The joys of fandom #298

Yes, it's the latest installment.

Let's talk about this obsession for self-promotion, shall we? Like the people who use mailing lists as the forum for their little mutual appreciation societies to pat one another on the back for their mediocre and unimaginative fic, because surely that's what they're for? Where the author posts interminable WIPs apparently solely for the purpose of their friends raving over every installment and their own vapid and cliqueish responses to that ego-stroking.

And then people wonder why there's no good fic in that fandom any more...

You can never go back again, except when you can...

So, the Sci Fi channel over here are finally showing Witchblade and I remembered hearing some people of my acquaintance raving over it back when it first aired in the US, so I thought I'd give it a try. Of course, I know it's only a limited run of episodes due, as I understand it, to Yancy Butler's alcohol issues, but it's entertaining enough in its own cheesy way.

The amusing thing with today's episode, before Sarah pressed the virtual reset button and everything went back to how it was before (damn you, writers!) was seeing everyone peel up at Irons' place and discover that Kenneth Irons shares accommodation with The Agency of Once a Thief fame. Yes, that self-same ornamental door that actually leads into a reservoir pumping station does double duty once again, proving that there's only a handful of locations in Vancouver - I don't think it's turned up in Stargate SG-1 yet, but there's still time.

However, Sarah Pezzini ranks up there alongside Buffy Summers as whiny-ass queen of the universe. The guy who plays Jake is also annoying, so I'm pleased that the reset button has brought back her real partner (the super-cool Will Yun Lee). And the show even has the pretty, in the form of John Hensley as the scarily-pretty Gabriel, though he doesn't come back in season 2. :(

Still, that's the thing I'm enjoying about satellite channels over here - once they get hold of a show, they play it to death in quick order so you don't have to wait. FX are shortly re-running The Shield, which I always wanted to see but never seemed to manage to catch the first episodes of, since I need to watch a show from the beginning. New shows coming on in January 2005 include The Wire and new seasons of Cold Case and NCIS. Woo and indeed yay!