metaness blah blah

[cimorene]

reading a media-based fandom extensively before you see the media (show, in this case) in question is always a bit odd. from the overlapping bits of the stories, you start to build a picture of canon before you see it, and it's never exact, but comes astoundingly close. i'm beginning to become irritated with 'off' characterizations in these pros fics and i've not seen so much as a clip of the show.

i did this with star trek and due south most notably, but i've read fair quantities of smallville and highlander and bits and snips of sentinel, too.

i just wonder what sort of processes are underway in my brain, conscious and otherwise, that fill in the characterizations with, you know, the, er, silhouette of best fit. i almost feel i could write it without ever watching (no, i've never done that). and i find myself cheering the authors on when they hit on important issues (yes, yes! like that) and then collapsing in disgust when they *just* miss, or skim over them on to other things.

and you may get sick of romance plots without external action (admittedly stupid in a seekrit agent show like the pros), but there must be a *balance*. the romance shouldn't feel like window dressing. if it wasn't necessary, it shouldn't be there. it's not supposed to be just that they happen to fall in love *while* something's happening; this is the literary world, and nothing means *nothing.* you have to draw ties between them--though they shouldn't be too terribly visible. and even if you're not that skilled you could at *least* work it so the resolutions of tension in both plotlines ... culminated properly. didn't leave you feeling bored or impatient, anywhere.

i have to give this pamela chick one thing, though: she's good at the schmoop. this whole genre swims in it. dare i say, as much as tpm? ::slants evil glance at cara_chapel::

Comments

[fuschia.livejournal.com]

I've always been disappointed when I finally see a show in which I've read a lot of good stories. I think the authors fill in so much themselves, and then I fill in even more...so the show ends up being a let-down in the end.

Interesting question! :)

Fuschia