cultures. How we perform fandom in these spaces is more visible with contrast.
And yet I've got nothing to do about it. Make vids for the dead shows that did things better for decreasing numbers of people, I guess? I can't remember the last time I even read a fic, or found one I wanted to read, or what it would even have been for.
this might be out of left field, but here are my Many Feelings!
It's presence in Voyager and Xena, though unremarkable in the long history of television, feels remarkable because of its absence or mutation within the current tv screenscape. Contemporary shows with an episodic structure are almost certainly procedurals, and usually feature B or C storylines that are isolated from the A story. If the premise is simple, it will be some (exotic) form of "they solve crimes." If the premise is more complex, it's probably a medical soap. Everything else, episodic or not, is a fucking endless mystery or question requiring more attention than my level of trust allows.
This seems pretty spot-on to me, if only because I often can't get into these kinds of shows with episodic structures and there are so many now working off the same formulas. I think there are some things that fall in a middle ground, but they're probably British and short, more like self-contained mini-series rather than US seasons of TV. I think what's also missing is characters who are not some kind of cop/investigator figure with this unquestionably heroic bent. Now everything that's not about solving crimes has to be morally gray, and that is so often a Lead Dude Struggling With This Current World. And I'm not actually sure I'm complaining about this per se, but it does lead to a lot more unpredictability and makes it really difficult to trust shows. Especially since it's almost always the ladies who are more expendable and malleable to the plot, and thus more in danger of character assassination/stereotype/plot device choices. Because Patty Hewes is the only real female lead I can think of in this new post-Sopranos kind of morally gray show, and maybe that's why I like it/trust it so much, even when it does some things I am not the biggest fan of.
I also feel like everything has gotten INCREDIBLY retrogressive in terms of romance, but that could just be my bitterness and own preferences talking. But now at least half of every female lead's story is who the love interest is, or when they're going to hook up with the obvious love interest, like we won't care enough about her or be interested enough unless she is validated by a dude. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's the case with characters like Janeway and Xena, even when they did have love interests.
Long story short, I do want the things that require investment in the long arc and the long characterizations, but they are almost never the things with awesomely independent ladies and so they do not make me fannish. So I'm just casually, not very fannishly, watching things now, or continuing to watch things that are doing it all wrong, like Fringe, because there is literally nothing else to replace it in my interests. People keep trying to sell me GOT on these terms, and it's dire enough that occasionally I think about trying it again, knowing all along that that way lies heartbreak, or at the very least, very, very compromised standards.
Anyway, the real point was I'm kind of jealous of your renewed sense of purpose. I agree wholeheartedly with this: As fandom evolves with newer social networking sites, like Tumblr, it is easy to feel a projected threat looming over what has been built in DW/LJ cultures. How we perform fandom in these spaces is more visible with contrast.
And yet I've got nothing to do about it. Make vids for the dead shows that did things better for decreasing numbers of people, I guess? I can't remember the last time I even read a fic, or found one I wanted to read, or what it would even have been for.