A Database And Commentary On Slashy TV Shows' Journal (original) (raw)

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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded inA Database And Commentary On Slashy TV Shows' LiveJournal:

Monday, October 26th, 2009
_2:20 am_[narwhaltorte]	Short Takes A hunk of things I've watched lately that for one reason or another didn't warrant an entire post. Due to my notes on the shows being lost in a computer+water=sadness incident, I'll probably frustrate myself by forgetting points I meant to mention or saying things in a rambling, incredibly un-succinct manner. Still, let's try this.First off, some updates: Merlin – Is in the midst of a second season. The first couple episodes I've watched are a lot like the previous season, writers' inability to do consistent character development and all. Nothing added or lost to the slashability, though I've been having trouble mustering the effort to watch the next couple episodes since they look depressingly heterosexual. Hope this will not be a theme for the rest of the season. ^_^SGA – My opinion on the slashability of this show is still mostly the same, but there are some sort of new developments of interest to a slasher. Mainly (that I can remember T_T), Sheppard and Rodeny are occasionally shown discussing or doing geeky things together, making it seem like they share more common interests with one another than the rest of their team and seem to enjoy one another's company quite a bit sometimes. If this were real life, they probably would be closer, but it almost seems like the writers did this unintentionally/wrote the scenes without realizing what they implied, as they don't write them very close seeming most any other time. In-show I don't find it terribly slashy, but after seeing more potential for a relationship, I do find fanfic on them more readable.And some duds: Smallville – The relationship setup does seem to have a lot of potential for turning slashy, but the show is just too simply written and shallowly characterized for me to feel slashiness from it. Plus, Clark Kent is, to quote a friend of mine who grimaced at my watching the show, too much of a “boyscout.” It's hard to find interest watching such a clean, earnest, goody-goody.Twin Peaks – Supposedly slashable characters interact in cute ways, but there are so many characters that they don't have much screen time together, and I get the feeling the show is really more about the mystery/plot than the character relationships. Could be wrong since I've only seen a few episodes. Probably won't watch more, though, as while the show is quite good, I prefer more character-focused stories.Mad Men – Another good show, and one I tried because of the large male cast and some tenuous leads saying it might be slashy. One of the m/m relationships has some tension, but not of the terribly slashy type, and the show is more focused on characters' inner turmoil/developments than their relationships with others.And one I'm scared to classify: Star Trek the Original Series – I'm not stupid enough to ask “Is TOS slashy?” But I do think it might be worth finding out what sort of slashiness to expect, what with a lot of new fans coming in because of the movie who probably aren't sure if they want to brave such an old show. I'll probably write this up properly when I'm through it all, but as of the end of the first season, it was mostly as I expected. Very dated and with slashy bits a bit lengthily spaced. Not much overly suggestive yet, but cute when there, mostly because of Spock, who plays things delightfully straight despite Kirk's sometimes painfully hammed-up performance.And an early tip-off: White Collar – Even just the premise and trailers for this thing look slashy. A genius white collar criminal gets pulled out of prison to help catch other white collar criminals—while working with the one FBI agent who was able to catch him in the first place. It premiered just a few days ago, and already there's a LJ com dedicated to slashing the main characters with 150 members. The show so far basically looks like insubstantial fun that takes a few too many plot shortcuts, but that doesn't stop it from having tons of slick, clever humorous dialogue that makes it worth watching. The show is definitely going for the bromance thing, and I'm enjoying that, though I'm not sure I'm on board with the slashing yet, as so far the relationship is just pleasant bantering/bickering. I'm a little doubtful it'll go for much more depth than that, though, since I hear charming, well done, fun, and insubstantial is pretty much a hallmark of the programming on this network. It's still probably enough for most people to slash it, and the rest of us can wait and see quite pleasantly, as it's an entertaining watch even without slash potential. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
_10:14 pm_[narwhaltorte]	Stargate Atlantis Stargate AtlantisGenre: Sci-fi, action, adventurePopular Pairings: McKay/Sheppard (aka McShep)Series Length: 5 Seasons (of 20 episodes)Episodes Watched: 2 SeasonsPlot: Atlantis, a city built by advanced ancient beings, has been discovered in a remote galaxy, and a team of scientists and military personnel set out to explore it. After finding they have difficulty returning home, the group spends their days traveling to other planets to improve relations with the surrounding peoples and to search for a means of power to allow them to return home and protect the city (and the human and other races in general) from the Wraith, a hostile species the team accidentally awakens during their stay.Verdict: Fairly charming characters with personalities that together could make a potentially charming relationship, but who have little in the way of anything that could be interpreted as “more than just coworkers”, much less anything like UST. Possibly good for writers/readers who just want two guys who are fun to pair up, but likely less appealing to those who desire more evidence of a potentially sexual or even close/unique platonic relationship within the canon.Links of Interest:McKay/Sheppard LJ ComComments and Pics:( Read more...Collapse ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
_11:43 pm_[tellyslash]	Stand By Me MOVIE OF INTEREST (Not a TV show!)Stand By MeGenre: Drama, Comedy, Coming of AgePlot: In the late 50s, four 12 year old friends from a small town set out on a two day trek across the woods to see a dead body they hear has been left by the train tracks.Verdict: An absolutely adorable movie with absolutely adorable boytouchingbonding with a surprisingly not-entirely-dead fandom. Links of Interest:Trailer on YouTubeStand By Me LJ ComComments:While I don't intend to get into movies a lot and tend to find them less fun for slashing purposes since they are so short, upon coming across this gem I couldn't help but share. I also apologize if this movie is as well known as the internets make it sound, but I had never heard of it nor had my two friends, so I suspect many of those of my generation or younger may be similarly uninformed, or at least could use a reminding.Stand By Me is a highly acclaimed, wonderfully charming and funny movie great for those who love watching boyish shenanigans and the innocence and fun of childhood days in the summer. While based on a novella by Stephen King (The Body), Stand By Me is actually just a character study of four boys with troubled home lives who turn to their friends for the support and encouragement they do not get from their families. Particularly close are the main character, the thoughtful Gordie (far left) and the misunderstood leader of the pack, Chris (far right). The boys are extremely close and comfortable with one another, and there's enough sweet heart-to-heart talks and adorable male-bonding touching (of both the rough, playful kind as well as the gentle, tender kind) to make any slash fan (who doesn't mind the young age) nuts. The heart to hearts may be just sliiightly over the top, but these are fairly troubled boys after all, and every one of them is by far and away more touching than cavity-enducing.Plus, while the fandom is by no means huge, it was still larger and more active than I expected to see with a movie that almost predates me, much less the internet. The LJ com still seems to have the occasional post, and FF.net has 13 pages of fics. While most of these have the look of shameless OC Mary Sue self-insertions, that still leaves more fic for this series in one place than I was expecting to find on the whole internet, a good chunk of them being fairly long.If you don't mind small fandoms, or if you're happy enough just to see all the adorable they somehow managed to pack into this movie, then please give it a look, as slash fan or no, it's the sort of wonderful that it's a shame to be forgotten or missed! (It's even available through RedBox! ...That's how I heard about it. ^_^;) (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
_3:48 am_[tellyslash]	Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa: Reservoir ChronicleGenre: Action, Romance, Fantasy, AdventurePopular Pairings: Fai/KuroganeSeries Length: 52 episodesEpisodes Watched: 7Plot: After her memories are scattered by Evil People, Princess Sakura's childhood friend Syaoran travels to different dimensions to collect the salvageable fragments of her memories despite the fact Sakura's memories of her relationship with Syaoran will never return. Along with him come Kurogane, a warrior exiled but hoping to return to his world, and Fai, a magician on the run from his own.Verdict: A show that cares more about making its characters cool and powerful than well-developed or interesting and a plot that cares more about...Is there a point to this plot besides cool dimension jumping? Reasons for slash thus far are paltry and centered around somewhat flirtatious nicknames, but while slashable material may increase in the future, with the development of these characters managing to keep the same level of lameness through multiple dimensions, I don't see why time should do much for them (and the potential for their relationship to become interesting), either.Links of Interest:Tsubasa Yaoi LJ ComComments and Pics:( Read more...Collapse ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
_12:00 am_[tellyslash]	Merlin (BBC) Merlin (BBC, 2008)Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama, FamilyPopular Pairings: Merlin/ArthurSeries Length: 13 episodes (commissioned for a second season. Likely to return around September '09)Episodes Watched: 13Plot: A reinterpretation of the early days of Arthur's life with Arthur and Merlin being of similar age. Gifted with magic in a kingdom where its use is punishable by death, a teenage Merlin is sent to live with the royal physician in Camelot where it is hoped he will learn to control his abilities before they are discovered. Soon saddled into a position as the rather pompous and irritating Arthur's squire, Merlin spends his days secretly and haphazardly protecting the kingdom and Arthur from harm with his magic while learning more about the man he is apparently bound to by destiny.Verdict: Unimpressive in writing and execution, but potentially fun for those who like a light, fun fantasy story with charming characters and can stand their show not winning any awards for maturity or creativity. A show that would be admitted even by non-slash fans as having some 'bromance,' slashy relationship between mains is strong and noticeable from the first episode. Relationship/characters may lack complexity due to lackluster writing, but has good doses of endearing interaction such as teasing, bickering, and large levels of trust, with a little tasty tension sprinkled throughout caused by Merlin's secrecy about his abilities.Links of Interest: Merlin/Arthur Slash LJ ComMerlin Slash LJ ComComments and Pics:( Figured these things could use pics, but it makes the entry a little long, so...*snip*Collapse ) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
_5:03 am_[tellyslash]	Ookiku Furikabutte Ookiku Furikabutte (Swing Big) aka OofuriGenre: Sports, Seinen, Slice of LifePopular Pairings: Abe/Mihashi, Tajima/Hanai, and ...Everyone/Everyone? ^_^;Series Length: 25 (+1 extra) episodes, manga ongoing (and going, and going..)Episodes Watched: 25Plot: Mihashi was the bane of his middle school baseball team, refusing to give up the mound despite his slow pitching, making the team unable to win any games. Still in love with pitching but with his meager self-confidence now driven to near non-existence, and wracked with guilt about the injustices he so selfishly forced his middle school team through, Mihashi resolves not to play baseball in high school. Of course, Mihashi ends up getting dragged into trying out anyway, where catcher Abe promptly realizes that although Mihashi's pitches are slow, he has amazing accuracy and an 'interesting' fastball. All Mihashi needs to become an amazing pitcher is a gay lover catcher with the intelligence and strategy to use his skills to their fullest.Verdict: With a cast full of young boys bonding and two main characters that are so involved with one another the slash is practically cannon, slash-hints are constant and over-the-top in a manner more suited to practically-yaoi-shoujo. However, there is good writing and (after some getting used to) a more convincing relationship between the mains than you usually get in such pandering series, eventually turning my knee-jerk reaction of hatred for such things to complete adoration for this series and its characters. The fantastic baseball games are icing on the cake.Links of Interest:A Intro To Oofuri - Or rather, Oofuri slash. With pictures. Actually, the manga link makes me chuckle most.Oofuri Fanworks, etc LJ Com - No, it's not slash specific. But it's Oofuri. It doesn't have to be. That's still all you'll find.Oofuri Doujinshi LJ ComAnimeSuki - Oofuri - Torrents to download the anime (or will be as long as it remains unlicensed)Raep Time - Oofuri scanlationsComments:I didn't mean to get into anime much, or at least not so soon, but... I've never been one to turn down a rant mood. ^_^Oofuri is without a doubt a very....interesting beast. I initially heard about it in it's manga incarnation, when I had no idea it was supposed to be slashy but was going to read it anyway because it was long running, came with lots of boys, a Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, a Kodansha Manga Award, and apparently somewhere had been voted a more popular baseball manga than the very beloved long-time favorite Touch. (Basically, it's, like WOAH impressive.) I mean, sometimes prestigious award-winning stuff can be a little stuffy for my taste, but apparently it was popular, too. Nothing to lose, right?But I was lazy, and never read it. Then the anime came out and I finally heard about the slashyness, and of course I was on it right away.**( Woops. This is more a rant on the nature of slash-hints in anime. As it relates to Oofuri. A long rant.Collapse )**In the end, I'm not sure what to say. As general quality goes... The games are fantastic, particularly the last against Tousei. My thought that it was more shounen than seinen was incorrect as well. It IS a little too sweet, rather unreal... And that makes it seem childish. But then shounen anime aren't usually exactly sweet, are they? They have too many explosions in them. I'm going to copy someone else I saw comment on this, because it's so true: It's reminiscence. It's thinking about the good old days. 'Aaah, sometimes we lost, sometimes we fought, sometimes we were tired, but we always loved it! It was rough...But I wouldn't change a thing!' Once you realize it, you can practically hear the (non-existent, luckily ^_^) voice-over go. Frankly, I usually prefer a little more realism to my characters, but... This little difference does save it for me. I liked it, especially after I got used to it.As for the slash?Oofuri offers up pretty much any kind of (non-hateful/overly aggressive/violent) slashy relationship I can think of. Childhood friends, envious, protective, bickering, email stalking, guys trying to prove themselves to others, guys who've disappointed others, guys who look up to one another, guys who just want to support each other, guys who feel they're nothing without each other, guys who believe in each other when no one else does. And yeah, they all hold hands. (At least on the main team. Supposedly they use it as a calming technique. ^_^;) On the down side, only one of the pairings gets all that much screen time percentage wise (though if you go on to the manga, this is a long series, and you may see moments for a less-common couple you like again). And you still get about the same amount of time for a lot of other couples as you get for non-purposely slashy series.The main coupling, though, is a good one. Though I have seen some feel the thing was so cannon it isn't even fun for a slash fan anymore ^_^; On the catcher Abe's side, he love's Mihashi's pitching, is filled with awe and respect for his huge dedication to the game, obsessively protective of him, and badly wants to make Mihashi feel better about himself and show him all the wonderful things he can do (so long, of course, as he stays by Abe's side ^_^). Mihashi is amazed by Abe's knowledge, his ability to pick the right pitches to strike batters out with his balls, is sure he would be nothing without Abe, and wants nothing more than to keep him happy and be worthy of him. This might be a little sickeningly sweet for my taste, if it also weren't for the fact that Abe, though usually seemingly level-headed, has a pretty short temper, and finds Mihashi's wimpy attitude infuriating. No, really. He LOATHES it. And he's kinda scary. He bosses Mihashi around, yells at him, and generally freaks out in a way I'm sure people who know him outside of baseball (or perhaps outside of those who know his relationship with Mihashi) would find very uncharacteristic. Thus Mihashi finds him in turns encouraging, slightly nerve-wrecking, to reduced-to-a-quivering-puddle frightening. Abe at times is even annoyed at Mihashi's apparent inability to talk to him despite socializing some with the other team members, causing some occasional amusing lame attempts to be a little less intimidating. In the end, I'd sum it up as a relationship of huge amounts of trust, dedication and dependence, but pocked with awkwardness and dysfunctional moments due to their inability to completely understand one another. Basically, they got it for each other baaaaaaad.I know I like Oofuri now, but I'm not sure what to chock it up to? Honestly, I think you may be at an advantage if you AREN'T really familiar with yaoi stereotypes, haven't yet started making negative associations. Gals who like yaoi/yaoi-hinting-shoujo who think they can take a show about baseball will definitely like it. Those who know the style and don't like it? I guess it's a toss up. Mihashi and Abe's relationship is clearly the stuff of semes and ukes. I think one of the things I hate most about yaoi-hinting shoujo series, as Oofuri is character-wise most reminiscent of, is it's tendency to take the characters and make them 'act gay.' It feels like a female is behind the scenes, telling the character what to do for her own amusement, just to torture them. That it isn't really something they would do left to their own devices. Initially, I felt like Mihashi and Abe were like that, and I think that's going to be the feeling of anyone whether you've watched yaoi or not. I think that's how they were created. But while I never did stop noticing the obvious pandering, the more I watch them, the more it feels like they were also two actual characters that are more than those seme/uke stereotypes, an awkward nervous boy and a commanding supportive one, just naturally drawn together. I still balk and bury my face in my hands at the embarrassingly outright fangirl pandering... But now it's more with a tinge of humor than disgust, because though it still feels like pandering, it also feels like even if all the yaoi fangirls turned away and Abe and Mihashi were allowed to just be themselves and not try to please any giggling girls... They'd still act as idiotically the same as ever. ^_^; (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
_12:30 am_[tellyslash]	Avatar: The Last Airbender Avatar: The Last AirbenderGenre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, ComedyPopular Pairings: Zuko/Sokka, Jet/Zuko, Zuko/Aang, other variousSeries Length: Will end at 3 seasons (20 episodes each). Last episode currently #53/S03E13 (as of 2/16/08)Episodes Watched: 53Plot: The world is populated by many individuals who can 'bend' the various elements, shaping and controlling the water or earth around them (or just plain creating fire/wind, for some reason ^_^). A war started by the Fire Nation has been raging for over a hundred years, due to the fact that the Avatar, the only person able to use all four elements (always reincarnated when one dies), and thus the only person able to control the Fire Nation, vanished entirely near the start. That is, of course, till Katara and Sokka, a brother and sister from the Water Tribe, find a twelve year old monk airbender in hibernation inside an iceberg. Now, Aang must travel to the different nations to learn all the different elements, so that he may defeat the Fire Lord and bring peace to the world.Verdict: A shallow borrowing of stereotypical anime elements to make a lame American kids show more attractive, or a skillful blending of the better elements of both culture's styles? Though not without its missteps, most definitely the latter. Unfortunately, you'd also most definitely have to be smoking some sort of crack to see any (more than one-happenstance-based) reason to slash any of the males in this seres.Links of Interest:Avatar Slash LJ ComAang/Zuko LJ ComComments:That's right. I watched it. Ph33r my lame. I kinda ranted about completely slash-unrelated things for a while, though, so that part gets a cut.**( Don't worry, Sokka, where we're going, you won't need pants.Collapse )**And, to (finally! Heheh) get into the realm of slashiness, not only is the show completely devoid of yaoi fangirl pandering as a shounen anime would have had plenty of, almost all 'touching' moments, where perhaps one character provides encouragement to another, or a character feels deeply betrayed by another's actions, are all male/female scenes (besides Zuko's relationship with his uncle, but, um, no thanks).As stated above, there usually isn't much to the characters' relationships besides whether they're enemies or friends. Zuko is admittedly rather obsessed with finding the Avatar, but that's just it. He's obsessed with finding the Avatar. Aang, the person, has nothing to do with it. There were a couple instances where the males in the series WERE preoccupied with one another on a more personal level (Sokka is particularly annoyed by the morals of a boy named Jet they run into. Also later, the Jet character resurfaces and at first has a rather cute desire to make Zuko a sort of partner, not knowing who he is, and then upon guessing his true identity, becomes obsessed with following him around to find proof so he can turn him in), however, these situations only last a couple episodes, and then the relationship between the characters becomes after that completely normal or non-existent. However, there is a fairly active (I think?) slash fandom for this series. Now, surely we can't assume all the fans are younger, especially slash writing ones, but a glance at the fanart for the series shows higher amounts of less skilled work than I think you usually see for the average anime, which I'm going to attribute mostly to age, though I suppose you might reason anime watchers tend to practice art more. Do younger fans simply consider the paltry relationship material we get to be sufficient subtext? Are they just taking what they can and running with it since they want to slash something?Though the last sentence sounds a little negative, I actually think that would be too nice for most of the stuff I see glancing through the fandom. Because it implies they look for some reason to slash the guys and THEN try to exaggerate it so they can have fun. You know what the most popular pairing by far for this series seems to be? Zuko/Sokka. Two characters who BARLEY TALK TO EACH OTHER, IF EVER, IN THE FIRST TWO SEASON, WITH MAYBE A FEW LINES SO FAR IN THE THIRD. I swear Zuko barely knows the guy exists, and Sokka knows he exists cause he's trying to kill Aang, but has barley a thought about him besides that. WTF, fandom? I can kinda see how if those two got to know each other better they might have an interesting relationship, but I'd only read something on it if I knew it was by an author I knew was good at speculative stuff like that. There is NO CALL for this to be the main pairing, besides...uh, height, and that they are to probably popular main characters.Next following a while behind is Jet/Zuko, which granted makes sense, even if only for a couple episodes. That kind of relationship I probably would have found adorable if it had lasted longer, and if only the relationships in the series were written better. Also Zuko/Aang I'm sure exists though there wasn't any fics anywhere in the last few pages of the LJ Avatar slash com I looked at. I'm rather a sucker for the 'obsessively chasing for one reason or another' relationship as well, but as stated before, it's quite an impersonal sort of obsessively chasing. It does START to go to a more personal level a couple times, but that thread of feeling between them never gets carried on to the next episode, like all the other slashy bits.This is kind of another difference I see between Avatar and anime. Mind, I think anime tries and fails miserably a lot of the time to draw engaging connections and relationships between its characters, so the end result is pretty much the same as Avatar, maybe even more annoying than Avatar cause you have to sit there during the scenes they're trying to do it and rolling your eyes. Still, anime for a not completely kiddie crowd almost always TRIES, and Avatar has barley a whiff of it in my opinion. It's another one of those things that doesn't really make the series exactly bad, but you miss it when it's gone. (Comment on this)
_12:29 am_[tellyslash]	Chuck ChuckGenre: Comedy, ActionPopular Pairings: Casey/Chuck, Bryce/Chuck, other variousSeries Length: 13, ongoing (as of 2/3/08)Episodes Watched: 2 (Yeah, I is teh lame.)Plot: After opening an email from an old college schoolmate, the loser computer geek/employee at the local quasi-Best Buy store has government secrets downloaded into his brain. Now, he has agents from the CIA and NSA hanging around him with the hopes of protecting him/gleaning important information/figuring out a way to get the secrets out.Verdict: Show is watchable but not particularly clever. Types of relationships the males in the show have seem like they can lead to slash (jealous schoolmates, annoyed protector), but actual interactions don't really have any chemistry, much less of the homoerotic sort.Links of Interest: Chuck Slash LJ ComComments:Forgive my possibly wrong impressions, as I only watched two episodes. The show in general is pretty decent but nothing special. I've kind of a soft spot for the loser-hero type main, but I'm also rather easily tired out by how often shows and movies tend to rely on the trope to entirely make and define their character. Even when a story does do that, it can still be pretty decent if the writing is funny and clever enough, but here it isn't really. Also, I think for me a successful loser main character needs to be semi-proud of their status. If they don't like who they are and have higher ambitions that they just haven't been able to fulfill, then it's very hard to make the character not come off as too pathetic.For a pure escapist comedy/action show, though, that's ok if you're just trying to make a watchable show. But I don't think it's very good for slashability. The main possibly slash pairings seem to be Chuck/Casey, the NSA agent sent to protect/intimidate information out of him, and Chuck/Bryce, the old schoolmate who actually dies (I thought? But a glance at the LJ com makes it seem so prevalent I wonder.) in the opening scene, but whom Chuck has a sort of antagonistic attitude towards, as well as probably an inferiority complex. The Bryce/Chuck thing I can kind of relate to, as it's suggested he's always been kind of preoccupied with Bryce (I believe Bryce also stole his old girlfriend and got him kicked out of school), and in a slash fan's heart, any sort of preoccupation one male has for another = They wanna SMEX. The fact that Bryce sent Chuck the email perhaps Bryce had some sort of preoccupation with Chuck as well. Still, I'm the sort that has to see actual character interaction and chemistry for it to work for me.Casey/Chuck on the other hand... I guess makes sense as he's protecting him, but he acts rather like a pompous robot protecting an idiotic human. The whole blindly acting like you think less of someone than they really deserve thing can be good for slashing, too (suggests they are perhaps overcompensating because someone is embarrassed about their true feelings, etc), but to bet back to Chuck again, frankly he's just as much an idiot as Casey treats him as, even if he could stand to be a little more polite about it.In the end, the only characters I saw as really having any sort of sexual tension were Casey and the CIA agent who is rather competitive with him. At times they fight, sometimes physically, at times there's a lot of mistrust flying around, and at other times they find themselves working together. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, the CIA agent is female (and I think supposed to be the love interest of Chuck anyway, though the pairing makes only slightly more sense to me than the Casey/Chuck one, with how smart and talented she supposedly is and how not-so-much is he). We're not really missing out on much, though, as even these non-pathetic characters aren't horribly interesting. Looking back on comedies I've watched without looking for slash, though, leads me to believe that's just the nature of characters made for pure comedies. A little shallow, hopefully affable. If you're just watching for comedy, it can work, but it just doesn't work for me if I'm looking for slash. Maybe I should just keep clear of them for this sort of thing. T_T (2 Comments |Comment on this)
_12:24 am_[tellyslash]	Kyle XY Kyle XYGenre: Mystery/Family DramaPopular Pairings: Kyle/Declan, and I believe possibly Tom Foss/KyleSeries Length: 26 episodes, ongoing (as of 2/1/08)Episodes Watched: 10Plot: A boy wakes up naked in the woods with no memory (and that goes for life events as well as basic human stuff like the ability to talk, how to go to the bathroom, etc) and is taken in by a psychiatrist and her family while he attempts to figure out who he is. Like I imagine most people who wake up naked in the woods covered in goo, he also has super intelligence and physical abilities.Verdict: Annoyingly usual teenybopper family drama elements within a surprisingly good sci-fi mystery. Slashy relationship of the most-trusted-buddy type definitely present (along with a more minor pairing of a different type), but characters to simple and artificial seeming to foster a relationship that could spark my interest.Links of Interest:Kyle XY Streaming on ABC FamilyKYLE XY LJ Slash Com Comments:Being from ABC Family, I was mostly expecting something wholesome and inane, but some seemed to think this show surprisingly good despite its origins, so I tried to keep an open mind. I have concluded that...they are right, but I'm not sure that it's in a way that matters to me ultimately. The drama/character development/relationships side of this show is pretty much what you'd expect from a show like this. Cliche, over simplified, artificial. I admit the characters were more promiscuous than I expected, but that doesn't automatically equate to maturity in writing. The acting from some of the younger cast members is not exactly worse than you'd expect from a show aimed at this age range, but is at first distracting to someone who stopped watching this crap a LONG time ago. The older were alright.On the other hand, the sci-fi/mystery plot was well done and interesting, and better than I've seen on some more adult oriented shows. Really, we can kind of make a general guess on where Kyle may be from, and mostly get it right. But the show does a really good job of slowly revealing interesting bits of information that make you 'want to know,' even though you practically already do. It was almost like two different people had written the two aspects of the show (or someone with a lot of talent for writing one aspect of the story, and none for the other ^_^) With the true slash material taking a while to get to, and the drama aspects being to 'bleh' to care about, this was all I was watching the show for at first. At the end of the first season when I'd decided the slash wasn't worth it, I still had to make a conscious decision with myself not to watch this show anymore. I wanted to know the rest of the plot, but that was all I really wanted, and it wasn't really enough to keep watching for.Now, the slashyness. I believe the main slash pairing is Kyle/Declan. Declan is in the series from the beginning, but it takes a while for him to start interacting with Kyle much. He's the boyfriend of the girl in the family Kyle is living with. Initially he is a bit jealous of Kyle, first for being around the girl, then since Kyle is better than him at basketball when Kyle joins the team. Neither of those states last long, however. The main part they're slashed for I'd imagine starts in episode 7 (the basketball episode), where differences are set aside and Declan seems to decide to be Kyle's friend. From then on, there are a few times (for the handful of episodes I saw after that) where Kyle trusts Declan with information he does not trust others with, or takes him along places he does not take others.The whole dynamic where two guys trust each other more than others is one I've always loved, something that's great for slashing to me. And when we got there and I STILL wasn't really into slashing the two, that's when I knew it was time to give up on this series. If you're a slasher and you are younger/are older but still have a thing for these sorts of slightly...psychologically immature sorts of series, though, I'd suggest this one, especially if you like a sci-fi/mystery plot. But to me, the characters are just too simple to be worth slashing, a little too artificial to be really endearing. Kyle is the most original of them, but much as the show would like you to believe how close he is with his friends and 'family,' and as much as I do think he LIKES them and is attached to them, he seems, perhaps because of this obsession with his memory and perhaps because of his personality in general, to be the kind of person who keeps emotionally detached from people. He's not cold, he's sweet I suppose, but like some sort of sweet android. Not much personality or substance. It's hard to find an interesting relationship between uninteresting characters.There's also the possibility of slash between Kyle and another character, Tom Foss, however to describe the kind of slash you'd get in that relationship would include spoilers. Foss is outside the happy-squishy-goody-goody-family-and-friends circle of love in the show, though, so I think, from what little I've seen of the character, he is allowed a little more originality, in addition to being a slightly older character (thus, better actor). Thusly, I was able to find the idea of Foss having a thing for Kyle cute, but... In the end that still involves Kyle, and again, he's just not a great character to play with.On a random note, though: The main love interest for Kyle is a total poster child for why so many gals turn to slash. Mary Sue like NOBODY'S BUSINESS. You seriously have to see this to believe it. ...Though methinks this kind of character may just be a staple of these teenybopper shows, and I'm just surprised since I've managed to stay clear of them for so long. ^_^ Still. Good God. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
_12:16 am_[tellyslash]	Ye Old List of Slashy TV Shows: Ongoing This is a list of shows which I either know have slash fandoms, or I have seen comments about slashy or homoerotic elements within them. Since the time I started this list, anyway. Which means I will probably leave off many things I have forgotten, much less ones I simply haven't heard of. So if you know something I don't, by all means please leave a comment with a show name and if you have the time, some info about its slashability.) Shows with gay characters that have been known to please fangirls will also be included.Things I've posted on will be starred and have a tag leading to the post.LIVE ACTIONHouse M. D.SupernaturalLife on Mars UK(Life on Mars US forthcoming, assume it will be slashy as well)Buffy the Vampire SlayerKyle XY*SmallvilleThe O.C.FriendsQueer as Folk UKQueer as Folk USMidsomer MurdersFoyle's WarTouching Evil UKTouching Evil USBoston LegalChuckJosh & DakeHeroesNumb3rsNCISCSI: NYCSI: MiamiBattlestar GalacticaEurekaThe 4400TorchwoodReaper24DeadwoodStargate: SG-1Stargate:AtlantisAngelFireflyPsychAs the World TurnsRobin Hood BBC dramaMerlin BBC drama* ANIMATED (NON-ANIME)Avatar: The Last Airbender* ANIME - (I'm not quite ADD enough to try to list all the slashy anime I've seen or heard of, so this will mostly be things I've seen since I've started this, and anything anyone else tells me to put up ^_^)To Terra/Toward the TerraGankutsuouOokiku Furikabutte (aka Oofuri)*Hunter x HunterHikaru no GoGundam 00Katekyo Hitman Reborn!Romeo's Blue SkiesOne PieceOuran HIgh School Host ClubNarutoBleachTsubasa: Reservoir ChronicleASIAN DRAMAS - (apparently there are bajillions of slashy ones. these are just the ones specifically mentioned by kind commenter)Nobuta wo ProduceYamada MonogatariHana KimiMOVIES - (not the intended focus here but if I see something worth a mention...)Stand By MeThis isn't, mind, a list of shows I intend to watch. As a matter of fact, if a show has been here for a while and I still haven't watched it, I may actually be avoiding it. So also feel free to recommend I watch something already on the list. ^^ I may just be being busy, lazy, or forgetful. (3 Comments |Comment on this)