Cascade Library Interview with Agnes Mage

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with Agnes Mage
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	Agnes Mage
Date(s):	August 14, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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In 2000, Agnes Mage was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

I read about an upcoming new program and set my VCR as it sounded interesting. Let's face it, there is very little "good" programming on these days. I remember the first episode; I was taping it because there was some celestial happening occurring. I'm a nut job for looking at night skies and seeing falling stars and thinking of friends around the world under the same stars. Still trying desperately to see an Aurora Borealis. LOL! I ran outside during the commercials and would hurry up, see the stars and run back in. I was hooked on the very first episode. The show was talking to me personally. It was like it was tailored for my needs.

I've never done a missing scene and I never did figure out smarm. I think I write human drama, the emotional intensities of situations and human interaction. I love to analyze conflict. People are so different, so unique, that to watch them work out their differences, make mistakes and still persevere, still hold firm to the bond that they share, that is magic to me.

My favorite episode is probably the first one, Switchman, as my life was paralleling Jim's to a tee at that point, which I'll answer in another question. I loved the mood swings, the surliness born of fear and anxiety, the helplessness of this very capable man. The polarity of characterization probably attracted me most to this episode and the show. I'll take characterization over plot and high drama any day, and this show offered it in delightful extremes. My next favorite episode is probably Night Train. There was something very vulnerable and almost sad about Blair Sandburg in that episode. I think it had a lot to do with the joshing he took from Jim on the whole assignment, the eagerness with which he went off into the night on a mission he didn't understand. The usual surliness of Jim, only heightened by the cold and sneezing, made Blair a very vulnerable waif to me. The secret password thing, Blair's attraction to the lawyer, and the Swiss army knife, showed a naivety that truly endeared him to me. I don't know...I just really liked that episode, and I think the fact that Jim called him "Junior." There was such delineation with their ages in this story...very big brother, little brother tag-along type setting.

When I got on the Internet I made myself a promise: never hurt anyone. When I started writing, I made another promise, to teach lessons of the heart. I get no other reward, but when I have someone tell me that this inspired them, or this Aggieism spoke to them, or that they learned some lesson from my story, then I feel sated, refreshed, and pleased. In another genre I am writing a story about suicide and depression. I have received some wonderful feedback about how I understand, how I have the feelings and stages down pat, how someone is out there who knows what other people are going through. That is the joy of writing, the reaching out and touching hearts.

[The first fan fic I ever read was by] Kris Williams. I admit it. I ate her stuff up like cotton candy, and overdosed. LOL I had no Internet connection, but my sister-in-law got it. Every night I would drive up to their house and bury myself in front of the computer, downloading stories. My wonderful sister-in-law would bring me pizza, cake, snacks and more coffee and I was oblivious. My brother wanted to charge me rent. I would take my disks home and read until the wee hours of the morning, overdosing on fan fiction. It was a good time for me, a happy time, a time I wish I could go back to.

It's greatest strength is that it is a buddy show. Shows with male bonding are always popular. However, the Sentinel went further, since it was able to reach out and have so many people identify with it. I think all the readers either identifies with Jim or Blair. I never was able to identify with Napoleon Solo or Illya Kuryakin, Starsky or Hutch, but I think there is a little of all of us in Jim and Blair. That's just my opinion. The only weakness in the show was the writers' and the station's inability to perceive the need for affection, hugs, and physical displays of comfort and compassion. The touching in the first season, when Jim so easily patted Blair's cheeks, was a major loss in the remaining episodes. It's sad where touch implies love, yet love is an embarrassment.