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crack_van2006-12-02 06:55 pm
bantha-fodder.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2006-12-02 06:55 pm
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fandom overview: the pretender
The Pretender ran from 1996 until 2001, encompassing four seasons and two tele movies. Its story arcs spanned episodes and months and years, and though the continuity could occasionally be choppy, you can still see hints of the first ever episode in the final episodes.
The premise of the show (and the opening title on the credits):
There are pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to be become anyone they want to be. In 1963 a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research.
And then one day, their Pretender ran away.
The Centre is a think tank filled with psychiatrists and geniuses and people with money. The Centre is a ruthless organisation made up of people who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals: perfect simulations, and perfect(ly controllable) young men and women.
As an introduction to the series, the opening credits work remarkably well. Perri (whom I think is now![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neonhummingbird) has a guide which talks about the opening over time; I did try to find a video of the credits, but alas, I was unsuccessful.
A (very) Brief Overview:
As the series opens, we learn that Jarod, one of the Centre's top Pretenders, has escaped. He steals a lot of money from the Centre's accounts ("back pay," he says), and attempts to help as many people as possible. He compiles little red notebooks filled with newspaper articles about innocent people injured, helps them, and moves on, leaving nothing but the red notebook and a few carefully selected clues behind.
Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots chase Jarod based on these and other clues that they discover. Along the way they discover other things: Jarod reveals things that the Centre kept secret from Sydney; he attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the death of Miss Parker's mother; and he tries to help people see the evil things that the Centre has been perpetrating.
It slowly becomes clear that the Centre has been keeping secrets and manipulating people: over the course of four seasons we meet Miss Parker's twin brother, presumed still born; Mr Parker marries the woman who tried to assassinate him; the dubious Mr Raines discovers God; Mr Lyle loses a thumb, then takes someone else's thumb, and then returns that thumb to its original owner; Jarod meets and then loses his brother (who was also used by the Centre); and the truth behind the Centre is revealed.
Characters:
Jarod was stolen from his family when he was five or six years old. He worked for the Centre for about thirty years, until he realised that his simulations were making the Centre billions of dollars as they sold to the highest bidder. Often these simulations were been important in carrying out assassinations, rigging elections, and making rich people richer. Jarod is idealistic and hates being used like this, so he escaped. Out in the world, he attempts to right wrongs, to make up for the terrible things he thought up when he thought he was playing games and being helpful. He also tries to find his family, and help Miss Parker learn the truth about who killed her mother. The other thing he does whilst out in the world is explore - he's thirty years behind everyone else in learning about random things we take for granted, icecream and lollies and video games and silly putty and other things the Centre thought their Pretenders didn't need to know.
Each episode usually included a bad guy that Jarod brought to justice, righting his wrongs. Those baddie-of-the-week storylines were never terribly interesting, but did give us some nice Jarod bits and the chance for Miss Parker to chase him a little more (and occasionally, if we're really lucky, they bitch at one another and are quite hot together).
Miss Parker grew up in the Centre, due to her father's position as director. He makes all the decisions, and has been involved in the inner workings of the Centre for decades, and as a result Miss Parker could always be found within the Centre. As a child she explored the Centre until she was sent away to boarding school. On her return, as an embittered, driven woman, she worked for the Centre in Europe, until Jarod's escape meant she was recalled to the Centre to find him. She is highly skilled and very effective, which was why she was put in charge of the hunt to find him.
As the series starts, she is driven by her need to find Jarod so she can leave Delaware and return to what she was doing. We learn very quickly that as children in the Centre, Jarod and Miss Parker were very close, until she was sent away, and they both view that separation as a betrayal by the other. So her sense of betrayal by Jarod on two levels really drives her search for him. Jarod learns that it was not Miss Parker's fault, and he tries to reconcile his childhood best friend with this terrible, driven woman, and he tries to teach her (from a distance, so she doesn't shoot him) that she can still be driven and focussed and not be mean and bitter.
Mr Lyle was discovered by the Centre as an adult and brought in, ostensibly to work as the number three in charge. He is ruthless and manipulative and driven by his need for power and control. He has this terrible habit of killing people, and he is a horrible person and Jarod and Miss Parker hate him, but the truth of the matter is that he is Miss Parker's twin brother, who was allegedly stillborn (and clearly wasn't).
Mr Lyle is a bastard who had a terrible childhood; he's manipulative and a bully and he blames Jarod for the fact that he's only got one thumb and sometimes he cares about Miss Parker but mostly he just wants to recapture Jarod and beat his sister.
Mr Parker is patriarch of the Parker family, and director of the Centre. Sometimes it's clear how much he loves his daughter and cares for his son; often, it's clear that he has no idea what to do with that love. He protects her in the ways that he can, keeping her out of the loop and thinking it's for the best, but you have to wonder if he loves her or the things that she represents.
You can never be sure of Mr Parker: perhaps he's telling the truth, but more likely it's a clever lie.
Sydney is a hilarious Belgian man. He was the one who provided Jarod with simulations, and was effectively Jarod's only continuous companion within the Centre. He is now a part of the team that chases Jarod, which of course complicates matters because he spends a lot of time "accidentally" just missing Jarod.
Broots is Miss Parker's pet geek. He's clever, and he's hilarious, and he loves his daughter very much.
Bridgette is brought in on the hunt to capture Jarod; she's an interrogator, a would-be assassin, and she later ends up marrying Mr Parker, even after her attempts to kill him.
Mr Raines is like a creepy head of department. He used to be a doctor but he no longer has his license and it's never made clear exactly how he lost it, but if they ever said "malpractice" it would not be beyond the realms of possibility.
Angelo (not pictured) was a pretender who was assigned to Mr Raines and never made it out. He's amazing in some ways, but completely unable to function in other ways, and he's freaky and wonderful at the same time. He plays a killer version of Twinkle, Twinkle.
Fandom Resources:
The main community is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
the_pretender, a general comm where people post icons and fic and meta.
The main fiction archive is Missing Pieces: it's relatively recent, and an attempt to resurrect what was the big fiction archive after it disappeared.
blademistress has a pretty large recs page here, though it hasn't been updated since early 2005 (no guarantees on quality, as I haven't read all of her recs).
zeplum is pretty good at collecting awesome looking links here (I can guarantee her recs are quality &hearts).
Finally, I personally talk about The Pretender all the time. My tag is here, my fic recs can be found here, and my del.icio.us is here.
I love talking about The Pretender, and I'm really excited to be reccing it this month on the Crack Van. I'm going to try to space the recs out and rec both new and old fics, and if you have any links to give (to archives or reclists or meta) please feel free to link it in the comments of this post.
Please note that this overview contains some spoilers.
The premise of the show (and the opening title on the credits):
There are pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to be become anyone they want to be. In 1963 a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research.
And then one day, their Pretender ran away.
The Centre is a think tank filled with psychiatrists and geniuses and people with money. The Centre is a ruthless organisation made up of people who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals: perfect simulations, and perfect(ly controllable) young men and women.
As an introduction to the series, the opening credits work remarkably well. Perri (whom I think is now
neonhummingbird) has a guide which talks about the opening over time; I did try to find a video of the credits, but alas, I was unsuccessful.A (very) Brief Overview:
As the series opens, we learn that Jarod, one of the Centre's top Pretenders, has escaped. He steals a lot of money from the Centre's accounts ("back pay," he says), and attempts to help as many people as possible. He compiles little red notebooks filled with newspaper articles about innocent people injured, helps them, and moves on, leaving nothing but the red notebook and a few carefully selected clues behind.
Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots chase Jarod based on these and other clues that they discover. Along the way they discover other things: Jarod reveals things that the Centre kept secret from Sydney; he attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the death of Miss Parker's mother; and he tries to help people see the evil things that the Centre has been perpetrating.
It slowly becomes clear that the Centre has been keeping secrets and manipulating people: over the course of four seasons we meet Miss Parker's twin brother, presumed still born; Mr Parker marries the woman who tried to assassinate him; the dubious Mr Raines discovers God; Mr Lyle loses a thumb, then takes someone else's thumb, and then returns that thumb to its original owner; Jarod meets and then loses his brother (who was also used by the Centre); and the truth behind the Centre is revealed.
Characters:
Jarod was stolen from his family when he was five or six years old. He worked for the Centre for about thirty years, until he realised that his simulations were making the Centre billions of dollars as they sold to the highest bidder. Often these simulations were been important in carrying out assassinations, rigging elections, and making rich people richer. Jarod is idealistic and hates being used like this, so he escaped. Out in the world, he attempts to right wrongs, to make up for the terrible things he thought up when he thought he was playing games and being helpful. He also tries to find his family, and help Miss Parker learn the truth about who killed her mother. The other thing he does whilst out in the world is explore - he's thirty years behind everyone else in learning about random things we take for granted, icecream and lollies and video games and silly putty and other things the Centre thought their Pretenders didn't need to know.
Each episode usually included a bad guy that Jarod brought to justice, righting his wrongs. Those baddie-of-the-week storylines were never terribly interesting, but did give us some nice Jarod bits and the chance for Miss Parker to chase him a little more (and occasionally, if we're really lucky, they bitch at one another and are quite hot together).
Miss Parker grew up in the Centre, due to her father's position as director. He makes all the decisions, and has been involved in the inner workings of the Centre for decades, and as a result Miss Parker could always be found within the Centre. As a child she explored the Centre until she was sent away to boarding school. On her return, as an embittered, driven woman, she worked for the Centre in Europe, until Jarod's escape meant she was recalled to the Centre to find him. She is highly skilled and very effective, which was why she was put in charge of the hunt to find him.
As the series starts, she is driven by her need to find Jarod so she can leave Delaware and return to what she was doing. We learn very quickly that as children in the Centre, Jarod and Miss Parker were very close, until she was sent away, and they both view that separation as a betrayal by the other. So her sense of betrayal by Jarod on two levels really drives her search for him. Jarod learns that it was not Miss Parker's fault, and he tries to reconcile his childhood best friend with this terrible, driven woman, and he tries to teach her (from a distance, so she doesn't shoot him) that she can still be driven and focussed and not be mean and bitter.
Mr Lyle was discovered by the Centre as an adult and brought in, ostensibly to work as the number three in charge. He is ruthless and manipulative and driven by his need for power and control. He has this terrible habit of killing people, and he is a horrible person and Jarod and Miss Parker hate him, but the truth of the matter is that he is Miss Parker's twin brother, who was allegedly stillborn (and clearly wasn't).
Mr Lyle is a bastard who had a terrible childhood; he's manipulative and a bully and he blames Jarod for the fact that he's only got one thumb and sometimes he cares about Miss Parker but mostly he just wants to recapture Jarod and beat his sister.
Mr Parker is patriarch of the Parker family, and director of the Centre. Sometimes it's clear how much he loves his daughter and cares for his son; often, it's clear that he has no idea what to do with that love. He protects her in the ways that he can, keeping her out of the loop and thinking it's for the best, but you have to wonder if he loves her or the things that she represents.
You can never be sure of Mr Parker: perhaps he's telling the truth, but more likely it's a clever lie.
Sydney is a hilarious Belgian man. He was the one who provided Jarod with simulations, and was effectively Jarod's only continuous companion within the Centre. He is now a part of the team that chases Jarod, which of course complicates matters because he spends a lot of time "accidentally" just missing Jarod.
Broots is Miss Parker's pet geek. He's clever, and he's hilarious, and he loves his daughter very much.
Bridgette is brought in on the hunt to capture Jarod; she's an interrogator, a would-be assassin, and she later ends up marrying Mr Parker, even after her attempts to kill him.
Mr Raines is like a creepy head of department. He used to be a doctor but he no longer has his license and it's never made clear exactly how he lost it, but if they ever said "malpractice" it would not be beyond the realms of possibility.
Angelo (not pictured) was a pretender who was assigned to Mr Raines and never made it out. He's amazing in some ways, but completely unable to function in other ways, and he's freaky and wonderful at the same time. He plays a killer version of Twinkle, Twinkle.
Fandom Resources:
The main community is
the_pretender, a general comm where people post icons and fic and meta.The main fiction archive is Missing Pieces: it's relatively recent, and an attempt to resurrect what was the big fiction archive after it disappeared.
blademistress has a pretty large recs page here, though it hasn't been updated since early 2005 (no guarantees on quality, as I haven't read all of her recs).zeplum is pretty good at collecting awesome looking links here (I can guarantee her recs are quality &hearts).Finally, I personally talk about The Pretender all the time. My tag is here, my fic recs can be found here, and my del.icio.us is here.
I love talking about The Pretender, and I'm really excited to be reccing it this month on the Crack Van. I'm going to try to space the recs out and rec both new and old fics, and if you have any links to give (to archives or reclists or meta) please feel free to link it in the comments of this post.
Please note that this overview contains some spoilers.