Farscape Renaissance

[castalia]

So, yeah, there's this show that is quite possibly my greatest fannish love of all time, even though I fell in and out of love with it at times and missed episodes during the original run due to work and then rediscovered it just in time for the race to the finish line and then angst for a few years until the miniseries. A show that gave me a het romance I actually love, buddies to beat all buddies, a Southern character who for once isn't a caricature, and muppets. All of which thrilled me, moved me, and broke my damn heart.

Yes, Farscape. Duh.

Just before I left Wales I started watching the eps from the beginning, meaning to sit down and watch the entire series all the way through - something I hadn't done in forever, if at all. I mean, despite seeing various eps a million times or more, there were some I hadn't seen in years, some I'd only seen maybe once so long ago I didn't quite remember them. Like somehow I always managed to catch parts one and two of Look at the Princess, but rarely part three. Stuff like that. I felt the need to reconnect.

Made it up to A Bug's Life before coming home, and then things happened and I didn't get round to watching more for a while. Then Rome happened, and a new season of Dr Who, and Slings and Arrows happened, and other shows I just had to have, right then. My renaissance got put on the back burner.

Not so, now. The timing has to be right to watch certain shows, I feel, and now is just the time for Farscape. In the past few weeks I've watched as fast as I can dl, and have spent far too much time at the local Dairy Queen taking advantage of the free wifi. I'm up to the Self Inflicted Wounds trilogy now, and just wallowing in how much I love my show, and how much I've missed it. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the "Season of Death" and all the angst to come; it's really quite enjoyable, knowing exactly what's coming and how much it's going to hurt. Heh. Maybe I'm just in the mood to cry over something, or indulge in shippiness, or maybe just enjoy the pure cracktastic JOY for a while. God knows there's nothing else on tv that gives me quite the same dose of crazy genius.

Speaking of, y'know I love having Ben Browder and Claudia Black on SG-1, and it's great that Claudia has so much great material to work with and can really shine as Vala. And I do love Cameron Mitchell as a character, I do, but damn, someone needs to give Ben something he can really work with so he can emote again. I miss the crazy and the tears and those moments of soft, brilliant pathos.

Anyone else got any Farscape memories to share? Any favorite scenes, lines, character bits, etc? I want to wallow in all of it. Share!

ETA: One thing I only mentioned briefly and would like to comment on in more detail is how much I respect and admire Ben Browder for bringing Southern characters of merit to my TV screen. This is something you don't see very often on American television. What you usually see are the stereotypes we still can't get away from - the "Bubba" character, the Bible-thumper, the Steel Magnolias type of Southern Belle, or the rich plantation owner business tycoon who insists on wearing cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat. We all live in trailers with cars up on blocks, we don't wear shoes, we all chew tobacco, and there's always someone roaming the woods with a gun. It still pisses me off that a Southern person, especially a poor (usually white, sometimes not) Southerner, is almost the only ethnic group in the US that is still permissible to mock and disparage outright even in a polite or professional setting, and their treatment in film is typically as violent, racist, sexist monsters. Even saying so usually gets one jumped on by any number of people, especially in relation to any racial discussions. Business professionals from the South actively make the effort to try and get rid of any regional accents due to the near-universal perception that a Southern accent makes one sound ignorant and ill-educated. And people wonder why the North-South divide is still so great.

Most of the celebrities who are from the South seem to go to extreme lengths to hide the fact. Johnny Depp is originally from Kentucky, but you'd never know it. Samuel L. Jackson was born and raised twenty miles from my hometown, in Chattanooga, TN, but I'm not sure many people know that. I'm told Kyra Sedgewick is a Southern character in The Closer, but I haven't caught that show yet to see how positively she's portrayed. Probably in that "quaint" Steel Magnolias manner. Abby Sciuto is from New Orleans, but her presentation is mostly as a goth character rather than a Southern one, though I do love her penchant for giving everyone hugs.

Everyone remember that episode of the X-Files, Home, which gave us an incestuous family sporting horrific Southern accents along with all the usual redneck stereotypes, despite being set in Pennsylvania. Yeah. What otherwise might've been a good episode really turned my stomach. shanola22 made me suffer through an episode of La Femme Nikita, set "20 miles north of Chattanooga", which brought out the stereotypes in full abundance in a strange "small, Appalachian town" that looked nothing like this area. We won't talk about those accents, nor the replacement character in later seasons who was supposed to be from Atlanta.

So what (to get back to the topic of Farscape) other than the bleary red-eyed crazy look, the sharp blue eyes, and the way his ass looked in those leather pants, draws me to John Crichton and Ben Browder in general? He's a Southern boy and not ashamed of it. Ben doesn't tone down his accent (born in Memphis, TN and later raised in North Carolina - he's still got a Western TN accent and has said NC will always be "home" to him), even when TPTB writing his characters give them non-Southern backgrounds (still wondering why on Earth they made Cameron Mitchell be from Kansas when he sounds nothing like a mid-Westerner). Crichton hails from South Carolina and mentions many times during the series that he's from the South. And he's smart. FS gives me a rare Southern character with intelligence - he even has a PhD in science. He quotes his grandmother and talks about buttermilk biscuits and remembers truck stops in Macon, GA, and uses recognizable Southern slang without being mocked, or shown as simple. John Crichton is so the Southern character of my heart and I will forever adore Ben Browder for bringing characters like this to my TV screen. We need more of them.

Comments

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

*blink blink* metafandom? Huh, first time for everything.

I know most of the deep meta on this show has been hashed and rehashed to death over the past years, but I suppose I never get enough of it when it comes to FS. I love watching new fans react to seeing the show for the first time and how it breaks their brains, and the inevitable puppy pile of Scapers who pounce on them, but this time I got in the mood to hear other long-time fans squee about why they love the show in the first place. But I do fear if I listed everything I love about it, this post would get far, far too long. I'm still rewatching as fast as I can download, and just got past Thanks for Sharing. Somehow in my memory, it always seemed like the two Johns were around forever, even though it really is only 10 episodes. I think season three was the definitive season for me as a fan, and I'd say I've seen those episodes the most out of the entire run (though that may just be b/c that's what I have on tape somewhere).

[jazzymegster.livejournal.com]

Well...I don't know anything about the past meta, really, because I wasn't reading stuff like that until fairly recently, netwise.

Wait, Talyn!John was only in it for ten episodes?! I could've sworn it was longer than that. But, I suppose it only felt like that because the episodes were split between him and Moya!John.

I definitely liked S3 best - on watching again, S1 & 2 feel like an awful lot of set up (although there are eps in those seasons that I like, nay, love), and S3 is where FS comes into its own. Plus it has Revenging Angel, and Incubator, and OMG those final four eps. What FS was in S3 makes me angry that they did the whole "reset" thing for S4 so new viewers could watch and be less confused (again, I'm not saying there's not eps I don't like in S4, but for me, S3 is the ONE). And it has all the Stark/Zhaan angst, and I love Stark and Zhaan to pieces (and I love angst, just to be clear).

I need more of S3 on DVD really - I have the first two boxsets, and then I've got Dog With Two Bones on tape, but that's all. There are times when I am woeful as an FS fan...

Oh, and, because I agree totally - yes, I love the way it breaks people. I converted my friend keozen to it after the cancellation, and seeing him watch it, and then come in and go, "Wut?! But? How?" was hugely amusing to me (well, maybe not amusing, you know what I mean?)

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Farscape is a very different fandom experience for me b/c I never felt the need to join the mailing lists or read fanfic. I kind of regret not squeeing in a larger environment than my own LJ.

Wait, Talyn!John was only in it for ten episodes?! I could've sworn it was longer than that. But, I suppose it only felt like that because the episodes were split between him and Moya!John.

I know! And if you only count the ones he's in, it's maybe 7. It did feel like that arc spanned most of the season - a tribute to the impact of the character, I suppose.

I do agree that S3 is where FS really comes into its own. S4 is hit or miss sometimes, even with brilliant eps like John Quixote. And I'm a huge Stark fan, so I'll agree with you there, too :)

I envy you your DVD boxsets. So far I have none of them - the price was always way too high for me on the original sets, and even the Starburst editions will take some time for me to acquire. I have no earthly idea where my VHS tapes are. Much woe.

Hee, I totally get what you mean about converting friends and watching them go nuts. I need to get someone else hooked on this show; sometimes it seems like most of my fannish friends have already seen it, and most of my family would never watch it.

[jazzymegster.livejournal.com]

Hey, even tapes is better than nothing! (Hope you find them soon, no-one should be deprived of FS) Although, I have to say, watching it on DVD is pretty much unbeatable. I got most of mine thanks to two-for-one deals at the places that sold them. Although I've not bought any for several years 'cause I've just not had the money (so I sympathise with your situation).

Also, Stark rules. I think he's my most favourite character after John.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

So far the downloads I'm finding are really good quality, so it's been handy to have them on my computer to watch.

Stark is just fascinating. I give so much of the credit to the actor, who was so amazing at going from manic to calm in a heartbeat, such a brilliant performance. Those "my side, your side!" rants will never cease to be hysterically funny :)

[jazzymegster.livejournal.com]

Yay for great downloads :)

Paul Goddard is an amazing actor (and yes, I am solely basing that on having seen him in FS *g*).

Those "my side, your side!" rants will never cease to be hysterically funny :)
*nodnod* I feel the need to go watch some 'Scape now...preferably an ep with Stark in it :D