Arduinna

Well, it happened. I stumbled headlong into a new fandom, as I am wont to do. I don't know how long it will last, but for right now, my new hyperfixation is The Pitt.

I am not into medical dramas as a rule, but I was very intrigued by the fact that this one is shot virtually in real time--each episode is an hour in a shift in an emergency room at a hospital in Pittsburgh. I am an absolute sucker for real-time media, and I had heard nothing but good things about the show, so I decided to watch it. I watched the first half a couple weeks back and it was ridiculously good, but it's also incredibly realistic both about how much the healthcare "system" in teh US sucks but also just about how bad things are in the US in general, so I had to take a break from it because I was overwhelmed by life.

But then after shul on Friday night, I watched all the rest, and then I was like, "I wonder if any of my favorite authors have written fic for this," and then I got sucked in and spent the whole weekend reading fic, except for yesterday afternoon and evening, when I spent the whole time writing fic, and now I have 10k words of fic and so many feels.

It kind of blows my mind, how good this show is. Occasionally it goes a little heavy-handed with things, and it's trying to address, like every aspect of American culture right now (gun violence, drug abuse, incels, political polarization around things like masks, the WebMD-ification of life, etc.), but strangely it mostly pulls it off? Probably because an ER is the perfect place to do this, actually, because it's one of the few places in the country where a genuine cross-section of the population converges and people end up spending time with people from different demographics while being very vulnerable. The sheer Muchness of everything that's going on in the show is really realistic, and I hear that the medical stuff is too.

The cast is fanfreakingtastic and the writing is so good and the direction is so good and wow! It's so good!

Anyway, if any of y'all have watched it and made posts about it, link me! I want to know your thoughts!

And now, even though nobody asked, my top ten favorite characters!

1. Mel - nothingcompares2u.mp3. My baby my darling my sweetheart my best girl. I would die on a battlefield for her and I want her to have every good thing in the whole entire world.
2. Mohan - The most beautiful, kind, and empathetic woman in the world is also a workaholic with no life and no friends. Incredible. No notes. I would watch an entire show about her crying in the bathroom. Or marry her. Y'know, whichever.
3. Dana - We all know a woman like that, right? Way too competent, way too underpaid. Everyone adores her but she’s still somehow underappreciated. I am so glad she’s coming back next season but also NO ONE HAS EVER DESERVED TO RETIRE MORE THAN SHE DOES. The world does not deserve her.
4. Cassie - Imagine her life. And she just keeps going. She’s a superhero. No wonder her ex is still obsessed with her even though he's The Worst.
5. Perlah and Princess - The Statler and Waldorf of this show. What would we do without their snark and gossip and facial reactions to everything? 10/10.
6. Garcia - Every time she comes into the room I want to burst with happiness. I love what a bitch she is. I am so glad I don’t know her in real life because she would both terrify me and piss me off. Lesbian ice queen, I’m calling it.
7. Whitaker - I bet you were wondering when a dude would show up on this list. Well there’s only one, but no surprise that it is the poor bedraggled puppy dog who got left outside in the rain. I am rooting for him. You're a good man, Dennis Whitaker.
8. Collins - The second most beautiful woman in the world. She breaks my heart. LET HER HAVE WHAT SHE WANTS DAMMIT.
9. Santos, actually - I still don’t actually like her, but what a fanfreakingtastic character. Top tier writing.
10. Javadi - She’s at the bottom of the list because she triggers my second-hand embarrassment too much. But you’re doing great, bb girl.

I actually love everyone, but but the LADIES!!! THE LADIES!!!!

And now a word about shipping:

So I watched the show without any particular shippy feelings. I of course had favorite dynamics because I am me, but I was just letting the whole thing wash over me and loving all the individual characters.

But then after I finished the show, I made the mistake of thinking, "I wonder if any of my favorite fanfic writers have written for this?" and it turned out that several had, including one who has written, like, hundreds of thousands of words of fic, and it all just happens to be Mel/Langdon, and fastforward to now and I...um...might have a new ship? Not in the sense that I want them to be together in canon--I don't think that's necessary and in fact I loooove their platonic dynamic on the show--but in the, "yes, I absolutely will read every halfway decent fic about these two that I can find."

Mostly I think the appeal is that I love Mel so damn much and I want someone to love and adore her as much as she deserves it, and thankfully said fanfic writer decided to write Langdon as being really unhinged with how much he loves and wants Mel, and I am a sucker for that. I am mostly a person who wants all the foundations of a relationship laid out in canon--y'know, your Mulder/Scully, Spock/Kirk, Buffy/Spike, Wangxian kinds of dynamics where they're clearly so ridiculously important to each other and we've seen it in front of our own two eyes. But very occasionally, a really great fandom can fill in the blanks for me, and wow, I guess that's what happened with this.

I so so so so so do not want to get into ship wars about this, which I have heard of from afar. Apparently they've got the biggest No Romo contingent since MSR, but I want to stay far far away from it. I 1000% respect anyone who doesn't ship it but I don't want to hear about it elseweb. I trust my friends here to be like, "Yeah, not for me," but live and let ship, but in other places on the internet? No way.

And also...I wrote a whole entire fic about them yesterday and am now already planning on a second. ¯\_(ツ)_/

Now I've gotta find time to make some icons....