How I Met...Aunt Robin?

I know I should probably have a topic more pertinent to writing after not blogging for three days, but something's been bugging me and I have to get it off my chest.

I'm a big fan of How I Met Your Mother, but the premise, I have to admit, is starting to wear a bit thin. Has anyone else noticed that Ted has spent two years explaining to his teenage children more about how he slept with their Aunt Robin than how he actually met their mother?

Don't get me wrong, the show is hilarious, but enough already. If Robin isn't 'Mom' she and Ted need to stop fooling around and Ted needs to meet 'Mom' before the kids wise up and figure out they've got to be adopted because their parents didn't have enough time to actually meet before they were born.

That's my rant for this rainy Monday. Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Every TV show should have...

...a romance novelist on staff.


It just makes good sense. Let's face it, even though there's an abundance of 'shippers' out there for almost every show on TV, how often are you really satisfied with a TV romance?


I mean, I'm so tired of hearing 'If so and so got together it would ruin the show.' Bah humbug. That's absurd. Sure it's happened - look at the Moonlighting fiasco. That was the show, I think that set the precedent. You can't have a couple dance around the idea of being in love for a number of seasons and then have them finally hook up, because the show goes to the dogs after that.



Not true. The addage should be, you can't have a mediocre plot after two beloved characters get together or the show will go to the dogs.


As a romance novelist, and a dedicated shipper since the age of ten, [who didn't root for Mark and Princess to get together on Battle of the Planets?] I'm so tired of spending years hoping a couple will get together and then either a) having the romance fizzle out because the writers are afraid of where it will go, b) having a substitute thrown in at the last minute [fortunately the whole Deanna Troi/Worf thing didn't last and she ended up married to Riker, but look how long it took!] c) getting to the series finale and finally having the writers throw the fans a bone.


Don't you think the world would be a better place if we got more satisfying romance? Who's your favorite TV couple?

If offered the job, would you be a romance consultant for a television show? Heck, I think it should be a mandatory staff position.

What is it....

about men named Captain Jack?

Earlier this year Captain Jack Sparrow had everyone swooning in the third installmant of Pirates of the Carribean. [Honestly, I'd pick Orlando over Johnny Depp, but that's just me].

Now there's a new Captain Jack on the scene, at least for us sci-fi geeks. The British Doctor Who series spinoff, Torchwood, boasts a new and different Captain Jack - Harkness, that is.

Played by American actor John Barrowman, Captain Jack made his debut in an epsiode of Doctor Who then spun off to star in his own show.

Torchwood [an anagram of Doctor Who] is a fictional law enforcement agency that operates 'outside the government, above the police' and deals with alien incursions on Earth and very often interdimensional and time travel.

The show rocks - mostly because it's British and they can do things we just can't on American TV - chief among them have the lead character be admittedly 'omnisexual.'

Captain Jack isn't gay [though John Barrowman is] and he's not technically bisexual, even though he's been in love with both males and females. The word 'omnisexual' has been coined to describe someone who is open to all sexual experiences. I've yet to see him mack on a non-humanoid, but I'm sure it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Captain Jack fascinates me because in addition to being a tortured soul of sorts - lost in time, and unable to die - he's dashing, compassionate, intelligent and hot. He has all the qualities of a good hero, with the added bonus that he can potentially fall in love with anyone, or any thing.

The difference, I think, between Captain Jack Harkness and Captain Jack Sparrow is that Jack Sparrow was somewhat ambiguous, and Jack Harkness [an alias, btw - but you have to watch the show to find out where he got the name] is unapologetically...biguous so to speak. There's nothing questionable about his orientation. He's gay, he's straight, he's bi and he's easy on the eyes so everyone can fantasize.


If you get a chance, check out Torchwood and see for yourself what makes this Captain Jack so compelling. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Once More With Feeling

Under 'Things you never knew you wanted until found out you couldn't have them:'

Apparently FOX has put the smackdown on unauthorized airings of the muscial episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled Once More With Feeling.

Fans have been showing the episode and apparently dressing up for a sing along a lot like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and FOX, which now owns the rights to Buffy and is not making any moola on the venture, decided to step in and crack the legal whip.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting the rights of artists and the actors and others who get royalties for airing these episodes do deserve to get paid, as I'm sure their contracts state, but I have to say, if I were a big hootie hoot at FOX, rather than tossing everyone else's toys off the table over this, I'd figure out how to make it work for me. If fans want to turn this episode [which is utterly fabulous, btw] into a cult classic like Rocky Horror, why not let them? Hell, why not help them?

I'd set up official screenings of the episode, charge for tickets and make it an all fired big deal. This way your fans get what they want. Just because a show is cancelled doesn't mean there still aren't people dying to watch it. Look at Star Trek. Cancellation didn't hurt Trek fandom at all, why should it hurt Buffy fandom?

I've never been to Rocky, but let me tell you, I'd go to theatrical screening of Once More... and I'd sing my heart out...

Walk throught the fi-re...to the point of no return...

Once I get that in my head, forget it. I'm a goner.

Come on, FOX, let Whedon fans have their fun. You don't want us all asking the musical question...

Where do we go from...here??