Fandom Promos

[galerian_ash]

Have you already decided what fandom(s) to write for? If so, how about doing a little promoting? :D

We've all chosen tiny obscure canons, needless to say. But by posting here you might be able to entice someone else to give it a try — or perhaps you'll even run into a fellow fan, who can't wait to read your coming fic.

Your promo can be long or short, and contain whatever you feel like. Want to post a couple of intriguing screencaps from a movie? Quote a few paragraphs from a book? Rec the best episode of an anime or a TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character and/or pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!

Comments

[tellshannon815]

I already started one about BBC show Red Rose, (only on BBC at the moment but apparently going on Netflix internationally later on) - kind of a horror show about a strange app a group of teens download, also kind of commentary on social media.

Dark and Stormy Night (Movie 2009)

[fleetsparrow]

You know those "old dark house" movies that were so popular in the 1930s? The ones with at least two murders, fast-talking reporters-cum-detectives, suspicious staff, and lots of comedy (plus a gorilla somewhere in the mix, because there's always a gorilla)?

This is an homage/parody of those movies.

(I say it's much more an homage than parody, despite parody being perfectly justified as its classification, as it's a very loving spoof of "those old dark house pictures".)

The plot is pretty standard: On the eve of a will-reading, the lawyer is murdered (along with several other people later on) and everyone is trapped in the house cut off from the outside world. There's a missing addendum to the will, a ghost, a 300-year-old witch's curse, The Phantom of Cavinder (the name of the estate), The Cavinder Strangler, secret passageways, some more murders, a psychic, mystery inheritors, and, of course, the gorilla.

It's one of my favorite movies of all time and pretty much nobody knows about it. Like, this is the kind of movie I put on to relax.

8 O'Clock Farraday and Billy Tuesday are dueling reporters vying for the scoop of the decade, who end up roping their taxi driver Happy Codburn into solving the mystery of the murders and missing addendum to the will. All Happy wants is the 35 cents 8 O'Clock owes him from the fare.

The patter is fast-paced and fun, the non-sequiturs are ridiculous and golden (the line "Feeding things will keep them alive!" can be surprisingly menacing with the correct delivery), and it's just a wild romp of fun.

It's available to purchase on Google Play (and probably others) in black and white. The DVD has the "special never-before-seen colorized version", which I prefer if only because the colors are so amazingly over-the-top yet very '30s. There's also a Blu-Ray version, I believe, but I think it's very expensive (they only released it through Kickstarter, so the resales are ridiculous). But the DVD isn't too expensive, like from Amazon or Shout! Factory if you want the colorized version. (Also, like, if this seems up your alley, just DM/PM(?? I come from twitter, sorry) me and I will absolutely hook you up because I just need more people to feel this with me.

I will end this wall of text to say, honestly, I just majorly ship 8 O'Clock/Billy/Happy and want a lot more adventures with the three of them.

Re: Dark and Stormy Night (Movie 2009)

[flo_nelja]

Oh, seems cool, thanks for the rec!

Badlands 2005

[tildytwo]

Badlands 2005 is an unsold TV pilot starring Lewis Smith and Miguel Ferrer. In the year 1995, droughts made most of the western US unlivable. Fast forward ten years, and people are starting to come back. US marshals and cyborgs protect them from water bandits and other dangers.
The main character is Garson McBeth (Smith), who works with his cyborg unit RX-107, or Rex, for short (Ferrer). McBeth is informed by his boss that he's getting a promotion to protecting a settlement rather than patrolling the desert, which is what he prefers to do. Human marshals are being phased out and replaced with cyborgs, but McBeth insists that there's something about human hunches that cyborgs can't replicate. He and Rex go on one last mission to deliver a pair of mail order brides to a water farm only to be caught by a notorious gang of water bandits. Rex's human shell gets destroyed in the firefight, and when he's repaired he's left with Frankenstein-like bolts in his neck, which he's self conscious about.

The relationship between McBeth and Rex is where I think the show really shines. Despite Rex ostensibly being partially human himself (as the term "cyborg" implies), McBeth sometimes treats him like a machine, turning him off without his input and sacrificing him to save McBeth and the other humans. He even points out that the whole point of Rex is to keep him from burning out--Rex isn't supposed to have a personality so much as he's supposed to reflect McBeth's interests back at him, giving him something to do and someone to talk to. But then there are other times where he's sympathetic toward Rex's feelings--his self-consciousness about the noticeable repairs to his body and his embarrassment when one of the mail order brides, who has spent the better part of the day trying to flirt with him, accidentally discovers what he is and freaks out.
The whole one-hour show is available for free on youtube, and I really recommend it. It took me a while to get through the first ten minutes or so because the action is a little confusing (Rex supposedly takes a rocket at point blank range, although he isn't seen on-screen until after the damage is done), but the rest of the show was interesting and (I think) had the potential for more interesting stories farther down the road. It has kind of a Mad Max feel to it with a veneer of an American western, and Miguel Ferrer as Rex is snarky but lovable. I really recommend it. :)


gif by oldschoolteenflicks on tumblr

[yellowmagicalgirl]

I just finished writing a fanfic for the 5th Edition Dungeons&Dragons actual play Khyber Shards, an X-Men inspired campaign set in the world of Eberron. It focuses on four characters with aberrant dragonmarks, typically destructive supernatural abilities that manifest as marks on their skin. Stigmatized for these marks, the four of them try to lay low and hide their marks, but when they're discovered by the authorities the four of them (and an old ally from their past aka my favorite NPC) begin to try and create a school for children with aberrant dragonmarks.

All the episodes are available on YouTube, and Episode 91 will come out on Monday, 9/19/22. Episodes typically range from an hour to an an hour-and-a-half long. If you would like to watch a recap of the first 78 episodes, then you can watch it here. If you would like to start with the first episode, do so here.

Son of a Critch (TV, 2022)

[gloss]

Official Trailer
Son of a Critch is a coming-of-age sitcom set in Newfoundland in the mid-1980s. Loosely based on star Mark Critch's memoir, it's weird and sweet and just truly delightful. It has aired one season (13 episodes so far), with the second to start in January, 2023.

Young Mark is a strange kid who's never had friends his age; he's closest to his ornery grandfather, played by film legend Malcolm McDowell. (The comedic chemistry that McDowell and Ainsworth share is fantastic!) But now that he's started junior high, Mark makes one (1) friend, Ritche, a Filipino-Canadian, and gets sucked into the orbit of a bully from a family of bullies, all redheads, all named Fox. Mark's parents are awesome; his father is a radio newsman and his mother is a gossipy, strong-minded housewife.

I love this show. It's tender, occasionally even sappy, but it's also proudly part of the acid-tongued social-satiric tradition of Newfoundland comedy, where silliness turns on a knife's edge into something biting and true.

Son of a Critch is available in Canada on CBC and CBC's streaming service, Gem, and on Paramount+ in the UK and Ireland. YouTube is also showing me options to buy each episode, but I don't know if that is region-specific. I suspect it is.