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NCIS: LA
This show is RIDICULOUS. It is LIKE FANFIC.
Seriously, NCIS:LA is like every foster care AU I've ever read (Callen had 37 foster homes, doesn't even know his first name, has epic manpain, etc.) combined with the slash checklist for buddy cops shows.
Odd couple partners? CHECK.
Banter? CHECK.
Banter that reads like flirting? ALSO CHECK.
Prolonged eye contact/eyesex? CHECK.
Constantly saving each other's life? CHECK.
Total trust in each other? CHECK.
Dramatic scene where one partner is shot and the other enacts a Pieta and begs him not to die? CHECK.
Professions of love in a manly, almost-joking-but-not-really fashion? CHECK.
Jokes about dating men? CHECK.
Jokes about dating each other? CHECK (cut from episode, alas, but shown in promo)
Insanely risky actions taken by one partner to save the other's life? CHECK.
Other characters observing how married they are? CHECK. EXPLICITLY.
AND WE ARE ONLY ON EPISODE EIGHT. Any second now, we're going to have some buddy breathing or a gay-undercover job or an episode where one of them thinks the other is dead or gets addicted to drugs while undercover, and it will be played TOTALLY STRAIGHT because the writers appear to be both genre blind and h/c addicts.
Alas, the things I love about fanfic are not conducive to making a good TV show, and the writers seem to have picked up a bunch of the common fanfic issues. Their plots are thin and/or nonsensical vehicles for Sam and Callen being adorable together. Their pacing is dreadful. LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell are largely carrying the show with their excellent chemistry, though Linda Hunt is pure awesome as Hetty and Daniela Rua is doing a fabulous job making me adore Kensi even without backstory. Their cast is bloated, and *feels* like it due to the poor development, yet they brought Renko back for this week's ep? (Are they planning to replace Dom? Because I'd be okay with that. *g*)
I've also been noticing some weird technical and film-making hiccups. Several times, the sound has been shitty in a way that seems recording-related, and why didn't they fix that? ADR is not a new technique, you know. And there's been some sloppy visual stuff, like that sunset thing last night? Wow, super jarring - tonally and visually inconsistent with the adjacent scenes, and obviously just stuck in there to bridge an awkward time gap.
I have hopes that the show will get its act together and start making decent television in addition to the awesome fanservice, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.
All of which, of course, only makes me want tons of fanfic. Because there is nothing we can do that is more ridiculous than the show itself. With this much free-floating slash and vague angsty backstory, it's practically our fannish imperative.
Seriously, NCIS:LA is like every foster care AU I've ever read (Callen had 37 foster homes, doesn't even know his first name, has epic manpain, etc.) combined with the slash checklist for buddy cops shows.
Odd couple partners? CHECK.
Banter? CHECK.
Banter that reads like flirting? ALSO CHECK.
Prolonged eye contact/eyesex? CHECK.
Constantly saving each other's life? CHECK.
Total trust in each other? CHECK.
Dramatic scene where one partner is shot and the other enacts a Pieta and begs him not to die? CHECK.
Professions of love in a manly, almost-joking-but-not-really fashion? CHECK.
Jokes about dating men? CHECK.
Jokes about dating each other? CHECK (cut from episode, alas, but shown in promo)
Insanely risky actions taken by one partner to save the other's life? CHECK.
Other characters observing how married they are? CHECK. EXPLICITLY.
AND WE ARE ONLY ON EPISODE EIGHT. Any second now, we're going to have some buddy breathing or a gay-undercover job or an episode where one of them thinks the other is dead or gets addicted to drugs while undercover, and it will be played TOTALLY STRAIGHT because the writers appear to be both genre blind and h/c addicts.
Alas, the things I love about fanfic are not conducive to making a good TV show, and the writers seem to have picked up a bunch of the common fanfic issues. Their plots are thin and/or nonsensical vehicles for Sam and Callen being adorable together. Their pacing is dreadful. LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell are largely carrying the show with their excellent chemistry, though Linda Hunt is pure awesome as Hetty and Daniela Rua is doing a fabulous job making me adore Kensi even without backstory. Their cast is bloated, and *feels* like it due to the poor development, yet they brought Renko back for this week's ep? (Are they planning to replace Dom? Because I'd be okay with that. *g*)
I've also been noticing some weird technical and film-making hiccups. Several times, the sound has been shitty in a way that seems recording-related, and why didn't they fix that? ADR is not a new technique, you know. And there's been some sloppy visual stuff, like that sunset thing last night? Wow, super jarring - tonally and visually inconsistent with the adjacent scenes, and obviously just stuck in there to bridge an awkward time gap.
I have hopes that the show will get its act together and start making decent television in addition to the awesome fanservice, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.
All of which, of course, only makes me want tons of fanfic. Because there is nothing we can do that is more ridiculous than the show itself. With this much free-floating slash and vague angsty backstory, it's practically our fannish imperative.