Originally posted to my LJ in May 2007
CURRENT SHOW
FANDOM
Originally posted to my LJ in
May 2007
Although this essay uses examples from NCIS, the points I raise can
pretty much apply to any current show fandom when compared to non-current show
fandom.
So NCIS has been renewed for a fifth season. Oddly enough, I find myself
in two frames of mind about this.
On the one hand, of course I'm happy and excited and really pleased. NCIS is,
not only my main fandom containing my beloved Gibbs/Ducky, but it is also, IMO,
one of the better shows currently on TV, on either side of the pond.
However, there is a small part of me that is slightly ambivalent about it being
picked up again, I know, I know heresy, how dare I say that, but bear with me,
please.
There are two reasons for my feelings.
Firstly, not only has the show, in my and in some other people's opinion,
deteriorated to an extent since Season Two. In Seasons One and Two, you knew,
IMHO, that every week you'd have a good episode, now it's more hit and miss.
Plus, I've wondered once or twice recently whether they are running out of
plots.*
And secondly, and for the point of this essay more importantly, being in current
show fandom is more exhausting, in my opinion and experience, than being in
non-current show fandom.
Until I became hooked on NCIS, firstly as a show and then as a fandom, I had
only been in fandoms where all of the canon was already out there and known
about, i.e. completed shows.
Starsky and Hutch first aired in the mid-late 1970s.
The Professionals first aired the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Due South first aired in the mid-1990s.
Sapphire & Steel another late 1970s/early 1980s show.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was first aired in the mid-1960s.
All the canon existed; was out there in some form or other. Thus, finding out
what happened, even before I watched the shows, if I wanted to (I knew S&H, The
Pros and S&S from their first airing on British TV) was mostly if not wholly
achievable. People had been writing fanfic for years, in some cases decades, and
whilst fanfic cannot be relied upon to give one hundred percent accurate
information for things other than factual canon, due to us all seeing and
interpreting things in different ways, enough information could be garnered to
know a lot of the salient plot points, especially those concerning one's
pairing. You could go into fandom knowing how the series ended; you knew whether
your pairing lived or died; married and settled down; whether your pairing were
still friends by the end of the series, etc. etc. etc. You had a 'comfort zone'
- if you wanted it.
That is not so with current show fandom.
Each week/series we are at the mercy of the producers, who might throw anything
into the mix, even the death of half of the pairing (I'm thinking of Gibbs/Kate,
DiNozzo/Kate, Kate/Abby fans here). Of course this doesn't put a stop to fans
who are loyal to their pairing and see them as their OTP; Gibbs/Kate,
DiNozzo/Kate and Kate/Abby still flourishes, and stories are still being written
about them on a fairly regular basis. I'm guessing/going on summaries (given
that I don't read them) that they are a mixture of pre-Kate's death stories, and
alternate reality stories in which Kate never gets killed.
I do find myself wondering, on occasions, whether Gibbs/Kate, DiNozzo/Kate,
Kate/Abby would have a following if Kate's death was somehow knew about before
the show aired? Basically, if people were watching the show as
already-in-existence-show canon rather than current-show-canon. Also, do new
people coming into the show, who already know about Kate's death, 'avoid' a
pairing in which Kate is involved? Or are people like me: you don't choose the
pairing, the pairing chooses you? Thus, it doesn't matter what you know in
advance - except that as you do know, it won't come as a shock to you in the way
it does if you don't know beforehand.
I do also think that, in some ways death is less tiring and easier to deal with
than other things. It's rather like the series ending, in a way, as you can make
a point of putting a stop to your canon with the death of the character. They
aren't going to pop up in later shows and mess you about :-)
However, with ongoing storylines and existing characters, you can find that
stories you write one month are completely and contradicted the next (and I'll
ignore canon inconsistencies for this essay). Again it doesn't stop people (it
doesn't stop me *g*), there's just more to write around and deal with, but each
week the viewing process is quite a tiring one, as you don't know what to
expect, there's no knowledge, nothing to fall back on, no comfort zone.
I find that I don't even particularly 'enjoy' the first watching of each
episode, in fact I find it nerve wracking and exhausting. Now that's partly
because I'm taking notes so that I can write a review of the episode, and that
in itself is hard work, as things happen so quickly, it's quite an effort to
keep up with it (the pause button is my best friend once a week *g*). However,
it's also a case of what are they going to throw at us this time; what are they
going to do with x, y and z'? And it doesn't help when we're mis-led by blurb
(thinks in particular of the so-called Ducky-centric episode), or snippets.
And given the way that show-cultural has changed, we can no longer assume, as we
used to be able to pretty much, that one or more of the lead characters won't,
no matter what, how deeply in love he/she falls, marry or at least get into a
long term, stable, loving relationship. Yes, Starsky & Hutch, Bodie & Doyle, had
girl-friends; yes, Kirk has the 'girl of the week', but even when watching the
shows originally one tended to 'know' that it would be for the week. Their jobs
would interfere, or the girl would get killed (it was not a good time to be 'the
love of the hero) or something, and that by the next week, she would no longer
exist. This is no longer the case; now the lead character can have a serious,
steady, long-lasting, lets-buy-a-home-together, loving relationship that lasts
for far longer than just a week or even two. And could even end in marriage and
happy ever afters.
Again, I know it doesn't and won't stop fandom, even if they did marry Gibbs off
(again), it won't stop me writing Gibbs/Ducky (and I would like to think the
same would apply to other Gibbs/Ducky writers). And I'm sure that even if both
Gibbs and DiNozzo marry their respective women, that it won't stop the dedicated
Gibbs/DiNozzo fans. Fanfic is about 'putting right canon' and rewriting,
explaining, working around, canon we don't necessarily like. However, it is
harder if you actually have to deal with the kind of canon that currently exists
in NCIS.
I know that part of this finding current show fandom more tiring than already in
existence fandom is to do with caring passionately about the show, all the main
characters, and the other characters - and whether the 'caring passionately' is
liking or disliking said characters, doesn't really matter, it's still caring
what happens to them. And that has to be a good thing, right? And it is; I know
that. The more you care, the better it is, yes? But it's so darn tiring :-)
Which is why part of me will be jolly glad when NCIS actually comes to an end,
and I don't have to deal with anymore current canon.
Equally so, at the same time, part of me will be saddened to miss my weekly
'fix' and adrenaline wave/drain (hey, I'm Gemini, I'm allowed to be
dichotomous), and current show fandom becomes non-current show fandom.
And at least for me there will be an end to canon. However, for some people in
fandom there never really is an end to 'canon', is there? How do people who
write RPS/RPF handle the constant 'canon' of the lives of their loves? Or is it
different for you?
So that is why I am ambivalent today at hearing the news re: the fifth season of
NCIS.