Sunshine Challenge: Canon Recs
Jul. 9th, 2019 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_night In short, the prompt is to talk about things that need more love. I think love is so subjective, but there ARE a lot of things I think people would like, so I'm going to create ingredients instead. You'll see what I mean below.
Parks and Recreation + Buffy + College Philosophy = The Good Place
Comedic afterlife shenanigans? Check. Smart humor? Check. Great dialogue, both funny and serious? Check. Plus, remember that philosophy course you took in college? If you don't, you sure will. There's lots of philosophy. And like Buffy, there's also a lot of examination of what really makes a group of people work together under unexpected circumstances.
I will advise that you have to watch the first season all the way through to get it.
Other possible ingredients include: Community. There's also a mystery ingredient I can't mention because spoilers, but there's a show that Michael Schur derived much of TGP from. He even met with one of the creators of that said show. If you've seen at least the first season and want to know, ask in the comments.
Glee Before it Sucked + Legally Blonde + Sense and Sensibility from Marianne Dashwood's POV + College Psychology + College Women's Studies = Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
That doesn't even cover all the bases. CXG is a musical dramedy that in large part subverts Rom-Coms, and actually bears a vague similarity to Legally Blonde. Both involve law (although Rebecca's not all that into it, whereas Elle realizes she actually loves law), and both girls uproot their lives in the name of a guy who isn't All That. If you've read Sense and Sensibility, you'll know Rebecca is basically Marianne Dashwood, except a version who gets a more in-depth story. ("The situation is a lot more nuanced than that!" ) There's also a LOT of focus on mental health issues (which are not the joke), women's health (if you've always wanted a show where menstrual blood is allowed to bleed freely, this is that show), and the relationship between female characters. Speaking of interpersonal relationships, it's a show where the characters love each other, which isn't to say they don't call each other out, but at the end of the day, even the worst ones have each other's backs, and everyone gets to be both the villain and the hero in their own stories.
Glee mostly comes in for the musical part, and because while it doesn't sing original songs, 90% of the songs are inspired by original songs, some subtly, some overtly. Also, I feel it does what Glee was trying to do, and yet has the right tools to do it right, rather than terribly.
Other surprise ingredients include: Every musical genre possible, New Girl, Community, Girl, Interrupted; there are even slight similarities to The Good Place, which might explain why they seem to be Friendly Fandoms.
Community + The Office + Seinfeld + Saturday Night Live = 30 Rock
This show is way more off-the-wall, and I'll be honest, not all of the humor is for me - some of it is very cynical, hence where dashes of Seinfeld come in. Although the characters are slightly more sympathetic, and in the end work together. There are a LOT of nerdy pop culture references, as well as a lot of more general ones. Also, the show is kind of based on Saturday Night Live, although in 30 Rock verse it seems to be more of a cult hit not a lot of people have heard of, maybe more like Portlandia or one of those other sketch comedies. It's not a show for warm fuzzy characters who hug in the end, although there is some hugging. It's just a fun, clever show that, like Community, definitely does not take place in this reality.
Also, I don't have a formula for it per se, but I wish more people had heard of Persepolis. It's a memoir in the form of a graphic novel, from the POV of the author as a young girl. (Although apparently certain aspects are fictionalized.) There's a Part II as well, which is also very good, if also completely different tonally as the author is older and, as Satrapi put it, "in Persepolis II, I am not cute." She's more understanding of exactly what is going on, and even makes a decision at one point that's pretty hard to swallow. Still, it's also very good, just even darker, as dark as the first one was. I really appreciate the graphic novels for good storytelling, and also for shedding light on a country I knew very little about. (It's also important, I think, to understand the heart of "those places," you know? You hear about them in the news and it's like "right, bad things happen in That Place." Not that you're ignorant, or you shouldn't be at least, it's just easy to forget that people stay because it's still their country, and that it wasn't always like that.
I could go on all day, so I'll stop there. :P
Parks and Recreation + Buffy + College Philosophy = The Good Place
Comedic afterlife shenanigans? Check. Smart humor? Check. Great dialogue, both funny and serious? Check. Plus, remember that philosophy course you took in college? If you don't, you sure will. There's lots of philosophy. And like Buffy, there's also a lot of examination of what really makes a group of people work together under unexpected circumstances.
I will advise that you have to watch the first season all the way through to get it.
Other possible ingredients include: Community. There's also a mystery ingredient I can't mention because spoilers, but there's a show that Michael Schur derived much of TGP from. He even met with one of the creators of that said show. If you've seen at least the first season and want to know, ask in the comments.
Glee Before it Sucked + Legally Blonde + Sense and Sensibility from Marianne Dashwood's POV + College Psychology + College Women's Studies = Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
That doesn't even cover all the bases. CXG is a musical dramedy that in large part subverts Rom-Coms, and actually bears a vague similarity to Legally Blonde. Both involve law (although Rebecca's not all that into it, whereas Elle realizes she actually loves law), and both girls uproot their lives in the name of a guy who isn't All That. If you've read Sense and Sensibility, you'll know Rebecca is basically Marianne Dashwood, except a version who gets a more in-depth story. ("The situation is a lot more nuanced than that!" ) There's also a LOT of focus on mental health issues (which are not the joke), women's health (if you've always wanted a show where menstrual blood is allowed to bleed freely, this is that show), and the relationship between female characters. Speaking of interpersonal relationships, it's a show where the characters love each other, which isn't to say they don't call each other out, but at the end of the day, even the worst ones have each other's backs, and everyone gets to be both the villain and the hero in their own stories.
Glee mostly comes in for the musical part, and because while it doesn't sing original songs, 90% of the songs are inspired by original songs, some subtly, some overtly. Also, I feel it does what Glee was trying to do, and yet has the right tools to do it right, rather than terribly.
Other surprise ingredients include: Every musical genre possible, New Girl, Community, Girl, Interrupted; there are even slight similarities to The Good Place, which might explain why they seem to be Friendly Fandoms.
Community + The Office + Seinfeld + Saturday Night Live = 30 Rock
This show is way more off-the-wall, and I'll be honest, not all of the humor is for me - some of it is very cynical, hence where dashes of Seinfeld come in. Although the characters are slightly more sympathetic, and in the end work together. There are a LOT of nerdy pop culture references, as well as a lot of more general ones. Also, the show is kind of based on Saturday Night Live, although in 30 Rock verse it seems to be more of a cult hit not a lot of people have heard of, maybe more like Portlandia or one of those other sketch comedies. It's not a show for warm fuzzy characters who hug in the end, although there is some hugging. It's just a fun, clever show that, like Community, definitely does not take place in this reality.
Also, I don't have a formula for it per se, but I wish more people had heard of Persepolis. It's a memoir in the form of a graphic novel, from the POV of the author as a young girl. (Although apparently certain aspects are fictionalized.) There's a Part II as well, which is also very good, if also completely different tonally as the author is older and, as Satrapi put it, "in Persepolis II, I am not cute." She's more understanding of exactly what is going on, and even makes a decision at one point that's pretty hard to swallow. Still, it's also very good, just even darker, as dark as the first one was. I really appreciate the graphic novels for good storytelling, and also for shedding light on a country I knew very little about. (It's also important, I think, to understand the heart of "those places," you know? You hear about them in the news and it's like "right, bad things happen in That Place." Not that you're ignorant, or you shouldn't be at least, it's just easy to forget that people stay because it's still their country, and that it wasn't always like that.
I could go on all day, so I'll stop there. :P
