Recbox for crookedspoon

[beyondthealgorithm_mod]

Username: crookedspoon

Preferred Genres: I'm good with anything that isn't straight-up rom-com/comedy. I used to love horror as a kid, like Nightmare on Elm Street or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I haven't consumed anything since the Saw movies. The last thing I watched was Cabin in the Woods a few years ago. I'd love to get some recs on that front, for example!

DNW Genres: Romance/rom-com (romance in mixed into other genres is fine!), straight-up comedy

Preferred Media Types: Any

DNW Media Types: None

General Likes: Complex characters, strong narrative, LGBTQI+ characters, slow pacing, poly potential, bamf women, friendship, loyalty, morally grey characters. I generally tend to gravitate toward more realistic things, but I've enjoyed crazy premises, too, I'm just not as likely to pick them out for myself.

General DNWs: villain of the week type things, relationship drama for the sake of drama, Christian guilt, lack of character development, disappointing endings (i.e. shows that don't make good on what they've set up before, like Dexter or GoT)

Fandom Preferences: femslash potential, doesn't need to be *super* popular in exchanges but if people are interested in requested/offering that would be a bonus. Mostly, I'm looking for new fandoms to request/offer in all the upcoming exchanges that also allow the Locked Tomb Trilogy, which is my current fandom obsession.

Requests for Content Warnings: Racism/homophobia/misogyny. Anything that "didn't age well."

Examples of Media Enjoyed:
Books
The Locked Tomb Trilogy - Tamsyn Muir
Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid's Tale, The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
some Discworld (Hogfather, Carpe Jugulum, Maskerade, etc)

Games
Final Fantasy VII
Resident Evil
Batman: Arkhamverse
Final Fantasy XII
The Witcher 3

Anime/Manga
Gintama
D.Gray-man
early Bleach
Miyazaki films like Spirited Away or My Neighbour Totoro

Cartoons
ATLA
Young Justice

Shows
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Fleabag
Six Feet Under
Pushing Daisies
Halt and Catch Fire
Mr. Robot
first two seasons of Sherlock
first four(?) seasons of Dexter
Misfits
The Wire

Other
Cabin Pressure
Wooden Overcoats (podcast)
Richard II - Shakespeare


Examples of Media to Avoid: Arrowverse/The CW dramas, Marvel, shows where relationships are just used for drama, later seasons of Supernatural, The Walking Dead post-s9,

Streaming Services I Can Access: I'm not based in the US, so the streaming libraries differ, but: Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, hoopla, Prime

Languages I'm Comfortable With: English and anything that offers English subtitles (do not want English dub only). Additionally for reading, German and middle grade French/Japanese

Comments

[fencesit]

I have two recs!

The Untamed

This is a Chinese drama that you have probably noticed around! You have probably also heard about MDZS (Mo Dao Zu Shi) which is the novel The Untamed is based on. The novel and The Untamed differ on some really important characterization and plot points and I still haven't finished the novel so I can't speak directly about it, but both are popular and both are good! I think The Untamed has better femslash potential, but MDZS is allowed to have literal actual zombies and m/m because it wasn't constrained by Chinese television censorship. If you read the novel, you will probably want to skip the sex scene.

Did I scare you off yet? No? Ok. The Untamed is basically about how the main character (Wei Wuxian) fucked himself over and died, and then came back to life to unravel a mystery and unfuck things at least a little. There's MAGIC and FANTASY POLITICS and WAR and FRIENDSHIP and I chewed through all the episodes so fast while weeping. You will be sad and you will love it and you will be very satisfied with the ending! It starts with Wei Wuxian coming back to life, detours into an amazing 30 episode flashback about how he died in the first place, and then returns to him figuring out why he came back to life and unravelling a mystery. You might think that "amazing 30 episode flashback" was sarcastic but it was not, it seriously works and I loved it. The canonical m/m romance from the book is transformed to a somehow even more romantic friendship where they call each other soulmates. The characters are interesting and dynamic and make a bunch of bad but very understandable choices.

Shipping potential: There is great exchange enthusiasm for femslash ships! It's hard to sum them up but one of the main ladies is a doctor and I love her. The show is man heavy and the character deaths end up meaning most of the femslash is best set during the flashback era but the flashback era is great so that's fine.

Where to experience: Netflix and also the streaming service Viki where it's free! iirc the subtitles are a little different between them. Also, I assume you're new to this genre so here is a summary of important terms that will help you understand the basic fantasy tropes and stuff: link If you need the novel just shout into the EAD cnovels channel I guess.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

FMA:B is a 64 episode anime that is SO SATISFYING AND GOOD. Two brothers make a huge mistake that nearly kills them when they're kids and spend years trying to undo it. The older one joins the state military for those sweet sweet military resources and the story primarily takes place when he's like 14-16 and whoops his hunt for the legendary philosopher's stone gets him and his brother into all kinds of trouble. It turns out that the fascist military dictatorship's recent genocide of an ethnic group is only the tip of the yikes iceberg! Several major characters were involved with the aforementioned genocide and the narrative never forgets it or lets them off the hook, so I really think it hits your morally grey/complex characters! Also great examples of loyalty and friendship and not actually horror genre but an amazing option for horror exchange requests and horror prompts imo!

(The manga is also reportedly very good; it's grouped with FMA:B in exchanges so if you'd prefer to read instead of watch just do that! IIRC the stuff about the genocide is given an entire volume in the manga, which is more space than they could give it in the anime.)

Shipping potential: There's a pretty wide cast of fleshed-out characters! Femslash ships include: Hardass Intimidating Ruthless General Whose Men Are 100% Loyal To Her/Sniper Who Participated In The Genocide And Is Loyal To General's Least Favorite CoWorker, Hardass Intimidating Ruthless General Whose Men Are 100% Loyal To Her/Woman Who's A Great Teacher And Once Fought A Bear, Extremely Skilled Engineer Who Makes Cutting-Edge Prosthetics And Totally Gets To Live Her Dreams/Very Very Loyal Foreign Ninja Lady.

Where to experience: Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchy Roll, one of which should have the sub version although the dub is good. Don't accidentally watch the 2003 anime! It's worse, has a terrible ending, and is almost never requested in exchanges.

[crookedspoon]

I only just noticed that this had revealed! Thank you so much for your amazing recs!!

FMA! So many badass ladies in that one! I read the manga back in the day and you're right, it was so satisfying and good. I've never watched the new anime beyond a few episodes though (it was just being released weekly and I just... forgot xD), so I'm interested to try it again! The old one didn't interest me beyond the point where it diverged from the manga, although a friend at the time liked it? Idr. But I'm going to cry over Nina again, aren't I?

And The Untamed had been tentatively on my list, but I haven't been ready to jump into the cnovel fandom yet, but you have convinced me. (Very timely, too, because I just finished my latest show haha.) Thank you so much! <3

TV Recs

[glassesofjustice]

Hey Crookedspoon,

I'm also a big fan of The Wire and Six Feet Under and the following shows I think are on par with the quality of storytelling/production value of those two shows:

I'm not sure where exactly you're located so I'm not sure if Killing Eve is streaming where you are, but it def. checks the box for: complex characters, strong narrative, LGBTQI+ characters, slow pacing, poly potential, bamf women, friendship, loyalty, morally grey characters. Plus aside from the main ship having lots of fic, there is a presence for smaller femslash ships in exchanges too. Show is ongoing but they haven't started filming the new season because of *handwaves*

Both The Fall is on Prime in the US right now - so hopefully that follows to your region. There is some great femslash potential in between Gillian Anderson's and Archie Panjabi's characters and Stella Gibson (GA) might be the most BAMF Women I've ever watched on TV...though Carolyn on Killing Eve might give her a run for her money. Stella definitely faces misogyny, but if you want an example of how it plays out, and how she pushes back against it, this is a great clip and I think overall the misogyny is workplace typical but Stella navigates it expertly. This is complete and fairly short to consume, so could be a great one to pick up - I don't think it's heavily requested in exchanges but I think a lot of people have seen it and maybe it could become more exchange popular with more regular seeding into tagsets.

Re: TV Recs

[crookedspoon]

I hadn't noticed this revealed already.

Killing Eve sounds like exactly up my alley. It's a bit tricky to access here for streaming, but my best friend is also interested in the show and I hope we can work something out together, because I'm looking forward to it!

Gillian Anderson! I'll watch anything with her. No exchange popularity or femslash potential required! Thank you for the misogyny heads-up. It's good too know that at least it's handled well.

Thank you so much for your recs!

Re: TV Recs

[glassesofjustice]

Feel free to scream to/at me if you watch either. I’ve been meaning to do a rewatch of the Fall. There is a semi active Killing Eve comm I can look up for you if you like, but maybe to wait since it likely is full of spoilers atm!