shadowkat | Curiousity Fandom Poll - Where you live, etc...sort of a kitchen sink bit.

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Curiousity Fandom Poll - Where you live, etc...sort of a kitchen sink bit.

Hmmm, tried Community pilot tonight, and it's sort of good. We'll see if I stick with. I have a love/hate relationship with situation comedies.

The poll below is a bit of fun. I'm curious where people who have friended me, or read me, or are on my flist, or on lj fall on these things, also where everyone lives on planet earth and how many people live where. I ran out of poll questions. They stop at 15. Or I'd have asked a couple of fan related ones about ships. But hey, done that before.

Also now that everyone has more or less read and commented on the Buffy comics to date, specifically issues 34 and 35 - am curious to see where the vast majority of people fall on that issue. The questions may seem sort of non-sequitor or unrelated, but hey that's why it is kitchen sink.

Please feel free to link. [Also a bit of a warning, I'm fully aware that the last question is a bit on the controversial side - so I tried to lighten it up a bit. It's an issue I've been thinking about lately, because I've found myself in the sitch, where people my age are dating people much much younger. (It's fun when you find yourself getting rejected by a guy online, because he thinks you are too old for him, and he's either your age or about 5-10 years older than you, while a guy the same age as your mother/father or just five years younger wants to date you.) So I'm curious what you think about the issue. NOTE - no bashing of people's views. Disrespectful comments will be deleted without explanation. It's not like your view is going to change the world. And if you are uncomfortable - hey that's the fun of polls, it requires work to figure out who said what.} (Hopefully more than 10 people will do this...polls are scarey for two reasons: 1) if no one does it, you look like an idiot. 2) everyone has an opinion on how a poll should be done and is annoyed when you don't put an option that applies to them personally. (I get where you guys are coming from, I've lost count of the polls I could not answer because there wasn't an answer that applied. But having done a lot of these polls, I can testify to the fact that - you are going to screw up somewhere and leave something out or spell something wrong. )Not lj-cutting because no spoilers.

[ETA: So apparently I put the UK twice in the poll below. Sorry about that. Don't know what I was thinking. Could have been worse - could have put the USA twice. Also...sorry about not listing all the tv shows...but ran out of room. They give you a limited number of questions and ticky boxes on these things.]

[Poll #1570816]

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Let me plug Season 2 Being Human as kind of awesome. The special effects are a tad cheesy, but I loved the story.

Oh, you're watching Community? Excellent choice! It only gets better from the pilot onward. It's a wonderful ensemble that focuses on character-based humor and spoofing pop culture. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you continue watching! And I have a sneaking suspicion that Jane Espenson knows all that is good and the fact that she watches Community and enjoys it was fun to learn after I'd fallen for the show. What's great about the show is it's self-awareness.

Community and Vampire Diaries are the new shows I enjoyed the most this year, the former being my favorite.

It's all the flailing about it on my flist that peaked my curiousity - so giving it a whirl. But I'm famously intolerant of sitcoms. Rare that I stay interested for very long. They aren't wrong when they say comedy is HARD to do well. And I have a very dry sense of humor.

For me the best new shows are The Good Wife and The Vampire Diaries.
The Good Wife blew me away this year.

A TV show not on your list that I both watch and would recommend is Medium. Well written and acted, usually a neat twist at the end, and has been doing so for several years now but rarely seems to get mentioned in the SF and fantasy community.

Also, no Chuck on the list. Fun show, goofy at times but endearing.

These days I usually DVR Grey's Anatomy; mixed feelings about this show, and I find I watch it mostly for the actors, many of whom routinely do very good work with writing that's all over the place-- sometimes brilliant, many times simply ridiculous. Also, Way too much use of music, and yes, I know this was one of the first major network shows to popularize this trend, but they've really driven it into the ground in the last year or two.

The problem is really that the music is an anvil in most every scene-- the actors are good enough to carry the emotion of the scene all by themselves, but they seldom let them alone.

Oh, and Waaah! I want my TSCC back! Waahhh!!

Being Human and Dexter are probably the best genre shows on TV. Heck, some of the best things on TV period.

I have to say that I think "Being Human" Season 2 was the best depiction of "the path to hell is paved with good intentions" that I've seen.

Edited 2010-05-28 04:53 (UTC)

I actually think it was your flailing about a season 2 episode that convinced me to put it on my summer to-watch list.

Apparently Dexter was really really good last season and EW plus TV Guide damn them - spoiled me on the two big deaths (I managed to avoid the details but I know who died before actually seeing it, because of those two magazines.). Waiting for it to come out on DVD.

Same deal with Being Human - apparently it's second season blew people away. So, eagerly awaiting it to hit BBC America this summer.

And True Blood - which also rocked with it's second season. Another show I have to catch on DVD.

Have clicked other on May december relationsships. I would have just clicked "Who cares, as long as they loe each other", but I've a very bad experience with an older friend, who started to fall in love with (prey on) several friends of mine (who were at the time between 19 and 25 (while he was 40-45). At first I was fine with it, even felt sorry for him when it didn't work out, but at some point I realized that it was a pattern for him, that he fell for such young women, because of his own attchment and other issues. That he really fell in love with the age and not with the person and that is since then a big point of scrutiny on may december relationships.

I don't mind them on principle (+ from my partner has 11 years on me) but I do think that they sometimes have underlying motives that are not really pretty (easier to get a young person to believe the crap you tell them about how relationships work).

I know quite some instances where it worked fine too.

Edited 2010-05-28 05:29 (UTC)

but I've a very bad experience with an older friend, who started to fall in love with (prey on) several friends of mine (who were at the time between 19 and 25 (while he was 40-45). At first I was fine with it, even felt sorry for him when it didn't work out, but at some point I realized that it was a pattern for him, that he fell for such young women, because of his own attchment and other issues. That he really fell in love with the age and not with the person and that is since then a big point of scrutiny on may december relationships.

Seen a bit too much of that myself. And it is a definite trend in the Entertainment biz - I lost count of the number of older actors/singers/entertainers who are divorced with kids and have married someone five years older than their kids. While some seem to be true love, others...seem to be more about ego and being young.

That said, there are friends of my family who have that age gap.
One gal, 28, married a guy, 50 and is very happy. And another guy 50, married a gal who was 22, and they were happy. So...

"Let not the marriage of two minds/Admit impediment" seemed, early in life, to say it best -- but there seem to be nothing BUT impediments in this existence. No one, it seems to me, grows up very much at all -- we age & disappear long before that could possibly happen.

You've got UK on there twice but no USA on Where on planet earth are you living now?.

"The USA" is under "Canada" on the poll. She's even got it geographically correct! ;-)

you've got the UK on there twice

And the second one is apparently right under the slot "Iceland or Greenland (don't have enough clicky boxes) - in which people probably thought, well, yeah, because you put some countries twice!! Duh!

LOL!

Sigh. I can't seem to do a poll without screwing up something.
And you can't edit the dang things. Tried - it's impossible.

What? No Caprica?

I was thrilled to discover that there is another Russian fan who reads your LJ. I wonder if it's somebody I know personally. Some fans who live in Moscow meet once a month.

What? No Caprica?

What can I say? Ran out of clicky boxes? Also completely spaced it...for some reason, along with Chuck and Medium appparently. Too many tv shows, not enough clicky boxes.

I want to encourage the watching of "Deadliest Catch" ... Crab fisherman work way harder than I ever would.

- oh, I guess that made me sound lazy - eh, *shrugs*

Misfits - I liked it a great deal but there are some important caveats: everyone is very screwed-up and self-serving. Also there is some fairly dubious sexism in there masquerading as cynical realism. But I personally forgive it that because the cynicism and black comedy and because it isn't incredibly sexist and racist while pretending to be a demonstration of how wonderful the human spirit is.

Also I suspect that one of the central characters may creep you out in a seriously bad way - unromanticised and deeply scary alienated nerd-kid depicted in a way somewhat reminiscent of the Trio in Buffy.

Misfits got mixed reviews on my flist - but peaked my curiousity. It reminds me a little of X-men's Generation X or what the X-men tried to do with Generation X. Also sounds better than Heroes - which I gave up on in S3 for the same reasons everyone else did.

I know Misfits has a questionable scene regarding sexual violence - but,
that really isn't a trigger of mine. So should be fine there. Not sure about the deeply scarey alienated nerd-kid though..although, should confess that I actually did like the nerd trio in S6 and think they may have been the most effective villians the show ever did. Certainly the most haunting. I wrote more about them than any of the other villians.
Angelus and Spike may have been the most fun, the Mayor the funniest,
but the trio caused the most damage to the Scoobies and had the most impact. That was the season I began to take the series seriously and that was in part due to the nerd trio.

May/December can be skeevy, but then, so can June/July. I admit I do have a knee-jerk reaction to wealthy older men marrying gorgeous young women less than half their age, but I also freely admit it's Not My Business. If the two people love each other and no one's taking advantage, God bless 'em both.

Have more or less the same attitude. Based partly on experience.
Also the current "Hollywood" trend of older guys and gals marrying people 20 years younger than them...is a bit suspicious.

But, I've known people who genuinely loved each other...who had that age gap. (shrugs)

so funny that you asked me where I live and if I read Jim Butcher's stuff.

I live in Oklahoma where Jim used to live -- I used to housesit for him. His wife made my wedding dress.

: ) So fun to know someone FAMOUS!!!

(OH and I <3 <3 <3 SEASON EIGHT!!!!! Love everything about it! Joss can do NO WRONG!)

Hee. I think Butcher lives in St. Louis, Mo or thereabouts now? Which is near KC, where I lived for 17 years. Now, I'm in NYC.

Well, I liked the comics written Joss Whedon, just not all the ones produced by him...I think he may be a better writer than producer/plotter.

Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and Fringe have been my top 3 shows of this year, though I enjoyed a good many.

My approval of May/December romances does hinge on whether or not the May member ever considered the December member a parental figure. Ergo, ships like Buffy/Giles hit all my incest squicks.

Have similar issues with May/December romances...realized that while Buffy and Spike never bothered me, Buffy/Angel, and Buffy/Wood really did. Which is odd, considering Spike was over a hundred years older. But he is her equal, not a father-figure, boss, or someone who provides "advice". Not a mentor.

Angel feels a lot like a mentor, an older character. As does
Wood - who is her boss, and like Angel takes a sort of parental attitude.

So it is the attitude not the age that may be part of it.

How do you feel about Riley in the mentor role? I think Riley somewhat wanted to be the mentor but never quite fit.

I think what was interesting with Riley is that the roles shifted in S4 and S5, Buffy was more in the mentor role, and Riley was in a supporting role - which is why Riley had to leave - he was tired of being the mission's boyfriend or second in command. Buffy in some respects took over Walsh's role in Riley's life.

Riley, Xander, and Spike were all more supporting or equal to Buffy. Of the three - Xander, oddly, is the only one who doesn't attempt at some point to control or dominate - possibly because he's the same age. He does try to advise or patronize, but she seems to put him in his place as she does with both Riley and Spike.

Spike unlike Riley was willing to take a supporting role - for understandable reasons, Spike had issues Riley did not have - one of which was being a vampire. Riley was introduced as above Buffy, legitimate hero. While Buffy could never be accepted as the legitimate hero, she was "the slayer" - a supernaturally powered "girl" or "just a girl". So Riley and by extension his pals, sort of saw her as beneath him (as we see in the first slew of episodes in S4 - where they endlessly mock Buffy or Riley's interest in this silly Freshman girl.)

So it is a sort of different dynamic.

All of the relationships: Spike/Buffy, Riley/Buffy, and Angel/Buffy were written to be star-crossed. Riley/Buffy didn't quite pan out that way - because Lindsey Crouse left the show too early - so they weren't able to pursue the whole Walsh vs. Buffy story - which I'm guessing was suppose to parallel the Willow vs. Veruca tale, which also didn't pan out, because Seth Green jumped ship. (Hmmm...I wonder what would have happened if David Boreanze got Bones in S3 or a movie deal - and jumped ship? I'm guessing the Angel story would have ended with his death in S3?)

I am glad you did this poll as I am looking for some new TV shows to watch, and I am kinda picky and this helps. I tried Vampire Diaries, but it was just too...highschool, I guess, too soap opera-ish, it's been awhile tho, maybe it has gotten better?
I also watch Medium and I really enjoy that show.
Is it okay if I friend you?

Is it okay if I friend you?

Yes. And thank you.

I tried Vampire Diaries, but it was just too...highschool, I guess, too soap opera-ish, it's been awhile tho, maybe it has gotten better?

Very much so. Sometime around the eighth or ninth episode - it took off and became rather funny and quite twisty, and far less high-school. They shifted the focus from the high-school to well the background of the town and brought in a few new characters.

Of course the addition of Andrew Chambliss on the writing staff helped as well - he wrote the better episodes on Dollhouse (if you liked Dollhouse - it wasn't everyone's cup of tea for understandable reasons.)

If you like Medium - you might want to try The Good Wife, and
True Blood. Also possibly Dexter and Being Human.

I have to mention Breaking Bad which is one of the best shows on TV up there with Mad Men/

Rufus

I don't watch much television, as you can see.

But I'd like to add Leverage to what I did choose on the poll, because I enjoy the hell out of it.

Lj lost my post :(

But I’ll try again: I would recommend a lot of TV shows I love: I’m really enjoying ‘Merlin’, and I can’t wait for ‘Burn Notice and ‘Leverage’ to start up again!

And I can understand about being weirded out by May/Dec romances, but a close friend got out of a miserable marriage with an age appropriate jerk, and is now very happily married to a man 20 years older than her.

And I can understand about being weirded out by May/Dec romances, but a close friend got out of a miserable marriage with an age appropriate jerk, and is now very happily married to a man 20 years older than her.

Like everything else in life so much is based on our own experiences.
Read some of the comments above - where people had skeevy experiences on this issue - ie. men who preyed upon younger women, based on their age, after divorcing their wife because you know, they wanted to look young. And I've met these guys, dated guys (from online dating).

But likewise, I know of at least two marriages which worked.
Same with women - women who married men 20 years younger or younger than them that worked.

The book I just finished reading Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking discusses the opposite of what you state above. Fisher relates a tale of her father who marries a woman three years older than her, last maybe two years, then after a bit he finds a woman who is his age, who he lives happily with until she died.

oh I didn't relay that example as a reason why everyone (or anyone else) should marry someone much older or younger.... But instead as the reason why I don't feel it is weird (seeing one good example is definitely enough to convince me that everyone should just do what they think is right... I don't need to pass judgement on anyone).

I know there are people who have had terrible experiences w/big age gaps.. but then there are people who marry abusive guys, a lot of people make mistakes.

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