Waltd seeks a beta-reader for FKFicFest '21 story draft

Last night, waltd posted that he's seeking a beta-reader for his fkficfest '21 story. Can you help?

He said:

"I have a story I'd like to submit, but I really want to have it beta-ed. Also, the subject matter veers closely to an unsettling concept, though not in a bad way, it just brushes up against it. I know that's awfully vague, can't help it. I guess I need help. :-)

After a brutal traffic accident, a young man comes under Nick's mentoring, although he would rather not. Nick is worried about keeping his motives clear and worthy.

See his post (which includes his email address).

I'll post the "official" find-a-beta/be-a-beta post tomorrow morning! I didn't want to leave him hanging, especially when he's so far ahead as to have finished his first draft already. (I sure haven't finished mine!)

Thank you!

"Tophy Girl" is my new least-favorite episode of FK

When brainstorming for fkficfest converged with certain real-world events, I discovered that while I remembered that Tracy shooting someone in the line of duty was the impetus for the "Trophy Girl" plot, I did not remember whom she'd shot, or why, or what happened to that person. That was unsettling! Why couldn't I remember? I determined to re-watch "Trophy Girl."

So, after putting it off for a while, I tried -- tried! -- to re-watch "Trophy Girl" last night. Um. "Trophy Girl" is now my least-favorite episode in the entire series. Good grief. To fulfill my purpose, I did re-watch every Tracy scene. But I had to skip the scenes in the prison. And I could barely cringe through some of the other scenes. There are bits of this episode that do good things! But they are swamped by two wrongheaded tides poorly overlaid, and not helped by the conventions of '90s syndicated television and the expectations of the USA network. Ick.

You can take for granted that I find the flashback thematically hollow and aggravating. Apparently, its story purpose is to further parallel Nick -- Nick, as much or more than Lacroix -- with the present-day villains. Why? What's the point of that? A first-season episode would let Nick learn a lesson from that; this third-season episode's text offers no learning to the character, only disgust to the viewer. Sure, we can build a thematic subtext ourselves; we're very good at that! But the filmed version fails. What did Nick learn from that past event? A better story would have fit in an impact on the character.

More importantly, we have Tracy, who by the end of this episode has ended two human lives in service of the "she really is a good cop; believe us as we tell you this over and over in so many words" effort.

Having Tracy deal with the psychological impact of killing -- even in the line of duty, even as indisputable necessity in the moment to save lives -- could have been a spectacular episode, could have paralleled with Nick not wanting to kill, could have explored and built character! Did it? No. She claims killing didn't phase her. No one tells her that it should phase her, that she should need a pause for reflection. Reese or Nick should have told her that, but they didn't. Maybe her relatives or friends, but no. Instead, she throws herself into an unauthorized dangerous situation in a foolish way without backup -- attempting to prove herself, pushing back on what she mistakenly sees as a suspension, which misperception could have been a powerful pivot, more important and interesting than the prison scenes -- and then she ends up killing again. And what lesson does the character take from all of this? How does she get to grow or develop? None. She doesn't. In the end, Natalie tells us that Tracy was taken to the hospital -- off screen -- and that's that, never again do we hear about any of this. What was the story deliverable? That Tracy can shoot and is oversensitive to thinking she is being treated differently than others? We already knew those things. How was repeating them like this worth this set-up?

Oh, the person killed at the start of the episode? We learn that he was a drug dealer. We don't learn anything else about him. Not even his name. Not even the specific crime. The episode opens with Nick and Tracy chasing him and another man. Nick manages to apprehend his guy unharmed. Tracy ends up in an alley with hers. He shoots at her; she shoots back; he dies.