I loved Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers. But, the best looking guy in that series was the medic. Best impersonation of the real soldier was by the guy who played the Italian from South Philly, nicknamed Gonorrhea (Guarini? something like that)--if you watch the documentary We Stand Alone Together, you can see how the actor just nailed the performance, even though we're seeing the man 60 years later.

I've discovered the most amazing Spike/Xander story. "Thirst" by Carolyn Claire. It should have been filmed in black and white by Rod Serling and shown in the great old days of "Twilight Zone."

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guy who played the Italian from South Philly, nicknamed Gonorrhea (Guarini? something like that)

I don't remember the real person's name, but the actor is Frank John Hughes, who is from South Philly, so that would be part of why he was good at it. Actually I don't think he can turn that accent off.

The other guy who came from South Philly was played by a redhead with pale skin and came from, like, Edinburgh. Entertainingly head-spinny.

IMDB says that Frank John Hughes is from the Bronx.

Shockingly there is no picture of Shane Taylor who plays the medic.

Here's a small one.

I'm hauling this topic over from Boxed Set, since I think it'll generate more discussion over here. We were talking about Consuela's SG1 fic, "Tuscany," and she said that "happy is harder in a lot of ways."

I've noticed that this is the case. Also, it seems that most of the fics I'm seeing recced (speaking about reccers I trust, BTW) tend towards the dark'n'angsty. Sometimes I wonder why this is: is it because most of the people whose literary tastes intersect with mine prefer the dark to the light, or is it because there are fewer well-written light'n'happy fics out there? I have a hard time buying the notion that angst is somehow "better" than happiness in fic.

Thoughts?

Oh, it's the great dark!fic debate!

Heee.

Part of the problem for me is that story requires action, requires a driver. And, well, there aren't a lot of happy drivers that result in sufficient tension to give a story any kind of forward momentum.

So "Tuscany" works because it's so short, because it doesn't need a plot. Hell, it's not really a story in the classic sense, just a vignette. Keeping that tone in place during something longer, with an actual plot? Would be hard.

That's not to say that some people can't do funny stories, where the driver is some sort of silly thing that makes the story and the characters' responses funny (Yahtzee's "In Harm's Way" or BetanSurvey's "Shoulda Brought a Bag" come to mind). But I'm not that good at humor, myself. Sly wit, fine. But not comedy.

Is "happy" defined as happy from beginning to end or as bad things happen but it works out OK in the end?

There are a lot of happy fics (or at least happy-ending fics) in Due South -- perhaps because the series ended on a happy note.

Here's a link to "Tuscany", by the way.