it's a magical world

I am way, way behind on Merlin. By which I mean I finally sat down and started watching S4 tonight. Halfway through 4x02, I just have to say -- ( minor spoilers )

So apparently Merlin is back. And shit got REAL, oh man. ( very mildly spoilery )

Things I would like to see on Merlin this series that I probably won't:
1. Gwen needs an actual plotline. Preferably that does not revolve around her being Arthur's comfort. Hi, writers, here is Gwen, she is awesome. WHY DO YOU NOT USE HER. Kthxbai.
2. SOMEONE FINDS OUT ABOUT MERLIN'S MAGIC FOR FUCK'S SAKE. Like Morgana! That conversation badly needs to happen. And I'm basically assuming that Arthur has figured it out and is actively pretending to ignore it now, because that's pretty much the only thing that even makes sense anymore.
3. Uther dies. No, seriously. It's time and past. This show needs to stop pussyfooting around Arthur's destiny and force him to live up to it, and for that to happen, Uther needs to be taken out of play. And I can think of like twelve different narratively engaging ways for it to happen off the top of my head, surely the writers could figure something out.
4. ...but first Arthur needs to officially find out about Merlin's magic, for fuck's sake.

At least I'm back to being engaged in this fandom, which is yay! I've even put some work into the Merlin-centric vid I started and abandoned about four months ago. Which is fun. Though this was also my last day off for the next...five weeks? Six? Not sure. But yeah. So probably I won't actually finish anything anytime soon. (Oh god, I go into tech next weekend. Kill me now.)

It's kind of sad how realizing that I'm not going to have another day off for over a month doesn't even faze me anymore. The three and a half months without a day off earlier this year, that was rough. Six weeks? Psh.

I am seriously ODed on cake. And there's still more in my fridge. Now I remember why birthdays only come once a year, because jesus christ I have had too much cake over the past two days.

I've been failing on RL friends left and right these past couple of weeks. Urg. Oh well. Tomorrow morning I'm getting on a bus and going up to NYC for the first time since Thanksgiving, and tomorrow night I intend to get smashingly drunk with my closes friends from high school, and it will be marvelous. One pitfall of being an introvert, I suppose, is that I have many friendly acquaintances and very, very few real friends -- but I was extraordinarily lucky in my high school friendships. I can count on one hand the people I can truly, completely Be Myself with, and I will be seeing two of them at the same time tomorrow night, which makes me deeply happy. And almost makes up for the fact that the real reason I'm going to NYC this weekend is to sort out the last of my stuff at my parents' place, because they're moving out of my childhood home this summer. WEIRD. But inevitable, I know.

Oh, right, TV meme.


Day 11 - A show that disappointed you

X-Files went tragically downhill, and Sports Night had the Dating Plan (ARGH), and West Wing lost Sorkin and RTD's Whoniverse went batshit and really, any show that lasts long enough is bound to disappoint somehow. But -- and I say this with love -- the big one for me is Merlin. Which, okay, I adore the characters. I adore the fandom. I adore the ridiculous crack. But while it has flashes of brilliance, the show's writing is never, ever at the level I want it to be, and it deeply frustrates me. Two full seasons, and they fucking refuse to alter the status quo -- how much longer do I need to suspend my disbelief that no one knows Merlin uses magic? How much longer will Morgana -- and, to a lesser extent, Gwen -- continue to be relegated to the background, apart from rare her-centric episodes that try to cram a season's worth of wasted character development into forty minutes? How can you give us these four brilliant, well-rounded, funny, clever, loving, courageous characters and write such banal and empty plots for them? (There are exceptions to all of these complaints, obviously.)

But seriously, I say this out of love. Because while the silly fun is lovely, really, I think this show has the potential to be so much more. We have moments -- the Mordred arc, the entirety of "Sins of the Father", everything Gwen ever says or does. And maybe I'm asking for too much, but it wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't think it could be so much better. For the most part, I'm just left with a sense of wasted potential.

So I stick with the fandom instead, where the writing, as a whole, sets the bar much higher.

I'm working on a Morgana vid, and JESUS CHRIST it is BREAKING MY HEART.

Clipping "Fires of Idirsholas" now. ( spoilers, for those who haven't seen yet )

1. I am making the most amazing Strawberry Cupcakes for my housemate's birthday, you have no idea. I love trying new recipes for baked goods, and I'm adding my own cream cheese icing (from scratch, natch), which I added some of the extra strawberry juice to, and OMG, guys. NOM.

2. I had a surprisingly good evening yesterday. Unexpected good things are awesome.

3. The weather is glorious, so I wandered down to explore the monuments for two hours. DC is a very pretty city. Over the past week or so, I've reached a sort of zen-ish settling-in place here, and I'm fairly certain that barring sudden job acquisition elsewhere, I'm going to stay in the DC area for another year or so. I have friends here independent of my work, I'm starting to build cred in the smaller theaters, and I don't want to move across country to start from scratch all over again. So: DC it is. Now I just need one of the jobs I've applied for to come through.

It's amazing how much more at peace with myself I've become since making that decision. Even job stress doesn't bother me anymore -- I know I can always work box office or something to make ends meet while waiting for a proper job to come through. I'm still on the fence about leaving my field of choice -- I've got a couple of admin assistant positions for non-performing arts organizations bookmarked, but I'm hesitant to give up this quickly. I still have five weeks to find something I want to do first. But gainful employment is kind of key here. Ah, well, we'll see.

4. I'm finally watching Merlin (and Life) now that I've allowed myself new fandoms again. Silly good fun.

5. A certain extraordinarily awesome intern at my theatre (HI!) knitted me a Ravenclaw scarf. Seriously, how awesome is that? TOTALLY AWESOME. I will wear it always -- um, once it's not summer, anyway. :D

6. Meme! I will do a commentary track on any of my stories, like the audio extra on a DVD, talking about what went into it and my general thoughts on it. I've posted this meme before (ages ago), and no one bit then, and probably no one will now. But it sounds like fun, so if anyone's interested, hit me up. Since I'm in a bit of a writing lull while my Big Bang is in beta...