the very epitome of the good-bad TV show
June 1, 2018 2:56 AM Subscribe
To this day, plenty of women still fantasise about Bodie and Doyle – have a look online. But it's hard to say what Bodie and Doyle themselves would make of this, once someone had explained to them exactly what "slash fiction" is.
If it wasn't already mentioned in the first paragraph, this would the point when the writer of this is obviously a bloke. The female fandom for the Professionals is one of the most thoughtful and analytic around (possibly because it skews older?), and is choc-full of interrogative and subversive readings of the 'text' of the Pros. Given the ephemeral nature of this, the essay I'm thinking of isn't online any more, but a quote is here:
"As Professionals fans, we were not aware of having any feminist or political agenda – we were just having fun. However, through our active gaze and through poaching and reworking the masculinity and sexuality of Bodie and Doyle, we renegotiated the gendered active/passive dichotomy. Further, in our conscious and pleasured viewing of those crotch shots; in our discussion of that pleasure, and in our engagement in fandom and slash fiction, we negotiated a resistant space within patriarchal hegemony."
Fandom took the facist sex cult show, subverted it so hard that it ends up its own antithesis, and had fun doing do.
I'm going to link to the shippers manifesto for the Professionals for basic background, and the fanvid to 'Detachable Penis' which is just a fun run through phallic imagery in the Pros.
posted by Vortisaur at 3:30 AM on June 1, 2018 [19 favorites]
If it wasn't already mentioned in the first paragraph, this would the point when the writer of this is obviously a bloke. The female fandom for the Professionals is one of the most thoughtful and analytic around (possibly because it skews older?), and is choc-full of interrogative and subversive readings of the 'text' of the Pros. Given the ephemeral nature of this, the essay I'm thinking of isn't online any more, but a quote is here:
"As Professionals fans, we were not aware of having any feminist or political agenda – we were just having fun. However, through our active gaze and through poaching and reworking the masculinity and sexuality of Bodie and Doyle, we renegotiated the gendered active/passive dichotomy. Further, in our conscious and pleasured viewing of those crotch shots; in our discussion of that pleasure, and in our engagement in fandom and slash fiction, we negotiated a resistant space within patriarchal hegemony."
Fandom took the facist sex cult show, subverted it so hard that it ends up its own antithesis, and had fun doing do.
I'm going to link to the shippers manifesto for the Professionals for basic background, and the fanvid to 'Detachable Penis' which is just a fun run through phallic imagery in the Pros.
posted by Vortisaur at 3:30 AM on June 1, 2018 [19 favorites]
Back in the early 00s, when Mrs Ber started her dive into slash fic, she found this huge bank of stories based on The Professionals. As an American she was clueless but the woman is tireless. Next thing I saw was photos of Bodie and Doyle as her desktop wallpaper, downloading the opening credits for the show, etc.
She's moved on to other fandoms now but as soon as I saw this post I thought, "Fascist? That slash show?"
posted by Ber at 6:48 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
She's moved on to other fandoms now but as soon as I saw this post I thought, "Fascist? That slash show?"
posted by Ber at 6:48 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
British TV has a deeper crush on procedurals and actionish things then I have ever had, so I had no idea The Professionals even existed before twenty minutes ago. Being introduced to it via this article, I think it sounds... well, I am just sorry that the words ‘awesome’ and ‘awful’ have wound up diverging so far, because I need the missing link between them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:15 AM on June 1, 2018
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:15 AM on June 1, 2018
Dammit, somebody beat me to "Detachable Penis!"
posted by praemunire at 8:15 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:15 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
This is a fun article.
I discovered a lot of the 70's & early 80's ITC/LWT/ITV action-oriented series as an adult (I'm Canadian) when they began to trickle onto DVD in the UK. They were a revelation, particularly Dennis Spooner's output (who I knew from Hartnell era Doctor Who and his work on the Gerry Anderson shows). I wasn't as big a fan of the Professionals but the article isn't wrong when it describes the show:
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:17 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I discovered a lot of the 70's & early 80's ITC/LWT/ITV action-oriented series as an adult (I'm Canadian) when they began to trickle onto DVD in the UK. They were a revelation, particularly Dennis Spooner's output (who I knew from Hartnell era Doctor Who and his work on the Gerry Anderson shows). I wasn't as big a fan of the Professionals but the article isn't wrong when it describes the show:
"...it constitutes some of the funniest television ever made – and that's not laughter of derision, either, it's laughter of delight. Because The Professionals isn't just crap."A lot of the output from ITC/LWT/ITV can almost be described like that. They weren't always good but I never found them boring.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:17 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Interesting article, but what it mainly left me with was a strong desire to rewatch The Sweeney.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:18 AM on June 1, 2018
posted by betweenthebars at 9:18 AM on June 1, 2018
Oh yeah, here, here, and here. Yes I know, derail. Sorry, I can't help myself.
posted by evilDoug at 9:49 AM on June 1, 2018
posted by evilDoug at 9:49 AM on June 1, 2018
What a great essay. If I'm in the same room as a telly when the Professionals is on, I watch it. The writer's done a lovely articulation of what appeals about it - I particularly like the sense of late 70s London, the scruffiness of the streets, the general beigeness.
The Professionals is not art, but neither is it purely kitsch. Rather, it's that most hypnotic and strangely rewarding of phenomena, the good-bad TV show. Aesthetically atrocious, morally questionable, ludicrous from top to bottom... and yet so hugely entertaining on its own terms, you can't look away. At root, a rollicking action show. Then, beyond that: worlds of wonder. A unique synthesis of lowbrow flash, outrageous violence and dumbfounding, mind-poaching implausibility that's more enjoyable than it has any right to be
This made me instantly think of The Avengers: I hadn't known Clemens was the determining factor.
As well as 70s London it's nice when now well-known actors pop up. Pamela Stephenson, Roger Lloyd Pack and so on as mentioned, Patrick Malahide used to turn up regularly as well. I think there's one with Helen Mirren? I've seen the episode with Tony Osoba (playing a boxer? or a bouncer, whatever) and I think, also the Baader Meinhoff episode. Not into the fan fiction though.
some shit-fool TV critic guffawing: "The best thing about The Professionals was that it was politically incorrect!!!" This may well have sounded reasonable (if not terribly insightful) at the time, when not being Ben Elton was the most important thing in the world. These days, worn down by Little Britain and Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, the steady thickening of troll culture and concomitant erosion of human decency, that smugness and lack of foresight inspires impotent fury. You want to scream back: "It's you – it's your fucking fault! You fucking Nineties idiot!"
Yeah.
posted by glasseyes at 11:14 AM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
The Professionals is not art, but neither is it purely kitsch. Rather, it's that most hypnotic and strangely rewarding of phenomena, the good-bad TV show. Aesthetically atrocious, morally questionable, ludicrous from top to bottom... and yet so hugely entertaining on its own terms, you can't look away. At root, a rollicking action show. Then, beyond that: worlds of wonder. A unique synthesis of lowbrow flash, outrageous violence and dumbfounding, mind-poaching implausibility that's more enjoyable than it has any right to be
This made me instantly think of The Avengers: I hadn't known Clemens was the determining factor.
As well as 70s London it's nice when now well-known actors pop up. Pamela Stephenson, Roger Lloyd Pack and so on as mentioned, Patrick Malahide used to turn up regularly as well. I think there's one with Helen Mirren? I've seen the episode with Tony Osoba (playing a boxer? or a bouncer, whatever) and I think, also the Baader Meinhoff episode. Not into the fan fiction though.
some shit-fool TV critic guffawing: "The best thing about The Professionals was that it was politically incorrect!!!" This may well have sounded reasonable (if not terribly insightful) at the time, when not being Ben Elton was the most important thing in the world. These days, worn down by Little Britain and Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, the steady thickening of troll culture and concomitant erosion of human decency, that smugness and lack of foresight inspires impotent fury. You want to scream back: "It's you – it's your fucking fault! You fucking Nineties idiot!"
Yeah.
posted by glasseyes at 11:14 AM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
The Comic Strip did their own take ; "The Bullshitters." This clip catches the spirit of it.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 11:54 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 11:54 AM on June 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Curiously, I now get one more joke in Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:54 PM on June 1, 2018
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:54 PM on June 1, 2018
I was given a copy of S01 of The Professionals and recently watched the first episode. It's like watching Life on Mars with a second Gene Hunt replacing Sam and both of them having been given the note to stop playing the character as so liberal and soft-hearted.
posted by haileris23 at 6:29 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by haileris23 at 6:29 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
However, through our active gaze and through poaching and reworking the masculinity and sexuality of Bodie and Doyle, we renegotiated the gendered active/passive dichotomy. Further, in our conscious and pleasured viewing of those crotch shots; in our discussion of that pleasure, and in our engagement in fandom and slash fiction, we negotiated a resistant space within patriarchal hegemony
beanplating getting horny while looking at fit blokes
posted by Sebmojo at 7:34 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
beanplating getting horny while looking at fit blokes
posted by Sebmojo at 7:34 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
I read the main article last night, having originally intended to post a "Woo! Bodie and Doyle!" comment even if the FPP's subject was a completely different US show of the same name. Excellent, excellent read, worth every word and I especially like how it constructs an unconflicted take on the wonderfullness and innate nastiness of the show.
Like the author it's one I grew up with too young, I owned the CI5 Agent kit (green box with logo, comes complete with plastic gun, plastic handcuffs, etc) twice over before I was ten. The only nights I was allowed to sit up late as a kid were Sundays when I was allowed to watch The Professionals with the lights turned off until it finished at ten'o'clock. It's great how the article talks about how the show functions as a snapshot of that particular era of London-centric filming and the joy of spotting familiar actors of the era in flat out odd roles. I got a bit of that same vibe when watching The Chinese Detective, something which I articulated far less well in a comment here a while back.
There were novelisations too, two episodes to a book, I think. "Foxhole On The Roof" is one that I half-recall, along with the moment in one of the kids Christmas Annuals which are mentioned in the article where Doyle (I think) is confronted with the problem of an exploding Rubik's Cube. Oh, nostalgia!
I catch the very occasional partial episode on ITV4 and enjoy it without being able to take it seriously. Perhaps I should buy and try a full rewatch, or perhaps not.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:04 PM on June 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Like the author it's one I grew up with too young, I owned the CI5 Agent kit (green box with logo, comes complete with plastic gun, plastic handcuffs, etc) twice over before I was ten. The only nights I was allowed to sit up late as a kid were Sundays when I was allowed to watch The Professionals with the lights turned off until it finished at ten'o'clock. It's great how the article talks about how the show functions as a snapshot of that particular era of London-centric filming and the joy of spotting familiar actors of the era in flat out odd roles. I got a bit of that same vibe when watching The Chinese Detective, something which I articulated far less well in a comment here a while back.
There were novelisations too, two episodes to a book, I think. "Foxhole On The Roof" is one that I half-recall, along with the moment in one of the kids Christmas Annuals which are mentioned in the article where Doyle (I think) is confronted with the problem of an exploding Rubik's Cube. Oh, nostalgia!
I catch the very occasional partial episode on ITV4 and enjoy it without being able to take it seriously. Perhaps I should buy and try a full rewatch, or perhaps not.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:04 PM on June 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
beanplating getting horny while looking at UNRECONSTRUCTED fit blokes
posted by glasseyes at 11:25 AM on June 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by glasseyes at 11:25 AM on June 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
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