Reading Room - Pantomime by Sebastian

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

This weekend's Reading Room is Pantomime by DVS, as suggested by a press of the Random button over at the online Circuit Archive. *g* If you haven't read it yet, it's here:
Online Circuit Archive
Hatstand Archive
ProsLib DVD
Unprofessional Conduct 7 zine (Gryphon Press, 1997)

It's Bodie's birthday, and Doyle arrives late to the party to find Bodie dressed as a pantomime dame, and everything going swingingly. Despite being costumed as Tarzan himself, Doyle is not feeling quite so swinging.

We follow him through the evening, and gradually find out what has happened around the same time as Bodie finds out. They're both eventually full of alcohol, if not bonhomie, just like everyone else at the party, most of whom eventually go home so that the lads are left - effectively - alone.

Doyle is in a strange mood all evening, partly because he watched young, married, promising agent Vickery die on the same day that his now-widowed wife was giving birth to their first child, and partly because Bodie dressed as a pantomime dame has surprised him by being a good-looking almost-woman as well as the one person at the party who knows and understands Doyle, alongside what happened, and why Doyle is "off" that night.

We've watched this closeness between them too, just as we do in the eps (although sadly Bodie was never dressed as a pantomime dame, and the closest we get to Doyle in a loincloth would be a cross-over with this play - slight aside, wow, I posted that in 2007. That's fourteen years ago!) Bodie knows when to stay and when to go, they both know how to talk to each other with little more than a gaze or a shake of the head, and most of all there's that glorious pull between them, even when Doyle is staying apart from the others because he knows he'd just bring them down, and Bodie is being the jovial host of the birthday party in the other room. They feel together, even when separated by walls.

I like Sebastian as a writer very much, and I think she does a beautiful job here. Her lads are almost my own, and the differences are in ways that I can stretch to from the eps, so that it feels as if I'm exploring different - and crucially believable - aspects of their personalities and their lives.

I also like the end to this story. It's not a classic happily-ever-after ending, but it feels real, and it feels promising. It feels like their lives - full of complications, but with each other always there, through all those complications and difficulties.

So - what did you think? *g*

Comments

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this review!

So - what did you think? *g*

I always feel Sebastian is just about word perfect and so there's not much more to say about her other than that, but then I thought, just for the sake of argument, that I should look at this story from another angle and try to work out why this isn’t a favourite of mine, more middling rather than right there at the top. Maybe it's the rather flippant beginning which put me off and definitely has Are You Being Served in mind? Maybe Doyle’s melancholia got to me a bit too much? Sebastian does seem to go in for a rather melancholic Doyle. I dunno….

But what *do* I like? I love the way Sebastian sets the scene, making the woman (like the role of women in Westerns) totally irrelevant because it’s always about *them*: Bodie and Doyle. Loved the way Doyle just couldn’t be bothered with other people yet always felt Bodie wasn’t any effort to be with at all, for me that's very canon and at the heart of a good relationship. And the idea for the story itself was original with Bodie as a glamorous woman turning Doyle on.

I can't think of much else to say, really....

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you for replying. *g*

Oddly enough, I know what you mean about this not being a favourite Sebastian fic — I'd say the same thing. Middling though, sure. *g* (Hmmn, now you have me thinking though - does she have low fics? What's her worst fic, I wonder...?)

and definitely has Are You Being Served in mind
Oh, I missed a specific reference to that - I loved it when I was a kid, but I was very young, so probably not picking up everything I could have... *vbg*

Maybe Doyle’s melancholia got to me a bit too much?
It was quite focused around that, wasn't it, with Bodie in the distance rather than right beside Doyle, even though he was there with him in the way we really want him to be (wordlessly, automatically, perfectly). Which made an odd contrast with the jokey-blokey humour of Bodie effectively dressing in drag, and Doyle dressing - or undressing in the way so many people want him to. *g* And everyone else jovial and loud and partying, because they don't know yet... sort of an uncomfortable contrast maybe, and must as I appreciate the craft of that, it's not always how I want to feel from a fic...

making the woman (like the role of women in Westerns) totally irrelevant
God, and don't I hate that in real life... in fact maybe that's one of the things that makes me a bit uncomfortable about this one too, the way Jennie was being absolutely used by both of them, even if she didn't feel used... I'm not a hundred percent convinced Doyle would have reacted to her that way either - "Wouldn't hurt her, would it, to impart a bit of feel-good factor to Bodie on his birthday?" I think we see Doyle being a bit more sensitive about women and relationships than that in the eps, for all he (they both) sometimes has to dump them by the roadside when work calls.

Doyle just couldn’t be bothered with other people yet always felt Bodie wasn’t any effort to be with at all
Yes! Yes, that's perfect, right there... *g*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

* (Hmmn, now you have me thinking though - does she have low fics? What's her worst fic, I wonder...?)

Perhaps less 'low fics' rather than fics which aren't to my taste as much as some of the others. Stories which have less 'golden' or catch-your-breath-memorable moments. Or perhaps are less subtle and I'm thinking of something like 'Blood Heat' . I'm going out on a limb here because I might not be remembering them very well as it's years since I've read them. But there must have been a reason why I didn't read them again and again as I do my favourite stories..

and definitely has Are You Being Served in mind
Oh, I missed a specific reference to that - I loved it when I was a kid, but I was very young, so probably not picking up everything I could have... *vbg*

I'm assuming it was a reference to the oft-quoted line from the very camp character played by John Inman in Are You Being Served?

making the woman (like the role of women in Westerns) totally irrelevant
God, and don't I hate that in real life... in fact maybe that's one of the things that makes me a bit uncomfortable about this one too, the way Jennie was being absolutely used by both of them, even if she didn't feel used... I'm not a hundred percent convinced Doyle would have reacted to her that way either - "Wouldn't hurt her, would it, to impart a bit of feel-good factor to Bodie on his birthday?" I think we see Doyle being a bit more sensitive about women and relationships than that in the eps, for all he (they both) sometimes has to dump them by the roadside when work calls.

I don't know.... I think they're both a bit dismissive of any girls who come into the life of the other e.g. Bodie seems to slightly patronise Ann at the dinner table in Doyle's flat even before he's suspicious of her; Doyle being sceptical and not overly sympathetic about the girl who's being stalked in Cry Wolf. Surprisingly Bodie seems to push Doyle towards the daughter of the imprisoned criminal in Where the Heat Cools Off. His usual wary antennae about people in general fails him in that episode.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

But there must have been a reason why I didn't read them again and again as I do my favourite stories..
Yeah, fair enough. And I guess that'll be true of any author — everyone has their off-ideas! *g*

the oft-quoted line
Oh, that/i> one! I wondered if there was an ep where he dressed up as Tarzan or a panto dame... *g* Yeah, I guess it fit that sort of uncomfortable real-life thing about the story. Because you would quote something like that in that situation, but on the other hand, with everything else going on, it kind of... not grates exactly, but rubs at least!

I think they're both a bit dismissive of any girls who come into the life of the other
Hmmn, good point... I wonder does that happen more often towards the end of the series. WtHCO is is the first series... Maybe they've not worked out how strongly they dislike each other dating yet...! *g* Come to think of it Bodie's dismissive of — is it Sally? — in Wild Justice too (although to be fair he's dismissive of everyone I suppose...!)

[tinturtle]

Maybe I should have read the story twice, because on my first reading, a large part of what I thought was just, "Hang on, is watching pornography really something people do at parties?"

Most of the rest of my thoughts echo those of shooting2kill and byslantedlight. I liked Bodie and Doyle's interactions and their understated communication. The tension between Doyle's melancholy over Vickery's death and everyone else's merrymaking was uncomfortable, but obviously deliberate. The situation also struck me as a kind of microcosm of the Pros world, where the CI5 agents deal with grim realities of which most people are unaware.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should have read the story twice, because on my first reading, a large part of what I thought was just, "Hang on, is watching pornography really something people do at parties?"

It's funny, it didn't strike me as odd on reading it but I think you're right, I don't remember any porn at any party I went to (not that I went to many...).

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol — I've never been to those sort of parties either, but I've definitely read about it in books, and seen it on in the background in some tv shows/films, as if it's a thing. The host providing whatever kind of entertainment people might want...

a kind of microcosm of the Pros world
Yes, nice description!

[queenafoster.livejournal.com]

I wasn't familiar with this story before I read and it took me a bit to get into it. And of course, not understanding the reason for Doyle's low spirits made me feel a bit off kilter until the big reveal which made everything fall into place all at once.

I really appreciated the... I don't know how to explain, but maybe the casual understanding between them that their partnership is their top priority. Doyle is grieving for the agent that passed away, but he knows that Bodie will be distracted by his absence from the party. So he goes. And he wants everyone there to have a good time at Bodie's party so he doesn't tell anyone what's happened (except for the one guy who knew him better than anyone.)

I just really loved the emphasis on that dynamic between them, that they just got each other so clearly. There's was a sweetness when they talked with each other that grabbed me. I don't always get that feeling of 'Awww...' when I read Pros stories, so I really appreciate it when I find it.

[f-m-parkinson.livejournal.com]

I've now read 'Pantomime' twice in the last few days. While I love Sebastian's way with words and think she's a superb writer, this is not a story I particularly enjoyed. I could understand Doyle feeling melancholy under the circumstances but somehow he just irritated me. I didn't mind the girl getting the brush-off — he wasn't in the mood and she definitely didn't want to cooperate in public. I did like how Bodie picked up on exactly why Doyle was in such a frame of mind. Then I got irritated with both of them, letting the sex happen and both thinking that there might be hell to pay for it the next day. The two of them were equally complicit, after all. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to really appreciate what is a well-written story.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I think you make an interesting point about the irritation you felt as I felt the same! There was something about them which made me feel that I didn't really care *how* they felt - something off kilter - and I just didn't feel the same as I have in other stories.

[harlech1000.livejournal.com]

Agree with you - the end leaves rooms for your own imagination to continue the story. But I love the 1970s references…”I’m free” Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served. :)