My TV year in review.

Well, it's been a year of very little tv, even less than before, as the еime to watch anything dwindles. And my fandom participation dwindles even more, as I don't have the same passion I used to have for BtVS for any other shows, and I can't even talk about BtVS anymore.

What I watched

Fringe. It's been a sad year for me and Fringe. Our romance was intense, but too short-lived. I was absolutely enamored by it after I dashed through the first two seasons, in spring of 2011, then season 3 was fine, but season 4 made me unhappy on several levels, mostly by making Olivia-Peter relationship the core of the universe, and sacrifice everything to get to it, mostly characterization of Olivia.

And then I started watching season 5, and stopped. I want to see the end, but not interested in actually watching the whole season.

After giving up on Fringe, P. and I started watching Heroes – we have Amazon Prime, so it is free, and why not? I watched an episode or two when it ran, and was generally familiar with the story by fandom osmosis. The reaction was predictable – the season 1 is wonderful, the season 2 is okay, and now we are in the middle of season 3 for the last month. Haven't given up on it, yet, but whatever. I don't understand the characters anymore, they seem to be puppets of showrunners who just perform whatever play is staged. Like Comedia del Arte. Only frustrating, because I want characters to have some meaningful storylines even in sitcoms.

Speaking of sitcoms – I don't seem to have time to watch all my friends are talking about, so I occasionally catch one or another episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” (which I watch for the ladies), and “Raising Hope” (which I love for the grandparents of Hope, who are one of the best TV couples).

Lost Girl – very enjoyable, but now I hardly remember what happened when and with whom. Still, I hope to watch the third season.

And last, but not least – Once Upon a Time. That was my “most fun to watch” series in 2012. I am well aware of its multiple flaws, in plot and characters, and I am not anywhere near fannish, not even enough to write meta and look for icons, but... it brought me joy, joy I didn't expect. Well, I didn't expect that having a show full of interesting, active, female characters would feel so good, that it fulfilled a need I knew I had on intellectual level, but I didn't know I needed it that much until I got it. So I forgive silliness, and plotting randomness, and shallowness as long as I can have Snow White and Red Riding hood being best friends – and not in shopping and talking about boys sense, but fighting for each other lives, or have Snow White and Emma with Aurora and Mulan on a road trip, or Snow White trying to build relationship with her adult daughter. The show generally present a wide variety of mother-daughter relationships (parent-child relationships, in general, are the emotional core of the series). I love Belle's self-awareness, Red's bravery, Granny's quiet might, Regina's fight with herself, Snow White's honesty and fierceness, Emma's cynicism. The show does some really good “princesses”.

Watched the first episode of “ The Game of Thrones”. Liked, with reservations. Waiting for the rest to arrive from the library.

Plans for the 2013:
1) finally watch Downton Abbey
2) find out how Fringe ends
3) Lost Girl, OUAT
4) if there is time, go back and watch Doctor Who.

Capturing December - Day 22: Tradition

Tradition.

I don't know what to make a picture of that would illustrate meaningfully any holiday tradition to my satisfaction. SO I'll use words instead. And bulleted list.

- One of the biggest frustration of my life in North America is that I feel out of sync with the holiday season. It's not that I have completely different traditions, I have similar, but moved in time slightly, so it just makes everything awkward. I cannot accept fully North American ones, but lots of my childhood ones seem meaningless here, as they require participation of the crowds.

- my best holidays here were the ones when we celebrated Christmas with my Polish-Romanian friends, and celebrated New Year with Russian ones.

- still, when I look back, I see definite patterns emerging. Are they traditions? Not yet, but possibly on their way to becoming ones.

- every year I get depressed just before the New Year. I think of how little is accomplished, and that brings sorrow, Then I get better, as the old year goes away.

- every year I long to cook lots and lots of food, so I have to stomp on my culinary dreams, because, no one is going to eat so much food as I want to cook. It's just three of us.

- every year I want to do lots of holiday crafts with my son (it's a new pattern), and every year I do it three times at the best.

- every year I want to do something special for New Year, but we rarely do these days. Last year, though, we watched fireworks from our backyard.

- every year I want to watch lots of holiday movies, but never have time to watch at least two.

- every year I honestly wait for a holiday miracle. Occasionally it happens.

Capturing December - Day 20 : Tree Topper

Capturing December - Day 21 : Peace

our town library during a snowfall