Bit late this week as I was too knackered after work to put things into words and this entry would have just been me going BUT JOHNNY 80 times.
In other TV news, the second episode of Jericho was much more interesting than the first, and it may actually be doing something interesting.
I watched War and Peace earlier and Tom Burke turned up. This was the whole reason I was watching, so hurrah. However the rest was dull and I'm not carrying on with it.
Call the Midwife was back tonight and it was excellent, and terribly sad, and lovely, and I'll probably talk about it on next week's entry.
As usual with TV recs I don't want to give too much away so some of this may seem a bit vague.
So, my sister has a pretty good run of getting me into things, and she mentioned Killjoys to me AGES ago, and then gave me the first three episodes on USB, which I duly watched and enjoyed. I then got hold of the rest of the episodes (starting from 5 because ????) and watched them in quick succession a couple of weeks ago. THEN I realised I'd missed an episode so still had one left (HURRAH!) so I got hold of 4 and watched that too. And then I wrote 6600 words of fic in the last two weeks (although some of that will have to be rewritten as my memory is faulty and I'd forgotten some fairly important details because that's just what I do, SIGH). Basically, it's been a blast. I'm literally rewatching episode 1 as I finish this off and it is a very good starter episode.
The basic setup of Killjoys is that the main characters are bounty hunters IN SPAAAAACE, and there is political intrigue and civil unrest and all that fun stuff so there's an arc plot as well as fighty chasey bits. And there's a lot of fighty chasey bits. It's SO GOOD. It also feels a lot like someone made the show in about 2002 and then just held onto it for 13 years because it is a big old throwback in a lot of ways (this is a good thing, there need to be more SF shows with people doing fun things in space, it's all getting a bit boring and grim).
The main characters are Dutch and Johnny, who are both Reclamation Agents (Killjoys) working for the Reclamation Apprehension Coalition (R.A.C.) and are best friends and basically platonic life partners. Their relationship is such fun (soooooo satisfying) and the backstory that gets revealed is great too. The other main is D'avin, who is Johnny's brother and who they pick up from a slaver ship in episode 1 and who then becomes a Killjoy as well. Everything in their area of space is run by The Company, who are clearly no good at coming up with interesting names (although the RAC is an independent body somehow). There are dynasties fighting for control and nationalist factions and revolutionaries and class issues and all sorts.
They mostly operate in the Quad, which is made up of a planet (Qresh, where the aristos live) and three moons (Leith, where the middle classes live), Westerly (where the plebs live) and Arkyn (dead moon due to being stripped for resources, well done everyone).
Dutch is basically the boss of everything, and she is played by Hannah John-Kamen, who has been in a few UK things including The Hour and Happy Valley. Dutch is really fascinating as she is instantly super-cool and then the more her past gets revealed the more interesting she becomes. Also she's really good in a fight, and sometimes all I want out of life is to watch attractive people fighting, so this show really delivers on that front.
Here is a long list of evidence in gif form (spoilers):
www.buzzfeed.com/katangus/dutch-killjoys-yas-kweenD'avin originally looks to be just muscle (quite nice muscle tbh) but he does quickly become a useful member of the team. He's a soldier who hasn't been in contact with Johnny for 8 years, and I really liked the way they dealt with what happened to him and what they did with him and Johnny (I could have happily had it go on a bit longer but they did only have 10 episodes in total). D'avin is the audience proxy in a lot of ways as he is learning about the Killjoy stuff as he goes along, and actually one of the fun things about the show is the worldbuilding and working out what's going on in the Quad.
Okay, and Johnny [deep breath]. Look, I am basically guaranteed to fall for any character who is loyal, supportive, caring, not usually the main character etc etc. It happens every time. EVERY TIME. I can literally think of one show where my favourite character has been the main. ONE. Most recently before this it was Pythagoras on Atlantis, and for the past few years my OTC has been Justin Ripley from Luther. So I had a vague idea going into this that I was going to like Johnny. Did I know how much? NO I DID NOT. He's just so kind and so supportive and so lovely and good at fixing things and probably a bit too soft to actually be a Killjoy, and I don't even know what to tell you. Just. Johnny Jaqobis <3. Dude literally starts the series getting beaten up. There was no way I wasn't going to love him. Sigh.
There are some really cool recurring characters as well, including dodgy aristo Delle Seyah Kendry (who has a thing for Dutch, which is just sensible really), bar owner Pree (who I think is the character who fulfils 'this person needs a better job than listening to these idiots all the time' function in the show) excellent AI Lucy and Level 5 Killjoy Fancy Lee (who is awesome and needs to be in it more next series pls, preferably in scenes with Johnny AHEM).
There are so many interesting little details that I've skipped here, but the choice is either short and posted or long and never posted, hahaha. There are only 10 episodes so it is easy to catch up on, and so I would recommend just watching the whole thing (although my faves are episode 6, because Fancy and episode 7 because of fallout from D'avin's past and I am UNDERSELLING THIS LIEK WHOA to avoid spoilers). Also there is bugger all fic (EIGHTY FOUR WORKS on AO3. EIGHTY FOUR!) which is a damn shame, so preferably people should watch it and write more (I am working on it myself, so if anyone wants to beta some Fancy Lee/Johnny fic let me know, lol).
Happily there is a season 2 coming, which I am SUPER EXCITED about, especially as the first season ended in a really interesting place and on a big old cliffhanger. I neeeed to know what happens! However right now I need to go to bed so I am going to end there despite having only said about half of what I could say. And tomorrow I'm going to rewatch episode 2, yay!
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