Being Erica 3x02

Being Erica is a show I really like but haven't posted much about before. The gist is this: 30-something Erica, under the guidance of the mysterious Doctor Tom, undertakes an unusual kind of therapy where she travels back in time to old regrets and tries to change them so that they have a more positive outcome. In doing so, she relates what she's learned to present day situations and starts to build a better life for herself, both professionally and relationship-wise.

One of the things I love most about this show is the focus on the women in Erica's life. Her mother, her sister, her female boss, her three female friends, her frenemy - Erica has a different relationship with each of them and the show shows just how important they are to her and how they impact on her life.

Last week's episode, the first of season 3, was tasked with introducing new characters and a new formula for the episodes to work around, which was key to setting up the season. What I appreciated about the second episode is that we got to check in on most of the women in Erica's life, even if only briefly, and got to see at two of them start new arcs of their own, independent of Erica.

Yep. It's the kind of awesome that apparently only Canadians can produce. If the male dominated TV landscape is getting you down then I heartily recommend this show for your dose of complex, relate-able women (and the male characters are really good too).

Inception picspam

So, like everyone and their mother, I saw Inception. And I thought it was pretty good. Great concept, great cast, great costumes, and great effects. However, I think Nolan isn't as skilled when it comes to dialogue and characterisation as he is with plot. Luckily, that's where the Inception fandom kicks ass and takes names. There is so much good fic out there, it's unbelievable. People are writing wonderful backgrounds for these characters, going into their motivations and relationships. I think that the reason Inception fandom is chugging along so nicely is that the lack of characterisation on Nolan's part allows for so many different interpretations of the characters.

I came away from the film looking for fic because if the characters weren't fully dimensional on the page, the actors made them compelling on screen. I particularly liked Arthur because: 1) played by JGL, whom I've crushed on since he cut his hair in the later seasons of 3rd Rock, 2) he is a loyal friend and incredibly competent at his job, 3) GQ-ness, 4) badass zero gravity fight. Ariadne was basically there to ask questions that the audience wanted answered and act as Cobb's therapist, but she took control of situations, called Cobb on his bullshit, and Ellen Page imbued her with enough spunk that I really liked her too.

Shipping them? Well it's kind of canon, but never has so much been made of so little. Still, I latched onto those teeny tiny moments and have been blessed with a fandom offering an unproportional response. Arthur/Ariadne fans: you're awesome.

I swear I was humming 'Slow Show' by the National as I left the theatre. Some of the lyrics work so well that it immediately became their song in my head, but from Arthur's perspective. Now, the traditional response would have been to make a fanmix but the fandom was flooded with those in the early days (hasn't much let up of late, either) and plus, I couldn't find many other songs to suit.

But I have always wanted to try one of picspammy's challenges and in this one, 'illustrate a song with a fandom', seemed like the perfect opportunity to mash 'Slow Show' and Inception together. The only problem was the lack of usable images. This was cobbled together using two different trailers, a couple of production stills, screencaps from (500) Days of Summer and Whip It, and various photoshoots that JGL and Page have done. Trying to make images from different sources of varying levels of quality, colouring, and lighting look cohesive was impossible. In the end I decided to embrace the variety and thus this picspam is a little schizophrenic.

I only used lyrics that I felt were relevant but this is still quite long - avoid if you're on dial-up.



( I dreamed about you )