Never been too good with secrets.
Jan. 12th, 2024 09:22 pmChallenge #6
In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Someone put together a brief compilation of scenes of Radar O'Riley being canonically psychic from the first three seasons of MASH. There's more moments from the character's run on the show that weren't included, some of which are even more blatant about him being psychic. It's not a storyline because it's never used; it's simply a detail of who he is as a person. It's a show where there's ghosts and spirits, and at no point is Radar ever described as anything close to magical. In the world of the show, his being able to read minds and see into the very near future isn't ordinary, but it's not magic, either, and it's never the major focus of an episode. It's something he can do. It's tremendously useful and it's never exploited - again, very simply, it's just something he can do.
It's an attitude that I love to see whenever I come across it, even if it's difficult to describe tidily. His being psychic is a reflection of the different attitudes towards TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s and what it was possible to get away with in what was otherwise a fairly realistic piece of fiction that tended to obey the laws of physics. It's also adds a low-grade level of fantasy which isn't something I see all that much. It's not exactly magical realism, it's not really curio fiction, it's not quite urban fantasy. It's certainly not The X-Files. It's more an overall attitude and general approach that the world can include someone being psychic without it being a different world. It's still our world. It's simply got such people in it.
There's a lot to recommend the show, and Radar is only one small part of it. And he might well be my favorite part.
In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Someone put together a brief compilation of scenes of Radar O'Riley being canonically psychic from the first three seasons of MASH. There's more moments from the character's run on the show that weren't included, some of which are even more blatant about him being psychic. It's not a storyline because it's never used; it's simply a detail of who he is as a person. It's a show where there's ghosts and spirits, and at no point is Radar ever described as anything close to magical. In the world of the show, his being able to read minds and see into the very near future isn't ordinary, but it's not magic, either, and it's never the major focus of an episode. It's something he can do. It's tremendously useful and it's never exploited - again, very simply, it's just something he can do.
It's an attitude that I love to see whenever I come across it, even if it's difficult to describe tidily. His being psychic is a reflection of the different attitudes towards TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s and what it was possible to get away with in what was otherwise a fairly realistic piece of fiction that tended to obey the laws of physics. It's also adds a low-grade level of fantasy which isn't something I see all that much. It's not exactly magical realism, it's not really curio fiction, it's not quite urban fantasy. It's certainly not The X-Files. It's more an overall attitude and general approach that the world can include someone being psychic without it being a different world. It's still our world. It's simply got such people in it.
There's a lot to recommend the show, and Radar is only one small part of it. And he might well be my favorite part.
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