there will be a fish

In the hopes you will all have entertaining guesses for me by the time I wake up, a meme:

Post 10 of your favourite shows/books/movies/plays/whatevers.
Have your friends list guess your favourite character from each.
When guessed, strike out the fandom, mark in your favourite character and who guessed it.

1. Star Trek (reboot-verse) Jim Kirk
2. White Collar
3. Prison Break
4. Hawaii Five-0
5. The Pretender
6. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
7. The Losers
8. NCIS: LA
9. Castle Richard Castle
10. Casablanca Captain Louis Renault, guessed by yahtzee63

(P.S. Katie, you know the drill by now, I hope.)

I woke up waaaay too early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, ugh. Then I wasted several hours of my life to the tentacled embrace of the state bureacracy, bought an enormous amount of sushi, and ate it while watching NCIS:LA with my sister. (Let me just say: KENSI AND DEEKS, I LOVES THEM. I still love Sam and G, too, but Kensi is the bomb, and I am incredibly fond of Deeks' puppyish facade and badass/marshmallow center, and I totally ship them, which I haven't done for a m/f cop partnership since, hmm, Life I think. I know it's not the most brilliant show in the world (HAHAHA), but it still makes me happy. ♥). I did pass the time waiting on Godot bureaucrats by re-reading Dorothy L. Sayers' awesome essay "Aristotle on Detective Fiction," though, so it wasn't a total waste of time. I like to read that essay and think about TV crime procedurals. I was thinking, I could scan it and put it up here if anyone's interested? It took me a lot of effort to obtain a copy of Unpopular Opinions in order to read it in the first place, so I'm okay with loaning it out to y'all, so to speak.

In other news, I was reading some fic earlier that made me want to put together a short rec list of chase-related stories. I love chase stories a lot -- especially when they manage to involve either spies, or falsely-accused innocent persons.

1. The fic responsible for this list: Paper Chase (Sherlock/White Collar, genish) by copperbadge. He just wrote a sequel to it, Rematch, hence the rec, because I was just thrilled. I mean, it's a Sherlock/White Collar crossover with plot! Even if it weren't written brilliantly by Sam, I would've wanted to read it. Really, really fun, I highly recommend it. (Bonus: if you're a podfic person, there's a great co-read one of Paper Chase -- the Sherlock&John-POV sections read by a Brit, and the Neal&Peter bits read by an American, which is fun.)

2. The classic: Finders Keepers (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Illya/Napoleon) by Taliesin. I know most of the young 'uns on my flist won't know this fandom, but I don't care, you should still read it. It's got spies! Running around 1960s New York! There's pie! Flirting! Shenanigans! Tie-dye! Bathhouses! Seriously, I love this fic. It's just so darn playful.

3. The remake: The Fugitive (Numb3rs). I almost didn't read this because a) I'd never seen Numb3rs before, b) it features an OFC, and c) it's on The Pit of Voles. Seriously, that's a lot of negatives. But I adore The Fugitive, so I gave it a shot, and it's really really fun. It made me want to watch Numb3rs, after which I re-read this and realized just how well-characterized it actually was. The OFC turns out to be rather awesome, and the entire team is well-written, and Don is excellent. Long! Plotty! Interesting! *thumbs up*

4. The one pretending to be just one thing: Okay, so I'm technically recommending Little Girl Lost (The Pretender, Parker/Jarod) by neonhummingbird and butterflykiki, but I kinda also just want to rec the entire show in general, which is one long, delicious game of cat-and-mouse. It also has Miss Parker, one of my favorite female TV characters ever. You think your favorite TV lady is badass? Yeah, so...Parker would have her in a quivering, submissive little puddle in about five minutes flat. She's the best. Her and Jarod's whole "you run; I chase" dynamic is probably one of the reasons I love the trope so much that I post a list like this. Warped, I tell you, warped while I was young and impressionable... :)

Okay, I guess that suffices. Um...enjoy! If you have your own favorite chase-related stories, please feel free to share.

I've been thinking about it, and I have to say, casting Elsa Lanchester (who played the Bride of Frankenstein) as a mad scientist in Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1.23 "The Brain-Killer Affair") was kind of an awesome move, and maybe the best stunt-casting I've seen -- although if you have other contenders, feel free to pitch them. :) They even made a nod to it with her hairstyle, with those distinct wavy white streaks on the side. I am picturing them giggling to themselves at their own cleverness (hey, it's what I would do).

Well played, show. Well played. :)

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Unrelatedly, you know what I love? 'A Kiss To Build A Dream On' by Louis Armstrong. I haven't listened to it in a while (and in fact seem to have lost it from my hard drive -- Katie, can you email me a copy?), but it was like meeting a good old friend.

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On another unrelated topic, I've been thinking a lot about what New York must have been like in the 1960s. This is what happens when you alternate watching Mad Men and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episodes. I mean, aside from contemplating/writing Mad Men/MFU crossovers, but I already did that. :)

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And in a final shallow note...don't get me wrong, I love Natalie Morales and I'm enjoying White Collar, but...does anyone else think that her new hairstyle was a terrible, terrible mistake? I mean, really.