Stuff I love challenge #2: Series

Thank you to dreamersdare for creating and hosting this challenge :)

Series I love, from one to ten in no particular order:

1. Stargate Universe. The first episode I saw of this was episode #4 when they're desperately trying to find lime for the air scrubbers, and I loved that as a premise for an episode. It felt like much 'harder' (more realistic) sci-fi than any Stargate before it. The beating heart of the show, for me, was the Rush/Young relationship. OMG they had tension - what kind of tension is debatable, but they were locked in, wanting to murder each other and yet unable to run the ship without each other. I understood Rush very easily, but I didn't understand Young at all, and so--very like Rush--I soon became obsessed with trying to work him out. Hey presto, now he's one of my favourite characters ever. I actually liked the ending of this, with everyone in their stasis pods continuing to further possible adventures without us. If they were going to end it, I'm glad it got such a good and worthy final episode.

2. Star Wars. Three movies out of the original six movies obsessed me. Star Wars: A New Hope - I saw it when I was a teenager and it was newly out. I immediately went out and got my hair cut like Han Solo. This was before I discovered fandom, so my fic writing for this was limited to daydreams. Didn't like the next two as much. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, I became obsessed with Qui-Gon Jinn and wrote fanfic in which he was something of a Living Force saint - to the point that everyone else found him inexplicable and annoying. Didn't like the next two at all (no Qui-Gon.) Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I became obsessed with General Hux. He was a second generation villain, the child of a man who's speciality was brainwashing children, and he had essentially grown up in a cult. I found that interesting, back in the days when I still believed that Nazis were not a real world problem. Nowadays I would react differently. Didn't like the next two at all. (Make a freaking plan and tell a coherent story, guys! Sheesh.)

3. The Master and Commander books by Patrick O'Brian. This is what I went on to after Pirates of the Caribbean. OMG! Such ships! Such an amazing grasp on the history of the Age of Sail. And the social mores. The social observation of Jane Austen with a more accessible humour. Watching Patrick O'Brian play with language is just joyous! "Jack, you have debauched my sloth!" I chuckle through the whole thing, totally immersed and loving every person in it, because PoB has such compassion for all his characters and it's a wonderful thing.

4. The Discworld - need I say more? Everyone loves the Discworld books which have a similar combination of humour with sharply observed world building and deeper themes. I have a soft spot for The Light Fantastic, if only because everyone recommends to everyone else that new readers should skip it. I think that if you miss out on Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage, your life will be a little bit darker.

5. The Cadfael books by Ellis Peters. I like a good murder mystery and these are good murder mysteries set in the 12th Century, where the detective is a monk whose main job is to be the herbalist in the Abbey of Shrewsbury. Cadfael soon acquires a foil in the shape of the Sherrif, Hugh Berengar, a sly and cunning young man, and the two investigate all sorts of suspicious happenings with great compassion and humanity. The TV series is nowhere near as good, although okay to watch. Somehow they managed to strip all the charm out of it.

6. The Marcus Didius Falco books by Lindsey Davis. Another great series of murder mystery novels, this time set in 70ad, with a sleuth who starts as a bit of a hard boiled noir detective in Rome, but who meets the love of his life and softens out to become much more of a real person. Another series with fascinating history, good mysteries and surprisingly likeable people.

7. The Untamed. This is the rare TV series that I liked more than the book. My first (and still one of the only) Chinese fantasy series. I was blown away by the fact that the storytelling conventions we're used to in Western media are not the same for this, so it was deeply refreshing not to know how it was going to go. There was something I couldn't look away from about all these beautiful, beautifully dressed people yelling at each other in pavilions. Although it took me three watches to figure out who was who, I was entertained the whole time. By then I was hooked enough to become a Jin GuangYao apologist, and that spun me out into writing fanfic. I did try reading the book, but I didn't like the official translation, and my blorbo was barely in it for the first 3 volumes and I was not engaged enough with everything else to carry on reading.

8. Ted Lasso. OMG, I did not expect to get hooked on a series about football. I hate football, and sports in general. But the comedy and the great big heart of this one sucked me in instantly. I seem to have no defense against the combination of humour and compassion, and I honestly don't want to develop any.

9. The Expanse. Another rarity - the book series and the TV series are both excellent. Or rather, the TV series is excellent throughout - hard sci-fi, very believable world building, exciting things happening, imperfect characters you learn to love. The book series however becomes excellent starting at book two. Book One reads like the first book, where the author is still working things out, and Horden is a bit of a mary sue in it. He becomes a much more likable character later, when the author isn't trying so desperately to make you love him. It's well worth suffering (a little bit) through the first book to get to the later ones though.

10. Do I put Murderbot again (because the whole series is great?) Or do I put Babylon 5. Babylon 5, I think, because we cannot one of the best sci-fi series ever. I think I've put my finger on my own taste now, because it was also funny and loving, while still being exciting and full of drama. And Susan Ivanova remains one of the few female characters who hit the same exalted level for me as my male blorbos. She was allowed to be badass, and that meant a lot to me.