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hey! it's one of those posts where i ramble at length about a tv show! how shocking!
I’m fixing to do that fandom-year-in-review meme, so I figured I might as well give you my ~thoughts~ on Misfits before I randomly include it on that meme and y’all are all like, “Wait, she watches Misfits?”
Actually, yes I do. I’m always about a week behind for some reason (I’m planning on watching the Christmas special tonight SO NO SPOILERS PLEASE), but yes I am watching it.
And it’s good. Very good. Well written, great characters, interesting premises, etc. I mean, I love the idea of these bunch of losers getting super powers and finding out they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Flat-out great premise for a show.
I do have to say, though…it’s a bit rough for me? I mean, I get what they’re doing. It’s realistic to who these characters are. But it’s so crude and—let’s face it—Robert Sheehan was right when he called it soft-core porn. And the crudity is totally rooted in (mostly Nathan’s) character, but…I just don’t need that much sex, okay? Not explicitly. Call me a prude if you wish, but I think sex is something deeply personal. I’m okay with talking about it or whatever, but I just don’t want to see it. I’m the girl who skims through smutty fic because I get bored. WHERE ARE THE EMOTIONS. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT HAVING AN ANATOMY LESSON. I KNOW HOW SEX WORKS. I realize I’m one of the few people who feels this way, but I could do with a lot less of it on the show. I also greatly, greatly value subtlety. I mean, several of my favorite books are pretty much about sex. Dangerous Liaisons? SEX LIES BETRAYAL SEX. And it’s fantastic. Marvelous book. But it manages to let you know what’s going on without being graphic, which I think takes more talent than writing an sex scene, as evidenced by how much badly written smut there is out there and how few books there are of Dangerous Liaisons’ caliber. Also, hottest sex scene ever—Buffy and Spike tearing a building down. No clothes come off. All the nudity in the world can’t compare to the SOUND OF THAT ZIPPER OMG DID THEY JUST DO THAT ON TV. If your chemistry is right, the buildup is way sexier than the actual consummation (for the viewers, that is, I’m sure it’s different if you’re the one having the sex) and hints and winks and subtlety are the hottest of all. Voyeurism isn’t everybody’s kink, and I always feel like a voyeur when I watch such scenes. Basically, keep your clothes on, kids. Especially you, Nathan.
ANYWAYS! I have rambled about that quite enough. Let’s get back to the show and all the things I like because they are legion.
Excellent characters. Kelly’s pretty much my favorite because she’s totally a badass but her toughness seems genuine and she really is a good person. She stands up for other people a whole lot more than I think even she knows. Also, nothing in the whole wide world is more hilarious than when Nathan gets all angry about something, steps back and sics Kelly on whoever it is. TOO FUNNY. And yeah, I ship that, but I think they’re doing right by it—he’s way, way, way too tangled up in his own performance of who he thinks Nathan is at this point to actually be in a genuine relationship, so she did the right thing to say, “Let’s just be mates.” (OMG I LOVE HER ACCENT. I could listen to her say “wanker” all day long for the rest of my life. And I love how she’s anything but conventionally attractive and yet the show still treats her like she’s sexy BECAUSE SHE IS. I heart that girl, can you tell?). Nathan is so, so over the top and it’s this fantastic mixture of his genuinely dramatic personality (come on, he so is an attention whore/drama queen [is there another way to say “attention whore” without the word “whore”? I need such a term]) and this façade he’s created to protect himself, and I know even he doesn’t know who he is anymore, and I hope they continue to develop this. I would absolutely hate that kid in real life, but he’s a great TV character, though I feel that sometimes he takes over episodes and I’m like, “NATHAN. LET THE OTHER KIDS HAVE A TURN. GAH!” Anyways, Kelly is made of awesomeness.
Curtis is such a nice guy, he really is (I will always love him forever for giving Kelly his jacket that time in the past), and he and Alicia were all adorable and functional and I kind of hated when they ended that. But! Nikki is a badass! LOVE HER. So he moved on to better things. Though once again, it’s the black guy who gets the least character development. They could do a lot with him, and I wish they would. Tell us about his home life or something. Just…more.
Alicia grows on you, doesn’t she? At first she just seems like a bitchy hot girl who knows exactly how attractive she is and how much better than you that makes her. But there’s so much more going on with her, and she wants to be loved for who she is, and how horrifying must it be to not be able to be touched (commentary on rape culture and the way women are treated as though we make men lose control even though it’s their own damn faults? I think so), and Antonia is fantastic at showing her vulnerability while showing how strong she is, and I am more and more pleased that I cast her as my race!swap!Buffy.
Okay, Simon gives me ~feelings~. Because Iwan Rheon is really, really talented and made me DEEPLY CONFLICTED. Like, I would start feeling really, really sorry for Simon and really, really liking him and then he would do something SUPER CREEPY like sneak into the locker room while invisible and ogle the girls or KEEP THE DEAD PROBATION WORKER’S BODY IN THAT FREEZER AND SIT THERE HANGING OUT WITH IT WHAT IS GOING ON I AM SO CREEPED OUT RIGHT NOW. I felt like a pinball, bouncing back and forth and liking the guy and then being reminded of just how creepy he could be and feeling manipulated like I was being told to feel sorry for him and blame all of his problems on the fact that he was an outsider, but no, some people are just SUPER CREEPY. So when future!Simon showed up all sexy and stoic and everything, I was annoyed because it felt like they hadn’t earned that? But! Since then they’ve started to have present!Simon and future!Simon sort of begin to meet? And so I’m really liking him now a whole lot and I am all about characters growing and giving a second chance to them, so. I have become Team Simon like everybody else, and I can’t wait to see how they develop his relationship with Alicia. TAKE YOUR TIME, SHOW. I always want to yell that at shows when I see what could be an awesome pairing coming on. If you rush it, you could ruin it.
Things I do not understand: the timey-wimey stuff. Uh. Why did future!Simon have to actually die? And does that mean that present!Simon is really dead in the future or is this some sort of nu!Trek kind of thing where Simon won’t necessarily die because now there are multiple universes or whatever? I think I am stupid, because time travel always baffles me. [Truth: I still do not understand what the heck is going on with River Song. Like, how can she be living backwards? THIS MAKES NO SENSE. I DO NOT GET IT.]
The ape thing with Kelly was a little “Ehhh….” For me. I felt like they just wanted to go for the joke of him carrying her up the side of the building. Weirdness.
They keep coming up with such random, random powers and I love it. Unexpectedness! Milk kid! WOOT.
My most important request for this show in the future: PLEASE NATHAN NEVER STOP CALLING SIMON BARRY. I do not know why, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Nathan refers to him as Barry, I laugh hysterically. Favorite thing about the show. Easy to please. “SAVE ME, BARRY!”
Basically, this is a show about murder. I will never stop laughing about that. Although I hope that they don’t end up randomly killing the latest probation worker because he is HILARIOUS.
No doubt an American version is in the works which will be abysmally awful. Oh, America. I do love you sometimes, but sometimes you fail so hard.
Actually, yes I do. I’m always about a week behind for some reason (I’m planning on watching the Christmas special tonight SO NO SPOILERS PLEASE), but yes I am watching it.
And it’s good. Very good. Well written, great characters, interesting premises, etc. I mean, I love the idea of these bunch of losers getting super powers and finding out they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Flat-out great premise for a show.
I do have to say, though…it’s a bit rough for me? I mean, I get what they’re doing. It’s realistic to who these characters are. But it’s so crude and—let’s face it—Robert Sheehan was right when he called it soft-core porn. And the crudity is totally rooted in (mostly Nathan’s) character, but…I just don’t need that much sex, okay? Not explicitly. Call me a prude if you wish, but I think sex is something deeply personal. I’m okay with talking about it or whatever, but I just don’t want to see it. I’m the girl who skims through smutty fic because I get bored. WHERE ARE THE EMOTIONS. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT HAVING AN ANATOMY LESSON. I KNOW HOW SEX WORKS. I realize I’m one of the few people who feels this way, but I could do with a lot less of it on the show. I also greatly, greatly value subtlety. I mean, several of my favorite books are pretty much about sex. Dangerous Liaisons? SEX LIES BETRAYAL SEX. And it’s fantastic. Marvelous book. But it manages to let you know what’s going on without being graphic, which I think takes more talent than writing an sex scene, as evidenced by how much badly written smut there is out there and how few books there are of Dangerous Liaisons’ caliber. Also, hottest sex scene ever—Buffy and Spike tearing a building down. No clothes come off. All the nudity in the world can’t compare to the SOUND OF THAT ZIPPER OMG DID THEY JUST DO THAT ON TV. If your chemistry is right, the buildup is way sexier than the actual consummation (for the viewers, that is, I’m sure it’s different if you’re the one having the sex) and hints and winks and subtlety are the hottest of all. Voyeurism isn’t everybody’s kink, and I always feel like a voyeur when I watch such scenes. Basically, keep your clothes on, kids. Especially you, Nathan.
ANYWAYS! I have rambled about that quite enough. Let’s get back to the show and all the things I like because they are legion.
Excellent characters. Kelly’s pretty much my favorite because she’s totally a badass but her toughness seems genuine and she really is a good person. She stands up for other people a whole lot more than I think even she knows. Also, nothing in the whole wide world is more hilarious than when Nathan gets all angry about something, steps back and sics Kelly on whoever it is. TOO FUNNY. And yeah, I ship that, but I think they’re doing right by it—he’s way, way, way too tangled up in his own performance of who he thinks Nathan is at this point to actually be in a genuine relationship, so she did the right thing to say, “Let’s just be mates.” (OMG I LOVE HER ACCENT. I could listen to her say “wanker” all day long for the rest of my life. And I love how she’s anything but conventionally attractive and yet the show still treats her like she’s sexy BECAUSE SHE IS. I heart that girl, can you tell?). Nathan is so, so over the top and it’s this fantastic mixture of his genuinely dramatic personality (come on, he so is an attention whore/drama queen [is there another way to say “attention whore” without the word “whore”? I need such a term]) and this façade he’s created to protect himself, and I know even he doesn’t know who he is anymore, and I hope they continue to develop this. I would absolutely hate that kid in real life, but he’s a great TV character, though I feel that sometimes he takes over episodes and I’m like, “NATHAN. LET THE OTHER KIDS HAVE A TURN. GAH!” Anyways, Kelly is made of awesomeness.
Curtis is such a nice guy, he really is (I will always love him forever for giving Kelly his jacket that time in the past), and he and Alicia were all adorable and functional and I kind of hated when they ended that. But! Nikki is a badass! LOVE HER. So he moved on to better things. Though once again, it’s the black guy who gets the least character development. They could do a lot with him, and I wish they would. Tell us about his home life or something. Just…more.
Alicia grows on you, doesn’t she? At first she just seems like a bitchy hot girl who knows exactly how attractive she is and how much better than you that makes her. But there’s so much more going on with her, and she wants to be loved for who she is, and how horrifying must it be to not be able to be touched (commentary on rape culture and the way women are treated as though we make men lose control even though it’s their own damn faults? I think so), and Antonia is fantastic at showing her vulnerability while showing how strong she is, and I am more and more pleased that I cast her as my race!swap!Buffy.
Okay, Simon gives me ~feelings~. Because Iwan Rheon is really, really talented and made me DEEPLY CONFLICTED. Like, I would start feeling really, really sorry for Simon and really, really liking him and then he would do something SUPER CREEPY like sneak into the locker room while invisible and ogle the girls or KEEP THE DEAD PROBATION WORKER’S BODY IN THAT FREEZER AND SIT THERE HANGING OUT WITH IT WHAT IS GOING ON I AM SO CREEPED OUT RIGHT NOW. I felt like a pinball, bouncing back and forth and liking the guy and then being reminded of just how creepy he could be and feeling manipulated like I was being told to feel sorry for him and blame all of his problems on the fact that he was an outsider, but no, some people are just SUPER CREEPY. So when future!Simon showed up all sexy and stoic and everything, I was annoyed because it felt like they hadn’t earned that? But! Since then they’ve started to have present!Simon and future!Simon sort of begin to meet? And so I’m really liking him now a whole lot and I am all about characters growing and giving a second chance to them, so. I have become Team Simon like everybody else, and I can’t wait to see how they develop his relationship with Alicia. TAKE YOUR TIME, SHOW. I always want to yell that at shows when I see what could be an awesome pairing coming on. If you rush it, you could ruin it.
Things I do not understand: the timey-wimey stuff. Uh. Why did future!Simon have to actually die? And does that mean that present!Simon is really dead in the future or is this some sort of nu!Trek kind of thing where Simon won’t necessarily die because now there are multiple universes or whatever? I think I am stupid, because time travel always baffles me. [Truth: I still do not understand what the heck is going on with River Song. Like, how can she be living backwards? THIS MAKES NO SENSE. I DO NOT GET IT.]
The ape thing with Kelly was a little “Ehhh….” For me. I felt like they just wanted to go for the joke of him carrying her up the side of the building. Weirdness.
They keep coming up with such random, random powers and I love it. Unexpectedness! Milk kid! WOOT.
My most important request for this show in the future: PLEASE NATHAN NEVER STOP CALLING SIMON BARRY. I do not know why, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Nathan refers to him as Barry, I laugh hysterically. Favorite thing about the show. Easy to please. “SAVE ME, BARRY!”
Basically, this is a show about murder. I will never stop laughing about that. Although I hope that they don’t end up randomly killing the latest probation worker because he is HILARIOUS.
No doubt an American version is in the works which will be abysmally awful. Oh, America. I do love you sometimes, but sometimes you fail so hard.
no subject
I agree with the things you wrote except for the sex. I love the sex on misfits. It's been ages since I've seen sex portrayed somewhat naturally on tv. Usually it's just this generic, porn inspired (aka no body hair, weird artificial looking women) boring stuff (take true blood for example, even their orgies where kinda "don't forget your hygiene!"). But on misfits it's messy and funny and awkward and there's body hair and body types like Kelly's and Fishermen's Friends.
While I think on True Blood for example you'd lose nothing if you just skipped the sex scenes, they really work on misfits. They always go somewhere and are often very funny (also the sex is not always good, how great is that?).
Otherwise I agree. It's a brilliant show and I can't wait for next season and how it'll work out with the timey wimey stuff.
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But such a fun show! I really do enjoy it so very much!
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I guess that bit is kinda ingrained in television for me. On tv we get to see characters in intensely private moments all the time, we see them crying, having private relationship conversations, quarrels, we see them fall to desperation, sickness. All those things are private to me, but on a show you get to see those hidden parts. And imho sex is a very interesting and powerful interaction plane, you can do awesome things with sex scenes, it's just that most of the time they are reduced to your standard 0815 male gaze porn movie that's just bodies interacting like robots (like that incredibly silly lesbian sex scene in Black Swan that I saw recently).
But yes, the show rules on so many levels. I love Kelly saying "wanker" too. I'm contemplating setting as a ring tone on my cell for a few guys. :)
I also love the insanoamazing level of annoyingness Nathan reaches. Sometimes I just can't help staring gaping at the screen and having Nikki's "He's SUCH a tool!" moment.
I really hope the bit about him not being on S3 is just rumors.
no subject
I guess for me the distinction is, those are all things I could share with any number of people I'm close to--from my mama to my BFF. Whereas with sex, that only ever involves...the people involved. It's just on a different level for me.
I'm contemplating setting as a ring tone on my cell for a few guys. :)
That would be EPIC in its awesomeness.
I also love the insanoamazing level of annoyingness Nathan reaches. Sometimes I just can't help staring gaping at the screen and having Nikki's "He's SUCH a tool!" moment.
I know! Your jaw drops and you think, "How can someone operate like that? How is it possible? Makes for great TV!
no subject
I can't really distinguish there. I usually focus very strongly on the person I'm with. There are a lot of things I can only share with one particular person at a time and there are conversations with my mum, dad, moments with my sister, my other sister and various friends that are as completely unique and as intimate to me as sex (or some other moments) with my boyfriend is.
But I guess that's just different for every person. I tend to be very shy about things that many people are very open about, while sex really doesn't bother that much (or rather there's so much about the present day depiction of sex that bothers me that I always get the impression if I keep quiet the male gaze wins).
That would be EPIC in its awesomeness.
I'll have to see if I can rip her saying it out somewhere and turn it into an mp3. :)
I know! Your jaw drops and you think, "How can someone operate like that? How is it possible? Makes for great TV!
It really does. I don't think I'm easy to shock, but Nathan manages to do it regularly. That suscreen scene! O.o
no subject
They have already commissioned series 3, though it's possible it will be without Nathan. :-( I hope they keep Nikki, too. And I think Simon is awesome and awesomely creepy in roughly equal measure.
Kelly is amazing - an archetypal chav, but she wins our respect and admiration, no easy thing.
no subject
Exactly. It makes me feel better that someone else has a similar reaction!
I loved the way "lactokinesis" was the shittest power ever and then turned out to be more menacing and violent than any of the others. Lots of interesting stuff about celebrity and reality TV in that one.
Yes! Such an interesting episode for those very reasons!
I've been hearing lately that Nathan will be back, but I think everything's rumor at this point, so I guess we won't know till we know.
And I think Simon is awesome and awesomely creepy in roughly equal measure.
Ha! Fantastic way of describing it!
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You crack me up, I hope you know.
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I thought you would enjoy that ramble!
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That is one reason I love Alisha's arc. I know a lot of commentators feel that it's an unconscious example of rape culture at work, but I really don't think it is. I think they are pretty deliberately deconstructing the horrible messages our culture puts on women, and beautiful women in particular.
KEEP THE DEAD PROBATION WORKER’S BODY IN THAT FREEZER AND SIT THERE HANGING OUT WITH IT
WHILE EATING AN ICE CREAM HE PROBABLY KEPT IN THE WITH THE DEAD BODY.