2015 Fandom Meme

[frelling_tralk]

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2015?

I really need to get into more new shows, I don't think that I did pick up any new shows this year other than Daredevil! I'm currently watching The Vampire Diaries, The Good Wife, The Big Bang Theory, Pretty Little Liars, Doctor Who (all pretty old now), and the only newish shows that I'm following are iZombie, Daredevil, and From Dusk Till Dawn. Otherwise most of my tv time goes to re-watching my DVDs of older shows

Oh and I am currently watching early seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix! I watched season 1 a while ago and always meant to catch up with some more, then I subscribed to Netflix for Jessica Jones and found that HIMYM was on there as well, so I've just caught up with seasons 2 and 3.


Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2015? Why?

I hate to say this because my flist has been so enthusiastic about this show and I really wanted to join in the squee, but...Jessica Jones :( It's not that I didn't like it at all, it was nice seeing so many different female characters on-screen for a start, but I just found that the episodes were really feeling like a misery slog after a bit. I was the most invested after the first episode actually, I really liked how that whole Noir vibe with the voice-overs reminded me a bit of Veronica Mars, and then the ending with Hope certainly left an impression, but as it went on I found myself struggling to get invested. I read this interesting article which I think that sums up a lot of what I was struggling with? 13 episodes of trying and failing to catch Kilgrave just doesn't appeal to me as much as shows that have individual episode cases, as well as the serialised element. The pacing was really dragging for me when it was all so serialised, I couldn't get through an episode without it starting to feel like a chore :( And David Tennant still doesn't do a lot for me

And I talked more about The 100 at the time, but I'm still not sure whether I will watch any more of that show or not


Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2016?

Amazon's "Man in the High Castle" is on my watch list at the moment, and The Originals, Luther, and Prison Break are all on my maybe list if I can find the time


Which TV show impressed you least in 2015?

The Good Wife I suppose. I already talked about my feelings on season 6 in a previous entry, and so far I'm not all that swept away by season 7 either. As ever the material for Alicia isn't bad, but I'm tired of the supporting cast feeling like a spare part. If they can't be bothered to use Diane and Cary properly then just write them out for goodness sake, there currently feels like very little point in A&L (is that the name now, I've lost track lol?) hanging around on the outskirts when Alicia doesn't even work at that firm any more, and the attempt at a personal rivalry between Diane and Alicia over Howard Lyman of all people felt very forced. None of it has been bad as such, but it feels very unfocused and aimless IMO, and the show has lost a lot of its heart in keeping Alicia so separated from the rest of the main cast that she barely has a relationship with Diane or Cary any more

I'm also not loving this season of The Vampire Diaries. The flash-forwards were an intriguing idea, but honestly there's no real hook for me with the characters at the moment. I still enjoy the brother moments with Damon and Stefan, but otherwise the Steroline is falling flat for me this year (it seemed like they had a lot more chemistry in season 6?), Enzo/Bonnie needs more ground-work to completely hook me, and Matt as ever is just kind of there

The only storylines I've really been intrigued by this year were when Alaric was trying to bring Jo back to life, and Lily's scenes with Damon and Stefan. But it feels like otherwise a LOT of time has been wasted on the Heretics and we're suddenly supposed to be drawn in by their personal drama, even though we're only just met them? So yeah this season isn't really doing it for me, I wish they would drop Julian as a villain and concentrate on doing more with the flash-forwards instead


Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2016 unless things significantly improve?

None at the moment. I did kind of lose interest with From Dusk Till Dawn halfway through season 2, but then the final two episodes grabbed me enough that I will be watching season 3


Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get?

The Vampire Diaries and The Good Wife, they don't have that many seasons left at this point anyway, I've invested enough in them that I will have to see them through to the end


Your main fandom of the year?

I don't really have one main fandom any more I don't think


Your favourite film you watched this year?

Honestly nothing that swept me away particularly, I guess The Theory Of Everything is the one that stands out the most?


Your favourite book read this year?

The two books that left the most lasting impression were





Bird Box completely freaked me out and gave me nightmares LMAO, it was all about the human race dying out and going insane because of something they see whenever they open their eyes on the outside, and the book is focused on a small group of survivors struggling to survive and not turn on one another

And then Alice was a *much* darker and creepier re-telling of Alice In Wonderland, Alice escapes from the mental asylum that she's been locked up in for the past ten years for telling her story, and then it's all about her trying to find the rabbit again.

I think I got too bogged down with psychological thrillers for a while there after it seemed like those were the books that everyone was recommending, and while I still have a soft spot for "Gone Girl" and that was a book that met the hype for me, I'm not particularly enthusiastic about some of those other raved-about books like "Girl On The Train". I want to get more into fantasy books this year I think, and more focus on characters rather than plot twists. I'd love any recommendations :)


Your favourite TV show of the year?

I don't know that I have just one favourite show, but iZombie really impressed me this year after I was a bit on the fence/more of a casual watcher at the end of season 1, they seem to have really hit their stride in season 2. I really enjoyed Daredevil and am looking forward to season 2 next year. And Doctor Who had a great run at the end of series 9, especially the last episode with the Doctor and Clara's final meeting *sobs*


Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

"Everyone will freak out because it's so clearly in every episode. When it's finally revealed, you could literally go back to season 1 and knowing who it is, you can be like, 'Oh, wow. Whoa. This has been here all along, and I never noticed it,' which is, I think, brilliant." Lies!



Your biggest squee moment of the year?



Also recent developments on The Big Theory with Shamy were another squee moment for me, but probably the spoilers are too recent to use gifs for those moments quite yet :P


The most missed of your old fandoms?

I dunno really, Hannibal I guess? It's sad that we're not getting a fourth season


The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Erm I've no idea. Most of the biggest fandoms lately seem to be comic-book focused, and I find that most of the time I just can't get into those shows unfortunately :( Daredevil has been the only one that's grabbed me so far, otherwise I gave up on my attempts with Gotham, Supergirl, and Jessica Jones

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

The return of The X-Files and Gilmore Girls :D :D :D

Comments

[malicat.livejournal.com]

I liked Jessica Jones more than you I guess but I was still disappointed that it couldn't live up to my expectations. Daredevil was so much easier to get into. Like,I wouldn't really want to compare these shows in terms of which one is better but I personally enjoyed DD way more than JJ!

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

Dude you are not alone with Jessica Jones, I couldn't even get through the 2nd episode, LOL. pocochina has given me a list of a selection of the later eps to try b/c I do want to get through the series, and I'm going to get going on that soon, but my immediate reaction was very "meh."

ETA: And oh yeah ITA about the balance of screentime being off with the Heretics on TVD. I think they maybe stumbled a bit with the writers feeling insecure/nervous about the show trying to find its footing after Nina left? But obvs I'm still engaged by the show and looking forward to seeing how everything shapes up in the back half of the season.

[sandrine]

I've heard a lot of good things about iZombie - it really makes me wish I had time for another show!

Thanks for that link to the article about serialised vs. episodic TV - that's indeed a good read. (It helps that they singled out one of my favourite Justified episodes and mentioned lots of things I found myself nodding alone with!) :D

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on Jessica Jones. I think if it was a movie or 5-8 eps I would have liked it more. Character-wise, it felt like a 13-hour pilot episode. I thought the storyline picked up a bit when Kilgrave and JJ were in her old house, but then it went flat again for me.

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I have just one favourite show, but iZombie really impressed me this year

Me too, although I already loved Season 1 very much but I feel like this show is just getting better and better every episode. It really found it's footing and I hope it'll last a long time :D

Fandom disappointment: I think I know what this is about and yeah, totally agree... I was like "WTF?" in the end... -.- We didn't even "meet" her until very late in the show at all or knew of her existence...

[emeraldarrows.livejournal.com]

I disliked Jessica Jones, too. Slogged through a couple eps before giving up on it. Daredevil, though, I loved from the start and still adore.

What is your biggest fandom disappointment referring to?

[maybe.livejournal.com]

re; TVD: I really don't get their thinking with the Heretics either. The only one they have even attempted to flesh out is Valerie, the rest of them? I could honestly not care less about them or their silly squabbles. And I'm not feeling Steroline either, which is a shame after all this buildup.

I enjoyed Jessica Jones more than you (lol), but even then it was such a forgetful show for me. I haven't even thought about it once since I was done with the first season. IDK, I just think Daredevil was so much better all around, and it was a lot easier for me to get sucked into that world/the characters. Plus, Fisk was a much more fascinating (and likable!) villain, Kilgrave pails in comparison.

[ladyoneill.livejournal.com]

Man in the High Castle was the best show on tv (well, not on tv...) You have to enjoy alt history, though.

[silverusagi]

With you on the biggest squee moment of the year. :)

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

How I Met Your Mother

lol, enjoy that while you can.

YESSSSS, DO LUTHER BEFORE THE MOVIE HAPPENS!

I'm actually still having a good time with The Good Wife. Mainly because I'm down with the new cast additions--the show is making a concerted effort to do away with its White Feminism and I appreciate that.

And then Alice was a *much* darker and creepier re-telling of Alice In Wonderland, Alice escapes from the mental asylum that she's been locked up in for the past ten years for telling her story, and then it's all about her trying to find the rabbit again.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE MY SHIT

Yes to Gone Girl, which I read after seeing the movie and it still rocked my world.

[bearshorty.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Jessica Jones a lot more than you, probably because I liked Kilgrave as a villain more and really liked the focus on all the female characters. I loved the relationship between Jessica and Trish and most of the supporting characters. I saw the first episode of Daredevil but wasn't compelled to watch more because I don't particularly like mafia stuff. But I do think I will check it out more now because I did really like Claire. That said, I understand why you were underwhelmed by Jessica Jones. I liked reading your take on it.

Nice meme overall.

[wheatear.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy Jessica Jones. I loved it. Reading your comments, I agree that if you didn't like episodes 8 and 9 (definitely the stand-out episodes of the show) then it's probably not for you.

Personally, I thought Kilgrave was a great villain so I loved the fact that the series was all about Jessica hunting him down. The weakest episodes in my opinion (4 and 11) were the ones that didn't feature Kilgrave.

[favoritexrecord.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed on Vampire Diaries. I'm just not feeling it this season and I was intrigued by the flash forwards but lately each one gets worse and worse, lol. I mean, Caroline & Alaric are together?! Nope, too weird.

And also totally agree with your biggest fandom disappointment!! How that show continues to get my hopes up I don't know, it always ends in anger for me.

[stargazer60.livejournal.com]

I am still debating about watching Jessica Jones. I've all but lost interest in the Marvel universe... (but I LOVED Daredevil)

I quit on The Vampire Diaries some time ago. I completely lost interest in the silly plots.

I'm going to snag this..

[bigboobedcanuck.livejournal.com]

I thought S1 of The 100 was okay, but S2 was amazeballs. I got super obsessed and can't wait for S3. S2 was grittier and honestly shocked me more than once. I was really impressed! It's not a perfect show or anything, but S2 stepped it up a lot, IMO. And I have a huge crush on Bob Morley (Bellamy). He's so pretty, and a good actor!

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Watch Luther!

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

I read this interesting article which I think that sums up a lot of what I was struggling with? 13 episodes of trying and failing to catch Kilgrave just doesn't appeal to me as much as shows that have individual episode cases, as well as the serialised element.

See, that's what bothers me a lot about episodic and serialized shows. Having self contained episodes makes it harder for me to care much about the actual story being told, since in a majority of cases, it feels as if the impact from X is never carried over into the next to create a better, sequential story that goes from A->B->C. Which isn't to say that you can't have smaller arcs filling in larger ones, but then you end up with shows like Elementary and iZombie, which despite their relative strengths, suffer from the case of the week setup which while possibly good at generating specific moments, never feels like it has a strong finish. Fringe is one of my go to examples, since the show felt like it got a lot better once it began to make a conscious choice to drop the case of the weeks in favor for the larger focus on the overarching mythology of the show, and how everything fits into it. It does have pitfalls though- if you have too many episodes, you end up with messes like Sleepy Hollow, or if you plot out your arcs badly like Hannibal was fond of doing, then you end up with abrupt shifts.

(Which might be of no surprise that I'm relatively uninterested with this season of iZombie, since it just seems very...eh. It also doesn't help that I still think Major is about as interesting as a rock.)

There's also arguments that having an episodic setup forces you to have shorter story arcs that do resolve themselves neatly, and acts as an assumption that everything that happens is story shaped and has a nice progression from start>climax>descent, in which case of reality, life isn't story shaped all the time. I will say that JJ should've used the middling episodes more to explore other parts of the show that it never did get to looking at well (ie, Malcolm and the support group, Jessica's past more) but as a whole, the season as a single vehicle is a model I'm more interested in.

As a show though, JJ is not nearly as viewer friendly as Daredevil is. I mean, Daredevil is violent, yes, but violence is something that we're much more acclimated to as opposed to emotional violence and trauma, which makes for a harder to digest viewing. Which seems to be a reason for a lot of people stopping, since it is an upsetting subject matter.

[sunclouds33.livejournal.com]

Agreed on The Good Wife- both that it's really gone downhill but I'm in it for the long-haul at this point. I really wonder if this sporadic cast change of revolving love interests and law firm flips is because Juliana is so difficult to work with.

Sheldon/Amy FTW! I was watching TBB out of inertia lately- but my interests is sparked at actually giving Sheldon and Sheldon/Amy some development.