Wayback Exchange

Challenge #7

The Ferris Wheel
Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.

Well, probably one of the wildest fandom experiences I personally experienced was I was in Supernatural fandom on November 5, 2020. I want to preface this by saying I did not ship Destiel, it was not one of my ships of choice, but you obviously could not avoid if you were in the SPN fandom. Anyways, I watched the episode live then went on tumblr afterwards and it was crazy! And not just because Destiel went semi-canon, this was the same night the 2020 US election was happening so results were coming in, we were still in the middle of the pandemic, there were rumours that Putin was talking about resigning, rumours of Sherlock season 5, and other things I'm sure I forgot about. Anyways, I remember I stayed up as late as a could (which wasn't very late because I like an early bed-time) and then I went back online early in the morning and it was till going on and I had to catch up on so much. Anyways, it is very hard to describe how crazy that time was, everyone was freaking out but also having a fun time. If you can check out the Fanlore article, we editors tried our best to document it, but it is really hard to capture what a phenomenon this was.

I'm sure if you know about this event you know about this vid, but if not, give it a watch, it kind of captures the madness of it all:

Challenge #5

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.

This one isn't a favourite per se, but I did recently watch and enjoy it, it's Sherlock & Daughter.



Title: Sherlock & Daughter 

Media: Television series

Approx length: 8 episodes, approx 8 hours

Where to find it: CW/HBO Max

What is it, in summary?: A young woman from the US named Amelia arrives at 221B claiming to be Sherlock Holmes' daughter.  Holmes doubts this claim.  At the same time Holmes is in a terrible bind, his dear friends Doctor Watson and Mrs Hudson have been kidnapped, and if he wants them to remain alive the kidnappers have said he is not to investigate any crimes.  He takes Amelia on as his maid/assistant and she goes out into the world collecting clues and information so Holmes can make deductions and appear uninvolved.      

What do you love about it?: First off I wanted to say if you are looking for a book accurate Sherlock Holmes adaptation this is not the show for you, I would instead suggest the Granada series which I talk about here.  This show runs more on Holmes style vibes than anything else, plus this is supposed take place several years after the events of the books.  It is also a very "CW" version of Sherlock Holmes, by which I mean there was a lot of focus on the young characters, in this case Amelia, who I did like, lots of drama and action.  I'm probably not explaining it well, but if you've watched CW shows from the past you get their style and vibe. 

Anyways, with all the caveats aside, I did enjoy this for what it was, and I found the overarching mystery interesting enough as they tried to figure out how Watson and Mrs Hudson's kidnapping was connected to other crimes.  Also, the characters were likeable, I did like the actor who played Holmes, he's not my fave by any means, no one will probably ever top Brett for me, but I still enjoyed his take on Holmes.

As of right now, the CW has not renewed the show, however, I will say the main overarching storyline of the season is wrapped up by the end.  There were a couple of minor plotlines left open for the possibility of a second season, but you can enjoy the one season as a complete story.

Content warnings: There is murder and violence, I say fairly typical of murder mysteries.  There is a scene where a very minor character commits suicide.  

Who do I ship?: Holmes/Watson. Watson is barely in the season and I still ship them!  There are a few small moments throughout the season where you can tell that Holmes is thinking about Watson and they just tug at my heart.  There is a scene at the end of the first episode where Holmes says to himself "My dear Watson, where are you?"  then looks longingly at Watson's medical bag on his desk.  Like come on!  I tried to find a gif of it, but tumblr for once has failed me :( (if I find a gif after I will place it here).

There is also some fun tension between Holmes and a certain villain character that piqued my interest.

My brother and I went to see the Superman movie yesterday, and I enjoyed it.  It wasn't a prefect movie, there where a few small things I would have changed, but overall it was entertaining.  The movie doesn't start out with his whole backstory like most Superman films, you start in the middle of the story as it were, and some background information is sprinkled throughout.  They also have "meta-humans" (DC's version of mutants) already a part of the story which was also a nice change, usually in most Superman movies he's the only one with powers.  Lex Luther is very hateable in this one, he is the tech billionaire type who thinks he is smarter than everyone else and willing to do terrible shit to get his way.  I don't think he's my favourite Lex, but I think they did a good job modernizing him. Anyways, overall a fun movie.

On another note, my brother and I usually go to weekday matinees, usually it's just us and some elderly couples in the audience. Well, I kind of forgot the kids were on summer holidays, plus it was "cheap Tuesdays" so the place was pretty full, the most full I've seen a matinee in years, but surprisingly all the kids were well behaved, the movie must have really captured their attention.