The Rec Center #192
Hello! First of all, pour one out for the Jeremy Renner app—and yes, we’ve got coverage of the death of this cultural touchstone (and other ill-fated celebrity apps). Gav & I have also written an explainer about The OA, the Netflix sci-fi (?) show that was FOOLISHLY cancelled a few weeks back, and in the same thematic vein, a fanfic rec list of stories people would describe as “hopeful.” — Elizabeth
new stuff
“TV Without Borders” by Naveen Kumar at Vox
The rise of streaming services with global distribution means people are watching TV from all over the world—including subtitled shows in the U.S., which historically has consumed very little non-Anglophone TV. An interesting look at transnational audiences & cultural exchange!
“The Jeremy Renner App Was Our Most Surreal Social Network” by Miles Klee at MEL Magazine
In case you haven’t already noticed all the people dunking on this story: Jeremy Renner had an app, and now that app has been shut down due to trolls. This post explores the rather bemused reaction some people have to the idea of Jeremy Renner fandom—although I’m sure some MCU fans in our readership would not find this surprising at all.
older stuff
“Taylor Swift’s app The Swift Life, is the latest celebrity app to shutter” by Kate Clark at Tech Crunch
As it turns out, there’s a long history of celebrity apps going down the drain—including the dramatically political demise of Taylor Swift’s fandom platform.
tumblr & beyond
Cassian Andor & K-2SO fanart by shima_spoon
“Never forget this iconic scene of Scully breaking into Mulder’s computer.”
Huge respect to the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV show having to write around this incredibly inconvenient canon one-liner for literally years.
This post about Aragorn being a Horse Girl is just *chef kiss.*
A lovely alternate ending for Donna in Doctor Who.
Love this AO3 cosplay—the tags!!
explainer: the OA
Elizabeth: OK so! You may have heard that this Netflix original show has been CANCELLED. That is an actual travesty and we’ll get to that in a moment, but for now, the fact that we both wanna rec it anyway really says something!
The basic set-up is this: the show was created by and stars Brit Marling, whose character had a near-death experience as a child. As an adult, she is captured and held hostage by Jason Isaacs, who is experimenting on people who’ve had NDEs. It’s during these experiments that she learns how to travel between dimensions, and when she eventually escapes, she tells a collection of misfitty boys (and a teacher!! BBA FOREVER!!) about all of this, setting up a question of belief & faith versus skepticism. Interdimensional travel specifically relies on something called “The Movements,” a sort of coordinated interpretive dance, and if you’ve heard about this show, this is probably what you’ve encountered.
Gav: This show is VERY DIVISIVE for reasons that I fully understand, but like Elizabeth, I’m one of the people who wholeheartedly loves it. Rewatching season 1, I was struck once again by how excellent it is in terms of writing and acting, beyond the immediately obvious fact that it’s “weird.” If anything, it’s even better the second time round, which is very rare for a show that’s famous for making attention-grabbing creative choices like, you know, magical interpretive dance.
IMO The OA is the true successor to Twin Peaks—a show that does really creative and experimental things from a filmmaking perspective, while still being narratively accessible and fun, in a story that exposes a lot of dark elements about Life In America.
Even the basic setting of season 1 is fascinating to me, because so much American TV is set in the suburbs, but The OA specifically takes place in an unfinished housing estate that was abandoned during the mortgage crisis, which really emphasizes the isolation of the main characters instead of providing, like, a neutral prosperous backdrop. The show also ties together a bunch of really juicy ideas—cults, toxic masculinity, New Age mysticism, teen alienation—in a way that feels wholly original... and then season 2 completely obliterates all that by launching into a drastic scene-change. No spoilers, but it’s a bold choice that really upgrades what was already a fantastic show, broadening its aesthetic horizons and giving the cast even more material to work with. I just love it so much! Well done, The OA!
Elizabeth: AND THEN NETFLIX CANCELLED IT. YOU FOOLS. NETFLIX ARE YOU LISTENING??? If you missed it a few weeks back, Gav wrote a great piece on this and other Netflix originals (most of which were more diverse, interesting, and thoughtful than a lot of television at large). I only watched it after it was cancelled, mostly because fans’ campaigns to save the show were so interesting, and garnering a lot of attention.
Photograph by Matt Barton
Shamefully, I should have watched it long before it was cancelled because... I am friends with one of the writers lolol. Claire Kiechel, who wrote on s2 and also a fantastic playwright, has been very active talking with fans post-cancellation, so we asked her to come on Fansplaining to discuss the show and its fans, and it’s one of my favorite conversations ever. Claire made Flourish & me cry multiple times! (There’s also a full transcript if you’re not a podcast listener.) I’d especially recommend it if you’re already a fan of the show and you are mourning its loss, though Claire is really great talking about Hollywood and the kind of stories it values, too, which is interesting regardless of whether you have seen the show.
The show’s creators mapped out a full five-season arc before they ever pitched the show, and that’s part of the reason the abrupt cut-off post-s2 sucks so much—and I’m aware that us reccing this is like saying, “this wip is really good but the author has permanently abandoned it :(” I think we’d both agree that the show is so powerful and interesting that it’s worth watching these first two seasons, and in a more practical sense, an uptick in viewership post-cancellation does send a signal to Netflix! And to all the fans fighting this cancellation, you’re doing really beautiful work right now, so thank you for putting that out in the world. <333
fanfiction
Because we were doing an explainer on The OA, I thought that “hopeful” fic could be an interesting theme for a list. So we asked and our readers delivered! We actually got too many hopeful submissions for a single list, so there will be a part two. If you have a rec along these lines, please send it in—use the form at the end of the newsletter. And thank you very much to all our guest reccers. — Elizabeth
“Coffee” by Zetor. 18K over two vignettes, rated Gen.
Fandom: Daria; Ship: Daria/Stacy
Recced by: Christopher
Backstory: Set 13 years after high school, former Fashion Club doormat Stacy Rowe runs into old crush Daria Morgendorffer, now a successful essayist and author, in a coffee shop in Seattle. They catch up over coffee in part one, and Stacy cooks Daria Christmas dinner in part two.
Rec: It’s angsty, so amazingly romantic, hopeful, and heartbreakingly real all at the same time. If fanfiction could be a Hallmark Christmas movie, this would be it. Plus, post-canon stories are so much fun, and with canonical Stacy being an absolute treasure trove of issues, seeing her turned into a mature, confident woman is heartwarming.
Content warnings: N/A
“An Old Song” by boxoftheskyking. 4K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Star Wars—Sequel Trilogy (The Force Awakens); Ship: pre-Finn/Poe/Rey
Recced by: glorious_clio
Backstory: The pilots in the Resistance throw parties to blow off steam. Finn and Rey have never really been part of a party culture before.
Rec: I’m a sucker for JediStormPilot, and this walks a perfect line of being completely in character, but also the three of them starting to fall for each other. The world building of the squadrons, as well as Leia’s presence, all feel very real and plausible to me.
Content warnings: N/A
“freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” by synecdochic. 19K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis; Ship: Gen, past John/Rodney
Recced by: Gav
Backstory: This fic doesn’t actually require much SGA knowledge to read. The main character (Rodney McKay) is the lead scientist from the top-secret space mission we see in Stargate: Atlantis, but the story takes place in the future, after he’s returned to Earth and taken an academic job at an obscure university, unable to discuss his work with the Stargate program.
Rec: “Freedom’s just another word...” is an SGA fanfic classic, a clever and moving fic that takes an unusual approach to John and Rodney’s relationship, the most popular ship in the fandom. Rather than being about their relationship, it takes place in the distant aftermath of John’s death, with Rodney building a new life for himself in a very different setting. That may sound depressing but it’s actually a very uplifting story with a uniquely realistic look at how these characters might live on after the show’s ending.
Content warnings: N/A
“She” by thefooliam. 65K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The 100; Ship: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Recced by: Mary
Backstory: Her roommate looks at her sometimes and Clarke is never sure if they’re going to kill or kiss each other. When Clarke Griffin forgets to complete her sophomore year residency application, she returns to college to find that they’ve paired her with the last roommate she ever expected to get.
Rec: Appropriate back to school reading! This story is hot, the sex is good, the characters just fucking well take care of each other and it’s honestly just a big ol’ 65K mug of cocoa.
Content warning: Mentions of alcoholism
“One Elegant Solution” by Mikkeneko. 369K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Dragon Age II; Ship: Anders/Male Hawke
Recced by: anon
Backstory: In the fantasy world of Dragon Age, magic users (mages) are hunted down and confined. In this fic, Anders, a mage healer and a wanted man at the lowest point of his life, decides to build a sanctuary and safe haven for his people.
Rec: This is the most hopeful fic I’ve ever read, and a novelistic tour-de-force to boot. I’ve never read a fanfiction where a character just doggedly builds something over 80 chapters, and in this case, it’s an entire city!
Content warnings: N/A
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FINAL THOUGHT
I posted a Star Wars fic!! We’re keeping this out of the recs section because it’s not technically a rec, but I’m happy with it and I hope some of you enjoy it too. Set in the immediate aftermath of The Last Jedi, it’s a 12,000-word Finn/Poe fic, with key supporting roles for Leia and the planet Naboo. — Gav
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, zines, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
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