Fandom Q& Afor Xena, SVU and Bad Girls

[cabenson]

As directed by eclecticfan Who asked me about Xena, SVU, and Bad Girls:


01. The first character I fell in love with: Xena, of course. Tall, dark, swinging a sword...what's not to love?

02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Callisto. As the series progressed I felt that Callisto was a victim of her circumstances.

03. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Gabrielle. I just never felt it. Mrs. CB did, so it worked out for us.

04. The character I love that everyone else hates: Mrs CB hated Meg, but I found her absolutely amusing. And really, who didn't hate Joxer...

05. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Najara. I found her completely fascinating in her first ep, and completely manipulating in her second. And KM's hideous plastic surgery has even turned me of Cold Case.

06. The character I would shag anytime: Ares...yeah, I said it.

07. The character I want to be like: Xena...strong, flawed, even headless, I think her positive character traits outweigh the negative.

08. The character I'd slap: Bad-wigged, pre-adolescent Hope

09. A pairing that I love: Even though I wasn't a Gabby fan, I adored Xena and Gabby's relationship

10. A pairing that I hate: Gabrielle and Perdicus

11. Favorite character: Xena

12. My five favorite characters: Xena, Callisto, Ares, Meg, Aphrodite

13. My five least favorite characters: Joxer, Gabrielle, Alti, Eve, Virgil

14. Which character I am most like: Mrs CB says Warlord Xena lol

15. My deep, dark fandom secret: I have the most outrageous collection of Xena memorabila and I had to make sure Mrs. CB understood how important the show was to me before we got together, cause if she didn't accept my need to watch it (I wasn't even online back then), well that was gonna be a deal breaker.





01. The first character I fell in love with: Huang...lol. No it was Alex Cabot

02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Elizabeth Donnelly.

03. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Eliot Stabler. I hate him more than I ever hated Casey.

04. The character I love that everyone else hates: I actually like Haung, in small doses

05. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Benson...she has developed an identity crisis and even SHE doesn't know who she is any more.

06. The character I would shag anytime: Warner...any time, any place

07. The character I want to be like: Warner. She is devoted, fair, wise, and smoking hot!

08. The character I'd slap: Benson. I love her, but girl, get over yourself and go get your woman!

09. A pairing that I love: Alex/Olivia

10. A pairing that I hate: tie between Eliot/Olivia and Casey/Olivia

11. Favorite character: Alex Cabot

12. My five favorite characters: Alex, Olivia, Warner, Fin's son, Donnelly

13. My five least favorite characters: Stabler, Casey, Munch, Cragen, Special guest star of the week

14. Which character I am most like: Mrs CB says I am most like Olivia cause I want to bang Alex Cabot and I am an unpretty crier.

15. My deep, dark fandom secret: As much as I initially hated the character of Casey Novak, I think Diane Neal is adorable and that the show totally screwed her over. If you don't follow her on Twitter, you should. Also, I went to see SM in "Talk Radio" on Broadway and thought she was horrible.




01. The first character I fell in love with: Helen Bloody Stewart. From the moment of that first Angry Head Turn, I was hooked!

02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Yvonne. I hated her at first and my love for her kinda snuck up on me. I still haven't watched her final season cause I KNOW what happened and it breaks my heart.

03. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Barbara, Nikki's cell mate. Just never quite caught on to her.

04. The character I love that everyone else hates: Thomas. A lot of people hated him, but once he learned about Helen and Nikki, he had the balls to tell Helen he wouldn't be her proxy and she needed to admit that she was always gonna love Nikki.

05. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Karen.

06. The character I would shag anytime: Helen Bloody Stewart

07. The character I want to be like: Nikki-tall, dark, rich, and gets to fuck Helen Bloody Stewart

08. The character I'd slap: Xandra (even with the tumor) and Shaz...talk about twats!

09. A pairing that I love: Helen and Nikki

10. A pairing that I hate: Shell and Fenner

11. Favorite character: Helen Bloody Stewart

12. My five favorite characters: Helen, Nikki, Monica, Bodybag, Yvonne

13. My five least favorite characters: Xandra, Shaz, Fenner, Crystal, Sean

14. Which character I am most like: Mrs CB says Nikki cause I am inexplicably drawn to Lahboob, and because I am tall and amazonic and would probably kill for someone I love (unless a spider was involved and then I would scream like a little bitch).

15. My deep, dark fandom secret: I resisted getting involved in this fandom cause I thought, "It sounds like a foreign soap opera". I was recovering from a second back surgery and my BFF, knowing she had a captive audience, forced Season 1 on me and I was hooked. I taught myself to rip dvds, convert to region 1 and to make music vids because of this fandom.

Comments

[sandytherese.livejournal.com]

Aw... I love this!
I don't know the third show... god I have no idea why I don't, except I think I was saving becoming addicted to it for a time when I had holidays, and spent them doing work instead. I think its on cable here, so I should be able to get it.

Xena. Yes, I wasn't a huge fan when it first happened, but I did work on it (doing Foley for DPP) and have some funny stories (not first-hand ones, they were all boring and mostly involved coffee and bad smells) about it. I'm with you on the Gabrielle thing... I don't really get the appeal either.

Yes on all fronts with SVU!!! Except maybe not the loving Alex Cabot thing... too skinny, boobs not big enough (I've said too much!).

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

Bad Girls was an awesome show, at least for the first 3 seasons. I wrote a Helen/Nikki Ship Manifesto (http://community.livejournal.com/cabensonfic/3177.html) a few years ago to help those new to the pairing>. Give it a look, and maybe a few of the eps are still on YT.

I love this pairing so much because it got me into vidding and that was the only way I could participate in fandom when my words were broken.

[stargazer1960.livejournal.com]

If you dig Cell Block, you might adore this.

[psimilarity.livejournal.com]

I'm like Sandy -- have been saving it up so long I might miss the boat entirely! I'm going to check out cb's ship manifesto: thanks. In my wildest dreams it will feel like Prisoner.

[raginhoops.livejournal.com]

Love your obsessions too. My better half is so tolerant of the madness that I have for fandoms. Thanks to this place I am not in the closet, alone with my videos. Damn, it was dark in there...and cramped..and smelled like moth balls...and the winter coats got in my face...and there were---spiders, Big Hairy,Long-legged ones!

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

Mrs CB loves to mock my fear/hatred of spiders and centipedy type creatures, but I just can't help myself!

[sravenk.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch Xena, so I can't speak to that, but as you know, I was a big fan of SVU for awhile.

I was a fan of Stabler, I guess, except not really. I kinda hated Stabler, but I loved Chris Meloni from Oz. I totally agree with you about Olivia losing herself, and also about Diane Neal getting screwed over. I wish she could find some nice comedy work, because she's gorgeous (when not dressed in the wardrobe they inflicted upon her) and very very funny when she has the chance to be. I would love to see her on TV again, to be honest. Still didn't like Casey much, though.

But the main thing I wanted to comment on was Donnelly! Oh my god, I loved her from the start. I remember on TWoP everyone was big on calling her all sorts of nasty names, something about drag queens and such, I don't know. I think it was a bunch of misogyny, really, people just not able to see a surgically un-enhanced woman over the age of 40 on TV without having something terrible to say. I loved Donnelly. I thought she was this great picture of Cabot's future, a tough but (usually) fair mentor who had learned how to work with the system and when to fight it. And I just think that everything Judith Light does is golden. Yes. I liked Who's the Boss. What about it?

I only saw two seasons of Bad Girls. I loved Helen, too. Mmmmmmmm. Hot. Nikki was okay, too. I also loved Denny. Sweet little Denny and her temper tantrums. That show cracked me up. The characters I disliked that everyone else seemed to adore were the Julies. I found them kind of annoying. Quaint sometimes, but mostly a bit over-the-top in the comic relief. I am glad to see that Old Bodybag made the cut with your favourite characters. Love her.

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

And I just think that everything Judith Light does is golden. Yes. I liked Who's the Boss. What about it?
I agree, but I have to admit that I have loved her since she played Karen Wolek on the ABC Soap One Life to Live WAAAAAAY back in th 70's. Brilliant actress!

[ralst.livejournal.com]

A Xena-Nikki long drink of something sassy... Oh, yeah, baby. I like me some of that.

[theholyinnocent.livejournal.com]

Oh, so much to comment on!

Xena: I admit I didn't like the Gabster at first, but she really grew on me. I think that was largely due to the character arc, the growth that she displayed over the seasons, and that ROC got better as as actress.

SVU: TRAIN WRECK. I liked Elliot at first, and more specifically I liked the friendship he had w/Olivia (and I really thought it was nothing more than that, despite what teh tweeners think). It was refreshing to see a friendship between a man & a woman, with no romantic/sexual complications. But, along with every other character on the damn show (except Warner), he was ruined & became annoying.

WARNER FTMW.

Diane Neal does seem like a very nice person, & Lord knows she had a tough act to follow. She did the best she could with the hand she was dealt.

Bad Girls: Agree w/you about Yvonne, & Thomas in particular. I always had a fondness for Di because she was just so batshit crazy.

Bad Girls fandom secret: I love to shout "OI!" at the cats.

The Game

[raginhoops.livejournal.com]

I will play this game.
Xena, Xena,Xena. I was folding the laundry one Saturday afternoon with the tele on...Action Pack came on, and I thought,"What a stupid cartoon!" It kept playing and I kept looking up, more and more frequently.....then, the annoying little sidekick pulled herself up by Xena's breastplate and I squealed like a pubescent boy. I was hooked and made the wife come in from her office to see this show. My love for the PsychoKillerBitch that was Callisto knows no bounds. I think I love her more than Xena. The Amazons made me itch(not in a good way) except for the Queen that spun around and changed clothes. Alti? Had a lot of love for her Evil Whiskey burned voice. Hated Eli more than Joxer and Eve put together.
SVU---good times. Old Benson was my favorite... and there is no pairing but A/O. and Donnelly and Rogers. Sigh. Started watching for Munch, so always had the love for him and,by default his partner. I so identified with StablerRage, so there was big polygamous love there. Alex was second to the DA that was the husky voiced Texan Republican(i have a thing for gravelly low tones). Sigh. Can't even watch the show since Mariska took over the role.
And the Undisputed Champion of the world---Bad Girls!
I could not love Nikki more. Beautiful,tall,passionate, smart, albeit ragin' dyke!!! Gorgeous in red,blue,white, florescent lime green.....nothing. (love the region one version). The Helen/Nikki dynamic could not have been more-dynamic. The laboobs could not be ignored,even for a leg girl like myself. She fought the good fight against her electromagnetic attraction, always pushing and pulling. But a little too much pressure placed on Nikki for someone so in love. She was always quick to blame Nikki for stuff, so as to not show favoritism. It was so transparent to everyone anyway. This is like all the small town dykes thinking that they are hiding their lesbianism. Joke on them. Integrity- a dying element in character. Sigh. I miss Helen Stewart.
I love that the show had you hating characters then those same characters would sneak up on your heartstrings and just pluck, a little,just enough. Second fav character will always be Shell. That crazy, sociopathic bitch made the show work in so many ways. It suffered once she escaped. I wished that they hadn't made Bodybag such a joke, yet in that one ep with shell and denny, the contrast was striking. My favorite ep was 'the leaving'. Funny. "Zaun-dra" was so annoying but without her there would have not been, "a twatting twat". My least favorite character????Shaz and Boki run a good race with Virgina. Virgina by a wheelchair. My favorite minor character has to be Dawn, she just couldn't stay out for long. Shell telling her,"Back again?" Comedy gold. More Mad Tessa! Less Boothill gang. They were boring and were not formidable enough to threaten the balance of power. Yvonne had me at "Wanna Bet?" Fenner,Fenner,Fenner. We loved to hate the bastard but I loved that he was competent and could be very charming. It was a determent that he was always so lucky...it got old. There should have been other ways for him to wiggle out of things other than chance.
The two Julies were right out of shakespeare, G&G, gravediggers, always good for comic relief...yet full of heart. The only major misstep with them was the family planning storyline. They were too smart for that. Favorite Screw has to be Gina...what a bitch! in my best Bette Davis voice. They made Lorna too stupid and flighty for my taste. All in all, they made the screws much too naive. Lessened the story lines. Nevertheless, this show had the best put together interacting plot points for 1 and 3/4 of the three season arc that was the best serial series on regular TV. I still think so.

Deadwood still rules all.

[mantaraggio.livejournal.com]

Hahah, tell us - what is the most embarrassing/ridiculous item of Xena memorabilia that you own? A full size Xena cutout in the bedroom?

I agree with you on Gabrielle - I really never understood the love for her and her big stick (that's what she said) and didn't get the appeal of Xena/Gabrielle just because I didn't like Gabrielle that much.

Aww Munch. I love Munch for all his other appearances on every other show. SVU wasted him terribly, either giving him nothing to do or sticking him with the worst kind of treacly crap. Oh how I missed Homicide's snarky, conspiracy loving Munch.

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

what is the most embarrassing/ridiculous item of Xena memorabilia that you own? A full size Xena cutout in the bedroom?

On my 30th bday, I walked into work and found one of these waiting for me at my work station. She lives in the basement now, but there were issues of where to put her when Mrs CB and I first moved in together.