#As early 2000s procedural girlie

[iheartsparklingwater]

What your favourite season of house says about you

Season 1:

You like a medical procedural and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Often, you try and guess what the final diagnosis of the episode will be.

You watch house as a comfort show.

The un-self-aware charm of early 2000s television appeals to you.

I feel like you own a dvd player and/or an oversized blazer.

You watch 2002 interviews with Hugh Laurie on youtube.

Season 2:

“This is when the show really hits it stride”

Love an ethical argument, you’re the type of person who brings up the Trolley Problem in casual conversation.

You’d never say “I told you so,” but you’d think it.

You will defend Cameron with your whole chest (As you should)

LOVE clinic duty scenes.

The ducklings>

Love how the Stacy arc gives more context to what House was like before the infarction.

Meta girlies!

Season 3:

Camchase <3

You have indulged in livejournal and tv board posts from 2006.

You have a Tumblr tag called something like “difficult people I love.”

You have a complicated relationship with justice and probably don’t think Tritter was entirely wrong.

You believe that the depiction of House’s Vicodin addiction is the most nuanced and realistic in s3.

You psychoanalyse everyone in your life.

One day one room is a masterpiece.

Season 4:

You crave structural disruption.

New team > old team and you’ll die on this hill.

You’ve reblogged the “what is my necklace made of?” gifset more than once

Forever mourning the 8 episodes cut due to the writer’s strike

You think Kutner and Taub are more emotionally complex than they get credit for, and you're mad about what happens next.

Bawled your eyes out to House’s head/ Wilson’s heart.

You can write 3k words on the use of the bus as metaphor.

You are deeply loyal to underdog characters and niche side ships.

Justice for Amber.

Season 5:

You think season 5 is objectively the best season.

Thirteen is one of your favourite characters and you love her dynamic with House.

You would defend your favourite episode in a PowerPoint presentation and close with a quote that makes everyone cry.

The thought of hallucination Amber crosses your mind constantly.

Thinks that Birthmarks is very underrated.

Season 6:

“Broken 1&2 are the best episodes of television ever made”

You have a complicated relationship with hope.

You would watch an Alvie spinoff.

Dr Nolan>

You think the show should’ve ended at s6.

House with short hair is hot.

Season 7:

You have read the thunder mountain 7x01 pdf.

You vibe with Rachel Cuddy.

You have multiple theories about narrative sabotage and have used the phrase “narrative whiplash” in earnest.

THE ACTING IN AFTER HOURS DESERVES EVERY AWARD EVER MADE!!!!!!

We don’t talk about bombshells.

Possibly an editor? I feel like there’s a lot of s7 scene packs.

You believe fanfiction can fix what the writers ruined.

The bathtub scene.

Can't justify the car 'incident', and consequently miss Cuddy deeply in s8.

Season 8:

You’re a contrarian

Emotional truth can justify tonal inconsistency.

“The last 5 minutes were perfection”

You think the 8x01, twenty vicodin is overlooked.

You love Park. You defend Adams. You ship them if you’re feeling brave.

You feel excluded from the fandom

Love Chase (He has an entire episode named after him in s8!!)

You think House and Wilson’s relationship is the show’s real love story and this season finally acknowledged it.

[fic-history]

90's Fic Fandoms: The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This post, we’re exploring the advent of online fandom in the 90’s! 

Without further ado,

The X-Files

First premiering in 1993, The X-Files was in a league of its own in the television sphere as it was both a supernatural thriller and a will-they-won’t-they investigative procedural. Well, it was mostly a won’t they since show creator Chris Carter himself was very anti Scully/Mulder (NoRomo). Speaking of the main pairing in the show, The X-Philes (X-Files fans) invented the term “shipping” to describe their support for Scully/Mulder, or any relationship pairing in the show. Thus, the term was shortened to “ship” both as a verb to describe the act of shipping and as a noun to describe a particular romantic pairing. As anyone who is vaguely familiar with fandom culture is aware, the “ship” family of terms is now used across fandom.

Digital fan activity surrounding The X-Files began primarily on Usenet, with two major mailing lists (one for general fan activity and another for creative works) that spawned many others specific to certain subtopics. Over time, this expanded into mailing lists, specialized fic archives, blogs, websites, and more, all dedicated to one show about two FBI agents and the possibility of alien life. Of this fan activity, a large percentage of it was dedicated to fanfiction, and which ships (or lack thereof in the case of NoRomos) were superior. The most popular ship was obviously Mulder/Scully, but other popular pairings include Mulder/Krycek, Mulder/Skinner, and Scully/Skinner. Another unique feature of the X-Philes is that they decidedly did not embrace RPF.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Buffy TV series first premiered in 1997, and like The X-Files, it was unique due to its severe genre bending and role reversals. Buffy was the only show where you could watch horror, high school drama, and supernatural romance all in one place, complete with a tiny blonde valley girl who happened to have immense power and immense responsibility. 

In terms of fandom activity, the Buffy fandom was unique because it was one of the first TV fandoms to be active on the internet, and because of the unusually high amount of interaction between the show creators and fans. The official website for the show had an interactive comment space named after the club in Sunnydale, The Bronze, where fans could discuss the show. The thing was, the show’s creators and staff also had access to this page, so fans sharing their opinions and theories were sharing them with the people whose opinions determined the source material, most notably including Joss Whedon himself (Jamison 2013). 

At the beginning of the Buffy fandom, the show creators and FOX were fine with the fansites and other fan activities happening on the internet, but as time went on, many fanworks were lost due to the network’s crackdown on fansites in the early 2000’s.

What’s so special about these shows is how hard they work to disrupt the gender norms that are attached to our society to this day. Mulder is the touchy-feely believer, while Scully is the clinical skeptic. Buffy is a stereotypically girly valley girl who is also incredibly strong, dedicated, and competent; all things not normally associated with traditionally feminine girls and women. These traits, plus the unique things fans brought to the table, created the dominant fandoms of the 90’s that shaped fannish culture and activity forever.

Happy reading,

-KP