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Fannish Friday: Characters Who Are Too Good for Their Stories
Sometimes a show or a book or another story will be just...really mediocre (or even bad) but have one or two elements that are so good that they make you wistful (or frustrated) over what might have been.
When I think of this kind of scenario, I think of two television shows: Still Star Crossed and Dollhouse.
Still Star Crossed was one of those Shondaland shows, which are...not my cup of tea. I do not enjoy her kind of television. But I watched this one anyway, and even though I think the show was...a complete and total mess (other than the visuals and the cast, which were both very good), I will have feelings about Rosaline and Benvolio for the rest of my life. (I also really loved the supporting character of Isabella.) I mean LOOK AT THEM.
This was such a perfect ship made up of two characters I really liked played by actors who were amazing in their roles! They're enemies who end up having to work together, learn to respect and appreciate each other, and then just start falling in love before the show ends abruptly. I shall never recover!
The show was canceled before all of its episodes aired--it apparently did abysmally, which I find perplexing. I know I said it was a hot mess, but it was no more of a hot mess than Bridgerton (another Shondaland show) that does huge viewership numbers. So I really don't know why this show didn't work.
But anyway: I wish these two had been in a better show, one that lasted longer, because I deserved that!
As for Dollhouse, I remember how excited we all were over on LJ when it was announced--a new Whedon show! (This was while we still actually liked Whedon on the strength of the Buffyverse.) But yeah...it was...another mess, though in a different way.
But it had some really good characters! Anyone played by Olivia Williams is just going to be flat-out awesome. Amy Acker is always good. I thought Miracle Laurie did a really good job with her character and I'm confused as to why I haven't seen her anywhere since then.
But my favorites were Priya/Sierra and Tony/Victor played by Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj. The actors were absolutely wonderful--so good, in fact, that they made me believe in the soulmate trope, and I NEVER believe in the soulmate trope! They were just perfect in every way and while this was probably almost entirely due to the strength of the actors (Gjokaj in particular is, I think, insanely underrated), it didn't matter. I loved them! Why couldn't they be in a show that deserved them????????
I still actually think the premise of Dollhouse was interesting and could have been done really well if someone as gross as Whedon weren't the one behind it.
I would love to hear about characters that really worked for you, even if the story they were inside didn't.
When I think of this kind of scenario, I think of two television shows: Still Star Crossed and Dollhouse.
Still Star Crossed was one of those Shondaland shows, which are...not my cup of tea. I do not enjoy her kind of television. But I watched this one anyway, and even though I think the show was...a complete and total mess (other than the visuals and the cast, which were both very good), I will have feelings about Rosaline and Benvolio for the rest of my life. (I also really loved the supporting character of Isabella.) I mean LOOK AT THEM.
This was such a perfect ship made up of two characters I really liked played by actors who were amazing in their roles! They're enemies who end up having to work together, learn to respect and appreciate each other, and then just start falling in love before the show ends abruptly. I shall never recover!
The show was canceled before all of its episodes aired--it apparently did abysmally, which I find perplexing. I know I said it was a hot mess, but it was no more of a hot mess than Bridgerton (another Shondaland show) that does huge viewership numbers. So I really don't know why this show didn't work.
But anyway: I wish these two had been in a better show, one that lasted longer, because I deserved that!
As for Dollhouse, I remember how excited we all were over on LJ when it was announced--a new Whedon show! (This was while we still actually liked Whedon on the strength of the Buffyverse.) But yeah...it was...another mess, though in a different way.
But it had some really good characters! Anyone played by Olivia Williams is just going to be flat-out awesome. Amy Acker is always good. I thought Miracle Laurie did a really good job with her character and I'm confused as to why I haven't seen her anywhere since then.
But my favorites were Priya/Sierra and Tony/Victor played by Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj. The actors were absolutely wonderful--so good, in fact, that they made me believe in the soulmate trope, and I NEVER believe in the soulmate trope! They were just perfect in every way and while this was probably almost entirely due to the strength of the actors (Gjokaj in particular is, I think, insanely underrated), it didn't matter. I loved them! Why couldn't they be in a show that deserved them????????
I still actually think the premise of Dollhouse was interesting and could have been done really well if someone as gross as Whedon weren't the one behind it.
I would love to hear about characters that really worked for you, even if the story they were inside didn't.
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But anyway, what a waste of an interesting character!
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but what kills me about it is that it had Viola Davis as the senior partner Hannah and she is WAY TOO GOOD for the show she's on.
Oh, dude, I BET!
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my number one character I adore from a book that makes me go yikes is Tagiri from Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Pastwatch is an Orson Scott Card book that has a deeply racist and uncomfortable premise, but Tagiri is a character who has really spoken to me for decades. She's compassionate, she's deeply odd, and that combination is respected in her by the narrative and by the people around her. And specifically what she does is she uses the "pastwatch" machines to look through history backwards - following her family's story back and back and back further in time to find the causes of things after having observed the results, which just feels so relatable to me. And she is interested in the stories of ordinary people when she looks through the past, instead of looking at the "great men" of history. She cares about people as individuals and sees their importance in their own lives.
(If you want to read more of my thoughts about why the rest of pastwatch is pretty garbage, and why I used to love it anyway, here's my book review)
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I haven't read that particular Card, but wow, that dude did have some talent in certain directions...it's just completely surrounded by his terrible, terrible worldview. I haven't reread Speaker for the Dead in years, but it was really important to me at one time. I don't know he managed to write that tbh.
She's compassionate, she's deeply odd, and that combination is respected in her by the narrative and by the people around her. nd specifically what she does is she uses the "pastwatch" machines to look through history backwards - following her family's story back and back and back further in time to find the causes of things after having observed the results, which just feels so relatable to me. And she is interested in the stories of ordinary people when she looks through the past, instead of looking at the "great men" of history. She cares about people as individuals and sees their importance in their own lives.
This is my kind of character! No wonder you love her!
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Anyway I am now going to take a moment again to talk about Cha Song-joo from Capital Scandal -- my first and most beloved exposure to the kdrama trope of 'gisaeng by day, revolutionary assassin by night,' incredible at all three of her jobs of a.) recruiting the heroine of the show into the revolution and becoming her beloved mentor, b.) being in a star-crossed pining romance with her childhood love who now works for the Police and is constantly forced to Interrogate her about her Activities, and c.) and perhaps most importantly being the hero's constantly trolling best friend in one of the most amazing male-female platonic best friendships I've ever seen in a kdrama or indeed any show. Unfortunately, but her show came out in 2007 and she was a sex worker who murdered several people onscreen; perhaps if the show had come out in 2023 she would not have died an infuriating death in the penultimate episode.
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I still haven't watched that one, though I know it's beloved! And the character sounds amazing!
perhaps if the show had come out in 2023 she would not have died an infuriating death in the penultimate episode.
We can only hope!
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So, I generally really love the UK Being Human, but I *especially* love Lia, who showed up for all of TWO EPISODES and who killed her killer through the power of thought and I just - I love her so much! I know Mitchell was a fan favorite but he deserved to die after the S2 finale, he just did. Wolf-shaped gun! And so I always feel like we could have done with more of Lia.
I also know people have strong opinions about BSG, especially S4, but here's the thing: I love Kara Thrace so much, to the moon and back again, that I didn't care about the details of her return too much. If I think about the Official Plot of it all, that she's an angel or a ghost leading humanity to Earth, it strains the brain. But also: I don't care! I loved Kara too much not to treasure every second I had with her <333
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I never had strong feelings about Kara, which makes me an outlier, but I recognize intellectually what a good character she is!
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(Here endeth the random Kara spiral.)
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