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Fandom/Canon Name: Department S
What's awesome about it: It's one of those UK 60s action-adventure serials (made on film! with US money! Not 100% composed of cardboard!), about an Interpol Department that investigate inexplicable and surreal incidents that nobody else can explain. (Why did someone suffocate in a space suit in central London? A plane goes missing for six days, but everyone on board is sure they've landed 20 minutes early... Why is there a body in a fake, beautifully furnished room in a warehouse?)

The Department consists of the diplomat in charge, Sir Curtis Seretse (Dennis Alaba Peters), and his three operatives, Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani) who heads up the team and tends to do the legwork and the action scenes (although he has an impressive tendency to get drugged/knocked out/tortured in the process, especially in the first half of the series), computer expert Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols) who's brainy, competent, and is let in on the action far more than most ITC female leads, and flamboyant thriller author Jason King (Peter Wyngarde), who's there to flirt with the enemy and provide outside-the-box answers using his imagination. You can ship them in pretty much any direction you like, and they a pretty great OT3 of whatever kind you prefer.

It's a lot of fun and the "Mary Celeste" type openers are v cool, its moments of seriousness are actually pretty great, and the guest cast even includes a young Anthony Hopkins, while Jason and his fictional hero Mark Caine mean it comes with a post-modern tongue-in-cheek/meta element. I picked it up this summer and loved it far more than I'd expected, going by the vague idea I had of Jason King.

Where to find: It's out on DVD and even Blu-Ray; I can't find it on YT, though, but I did find some trailers/fanvids that give a pretty good idea of its virtues and flaws:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-UUbdLDrU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06YHH9eEjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4V2nZBYvnM

Edited 2021-01-10 20:55 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Twenty Planets by Carolyn Ives Gilman

What's awesome about it: Twenty Planets is a loosely connected series of books set in the same universe. There are a few crossover characters, but each novel/novella is definitely a stand-alone. Gilman writes great characters, my favorite being Tedla from Halfway Human.

Tedla is an asexual, agender person from a planet called Gammadis where they have 3 biological sexes: male, female, and neuter. Halfway Human takes this premise and sets up a really complex world where gender and class struggles are framed in totally different ways by having a third gender. Neuters are stigmatized and looked down on by the rest of the population, but Tedla's experiences show that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Dark Orbit, the most recent novel, is also wonderful. Another planet is being explored in this story, and here the population is adapted to living underground in total darkness. So there are some really amazing descriptions of how the society uses their senses of touch, sound, and smell to understand their world.

Where to find: You can get the novels from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The ebook for Halfway Human runs about $5, and a used paperback is only $2+shipping on Amazon.

If you're a fan, check out

twentyplanets. It's a new community that I created to, hopefully, meet other fans and and discuss the series with each other.

Also, check out this beautiful portrait of Tedla from a wonderful artist on tumblr: LINK. (Pic is SFW, but blog is *not*).

Fandom/Canon Name: Dragon's Winter by Elizabeth A. Lynn

What's awesome about it: It's a two-book series about Karadur Atani, a canonically bisexual, shape-shifting, dragon prince. He's in love with his best friend, Azil, who is a harpist and singer with a beautiful voice. But Karadur's twin brother is super jealous of his dragon shapeshifting power and the fact that Karadur is the elder twin. So he steals his dragon power talisman and kidnaps Azil. After three years, Azil escapes and comes back to Karadur completely broken from torture and guilt. The rest of the book is about Karadur and Azil trying to figure out how to trust each other again and also going on a quest to get Karadur's dragon power talisman back.

The second book seems less well-known, but it's called Dragon's Treasure and is equally wonderful. The main conflict of the book is Karadur trying to balance his love for Azil with his need to have children and continue his line (and thus his need to find a woman who is capable of surviving dragon babies, which I guess make for a pretty tough pregnancy). There are plenty of sweet moments between Karadur and Azil though, which I just live for. These two are the absolute best.

Lynn's prose style is minimal and poetic, sort of like an ancient legend. It's beautiful and evocative. Despite a lot of the story being about Karadur (and Azil), it's largely told by secondary characters who are all equally interesting. One of the things I like most about the books is how much is implied, rather than outright told. This is especially great for fic writers, because there are so many intriguing gaps that could be filled in.

Where to find: Ebooks are available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Used copies are going pretty cheap on Amazon. I was able to get Dragon's Winter from my local library.

For more details about the series, I recommend the TV Tropes page: LINK.

Edited 2017-09-14 15:30 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Choice of Robots
What's awesome about it: Do you like robots and AI? Do you like a deeply moving piece of interactive fiction that really hinges on your choices? Do you like exploration of technology, AI, and their relation to humanity? Do you like canon bisexual romance option and games that you can build the future skynet or romance a robot? Choice of Robots is a text adventure that has everything from above with an impressive length (300k) and very good writing.
Where to find: https://www.choiceofgames.com/robots/

Fandom/Canon Name: The Reward (2013)
What's awesome about it: The Reward 's 9 minutes long, authors truthfully describe it as "epic, feel good, bromantic roadtrip short film", and it's BURSTING with awesome fantasy worlbduilding potential.
Where to find: The whole film: https://vimeo.com/58179094

Fandom/Canon Name: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - Various Authors

What's awesome about it: The illegitimate child of Monty Python and Umberto Eco, this is a beautifully produced anthology with pseudo-scholarly essays and stories about a numbber of strange artefacts owned by Dr. Lambshead, an eccentric collector of the bizarre and macabre. A lot of the book is playing with the uncanny, things that are almost, but not quite, human; or straddle the line between animate and inanimate.

Where to find: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thackery-T-Lambshead-Cabinet-Curiosities/dp/0062004751

Fandom/Canon Name: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois

What's awesome about it: Multimedia sci-fi storytelling! The celebration of weird and wonderful real-life oddities! Sentient space probes! Available to read for free!

Where to find: https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football

Fandom/Canon Name: You're the Worst
What's awesome about it: It's a romantic comedy about assholes in love that also regularly turns in nuanced, heartbreaking drama. (Deals a lot with clinical depression and PTSD.) If you like gorgeous people stealing froyo samples, touring murder houses, having enthusiastic sex, and breaking down into tears when they realize the weight of their unhappiness, this is the show for you. The main romance, Gretchen/Jimmy, is one of my favorites on TV--flawed, prickly, warm, and full of chemistry--and Jimmy's roommate Edgar, by far the sweetest person on the show and genuinely adorable, is a fan favorite. There is also terrific femslash potential between Gretchen and her best friend, ditzy mostly-amoral trainwreck-with-a-heart Lindsay.
Where to find: The first three seasons are streaming on Hulu and the fourth is currently airing on FXX.

Fandom/Canon Name: The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple

What's awesome about it: If you like historical fiction, children's literature, travelogues, ships with age gaps, or discussions of religion, I think you ought to give The Ramsay Scallop a try.

The year is 1300. Elenor of Ramsay is a noble's daughter who spends her days gallivanting around her estate and trying not to think about how she's betrothed to a boy called Thomas of Thornham. She hasn't seen him since he went to fight in the Crusades, and she's not looking forward to seeing him now that word's come that the Crusaders are returning. But Thomas isn't the boy he was--the Crusades have broken him, and it's with shame that he tells their priest of the sins he witnessed.

Plenty of sinning's been happening back home, too, let's be real here, so it's decided that Elenor and Thomas will make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as penance for their people. What follows is the story of a very long walk through France and Spain and a slowly deepening respect and affection for each other. Elenor and Thomas meet people from all walks of life, from peasants to troubadors to a pair of shepherds who are Muslim and Albigensian, respectively. They see a cathedral being built, explore the world of books (just a little--they're expensive!), and get fleas. It's a quiet story of traveling and new experiences for two people reacquainting themselves with each other.

Where to find: So, unfortunately, this book has been out of print for years, and there isn't an ebook edition unless I can get around to transcribing mine at some point. ON THE UPSIDE, that also means that it starts at $1.99 right now on Amazon.

Fandom/Canon Name: The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel
What's awesome about it: Incorporating Indian mythology, a heartbroken guardian spirit of an abandoned tells her dark and tragic story of the lose of her love - Pooja, a mortal girl unfazed by her, and the tragical aftermath for the village to Pooja's female descendent, who has (unknowingly?) just become hers. It's beautifully written, touching and creepy.
Where to find: The story is collected in the once free Event Horizon 2017 (https://www.shirtsleevepress.com/single-post/2017/03/23/Event-Horizon-Now-Available-in-Paperback), and https://www.ragnarokpub.com/genius-loci

Canon name: Dark City (1998)

What's awesome about it: An urban labyrinth where the streets are always dark with something more than night, the citizens are both haunted and oblivious, and the pervasive corruption of your heartless mechanized urban existence goes a little further than your average crime drama. A glamorous chanteuse informs her husband's psychiatrist of the man's recent disappearance. A haunted amnesiac flees the scene of a crime and discovers what he's capable of in a pinch. A police inspector hunts down his man, at the same time as someone altogether different and altogether worse is also on the hunt. Jennifer Connelly! Rufus Sewell! Kiefer Sutherland! William Hurt! Spiral imagery! Automats! Bald people!

This movie is a super-90s, super-fabulous SF homage to film noir and German Expressionism, chock-full of atmosphere, paranoia, stylish visuals, and big questions about identity and independence, plus ~~blond Kiefer Sutherland in a bathhouse of angst~~ good-looking people in period dress. It touches on a lot of good, good angsty content (as well as the potential for more serious worldbuilding) but really it's long on atmosphere and vibe.

For spoilery incentives, run the following text through ROT13: gurer'f nyfb PBBY NAQEBTLABHF UVIR ZVAQ NYVRAF srng. Evpuneq B'Oevra, pnaba zvaq pbageby naq cflpubybtvpny gvaxrevat, ernyvgl-jnecvat fhcrecbjref, n irel crphyvne zragbe eryngvbafuvc snpvyvgngrq ol cuyrobgvahz-snpvyvgngrq vzcynagrq zrzbevrf, fhcre-90f fcrpvny rssrpgf, n punenpgre punfvat nsgre n gentvpnyyl ubcryrff ivfvba bs unccvarff… lrnu, tbbq fuvg. Gurer'f z/z naq s/z fuvc cbgragvny vs lbh'er abg nqirefr gb n yvggyr fperjl FS-abve vqragvgl gebhoyr, naq nyfb cbgragvny sbe sha krab jvgu gur fxvafhvg-jrnevat rkgengreerfgevny nagntbavfgf, gur Fgenatref.

There are two cuts of this movie -- one, the theatrical cut that wears its major twist on its sleeve starting with the opening narration, and a director's cut with some extended scenes and no spoilery opening monologue. If you're watching the theatrical cut (the version that was streaming on Hulu until very recently) you can mute the audio for the first few minutes until a close-up on a pocketwatch occurs and figure out the mystery angle yourself. (Then go back and watch it when you're done, if you feel like it.)

Content notes: violence toward sex workers, unreality, manipulation, psychological horror, massive needles, offscreen torture, brainwashing/mind manipulation, "go-mad-from-the-revelation"-type content, suicide.

Where to find: Until recently this movie was on Hulu, but they took it off just in time for Yuletide, I guess. It's available to rent and watch on a lot of other platforms as well as in shadier ways, but I can't seem to find it streaming.

Fandom/Canon Name: The Defiant Ones

What's awesome about it: (With apologies to those that follow ALL the yuletide and are seeing me rec this all over.) Welp, Imma copy/paste most of my insane journal review from just after I saw it:

I am going to warn you straight away that it deals with fairly nasty racial issues, and handles them imperfectly. But I was surprised, too. There were a couple of times when it discussed things I did not even realize people were aware of in 1958. It was a little heavy handed with some stuff, but still managed to deal with it with a bit of nuance that I didn't expect. But there was some gross stuff too, and hell, it's definitely a product of its times. (This was prior to the big civil rights movement, keep in mind.)

The Defiant Ones starred Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. Now, you already know this is an excellent movie, because it stars Poitier. You are not going to get a bad movie out of Sidney Poitier. He could make a movie all by himself, playing all roles, and it would be a good movie. Come to think of it, that would be the best movie ever. But I digress!

The physical acting in this was so good it literally made me gasp in a few places. I actually had to stop and watch some scenes several times, because whatever the hell they were actually saying, their bodies were telling a story that completely distracted me from the words. And frankly, young Tony Curtis was awfully hot, and perfect for the role of the brooding, sulky, yet handsome jerk. He's good in a black and white movie, with those gorgeous clear eyes.

Anyway, the point is, Poitier and Curtis have UNDENIABLE SEXUAL CHEMISTRY. From the very first scene together, they sizzle. You can tell me they never actually had sex, and I will believe you, because the UST is so thick you could cut it with a knife--but there is NOTHING you can say to make me believe they didn't WANT to. My god, I have NEVER seen two people with more chemistry. There is tenderness, there is fierceness, there is intimacy.

Also, a slasher must have written this film. Seriously, you could not have come up with this unless you wrote slash fanfic, somewhere in your secret, pre-1958 world. You want to know the basis of the plot? Two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, are shackled together and must co-operate in order to survive. Yes, this leads to everything you would expect. Fighting, deep discussion, harrowing moments where they save each others' lives, moments where THEY FALL ASLEEP IN EACH OTHER'S ARMS, OMG, hurt/comfort, a gradual understanding and deepening love, everything you could possibly want from a ship. You want a pic? Fuck right, I'm giving you pics.

(I hope I did that right. It's . . . been awhile since I've htmled.)
I just--people, I can't even. I have never seen a movie that ignited such a fierce shippers' passion and me. I fully believe I will never see another movie this blatantly, wonderfully, romantically, beautifully shippy. My only complaints were the fight scene--not especially well done--the Billy moment, just because it was so gross, racially, and the over-the-top THAT HORRIBLE WOMAN IS TRYING TO COME BETWEEN US moment. But I have to admit, I didn't mind that bit all that much, because that bit was almost like a prescient homage to slashfic. It was such an amusing thing that I couldn't do more than roll my eyes.

And I am not going to spoil the ending, but the ending is amazing and shippy.

IN CONCLUSION; SIDNEY POITIER AND TONY CURTIS--THEIR LOVE IS FUCKING EPIC. (Sorry if this is super long. I had a lot of feelings to share.)

Where to find: You can rent it for $3 at Amazon.

Fandom/Canon Name: Plus One by Elizabeth Fama (book, link goes to Goodreads)

What's awesome about it: Dystopian YA - wait, don't backbutton! It's surprisingly enjoyable and novel for dystopian YA, set in an alternate future in which the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 led to the need for split-shift staffing of hospitals, a day set and a night set of doctors and nurses, which in turn proved so efficient that the division between day workers and night workers was expanded to all parts of life, formalized and codified and enforced by law. But as daylight living is more natural and presumably more enjoyable, gradually the night people (Smudges) became stereotyped as stupid, undesirable, lesser than the day people (Rays) - and it took me until about 3/4 through the book to realize this was a civil rights allegory. And yes, people are secretly organizing to fight the power.

Here's the Goodreads blurb: Sol Le Coeur is a Smudge--a night dweller in an America rigidly divided between people who wake, live, and work during the hours of darkness and those known as Rays, who live and work during daylight. Impulsive, passionate, and brave, Sol concocts a plan to kidnap her newborn niece--a Ray--in order to bring the baby to visit her dying grandfather. Sol's violation of the day/night curfew is already a serious crime, but when her kidnap attempt goes awry, she stumbles on a government conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population. Sol escapes the authorities with an unexpected ally: a Ray who gets in her way, a boy she might have hated if fate hadn't forced them on the run together--a boy the world now tells her she can't love.

Yes, there is some suspension of disbelief required, but no more than, say, teenagers fighting to the death broadcast on television, or a society discarding all but a hundred selected novels, songs, and films. And what makes this an actually good book is that the plot is legitimately interesting and complex, and goes in unexpected (but foreshadowed) ways. There is a (het) romance, which is somewhat cutesy and predictable, but at least it's not a love triangle - and, speaking of YA tropes, though this is in first person it is in PAST TENSE THANK GOD.

I liked the ending, which is not pat or universally happy, and which leaves a lot of things open-ended for a sequel (or for fanfiction). There is also an enemies-to-friends arc between Sol and Gigi that is very femslashable, and a brother-and-sister rocky relationship between Sol and Ciel.

Where to find: Wherever you obtain books - libraries, bookstores, or online. There is also a prequel short story Noma Girl free online, which is from Gigi's POV, but I don't think it makes a lot of sense on its own, and it is stylistically different from the novel and so doesn't really make a good intro. (But it's a good insight into Gigi and the fringe society of the Noma.)

(I have nominated Soleil, Ciel, D'Arcy, and Gigi.)

Edited (adding my noms) 2017-09-14 19:42 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Raven's Home

What's awesome about it:

It's the second spinoff following That's So Raven (the first was Cory in the House). Raven Baxter and Chelsea Daniels have married, divorced, and now have children, and have decided to move into an apartment in Chicago. Their children get into mishaps in school and in various parts of Chicago. But Raven & Chelsea get into mishaps of their own as well. The show hints at adventures Raven and Chelsea had after the end of That's So Raven but before Raven's Home. Although Raven & Chelsea aren't explicitly a couple, the show is perfect for femslashy moments. It started this year and it's still an ongoing canon, so there are few episodes to catch up with, and they're all around 30 minutes with advertisements.

A note: Although the show occasionally references things from That's So Raven, you can watch it without having seen That's So Raven or Cory in the House. Aside from Chelsea and Devon (Raven's boyfriend from That's So Raven, now her ex-husband in Raven's Home), no other characters from That's So Raven appear in Raven's Home. In addition, characters specific to Cory in the House don't appear in Raven's Home.

Where to find: At least in the US, the show is on demand (Watch Disney Channel and elsewhere) and iTunes, Amazon, the Google Store, and YouTube TV.

Edited (punctuation) 2017-09-14 17:54 (UTC)

Canon: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

What's awesome about it: Picture it, ~~Sicily, 1922~~ Missouri, 1881: starstruck nineteen-year-old Bob Ford seeks out his boyhood hero as the James gang prepares to undertake their final robbery, a nighttime train holdup. As a major-league Jesse James stan, this alone could easily have been the defining event of Bob's life -- but you read the title of the movie. Jesse and his wife retreat with the remaining members of the gang, living under assumed names -- intra-gang rivalries escalate to a dangerous point, and in the close quarters Bob's fascination with the ageing Jesse grows and festers as Jesse's exhaustion and paranoia bring out the less romantic qualities of a legendary outlaw.

Hero worship gone bad! Intense longing looks! Abrupt and anticlimactic gun violence! Sensual bathing! Guns! Knives! Love/hate! Hate/love! Holding your younger friend at knifepoint as a cruel joke after caressing him and stroking his hair! Murdering your mentor! Zooey Deschanel is a dance hall girl! A killer opening narration! It's a revisionist Western with a narrow focus on its foregone conclusion and beyond, concerned with fame and infamy as well as the eternal bummer of meeting your heroes.This film has an extremely pretty soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (the Australian multi-instrumentalist, not the dude who did Transmetropolitan) and completely amazeballs cinematography by Roger Deakins. I know jack-shit about film, but this film is very, very pretty. As you may have gleaned, it's also pretty much textually romantic between Jesse and Bob, though in a pretty dysfunctional way. (I also ship the hell out of Bob and his equally-doomed brother Charley.)

Vid rec: se42's 'Serpent Charmer'

Content notes: violence including violence toward a child, animal harm (simulated killing of snakes), major character death, terminal tuberculosis, suicide, 19th century casual racism and sexism, including brief use of slurs. (Brief relative to, say, The Hateful Eight but still present -- Jesse James was a Confederate guerrilla in his youth and his family and associates share those sympathies.)

Where to find: In addition to rental/purchase on streaming services, this film is streaming on HBO GO. It's also on Australian Netflix.

Fandom/Canon Name: Tumanbay

What's awesome about it: Set in a historisized fantasy realm, Tumanbay is an epic radio drama based produced by BBC Radio 4 on the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt that at its height ruled over parts of modern-day Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and the Levant up to Turkey. The empire of Tumanbay is in decline, although neither the sultan or any of his advisors are willing to face reality. Reality, however, is forced upon them, when an envoy from a queen in a former province of Tumanbay sends the head of the latest general sent to deal with her rebellion back to the Sultan.

It tells the story through multiple character POV's and the main dramatis personae of Season 1 are:

Gregor: Captain of the palace guard (officially) and chief spymaster/counterintelligence officier (unofficially). He's given the task of rooting out spies that the sultan is sure have infiltrated the court and are reporting back to Maya, the self-declared queen in Amber Province. He's always looking out for himself.

Sultan Al-Ghuri: Came to power by murdering his brother, the last sultan. Decadent and has an outsized view of Tumanbay's splendor and importance in the world, not to mention his own abilities. His real passion is making perfumes and he leaves most of the nitty-gritty of governing to Cadali, his vizier, and Gregor.

Shajar: First-wife of Al-Ghuri and former first-wife to his late brother. The most beautiful woman in Tumanbay and chiefly concerned with securing her future in the palace and her son's future as the next sultan.

Madu: Shajar's son with the last sultan. Really, he just wants to live his best life and be idly rich and bang hot guys. Shajar, concerned with sucession lines, pesters him about taking a wife, even if he otherwise spends his time with men. He is sent to the army to be "toughened up."

Sarah: A slave who is not all she appears to be. She is educated and refined and is placed by Gregor to be Shajar's lady's maid and spy on Shajar. Daniel's sister.

Daniel: Another slave who is not quite what he seems to be and is sent to the army when he's deemed "un-tameable" and too violent to be a household slave. There he meets and brefriends Madu. Sarah's brother.

Heaven: The teenage daughter of a slave-trader and merchant, Ibn Bay, Heaven's on her way to Tumanbay to be married to a business partner of her father's, against her many protests. On the shipride over, she's taken hostage by Slave to force the ship's captain to let him take a a life raft and escape. She and Slave come to an uneasy truce to survive the desert and make it to Tumanbay and her father.

Slave: Slave has sworn an oath of revenge against the man that made him a slave and refuses to use his given name until he kills that man, who he discovers is in Tumanbay. He takes Heaven hostage and expects to let her go to make her own way through the desert, but he finds himself traveling with her instead.

Other characters include: Cadali, the sultan's vizier and chief hype-man; General Qulan, Gregor's brother and the rarest thing in Tumanbay - an honest and loyal man; Manel, Qulan's daughter who is more like her father than either of them realize (although we really only get to know her in the second season). Season 2 introduces several other important characters, but since it builds directly on what happens at the end of season 1, I don't want to spoil it!

There are plot twists, red herrings, evolving relationships, and shifting allegiances - it's a radio drama that will definitely keep you on your toes!

Where to find it: The internet archive has both seasons (https://archive.org/details/TumanbayR42015), and they've just serialized in on US iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tumanbay/id1278345733?mt=2). It comes up in podcast search results but I can't access it, so it looks like it's also available on UK iTunes.

Fandom/Canon Name: Bring It On - Miranda & Kitt/Green & Miranda/Whitty

What's awesome about it: It's a cheerleader musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda! It's very loosely based on the film of the same name starring Eliza Dushku, in that they are both about rivalry between high-school cheerleader teams, but the characters and plot are different. The songs are catchy and witty, all about young women being ferociously athletic and competitive, and about making mistakes, and rebuilding trust. I love that the focus of the musical is the creative and competitive endeavours of the women, while the men are basically the incidental love interests.

Also worth noting that one of the supporting characters was played as trans on Broadway (although so subtly that I didn't pick it up from the cast recording alone)
https://www.out.com/entertainment/interviews/2012/08/01/gregory-haney-bring-it-musical-broadway
http://www.playbill.com/article/it-aint-no-thing-bring-it-on-the-musical-cheers-on-broadways-first-transgender-teen-character-com-196686

Where to find: The Broadway cast recording is fairly widely available, free on Spotify or (UK) Amazon Prime, or about £8 / $9 for a digital album. It's not the whole of the plot but Wikipedia fills in the gaps. I saw an amateur production locally earlier this year; there are videos of amateur productions of varying quality on YouTube.

For a free taster, there's the cast performance from the Tony Awards in 2013: https://youtu.be/KdehFSDhLOQ?t=56s or this Playbill "highlights" video: https://youtu.be/VJDfJeuY_g8

Fandom/Canon Name: Mr. Right (2015)
What's awesome about it:

You know what I love? Assassin Romantic Comedies

(There's a lot more of them than you'd think.)

Last year, one was released: Mr. Right, written by Max Landis, starring Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick! :D

But you probably never heard about it because it was marketed horribly! D:

Ok this isn't the best film ever, it wasn't exactly robbed, but it deserved much better than it got, which was almost nothing. Hence I have nominated it this year in one of my Yuletide slots. (I also nominated it last year, and other people wrote some good fics, but I wasn't matched on it so I thought I'd nominate it again.)

Anna Kendrick plays Martha, who, after a seriously nasty breakup, is feeling pretty down. She runs into a strange man one day (Sam Rockwell) who seems to match her in all her social awkwardness, spontaneity, and eccentric habits. He's her Mr. Right ... whoops, she doesn't even know his name yet.
Also whoops, she doesn't realize he's a former black ops CIA operative assassin who's now going around killing people who try to hire him, because he's got it into his head that murder is wrong, so the people trying to hire him should die. And his old partner/handler Hopper (Tim Roth) is hunting him down to try and drag him back into what appears to be some kind of super soldier program.
But Francis (Mr. Right) loves Martha, and Martha realizes she loves him back. And also, she might have a knack for this violence thing?

Sam Rockwell wears a clown nose, dances around, and kills people. Anna Kendrick catches knives out of the air and laughs in the face of mobsters holding her hostage. They have really adorable chemistry together. Tim Roth is clearly having too much fun. RZA is literally named "Shotgun Steve" in the script.

Do yourself a favor and check this movie out, it's silly and fun and it deserves more attention.

Where to find: Currently on American Netflix, and available to rent or buy on iTunes, Youtube, and Amazon.
Edit: I've been informed it's also on Canadian Netflix at the moment.

Edited 2017-09-23 17:11 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: Siberia (TV)

What's awesome about it:
How to explain Siberia. I've seen it described as "Lost meets Survivor." Initially (through most of the first episode in fact) you might think it's just a reality show about a bunch of random people surviving in the wilderness for a cash prize. However, by the end of the first episode, when one of the cast members dies, you realize that this is a scripted show using the reality show format. More deaths, strange occurrences, and eerie events pile up, the cameras rolling the whole time, the "cast" doing one-on-one interviews, some picking up faster than the others that strange things are going on. As the cast searches for answers, schemes and "plays the game," and uncover clues and mysteries.

Despite some early episode awkwardness, eventually the show finds its footing and becomes a decently scary horror show with strong performances (most from first-time stars, the cast was picked to be full of newcomers who wouldn't be recognizable to audiences), twists and turns, great use of the landscape, and surprisingly poignant moments. The characters all seem like normal people trapped in a bizarre situation, and act accordingly, some staying strong, some breaking down, some lashing out, etc. The premise is so intriguing, I'm amazed more tv shows haven't tried this format.

Now this show ends on one nasty cliffhanger. The status of the show has been in limbo for years now. If you can't stand unanswered questions, this isn't a show to get into as its fate is unknown. We get just enough answers to the major questions, such as "is this real or fake" or "what happened that night they blacked out" or "what was the thing in the woods?" or "where did that spear come from?" So you're not just left with no idea what happened at all, you have SOME answers ... but you want MORE.

Whittling down the characters was really difficult for me. Everyone is fantastic, I agonized over my choices. Eventually I chose:
Sabina - former Israeli soldier. Seems like a stoic badass at first, reveals some intense backstory later on that explains her attitude. One of the most useful and competent members of the group, the person you'd want on your side when stuck in the woods and scary stuff started happening.
Here's a gifset of her.
Daniel - a sweetie. Generally decent guy, tries his best to work together with people and help people when they get into trouble. Average Everyman, viewpoint character to several major plotlines and character reveals. Burgeoning romance with Irene.
Irene - another sweetie. Becomes one of the most useful characters when she reveals she knows archery, and helps hunt deer in the woods, impressing everyone. Wounded and damseled later on, but still an important character. Burgeoning romance with Daniel.
Sam - initially I was worried about this guy, he seemed like the gruff older white man who'd become the team leader. But he didn't. He turned out to be a complex character who was more surrogate father to the younger characters and loyal second-in-command to the stronger personalities of the group.
Here's a pic post for him.

Where to find:
1. You can buy the DVD set on amazon or stream the 11 episodes: https://www.amazon.com/Siberia/dp/B00I01PGKA
(You could also poke around less reputable sites, I've seen it around, not that I endorse such things of course.)

2. Here is the theme song, which I think is eerie and cool, and really looks like it's a reality show theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ41hEUPYr0

3. Here is the trailer, which spoils A LOT of things. If you have any interest in this show at all, I recommend just watching the show. At 11 episodes, you'll go through it pretty fast. The trailer spoils some of the twists, but here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfgZqTr_hOA

4. Here are some gifsets of the show's cinematography: http://ksniasolo.tumblr.com/post/87480077857
http://ksniasolo.tumblr.com/post/78077581298
http://ksniasolo.tumblr.com/post/87756791522

Edited 2017-09-15 04:35 (UTC)

Fandom/Canon Name: The Bone Palace (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7822865-the-bone-palace), by Amanda Downum

What's awesome about it: It's a gorgeous, emotional, mystery-adventure novel featuring three characters with complicated intertwining relationships. There are amazing, strong, well-developed female protagonists, one of whom is transgender. There is also a polyamorous relationship, and explorations of sexuality, gender, and monogamy. This book has some of the most amazing fictional women I've ever read, and there is so much room at the end of this book for their story to continue.

There is an excellent article here by Brit Mandelo which goes into more detail about the characters and themes: Queering SFF: The Bone Palace by Amanda Downum (https://www.tor.com/2011/01/10/queering-sff-the-bone-palace-by-amanda-downum/)

There's also a fan letter here, far more eloquent than I, by Jia: REVIEW: The Bone Palace by Amanda Downum (http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-reviews/review-the-bone-palace-by-amanda-downum/)

This book is technically the second in a series, but it is a standalone novel, no prior knowledge required.

Where to find: Public libraries, Barnes & Noble (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bone-palace-amanda-downum/1100259253?ean=9780316069007), Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Bone-Palace-Necromancer-Chronicles/dp/0316069000/)

Fandom/Canon Name: Fastlane

What's awesome about it: Okay, so my last recommendation was all, "Transgender characters! Women of color in power! Functional polyamory!" This one is...100% cracktastic guilty pleasure.

Please allow me to introduce you to the team, via this incredible fanvid: 3 by Talitha78 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBeAesqcSwQ)

Fastlane is about two police officers (Peter Facinelli and Bill Bellamy) in an experimental program that essentially has them living undercover 24/7 as glamorous high-profile criminals, under the direction of their tough-love boss (Tiffani Thiessen). Their relationships are characterized by snark, trust, and competence, which is like, all of my kinks underneath the same umbrella.

The show is beauuuutiful, filled with shiny cars and gorgeous beaches and half-naked people, and has an over-the-top humor that I find utterly charming. The officers are constantly getting themselves into scrapes and having to pull each other out of them.

To illustrate the cracky fun, here are some things that actually happen on the show:
- The male police officers have to pretend to be lovers
- The amazing lady boss seduces a lady criminal
- All three of them end up undercover at the same porn screen test by accident

The lady-in-charge is heavily implied to be either lesbian or bisexual, but the officers never work up the nerve to ask, so she never says. There is only one season, so the show is quick to marathon, and so, so worth it.

Where to find: Amazon Video (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D28XBM)

Fandom/Canon Name: The Odyssey (1992)

What's awesome about it: The Odyssey was a 90s Canadian fantasy/drama TV series about Jay, a boy who falls into a coma after an accident. Jay finds himself in a strange new world, unaware that he is in a coma, and with no memory as to how he arrived. In the "Downworld", adults do not exist, and the kids have structured their society around clubs (e.g. The Library Club). The Club in power, The Tower, is essentially a police state led by the mysterious wise "Brad" (who may or may not be Jay's missing and presumed dead father). Jay meets Alpha, a member of the Library Club who coincidentally looks exactly like his friend Donna, and Flash who looks an awful lot like the boy who stole his father's telescope, and the three set off on a quest to find Jay's home and his dad.

On the outside, Jay's mother, his friend Donna, and Keith, who feels responsible for the accident, care for Jay, hope for him to wake up, and deal with the reality of loving someone in a long-term coma.

This is a nostalgia fandom. It's a fun, emotional, sometimes kinda wacky kids fantasy show that tried to pose some interesting questions about life and conciseness (will the Downworld cease to exist if Jay wakes up?). Oh, and Alpha A.K.A. Donna is amazing.

Where to find: Oh look, a handy Youtube playlist with all 39, 23 minute episodes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrmbFnr20nM&list=PL62F4BBD274B0E544&index=1

Fandom/Canon Name: The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
The series has five books: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings, and Thick As Thieves.
What's awesome about it: Do you like fantasy novels? Convoluted plots and unreliable narrators? What about meticulous world-building and in-universe mythology?
Well, have I got the series for you. The Queen's Thief is the story of a diverse cast of characters who live in a fantasy world very much like Ancient Greece. Their countries are constantly warring against each other, the people have complex motives and a few tricks up their sleeves, and you never know what's going to happen if somebody offends the gods. Each book features wry humor, myths from a pantheon created by the author, and more foreshadowing than you can shake a stick at.
The main players are a snarky teenage thief with a knack for trouble and a formidable queen who's fought for years to defend her throne but is on the brink of losing it. Other important characters include a stubborn, straightforward palace guard who is suddenly thrown into a dangerous plot; a battle-hardened, kind-hearted queen, who makes a life-changing decision to save her people; a naive, bookish youth who has to learn how to play the political game; and a proud, enslaved scribe who tells himself he doesn't want freedom, until a disaster befalls his master.
Recurring themes include begrudging road trips, enemies-to-friends, seemingly-superficial characters being more than they appear, and the thief never getting a chance to eat his godsdamned breakfast.
The books are interconnected, and you'll get more out of the series if you read all of them, but you certainly don't have to. Thick As Thieves, especially, is almost a stand-alone, and you could be well-informed enough to write fic even if you'd only read that one book.
Where to find: On Amazon as Kindle books or paper books. Also available on thriftbooks.com for cheaper, and pretty widely available in libraries.

청춘시대 | Age of Youth (Korean Drama):

What's awesome about it:
So many things! We are currently in the second season, and while there have been some cast changes, most are still the same!

Its about female housemates living together, learning about themselves and each other.

My favorite characters are Im Sung Min and Song Ji Won

They have the best friendship/relationship, that is just on the verge of becoming more. Ji Won is obsessed with sex (even though she hasn't ever had any, let alone kissed anyone), and talks about it all. the. time. Of course there is more to her than that, and she is prone to exaggeration. Last season didn't explore her much, but she is front and center this season.

Sung Min is more conservative, and while he seems to like Ji Won, he can't seem to make himself move forward and do something about it. He obviously cares for her as a friend, and the "more" is in progress. Together they create the best comic relief. Plus, they are just one of those couples, when they do get together (if they get together) it will be epic. Like Chuck and Blair. But no one's a jerk.

There lots of other characters, and plenty of opportunities for femslash.

Where to find: You will just have to google it, and choose a site that suits your needs. I'm not sure if any of the second season is being legally shown with subs yet, but the first season is on Netflix.

I'm trying to get into more comics this year. Would love some recs for Yuletide comics.

(Preferably those that are not Big Two but like, if you can convince me to jump in I'll give it a try.)

Fandom/Canon Name: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn

What's awesome about it: Do you like...

Beautiful Princesses? Asskicking Princesses?

Prettyboys? Dragons? Tragic Backstories?

Found Families? Character Development? Antagonists who aren't one-dimensional villains? (But also ones who are?)

Action? Adventure? Humor? Pathos? Slow-burning Romance? Powerful Bonds of Fate and Friendship?

Yes, Akatsuki no Yona has all of this and much more!

In a light fantasy setting inspired by ancient East Asia (mostly Korea), a night of tragedy and betrayal flings Princess Yona out of her pampered palace home and into the world with only her loyal bodyguard Hak to help her. At first she might seem like a helpless damsel (and Hak might seem like kind of a jerk), but she rises to the occasion with newfound strength. To survive and protect the loved ones she has left, she sets out to gather the Four Dragons of legend (ie, a superhero team of quirky prettyboys with tragic backstories). Soon she looks beyond mere survival, reaching for the strength and knowledge to change her kingdom for the better. And slowly, clumsily, she draws closer to a man who respects her effort and strength...

I love the fantasy and adventure in this series, but the characters and relationships are what really make it. As someone else said (sorry, I forgot where I read this): "At first you think it's a reverse harem but then you realize it's just the opposite: they're a big, dorky broken family and they would die for each other." And talking character development --- like every major character in this thing is or becomes more than they initially seem.

Where to find: The anime's TV episodes can be viewed for free on Yahoo!View (subbed or dubbed) or on Funimation's YouTube channel (subbed). There are also three OVA episodes, but they're only available in fansubs. The TV anime covers the manga through about vol. 8.

...And the manga in its entirety is currently up to vol. 24. There is an official English translation from VIZ, but it's only up to vol. 7 as of this writing, so for two thirds of the story, we're still relying on scanlations. Totally worth it, though!

Fandom/Canon Name: Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City RPF

What's awesome about it: Yuletide friends, my most shameful secret is I love reality TV.

It doesn't need to be good for me to love it! I cast my reality TV net far and wide, and I love just about every show I watch because it allows me to turn my brain off and enjoy a meaningless competition show, or a hackneyed dating show, or just the true trash and drama of a bunch of 20somethings stuck in a house together. Reality TV is the guiltiest of pleasures and one I'll never ever give up, no matter how garbage it can be.

Terrace House is different.

Terrace House is a Japanese reality television franchise with a simple premise: Three boys and three girls live in a house together. They still go about their daily lives — going to school, getting jobs, shopping, traveling, whatever — they just all happen to return to the same house. They decide when their time in Terrace House is done, and then they leave. They're replaced by a new member of the same sex. The end!

It's kinda billed as a dating show (in so much as one of the first questions the participants ask a new member of the house is "what's your type?" and they do ask each other out on dates a lot, and some do blossom into actual relationships) but that's not its sole focus. The members of Terrace House are there to simply experience being in Terrace House. (Granted, a lot of them are also hopeful models, actors, singers, dancers, etc. and being on the show is a nice way to potentially further that, but that's never really the focus either.) It's a very laid back show that's weirdly relaxing to watch — even when the participants confront one another over stuff like eating each other's food or not cleaning enough, it feels very much like watching regular roommates interact, not the overblown reality TV drama I'm used to. It's refreshing. I love it a lot. (Each episode is also interspersed with cuts to a panel of commentators who are totally hysterical and add a lot of flavor to the show! They watch along the episode in real time, so they're great audience surrogates as they discuss what you/they just saw.)

Throughout the season they cycled through seventeen cast members, and all of them are delightful in their own ways. They're funny, they're heart-wrenching, they're endearing, they're annoying, they're clueless, they're wise beyond their years, they argue, they support each other, they try their best, they fall short — they're human. Even in episdoes where "nothing happens," the simple joy is in getting to know the people living in Terrace House, even in quiet and mundane ways.

Honestly, I can't recommend Terrace House enough. It's a great show to just chill out to. And if you happen to come out of it with your own faves and ships... Well, I'm here to yell with you about them :D

(For the record these are the two I've nominated because oh my god it's a lot.)

Where to find: It's all on Netflix! (So is Terrace House: Aloha State, which is a separate season with different participants that takes place in Hawaii, that I did not nominate.)

Edited 2017-09-15 04:53 (UTC)

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Twenty Planets

Dragon's Winter

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You're the Worst (TV)

The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple

The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel

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The Defiant Ones (1958 movie)

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The Odyssey

The Queen's Thief

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Comics Recs

Akatsuki no Yona

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