Yuletide Reveals! (and more)

[donutsweeper]

Yuletide ficlist ho!!

Somehow the writing bug bit mid-december and I actually managed a decent number of treats so I'm pretty happy with what I eventually managed to write

In alphabetical order:

侠探简不知 | Ancient Detective (TV)
- To Discoveries, Great and Small. Summary: The problem with amnesiacs was that they didn't know what they didn't know. (1621 words - these two are great and should have so many exciting post-canon adventures)

Charmed (TV 1998)
- Prue Diligence. Summary: There was someone paging through the Book of Shadows, someone who piqued Prue's interest. (1469 words, Prue would have been the best aunt if we'd had a chance to see that)

Doctor Who (TV Movie 1996)
- The Quest for Answers.... and Jelly Babies?. Summary: After regenerating nothing was familiar until something, finally, was. (1344 words - answering the question - just *how* did the Doctor get those Jelly Babies if his clothes came from a random hospital locker?)

猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (TV 2022)
- what can and cannot be atoned for. Summary: Wherein Shen Yi goes after Hu Zhifeng and Du Cheng goes after Shen Yi. (2061 words, s1 episode tag because we should have seen some sort of scene where Du Cheng and Shen Yi discussed that going on your own/whole painting stabbing thing)
- Plans Upended. Summary: They'd had plans for dinner, but what do they say about the best laid plans.... (1421 words, there has been a criminal lack of Du Qing this season. That needed to be fixed.)
- To Be Busy Is Better Than Bored. Summary: Friends don't let friends die of boredom. (464 words, He Rongyue and Shen Yi should be besties.)

So, Under the Skin finished airing and, as I feared, it decided to have a full-on cliffhanger type ending instead of little teasery what-does-this-mean/what-will-happen-next kind of ending. Weird cliffhanger too that unfortunately soured the whole season somewhat for me :( Generally speaking, I still do rec the show and the characterizations and interactions were amazing but some of the cases have the possibility for being super triggery/squicky for people and it doubled down on its stance in the nature vs nurture debate in ways I just am not thrilled with. Sigh

Comments

[trobadora]

Woohoo, congrats on the writing bug and the treats! :D

and it doubled down on its stance in the nature vs nurture debate in ways I just am not thrilled with

Oh no, that doesn't sounds good at all. :(

[donutsweeper]

Thank you!!! Considering how October and November had been it made me very happy.

re:Under the skin s2 I can certainly go into specifics if it's something you're interested in. Everyone responds differently and it's also possible that after the season has a bit of time to marinate I might feel different so it might be storylines and emphasis that you wouldn't mind.

[trobadora]

I'd definitely like to know, if you don't mind explaining! ♥

[donutsweeper]

Sure, no problem! Okay, with the caveat that I only watched once and as the eps were released so in fits and starts... major (general but not super plot specific) spoilers ahead:

A major theme was Shen Yi being able to use his skills to 'see' evil in people- like their inner demons and whatnot- and use that to try to predict who would commit crimes. The 'evil' was often talked about like it was a part of who the person was, not who they became due to circumstances. It had come up and played out in a few ways and then there was an arc where they introduced this nouveau riche type 20something via his mom's murder and it was talked about how he had this genetic disorder that made him cruel and violent (I don't recall the exact specifics of this something about a MAO-something something gene) and it also made him unable to have kids but he'd still gotten a woman pregnant (which was important for family drama related reasons) and through that storyline we're introduced to a lab that did gene editing and that lab and more are major aspects to various cases from then on. And there's whole monologues by various characters about the lab and what it could/should do for society if it could find/fix genetic/DNA 'defects' and whatnot. The DNA determines thing is doubled and tripled down on and becomes a storyline to the point the department gets a DNA sequencer (this was very ?? and presented as an aside) and the team all gets their dna run to learn what they're predisposed to like fatness and baldness and whatnot.

[trobadora]

Wow, that sounds super weird and unfortunate. Thank you for sharing! It's definitely better to know that going in, so I can manage my expectations.

[donutsweeper]

Yeah :(

There were some utterly amazing bits, particularly a scene that is emmy worthy (if Emmys were a thing there) but....