Conclusive proof that the past exists!!!

[spatz]

Sure sign that you're addicted to a fandom #51: tracking down other roles played by the lead actors and watching them, regardless of quality or content.

I seem to be in that position for Alice - what can I say? Andrew Lee Potts is adorable. So far, I've committed the following acts of fannish pursuit:

1) Stranded

This TV movie had such a promising premise: basically, The Swiss Family Robinson, except with an extra child who gets separated from the family in the initial wreck and is subsequently raised by pirates. Jesse Spencer (now Chase on House) played the eldest boy, the girl who plays Ginny on HP was the (non-canonical) daughter, and Andrew Lee Potts got raised by pirates. Sounds awesome, right?

Wrong.

Firstly, I should disclaim that I read my copy of The Swiss Family Robinson so often as a child that the cover fell off. I replaced it with a piece of construction paper and kept reading. So I'm a bit fond of the story, despite the biological ridiculousness of the island and the occasional moral speeches, etc.

Mostly, the movie was just devastatingly slow. Then, after inching along like molasses, they skipped all the fun stuff with the family exploring and developing the island in favor of Serious Conversations (Often Involving Religion) - probably because the father was a pastor in this version rather than just being conveniently awesome like in the books. The English girl that the boys rescue is horribly dull rather than being a badass who survived on her own for several years, and only serves to be Token Romantic Interest Baton.

On the up side, Andrew Lee Potts gets shirtless and wet at one point, and gets to be a) mischievous, b) emo, and c) adorable, and otherwise his character is the most three-dimensional, but still sadly underused in favor of pointless five-minute scenes involving the pretty pretty scenery. Jesse Spencer also had hilarious girl hair in the second part.

2) Primeval

This British TV show started off as Torchwood-lite, but I'm getting kinda fond of it. inmyriadbits and I made it through Season 1, and Season 2 is shaping up to be loads better. Basically, holes in time are opening up all over and creatures are coming through from other times - dinosaurs, dodos, diabolical future beasties, etc. Our Team is responsible for saving the day.

The pilot episode is incredibly incoherent - I still don't really understand why one of the characters was included in the team, but it was Andrew Lee Potts' character (Conner), and he's adorable, so... *shrugs* I can't even remember the next two, but 1x04 actually had *character development* - I was shocked! - and 1x05 had, like, a sense of humor, and 1x06 had some clever game-changing stuff, like all good season finales. 2x01 involved a velociraptor in a mall, which is basically the most fun idea ever, and did a fine job with it. I have hopes that things will improve!

The main character, Professor Nick Cutter, is awful. There's lots of "he's such a genius, we'd be lost without him"-ing, but so far he's just irritating, useless, and stupid. (he is responsible for the idiotic line that made the post title, which the showrunners apparently didn't realize was stupid because they kept using it in the previouslies.) He mainly seems to exist as a connection to his extremely awesome but possibly-evil wife Helen, who let him think she was dead for 7 years. I really can't blame her. Stephen, his grad student, is very very pretty, and starts growing a personality a few eps in rather than just being Cool Pretty Guy with Gun. I am currently fond of him.

My favorites are the geeks: Abby, a zookeeper/biology girl, and Conner, tech and research nerd extraordinaire. Abby is cute as a button, smart, no-nonsense, and suprisingly badass for someone so tiny. Conner is believably awkward and socially stupid, but a secret sweetheart with a not-so-secret MASSIVE crush on Abby. He is usually the damsel in distress, and wears fedoras and vests with a compass on a pocket-watch chain. Because the show loves me, they are flatmates, and Abby's pet dinosaur requires the apartment to be kept very heated so they keep wandering around in their underwear. (Occasionally, Connor steals her pink robe. I KID YOU NOT.)

Anyways, I'm not going to think about the show too hard because it's really quite silly, but Lindsey and I have plans to watch more with copious amounts of margaritas. I predict: Connor/Abby will eventually happen, Nick will get less screentime (please god), Helen will be more evil but in that competent villain way, Stephen will continue to shoot things, and there will be more dinosaurs.

Comments

[inmyriadbits.livejournal.com]

I can never remember if I came up with that concept on my own and then found and loved Hitchcock's way of phrasing it, or if I encountered the Hitchcock first. Regardless, Hitchcock is involved in there somehow, and what he says exactly is that "The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture," which is both nicely spot-on and delightfully ambiguous on certain points, all at the same time. :)

Sadly, it is only fractionally more interesting.