Dr Bunansa, His Father, Was A Strange Man, With Little Sense Of Propriety.

MAKE MY DECISIONS FOR ME, FLIST: should I be watching The Mentalist? From the admittedly little I have heard of it, it sounds as if it is about the crime-solving adventures of a complete Derren Brown ripoff, and, y'know, I'm in favour of that. Also, it features the actress of Veronica from Prison Break, so ridiculous crossovers are built right in, and I am feeling extremely ready to embrace a new fandom right now. On the other hand, I don't think many of you watch it (do any of you watch it?), and if I love it and post fifty million entries about it and nobody cares I shall be sad.

I'm probably going to end up watching at least a couple of episodes. I can cut out a picture of Derren Brown's face, hold it in front of this Patrick Jane fellow's head and pretend I'm watching a detective AU. It is certainly a tempting prospect. (Also, if Patrick Jane really is as similar to Derren Brown as he sounds, Derren/himself fanfiction will suddenly become so easy.)


In what is perhaps evidence for my need of a new fandom, I can think of nothing to say to make this entry more interesting. Hmmm. Can I really post an entry that says 'should I watch this?' and nothing but?

Oh! A few weeks ago, when I was reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, I found myself taking rather a liking to Henry Tilney. It took me some time to realise that this was largely because he inexplicably reminded me of Balthier of Final Fantasy XII.

Please take the time to imagine Balthier Bunansa as the romantic lead of a Jane Austen novel. It would be amazing.

I'm not sure Fran would be the heroine, sadly; whilst I can envision Balthier in an Austen novel, I am having difficulty believing that Austen would write an interspecies romance, and my brain shies away from the idea of Fran in a ballgown. Perhaps Ashe? An Ashe-and-Balthier romance, with less swordfighting and mortal peril and more balls and issues of social rank? I can see it.

Actually, I think Penelo seems the most likely Final Fantasy XII female to be the heroine of a Jane Austen novel. I don't really 'ship Balthier/Penelo in the game (they don't interact much, do they? The only scene I can think of off the top of my head is the one in which he gives her his handkerchief), but I am sure I would be fully prepared to support it in Quickness and Quickenings.

(And now, of course, I find myself unable to resist comparing Squall and Rinoa's relationship to that of Elizabeth and Darcy. Oh, dear.)

I Am Already Gleefully Exclaiming 'WAY TO GO, PATRICK' At The Screen.

The general message I received from the comments to my earlier 'should I watch The Mentalist?' entry was 'NOOOOOOO RIONA WATCH PSYCH INSTEAD'.

Fair enough, I thought, but as I had access to the pilot of The Mentalist I'd give it a try. Just a couple of minutes. It would be unfeasible to watch more anyway, as for the moment the only computer to which I had access was the very old, very overloaded desktop, so the video quality would be irritatingly jerky.

Two minutes in, I entirely failed to hit 'stop'.

Ten minutes in, I paused, grabbed a notebook and wrote 'THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A SHOW ABOUT DERREN BROWN USING HIS ABILITIES TO SOLVE CRIMES UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF LISA CUDDY. I AM ALREADY IN LOVE.'

And then, of course, I watched the rest of the episode, ignoring the rubbishness of this computer.

I'm sorry, Psych fans. I've let you all down.

Thoughts!

- Patrick Jane is so clearly based on Derren Brown that I am amazed they're not paying him royalties. There's the mentalism, obviously, but then there's the arrogance, the suits, the disdain for genuine belief in the paranormal, the turning against his earlier life, the smirks, the delight in theatrics...

- Lisbon is probably not actually based on Lisa Cuddy, but I cannot stop thinking of her as 'Cuddy' anyway. I do not have a problem with this.

- Patrick's backstory made my heart hurt. (I actually feel oddly as if I should apologise to Patrick for calling him 'Patrick' so soon in our acquaintance, but I feel weird calling him 'Jane'. STOP HAVING A FIRST NAME FOR YOUR LAST NAME, JANE.) AND THE FINAL SCENE. OH.

- Actually, Patrick's backstory completely freaked me out, and it took me some consideration to realise that I was actually thinking of him as Derren Brown, and so horrible things of that magnitude happening to him make me recoil for the same reason that I have trouble reading real-person fiction in which anything too awful happens. I had to help myself handle it by reminding myself firmly that Derren Brown was unlikely ever to have a wife.

- I was going to say that I love Patrick's smugness and arrogance, and then I thought 'wait, they already know that', and then I realised that I was thinking of Derren Brown.

This is going to be so confusing.

Er. Hmm. Now I'm trying to think of something I like about Patrick Jane that you won't already have guessed from my ramblings about Derren Brown.

I love his smile! There we go. That's something they don't share, because Patrick Jane is not, in fact, played by Derren Brown. (Although I bet the writers wish he were.)

- ...that said, when I play scenes from the episode back in my head, Patrick Jane is played not by Derren Brown but by Robert Downey Jr.

I have no idea why.