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kachinnate · 3 years

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,,,,okay i know i just said i wasn’t going to talk about the deh movie but actually yeah imma talk about it for just a sec bc y’all actually make me legitimately distressed sajkfndsmjkgds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ_A0H1otc i dont have the braincells to do a shot by shot analysis right now but here’s what we’re lookin at

under a readmore because ghhhhhhh

firstly, let me lead with this: yes, from what we know, there’s a lot of things wrong with this movie.

the worst, in my humble opinion, being the bts treatment of the (very few) actors of color, and the lack altogether of any production team members of color. that’s something that should be acknowledged, talked about, and fucking dug into especially at the current fucking period of time we’re living in. it’s unsurprising, but disgusting nonetheless, and it set this movie up for failure from the very beginning. i’m a white person so by no means so i feel inclined or like i have any authority in saying what one should feel wrt all of that, however i will say if there’s to be a boycott in not watching this movie, that should 100% be the reason why. it’s fully poc’s choice whether or not to forgive the production team or give this movie a chance for the irredeemable shit it did in regards to handling the movie’s production. the movie imo definitely doesn’t deserve their forgiveness, but again, that is not for me to say.

there’s some little things too that i can’t fully think of off the top of my head - like, the whole making larry connor’s stepdad thing fucking irks me, for example, but, like...... listen.

if you know me like at all, you know my favorite word is nuance.

so, i’m going to say it outright: the way you people are approaching this three minute trailer shows literally.... none?? no nuance ??? is it no-nuance november over here or ???? like i’m begging you i’m BEGGING YOU to put aside your pre-determined prejudices against this movie and like stop pretending to be a renowned film critic for ten seconds because it’s really not as outright fucking abysmal as you are saying!! and also it’s possible to have opinions that aren’t completely fucking polarized to one side because guess what, the deh movie? a piece of media! what is the shit y’all are constantly preaching about having the ability to consume media critically ? because you’re trying to cancel a fucking trailer based on the contents of the trailer alone !!!!! hello !!!!!!!!

media is bound to be problematic. if y’all were as quick to judge any movie as you did this one, guess what you wouldn’t be watching any movies like ever <3

anyway lets get into the parts that are probably going to get me cancelled lmao

ben platt - listen. LISTEN. listen i know he’s too old to be reprising evan we ALL know he’s too old to be reprising evan i’ve heard this same argument since the announcement was made we get it we all know. haha he’s a grandpa yes bestie ur so right ur so funny wow. i do agree that we should’ve maybe had a not-ben-platt evan moment but here’s some things to keep in mind: the arguments of “oooh ABF is right there !!!!!!” 1. who’s to say he was available? 2. the environment of a movie is so, SO much different than that of a musical -- as much as you wanna pretend you know everything from just a trailer, there’s no way of knowing what scenes were added that might’ve made the movie like.. idk possibly more intense story-wise not even COUNTING the fact that just inherently a movie set is different than a musical one? like yes ben platt might be just being used as a device but that’s probably not the sole and only reason. Also, if i see One (1) more comment about his FUCKING HAIR 😃 first of all it’s not that deep like... if you’re so distracted by an actor having their hair different that’s on you, but going as far as to call it bad or distracting or being like Vehemently a way about it? y’all i know it’s most likely not your intention but that is literally just ben platt’s natural fuckin ETHNICALLY JEWISH hair sajknfgkjds!!!! i’m not the first to make this point, but like dsjnfkjdsg!??! y’all are being so mean about it and for WHAT? again, maybe not intentional, but it reads as like high key Very antisemetic and you should.... maybe not 😳 be that way

connor. the thing about a trailer is that they don’t show you all the scenes because they want you to come see the movie. right? can we agree on that? all the connor scenes in the trailer had SEVERAL hard cuts, omitting a lot of the scene -- like the computer lab scene! we see the beginning of it, there’s a VERY obvious hard cut, and then he’s running out! in my opinion my first watch through of this trailer i had a very like “:// hmm all these actors feel a lil like dry”, but man oh man the comments ive seen about connor. holy shit guys. this boy gets 7 minutes of stage time in the actual musical, and the whole thing is we DON’T KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM. not to burst your bubble, and i by no means hate connor, i love me some good connor lives fics and stuff, but everything we write with connor being alive? that is !! speculation on our part !!!! those are headcanons and us using the little context we have!! connor doesn’t have any significant development IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL that is being adapted into a movie !!! you 1. can’t fully judge a character with already limited screentime in a 3 minute trailer, 2. can’t really call what connor has canonically in the musical as in depth character development !! what is his arc then !!!! he pushes evan, goes to the computer lab, has an outcast loner kid moment, gets upset, takes the letter, DIES. sorry stans, that’s just how it is !! and, AND, everything in between, all the idiosyncracies, that depends on the actor playing connor! speaking of, you know who the actor is playing connor in the movie? that’s right, colton ryan! so, i don’t know, maybe... have some trust in the process, in an actor who ALREADY has played connor on broadway???? and also trust that you will get more connor content then u are seeing from a 3 minute trailer!! dhgnijsdg and some of the comments on like his appearance specifically? like are you really made that he doesn’t have long hair?? they kept his nails and his rings but nahhh the hair was apparently a MUST HAVE (even though like.. not all connor actors on broadway always had/have long hair but w/e).. REGARDLESS. tldr on THAT , the movie would have to do a pretty shitty job if they want to take something from someone who doesn’t have much to begin with and i think y’all are being extremely harsh on this point

jared. honestly i’m a bit worried too about the like... name change, because it does have the potential to be taking out some representation, but... they did change the name to fit the actor’s ethnicity? it’s a really [hmm] topic because, again, from a trailer and from what we have been told we don’t KNOW a lot of the context, but i think it’s important to remember that uh.. jewish people aren’t just? always white ?? there’s a possibility they changed the last name to fit with the [ethnicity] while keeping him jewish?? ofc there’s the possibility that they Didn’t and ... again hm that’s its own thing altogether but just reiterates the point that you can’t knock a whole movie just based on the trailer. you can’t talk about things you know nothing about.

alana. same thing as before, you can’t.... completely bash a character based on a 3 minute trailer. there was discussion about how she seemed ‘shy’ when talking to evan, which like.. maybe she is but also that scene was them talking in a library like if u actually take notice of what’s happening in the scene jdskngsd though i do share the general consensus with many others that she won’t get a lot of screen-time but that’s neither here nor there 😔 moving on

scenes and the setting. one of the things i was most like.. tentative about in regards to a switch from a musical to a movie was how they were like... going to do certain scenes? naturally, a lot has to be different when we’re going from a minimal stage set to an entire movie with like.. settings. there are going to be new scenes because a movie lends to have like, physical places that aren’t just [evan’s bedroom] and [murphy kitchen] and [implied school]. so new scenes, new conversations, slightly different pacing.. this is all to be expected right like are y’all geneuinely surprised here or ........

there’s a lot we aren’t seeing yet because this is a TRAILER. again i already mentioned this re: connor but like... again, y’all are making some Claims that just... fucking outlandish. there are so many moments in the trailer that are very obvious Hard Cuts. you don’t have all the information yet. you are angry at a tiny fragment of something that is confusing you because you don’t have all the context. is there a chance that some of this shit is just genuinely Bad? yeah but you really cannot 100000% say it with your chest and gauge it without seeing the movie and understanding what that scene is in context. lowkey uhhh saw some jokes about the zoe scene in the car and :’))) ? jesus? christ????

concluding thoughts because my brain hurts but like. you don’t have to like the movie. you don’t have to WATCH the movie. like all media if you choose to consume the movie you should do so with some CRITICAL THOUGHT. but, just like the novel (and i do not want to have any discussions about that i don’t care if you think it’s good Or bad that’s not what this is about) you guys are going in this WANTING to believe it’s bad and completely polarizing your thoughts on what this is going to be. yeah, maybe there shouldn’t be a movie. i genuinely think we could’ve gone without. but it’s just a piece of media, it’s not a progression like all your (musical is good, novel is bad, MOVIE IS WORSE OH NO) posts are suggesting. they are all just. different pieces of media stemming from a source. at the end of the day it’s just a fucking movie. if you already hate it so much, guess what? you don’t have to watch it! you don’t have to put so much needless fucking hate into a 3 MINUTE TRAILER. you can stop being performative and dissing it for its poor treatment of POC while then going on to make fun of ben platt’s hair and just targeting a different group like! please !!!

i’m not trying to be a fuckin’ advocate for this movie because there’s so much opportunity for it to suck, i do Not have high hopes for it, and i’m not even really sure i want to watch it (i bought the novel when it came out and have yet to read it, and i’m sure the movie will like.. elicit very similar vibes from me lsdngjkdsg like im just not uhhh feeling it) but y’know what? watching the trailer did not bring forth the fucking onslaught of hatred in me that apparently has fuckin posessed all of y’all and like djnsgjksdg plagued my dashboard for this whole evening. don’t come into my inbox trying to like.. argue with me about this (preemptively im turning off anon because i like i Can’t lmao) this is just like... a rant i needed to get out of me real quick.

SO. tldr for now: have critical thought about shit you consume, there’s no ethical consumption under [the film industry], you can’t judge a movie entirely on its trailer, and y’all need to calm the fuck down

#garbage.txt #deh movie #ask to tag #irrelevant #bc this is lowkey a vent bc jfc #this isn't @ anyone btw this is just [in general mostly just from my dash] bc.. sighs #anyway im gonna refrain from making any more comment on this its just. frustrating.#edit: ok to rb

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poguesofthebau · 4 years

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dance partners

requested by: @danicarosaline (literally forever ago bc i suck)

summary: you and jj had been besties for as long as the rest of the pogues, but everyone always thought it was strictly platonic. one night at a kegger, though, your relationship with the blonde changes drastically. (we love a lil friends-to-lovers moment!) word count: 2.9k

“this is gonna be an epic night, guys.”

“jj,” you said, rolling your eyes with a light laugh. “you say that on the way to every kegger. we all know you’re just excited to get fucked up.” the rest of the pogues chimed in, agreeing with you as jj flipped you off. the walk to the kegger was longer than most people would be willing to trek, but it was always your favorite part of the night. walking from the Chateau to the Boneyard was one of those little things that probably wouldn’t mean much to anyone else, but times when you could simply bicker and laugh with your best friends meant the world to you.

“y/n, you need to learn to look forward to these kinds of things. you only live once, you know.” he reached out to you, wrapping one arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his side as the other hand, in the shape of a fist, lightly ruffled the top of your head. you grabbed the hand that was resting on your shoulder, spinning yourself out of his gentle grip and conveniently forgetting to remove your hand from jj’s when you were free of his hold. to your left, kie, pope, and john b were exchanging suspicious glances, immediately noticing the lingering touch between their friends. kie snorted in surprise, but other than that, they all kept their mouths shut.

soon enough, the five of you had arrived to the scene of the party. within a few minutes of getting there, you all had red solo cups in hand, spreading out on the beach to mingle a little. after kie got her first refill, always having been the quickest drinker of the pogues, you two broke off from the boys, arms linked together as you roamed around the beach. somehow there was music flooding the beach, and neither you nor kie could stop yourselves from letting out a few dance moves to the songs you knew. you chatted and laughed at the antics of the already drunk teenagers scattering the sand, pointing out those who were doing the funniest shit. “okay, wait. we can’t laugh at those girls,” kie said, nodding toward two kook girls who were clearly too far gone, dancing messily with each other. a small flock of guys had begun to cheer the two on, but they seemed too busy enjoying each other’s company to notice. “that’s gonna be us in like, an hour.” you both laughed loudly, clinking your cups together before downing the rest of their contents without anymore words.

once you had emptied your cup, you turned to figure out how far you’d strayed from where the keg sat. as you scanned the beach, your eyes met jj’s, immediately earning a smile from your friend along with a raise of his own cup. you flipped yours upside down with a joking pout, indicating to the blonde that you were already out of ammo. he waved for you to come over to him, and you nodded with a smile before holding up a finger and turning back to kiara. before you could say anything, you noticed the sudden amused glint in her eye and she began to talk. “pope and jb are making fools of themselves again. i’m gonna go get in on that. i’ll catch up with you later?” you laughed at the two boys she had pointed out, both seemingly trying to limbo without reason.

“yeah, i got jj, so i’ll find you later. good luck with the other morons!” and with that you were parting ways, kie heading straight as you turned and made your way over to jj. “you gonna get me a refill or what, pogue?”

jj bowed sarcastically, grabbing your cup and falling into step beside you as you moved toward the keg. “it’d be my genuine honor, princess.” you scoffed at the nickname, bumping jj’s hip with your own. once again, his arm found its way around your shoulders, and the two of you swayed clumsily over to the source of the beer. “two refills, dude,” jj called to the kid manning the keg. once your cups were full again, you and jj found yourselves a seat in the heart of the chaos, perched on a fallen tree branch that some other pogues were standing in front of. as you laughed at the scene playing out before you (a bunch of touron guys standing in the middle of a circle of people doing ‘parkour’), jj watched you with a smile. the two of you bantered a little, mocking the actions of the people around you as you tried to ignore the feeling of his eyes burning into you. after a few minutes of trying to avoid his glance, you finally gave in. when you caught his eye, the glance you expected to exchange was not at all what you got. in all honesty, you’d never really seen jj with that expression. he looked... smitten. you raised your eyebrows at him, laughing again. “are you laughing at me now? don’t you know better?”

your eyes widened at the question, your cup-less hand immediately coming up to his chest to hold him back from any attacks. “no,” you corrected. “i’m laughing at your face, because i think it might be broken or something. you can’t make a face like that and expect me to take it normally. don’t you know better?” you were leaning into him tauntingly as you spoke, smiles spreading across both of your faces as you did.

“y/n,” jj teased back. “are you trying to get me to kiss you? hm?” your hand then fell from his chest, and you let out a scoff. jj, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied with that being the end of the conversation. he lifted a hand to flick back a piece of hair that had fallen onto your shoulder, and that same hand somehow found its way to the side of your face. though you were still smirking confidently and comfortably, your insides were getting all sorts of twisted up. what was he doing? was this whole thing still just a joke? “i don’t know if you know this, but, if you are, you don’t have to try that hard. kinda don’t have to try at all.” jj was now wearing an expression you recognized. it was his i’m hot, and i pull girls, and i know it expression. for some reason, that pissed you off a little. slightly offended, you knocked his hand away from your face, turning back to face the tourons. you felt his gaze linger on you, but before either of you could do or say anything else, the rest of the pogues had materialized before you.

all three of them decently drunk at that point, john b and kie were laughing hysterically as pope dazedly looked between you and jj. hopping down from the tree branch and taking a step toward them, you decided to ignore pope’s obviously noticing that something had just happened. “what’s so funny?” you asked, internally hoping whatever they were giggling at would be enough to lift your spirits again. while they explained the joke they couldn’t get over, you essentially downed your second drink. at the tail end of the explanation, jb and kie both broke into more laughter, and this time you joined them. when the laughter faded, you spoke again, this time only to kie. “come get a refill with me?”

kiara looped her arm through yours, nodding with a smile. “of course! we’re off!”

after one more fleeting look at jj (a glance he caught, and even tried to hold), you and kie were walking away. against your own will, you let out a sigh, shoulders slumping a little as you replayed the past few minutes in your head. this time, you got a refill and remained standing by the keg, kie next to you with a drunk but concerned pout on her face. ignoring her, you downed your third drink within a minute, quickly stepping back up for another. that’s a bit better, you found yourself thinking as all the drinks seemed to hit you at once. turning to kie, you smiled insincerely. “what are you thinking about, my little drunk?” her eyebrows knitted together at the question, her head tilting knowingly. she was asking you the same thing. letting out a puff of air, you rolled your eyes but explained yourself nonetheless. “i’m fine! jj just like... implied that he wanted to kiss me or something. i’m just confused, i guess.”

“honey, i just watched you down a cup and a half of beer that you don’t even like. i may be a little bit drunker than you, but i think you’re something other than confused.” her arms crossed insistently across her chest, some of the liquid in her cup falling onto her arm in the process. she giggled at her own mistake, trying her best to wipe the drink away and looking back to you expectantly. “are you gonna explain, or should i go ask jj what he did to you?”

at that, you were vigorously shaking your head. “no, no, no. it’s not that big of a deal. it was just unexpected. i mean, jj hitting on me? that’s weird, isn’t it?” kiara simply shrugged, letting you continue the tangent she knew you were about to go off on. “it’s kind of annoying, too. i’m his best friend. at least, one of his best friends. and now he’s gonna try to, what, conquer me? like he does with the desperate tourons? i’m not a fucking touron. it could’ve been a really sweet moment if he hadn’t--”

“wait, a really sweet moment?” kie interrupted. “oh my god. you wanted him to kiss you!” without hesitation, your hand was clamping over her mouth, both of your eyes wide. peering over your shoulder, you caught eye contact with jj once again from across the beach. he waved nervously, and you threw him a tight lipped smile in return. easily distracted by the boy, your hand fell from kie’s mouth. when she realized she had some leeway to speak, she lowered her voice so only you could hear her words. “awww, you guys are so cute! seriously, since when was this a thing? and how come you didn’t tell me?”

you shook your head lightly, eyes fluttering shut for a second before you answered. “it’s not really a thing. i mean, i don’t think it is? i’ve had this little crush on jj forever, but i never let myself feed into it because it’s jj, you know?” kie nodded sympathetically, tossing a comforting arm over your shoulder. “but now he’s acting weird, and i don’t know what that means.”

taking a deep breath, kie forced you to fully face her, placing a hand on each of your shoulders. (actually, she had one hand on one shoulder, and the other held her full cup, which was being balanced on top of your other shoulder, but it was close enough.) “here’s what i think you should do,” she began, grabbing your full attention at the implication of a solution. “be you. it’s jj, y/n. he’s fucking weird. but, i don’t think you should assume he hasn’t had a little crush on you forever, too, because i’d say he has. but don’t tell him you got that knowledge from me.” you raised your eyebrows, opening your mouth to question her so-called knowledge but being cut off by your friend. “so what i’m saying is, just do what you always do. don’t freak out, or start avoiding him, or any of that shit. just be y/n, be normal, and i’m sure jj will be jj, in that terrifyingly concerning jj way. if something’s gonna happen, it’ll happen. and if not, you’re still y/n and jj, right?” you nodded slowly as you took in her words, your subconscious registering them as the truth. “oh, and one more thing: get drunk with me, please!” even when she was drunk, kie knew just what to say in times of distress. so you listened to her.

you took a few more seconds to let the nerves leave your body and mind, but soon enough you were back with the boys again, in that same spot next to jj. he seemed a little surprised by your return, but didn’t verbally question it. you bumped you shoulder against his with a smirk, and when he concluded that you weren’t upset, his arm was tossed back around your shoulder like nothing had happened.

within thirty minutes, you’d almost forgotten how weird jj was acting. instead, you were focused on being with your friends, and having fun. kiara, pope, and john b eventually began dancing foolishly, tripping over each other and laughing at their own actions. you and jj remained perched in your seats, both swaying and singing along to the music surrounding you. after a few songs of simply watching your friends’ drunken dance moves, jj was hopping down from his spot and putting a hand out for you just as the song changed. you looked at him hesitantly, laughing when he impatiently shook the hand that he wanted you to take. “c’mon, princess. you’re my dance partner. let’s go!” succumbing to his persistence, you put your hand in his and let him pull you from your seat and move you a few steps closer to the source of the music.

conveniently enough, jj had chosen a decently scandalous song for the two of you to dance to. the movements between you were goofy and innocent for the first few moments of the song, but when the bass dropped just before the first chorus began, you felt like every ounce of alcohol you’d had that night was hitting you at once, and your body was basically moving itself. you let jj pull you flush against him as your hips swayed with the beat, your back pressed firmly against his front. he followed your movements, one hand in yours as he tried not to focus too much on the way your ass was moving against him. with one particularly powerful roll of your hips, you had jj lightly groaning behind you, drawing a chuckle out of you as you spun in his arms. “what, you wanted me to be your dance partner and now you can’t handle it?” at that point, you were unbelievably aware of how close your face was to jj’s, but kie’s words were ringing through your head loud enough to keep you from moving away. if something’s gonna happen, it’ll happen.

jj’s arm snaked around your lower back as the two of you continued to dance while you quietly talked. “oh, no, princess. i can handle it.”

“then what’s the problem, dance partner?” your free hand came up to jj’s shoulder, fingers lightly grazing the nape of his neck, and you gave him a small, satisfied smile. maybe kie had told you to act normal, and this wasn’t normal, but it was fun, and you had gotten just as drunk as she’d wanted you to, so who was complaining?

“no problems here. absolutely none,” jj insisted quietly. suddenly, that smitten look from earlier was back on his face. before you could react, the hand that had been stationed on your back was moving to your cheek. he tugged you a centimeter closer, studying your face as he did. when your expression didn’t change, your eyes just flickering down to his lips and back to his eyes, he knew what his next move was. without giving himself another second to overthink it, his closed the gap between your mouths, both of your eyes now shut as you melted into each other. the music was long forgotten, and the (extremely loud) hoots and hollers of surprise from the other pogues were ignored. the hand you’d had around his shoulder was now raking through his hair, and his was holding the back of your head steady. neither of you moved away from the other until the song was changing, and you both realized that the volume of your friends would soon draw a lot of attention to the two of you. when you pulled back, you locked eyes with jj for a few seconds before breaking into laughter and burying your face in his shoulder. “what? am i that bad? you laughin’ at me again, princess?”

you pulled yourself away from the shelter you’d found in his shoulder to look at him again with a surprised smile. “that’s your main concern right now, jj?” he laughed with you, pulling you back into a hug. “by the way,” you murmured in his ear so none of the eavesdropping pogues could hear. “we’re gonna have to talk about that ‘princess’ thing, because i don’t know if i can handle it.”

jj released you from the hug, smiles plastered on both of your faces as you finally turned to face your friends, who were full-on applauding at that point. “we can talk about the ‘princess’ thing later, princess. let’s take a walk first.” and just like that, you and jj were waving sarcastically to your friends, refusing to otherwise acknowledge them (or answer any of the burning questions they were throwing at you), and heading off to a quieter part of the beach. the walk to this kegger had been fun, but you doubted anything could top the walk you and jj were taking now.

tags: @baby-bearie @g4bster @danicarosaline pls lmk if u guys wanna be tagged in all my stuff :)

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olderthannetfic · 4 years

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Fuck branding and consistency: For my precious Miami Vice, we’re going full 80s!

Miami Vice is a cop show from the 80s that helped usher in an era of neo noir and radically altered how television is cut and scored. It is both an ensemble crime show and a buddy cop show. The central duo are Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson, center) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas, on the left). They start out pointing guns at each other and end up best friends... with a detour through amnesia and attempted murder along the way.

Their boss, Martin Castillo, is played by Edward James Olmos, who has had the exact same death glare for his entire career as you can see above. Rounding out the main ensemble were two comic relief guys, Switek and Zito, and two women, Trudy Joplin and Gina Calabrese.

Yes, they’re super hot, and I ship them too, along with the very obvious Crockett/Tubbs, but that is... not what the fandom shipped. More on that later.

MV had only a medium size fanfic fandom. As a source of annoying middle aged men who own that speedboat and still don’t wear socks, however, it is unparalleled. It was a mega-hit in its day but is largely ignored now.

As far as I can tell, the height of the slash fandom was just after the show ended, around the time Escapade was getting going. It was something that was in the air (hah) at the time but not popular enough to make it onto the program much. There were a scattering of vids and panels in that era, including:

1992 - Miami Vice (cops and music, right, well, maybe there's a little more here...)

Indeed there was, but you won’t find that out from most people! The cultural osmosis version of this show is deeply offensive to me, far worse than “womanizer Kirk” and its ilk.

I. How I got into the fandom

Miami Vice is a brilliant show, so far ahead of its time that it instantly dated itself and has been a subject of constant mockery by people who only know it vaguely from cultural osmosis during the 90s. Its revolutionary editing is what inspired me to go back to film school. Its cinematography is equally iconic. The soundtrack literally changed television forever. And no, children, synthesizer is not automatically a bad or cheesy instrument. Jesus.

I got into MV in 2010. I’d been reading about it in the first Film Noir Reader and had been intrigued by the black and white stills. I looked it up and found that it was a rare DVD release that secured all of the music rights, unlike the butchery of Wiseguy and too many other shows. I bought it on the spot.

It was a religious experience.

By 2010, even the little Yahoo Groups fandom it had eventually grown was long gone. The zine fandom certainly was. I started buying all of the used zines I could get my hands on. One thing stood out to me over and over: Rico, my favorite character, does have great fic, but it’s all gen and het. The slash zines treated him with absolute contempt. The only fan from the 90s slash fandom who had any clue how to write him was @flamingoslim.

So I did what any fan would do: I got into her current fandom, Starsky & Hutch, and stalked her to her S&H con.

What?

II. Why didn’t fandom love Rico?

So why were the slash zines like that? Yes, okay, the answer is racism.

But the more zines I read and the more oldschool fans I’ve talked to, the more apparent it is that the way it played out is specific and interesting, not some generic “he’s not hot” thing. The big problem was that the slash zines came from a tiny handful of publishers, with the more popular ones coming from a single publisher. Looking at their editorials in the front of volumes, I see cartoons of the two of them dressed as their ship, Crockett/Castillo. I’m getting full on otherkin vibes from how they talk about that ship.

This was very clearly a case of hating the other man who got in the way of the OTP. Even so, the particular way Rico was written in many of the stories in those zines is incredibly racist. Flamingo writes him as a supportive best friend to Crockett. This was... not the norm.

This wouldn’t be such a big problem except that this was not an era when you just go on AO3 or even FFN and post whatever you want. Getting a zine together is hard. It takes money. It means finding a printer that is willing to print gay shit--something that can still be an issue in 2020. It means having a job and a lifestyle where being outed as a publisher of gay shit will not fuck you over. They were the only game in town, and their bad takes ruled the fandom.

Contrast to the gen/het zines: Rico wasn’t specifically more popular than other characters, but he wasn’t in the way of somebody’s OTP, so he shows up pretty often as a major character, written similarly to how he is in canon.

The gen/het zines are also just plain well written, making all of the characters more nuanced and interesting than in a lot of the slash fic. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with tiny fandoms and tiny numbers of writers: one or two great talents shape the whole feeling.

The other answer to why people weren’t super into Rico is simple: Castillo.

MV is a show full of buddy duos. And then there is the boss, a mysterious lone wolf whose identity only goes back a handful of years. He is aggressively moral and incorruptible, yet also executes a counter-revolutionary in cold blood rather than let the CIA take him back to South America to continue his reign of terror.

What, you think Castillo isn’t a murderer?

Hate to break it to you, but not only is he, but Rico is the one who found out and never reported him. It’s one of the most interesting moments between them.

I’m not surprised fandom wanted to ship Castillo with someone. I just wish people hadn’t only ever reached for Crockett/Castillo when Castillo/Tubbs has just as much great material. But if I get started on my ship manifesto for that, we’ll be here all day!

Suffice it to say that MV suffers from what lots of old fandoms do: people only rewatch certain parts, and it’s hard to remember which bits are fanon.

I’ve heard people say that Rico didn’t seem like he really cared about Sonny on the same level that the oldschool slash juggernauts did. I think this is a combo of not rewatching the episodes more heavily focused on him and of fandom liking a particular kind of woobie/enabler ship. Rico usually caved in the end, but he set boundaries in a way some of these ships never did. He was also portrayed with a particular kind of bragging confidence that is way more common in black characters. I think it reads wrong to some people, though in fact, he’s just as much of a ride-or-die bestie as the usual slash duos from back in the day.

The same thing happens with a lot of specific moments fic does heavily reference. Many significant Crockett/Castillo moments involve Crockett being the only one who can get through to Castillo, yet in those actual scenes, it’s Tubbs who does or it’s both Crockett and Tubbs.

Yes, friends who I will be seeing at Escapade, even that scene and also that one. You are just flat out wrong.

III. The Fanworks

First, my eternal rec. It’s het with an OFC. No, no, come back! MV was one of those fandoms where this was sometimes the best fic, and all the more so since the ship is with Castillo, he of the mysterious past and not enough personal connections.

Dark Side of the Moon by @dejlah

I also really love Temper of Revenge by Mary Van Deusen. It’s one of three she did to the same song and it’s about the dark, dark ending for the comedy relief duo. If you’ve heard Francesca Coppa talk about vidding history, you’ll have heard of this vid. (No, we’re still not the same person.)

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I’m also a big fan of MVD’s Crockett/Castillo vid, Ready for the Times. It manages to perfectly capture the dominant fanon take on the ship. I can’t even put into words exactly why, but it brought back all that fic powerfully.

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This fan-made trailer does a good job of showing the kinds of twisty episodes he got:

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My first vid I ever sent to Vividcon was a Gina/Trudy one that gives a good sense of the awesome costumes and also how often they had to go undercover as hookers. (AO3)

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And finally, for those of you who don’t want to watch five whole seasons of 80s TV, I vidded that arc. (AO3)

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Wow, this is only like 15 screens. Practically a haiku when it comes to me talking about Miami Vice!

#escapade 2020 #escapade con #fandom history #fandom meta #miami vice

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