girlofprey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
girlofprey) wrote2006-02-28 11:34 am
girlofprey) wrote2006-02-28 11:34 am
Entry tags:
John Simm-aganza
It is over. I wish I had been more free to appreciate it, instead of slotting it in between hundred-page readings of Great Expectations. The time really seemed to drag by though. Probably because I didn't want it to end. Also because much of it was very great and riveting. Sam so adorably rubbish at policing when it comes to his dad. 'He's feeling a bit unwell' - oh, Sam. Precisely why this didn't immediately inspire many loud suggestions as to his sexual preferences is a mystery to me - probably Gene was giving them a Glare of Death off-screen. But oh - playing football with his dad. He was so wrongly tragically happy. I knew terrible things would happen even then.
But - Sam's dad is a crime lord! He's like a Mafia Princess. Blatantly paving the way for the third series, wherein Sam wakes up back in 2006, tracks his dad down properly this time, and finds him essentially running, I don't know, Sheffield. A hard, twisted man, suddenly touched by the return of his abandonded only son. Who's unfortunately a senior police officer. Whereupon Sam has to join forces with the retired (but still sharp) Gene Hunt, to take him down once and for all. Angstily, and with lots of fast cars. Which Gene gets to drive.
Either that or Sam stays in 1973 forever. And the guy who knocked him down is in fact Old!Sam, nipping out from his OAP love-nest with Gene/Annie/Chris/character of your choice.
And, because it's actually not that bad: Chiller: 'Here Comes the Mirror Man'. Well, no it is bad. It's rubbish. There were two episodes on the video, and the first one was as horrendous as I expected it to be, apart from the saving grace of Nigel Havers' eyes and hair. Mostly because the lead character was a girl with big brown eyes and no personality, I think. But there was only about an hour of that before we got to the Simm one, so I forebore it.
The second one was called 'Here Comes the Mirror Man'. And was exceedingly successful, despite being mostly rubbish, because it had John Simm in it. He is wonderfully young, and plays Gary Kingston, an odd young man who's been in and out of foster care/social services since he was a child, and has had some psychiatric 'problems'. We open on his social worker going to a church she once made him the caretaker of, because she got him a place in a hostel and he's abandoned it. When she first turns up he pretends to be foreign and not himself so she'll go away. This is Adorable. He is mostly dirty, and dresses a bit like a farmer. He likes to be alone, aka 'live in a rotting abandoned church', with nothing but a sleeping bag and mostly blacked-out mirror to his name. His social worker thinks possibly this was 'Michael's' idea. But Gary hasn't seen Michael in ages, and doesn't even know where he is. Of course. Social Worker leaves, and Michael turns up almost immediately. He looks a bit like a Goth, or someone who always wanted to be a Goth but was thwarted and now just has a really odd way of looking at people. He's good-looking though. He and Gary don't speak to each other, just give each other very intense looks, and raise their eyebrows at each other. It's great.
Later on Gary kills his social worker, and gets a slightly overworked but fabulous new one called Anna, who has a sexy policeman boyfriend. Who later on pins Gary to the ground so he can handcuff him and hiss threateningly in his ear. This is also great. Sadly Gary has something of a killing problem, particularly when it comes to people who wander into his church. Though he's mostly egged on/forced into it by Michael. You may think there's a clever, 'who's really doing it?' twist, but no, that's pretty much it. Michael is something of a demon, who no-one else ever sees and only appears to Gary when he's looking in the mirror, alone. Except for when he TOTALLY DOESN'T, and just appears whenever. Most people think Michael is a delusion of Gary's, except for the fact he starts haunting Anna at the end (twist!), when Gary is caught and can't do killing anymore.
But the fact is Michael is blatantly just Gary's gay demon lover, who likes to put his face close to Gary's when he's sleeping, and practically on his shoulder when Gary is turned angstily to the wall, so that you think he is actually going to lick his neck, and Gary actually calls him 'jealous' when he's upset that Gary talked to other people. Michael also likes to talk about how 'no-one knows [Gary] like he does', and how they need each other, and that 'while we're together, and free, there is no hell'. It's unclear precisely what Gary's afraid of from Michael - either that he'll hurt him (somehow), or that he'll go to a mental institution and Gary will be there (upset), or that Michael will leave him. Gary doesn't like to be too alone, it seems. But it's all really rather beautiful and good.
And then there's Gary. Gary, of the dark eyes and angsty looks. Gary, who suddenly appears in the moonlight, looking almost longingly at a man he's about to kill. Gary, who wanders out of a deserted hillside house with a huge pair of scissors to kill some people who've stumbled upon him, and absently bites his nails as he does it. Gary, whose mother abandoned him on and off as a child (John Simm really does do yearning for a parent very well), and so develops an unhealthy fixation with his fabulous new social worker. Gary, who kidnaps her and takes her off to a deserted hillside house, uttering the immortal conversation opener 'Do you think - if it wasn't for the murders...'*. And actually sort of pulls it off, thanks to Simm's marvellous acting skillz. Gary, who ends the story taking off up the hill like a mountain goat, and stands at the top screaming for Michael - who has abandoned him. I love Gary. I may even write fic, despite the fact that no-one will ever see it besides me. Ever.
(*Full line, roughly: 'Do you think, if it wasn't for the murders - and the psychiatric problems - and - coming into your house and kidnapping you - you could ever have - taken to me?' To which Anna quite rightly laughs her head off - and then says yes, she probably could (oh!).)
And now, since it's such a rare, hard-to-get-hold-ofrubbish video, I get to be all paranoid about losing it/breaking it. I can't even rip or screencap it! Rubbish.
- If Gene had met young!Sam, I would have been INDESCRIBABLY happy. But he didn't, and that's probably for the best.
- Oh, and 'You dare to sully the genre of the great American Western?!' - bwahahaha...
- 'A homophobe...with an unhealthy fascination with male bonding' - okay, are Kudos pulling our chains here?
- 'You're my DI, start acting like it!' - Gene, why don't you just say 'IneedyouIneedyouIneedyou'? But Sam finally got a punch in! which is - sort of triumphant and terrible all at the same time.
- My general reaction to seeing Annie in the red dress: 'Nnnnnnnooooooooo..!' But Sam saved her, and - erased a traumatic childhood memory? Turned the woman he saw between into a lovely, smart young woman he could love/save (though you'd still be hard-pressed to make me care about her, outside her life, sorry)? I'm unclear on that point.
- Sam being not believed by Annie/acting really quite mad - not the most comfortable viewing experience I've ever had. Sam in the woods with his dad - a little bit heart-stopping. And he was so beautifully lost and slightly manipulated, except that he wasn't, haha. Again, precisely why Vic didn't back away very slowly from the crazy, crazy policeman was unclear, but good for the narrative, I suppose.
- I'll also point out, though I'm not in anyway condoning the thoughts in my head - that this fandom has the potential for some really weird incest fic. Just saying, is all.
- (Well, not REALLY weird. I've seen the HP fandom, after all.)
- And the ending - all the boys going off to the pub, hurrah, although a bit anti-climactic after Sam pulled a gun on Gene. He may complain about the lax rules and procedures of the 1970s, but they sure give him a lot of slack to Go Crazy. Anyway - am I the only one who wants to read/write fic about Chris, Ray and Gene joining forces to get Sam drunk and comfort/seduce him? Probably I am the only one with even a passing interest in Sam/Ray. Ah well.
But - Sam's dad is a crime lord! He's like a Mafia Princess. Blatantly paving the way for the third series, wherein Sam wakes up back in 2006, tracks his dad down properly this time, and finds him essentially running, I don't know, Sheffield. A hard, twisted man, suddenly touched by the return of his abandonded only son. Who's unfortunately a senior police officer. Whereupon Sam has to join forces with the retired (but still sharp) Gene Hunt, to take him down once and for all. Angstily, and with lots of fast cars. Which Gene gets to drive.
Either that or Sam stays in 1973 forever. And the guy who knocked him down is in fact Old!Sam, nipping out from his OAP love-nest with Gene/Annie/Chris/character of your choice.
And, because it's actually not that bad: Chiller: 'Here Comes the Mirror Man'. Well, no it is bad. It's rubbish. There were two episodes on the video, and the first one was as horrendous as I expected it to be, apart from the saving grace of Nigel Havers' eyes and hair. Mostly because the lead character was a girl with big brown eyes and no personality, I think. But there was only about an hour of that before we got to the Simm one, so I forebore it.
The second one was called 'Here Comes the Mirror Man'. And was exceedingly successful, despite being mostly rubbish, because it had John Simm in it. He is wonderfully young, and plays Gary Kingston, an odd young man who's been in and out of foster care/social services since he was a child, and has had some psychiatric 'problems'. We open on his social worker going to a church she once made him the caretaker of, because she got him a place in a hostel and he's abandoned it. When she first turns up he pretends to be foreign and not himself so she'll go away. This is Adorable. He is mostly dirty, and dresses a bit like a farmer. He likes to be alone, aka 'live in a rotting abandoned church', with nothing but a sleeping bag and mostly blacked-out mirror to his name. His social worker thinks possibly this was 'Michael's' idea. But Gary hasn't seen Michael in ages, and doesn't even know where he is. Of course. Social Worker leaves, and Michael turns up almost immediately. He looks a bit like a Goth, or someone who always wanted to be a Goth but was thwarted and now just has a really odd way of looking at people. He's good-looking though. He and Gary don't speak to each other, just give each other very intense looks, and raise their eyebrows at each other. It's great.
Later on Gary kills his social worker, and gets a slightly overworked but fabulous new one called Anna, who has a sexy policeman boyfriend. Who later on pins Gary to the ground so he can handcuff him and hiss threateningly in his ear. This is also great. Sadly Gary has something of a killing problem, particularly when it comes to people who wander into his church. Though he's mostly egged on/forced into it by Michael. You may think there's a clever, 'who's really doing it?' twist, but no, that's pretty much it. Michael is something of a demon, who no-one else ever sees and only appears to Gary when he's looking in the mirror, alone. Except for when he TOTALLY DOESN'T, and just appears whenever. Most people think Michael is a delusion of Gary's, except for the fact he starts haunting Anna at the end (twist!), when Gary is caught and can't do killing anymore.
But the fact is Michael is blatantly just Gary's gay demon lover, who likes to put his face close to Gary's when he's sleeping, and practically on his shoulder when Gary is turned angstily to the wall, so that you think he is actually going to lick his neck, and Gary actually calls him 'jealous' when he's upset that Gary talked to other people. Michael also likes to talk about how 'no-one knows [Gary] like he does', and how they need each other, and that 'while we're together, and free, there is no hell'. It's unclear precisely what Gary's afraid of from Michael - either that he'll hurt him (somehow), or that he'll go to a mental institution and Gary will be there (upset), or that Michael will leave him. Gary doesn't like to be too alone, it seems. But it's all really rather beautiful and good.
And then there's Gary. Gary, of the dark eyes and angsty looks. Gary, who suddenly appears in the moonlight, looking almost longingly at a man he's about to kill. Gary, who wanders out of a deserted hillside house with a huge pair of scissors to kill some people who've stumbled upon him, and absently bites his nails as he does it. Gary, whose mother abandoned him on and off as a child (John Simm really does do yearning for a parent very well), and so develops an unhealthy fixation with his fabulous new social worker. Gary, who kidnaps her and takes her off to a deserted hillside house, uttering the immortal conversation opener 'Do you think - if it wasn't for the murders...'*. And actually sort of pulls it off, thanks to Simm's marvellous acting skillz. Gary, who ends the story taking off up the hill like a mountain goat, and stands at the top screaming for Michael - who has abandoned him. I love Gary. I may even write fic, despite the fact that no-one will ever see it besides me. Ever.
(*Full line, roughly: 'Do you think, if it wasn't for the murders - and the psychiatric problems - and - coming into your house and kidnapping you - you could ever have - taken to me?' To which Anna quite rightly laughs her head off - and then says yes, she probably could (oh!).)
And now, since it's such a rare, hard-to-get-hold-of