Fastlane
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Fastlane |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | McG, John McNamara |
| Date(s): | 2002-2003 |
| Medium: | Television |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| External Links: | IMDB |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fastlane was a television cop drama that aired on Fox for one season. The show starred Tiffani Thiessen as Wilhemina (Billie) Chambers, an LAPD detective in charge of a special undercover operation. The show also starred Bill Bellamy as Deaqon (Deaq) Hayes, and Peter Facinelli as Donovan (Van) Ray. They operated out of the Candy Store, a combination office and storehouse of seized goods. The undercover operation allowed the three stars to dress in designer clothes, drive expensive sports cars and hang out at trendy clubs.
The series was canceled after one season and only 22 episodes aired.
Fandom
Fastlane was mostly a slash fandom with Van/Deaq as the main pairing. The Candy Store was the Fastlane slash archive. It started out as an archive that accepted email story submissions (candystore.populli.net) and as of November, 2003 became an automated archive (www.stopawhile.com/candystore/).
Fastlane also has a femslash fandom that mostly pairs Billie with Sara, a character who appeared in an episode where Billie had to go undercover in a gay bar to seduce a member of a lesbian robbery gang.[1]
Sharon Bowers and Kate Monteiro presented a paper on Billie Chambers and other examples of lesbian and bisexual coded female characters in Text and Subtext: Where the Lesbians Are in Prime Time Narrative Drama at the April 2003 National Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference.[2]
- Billie operates on a "need to know only basis" and she alone determines what everyone needs to know-- both about the ops and about herself.
- While the premise sets up Billie as bearer of knowledge, the series' second episode, "Girls Own Juice," raises the possible specter of Billie also being a lesbian. Van and Deaq walk into their headquarters-- called, amusingly enough "The Candy Store" to find Billie polishing the car Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt. Her delight in obtaining the car and her remark that McQueen is the reason she became a cop prompt Van to ask Billie if she is a lesbian. While Billie's response is merely a noncommittal look, the little bits of business leading up to the question itself permit viewers a space where they can refocus their gaze from Billie's non-response onto what information Billie chooses to share with them and what they might mean. [...]
- Billie's "knowing" position textually is linked to her sexuality and all its potential perversity in the series' tenth episode, "Strap On." After Deaq's home is robbed and his housekeeper is shot, Van and Deaq track the burglars to a night club called "Girl Bar" where they realize that perhaps Billie would be best suited for this case. [...] To make the case, Billie begins a romantic pursuit of one of the burglars, Sara; and the connection between Billie's knowledge and her sexuality is strengthened. As an undercover cop, she holds all the knowledge (and thus power) in the flirtation and dates that ensue. Conventional narrative structure privileges the audience with "knowing more" than the characters in part to control the direction of the audience's gaze. Thus, the audience is aligned with Billie as bearer of knowledge because it shares the awareness that Billie is an undercover cop-- that the romance is just an illusion. Or is it?[2]
A collection of Billie/Sara femslash can be found at Passion and Perfection and Sharon Bowers wrote Metal, a Billie/Sara story that doesn't seem to be archived anywhere outside of Sharon's now defunct website.
A Billie and Sara Slash Fic Yahoo! Group that was founded Jan 18, 2003 still exists as well, but it has been overrun by spammers.
Other places for Fastlane fanfic include:
- Fastlane Slash Fiction at WWOMB
- Fastlane works at the AO3
- Fastlane at FF.net
- fastlane_fic (LJ community)
- Marked, a popslash crossover by Tiffany Rawlins.
- Allyson's Vault - Fastlane, featuring the Billie/Sara Alt story Undercover Rumble. Summary: "Sara gets herself into trouble with the law and Billie comes to her rescue. Unfortunately, Sara has baggage in the form of an ex who has connections to the underworld."
- Fastlane Fanfiction by TheThenthMuse1
- Fastlane Fiction by Christy and Chirusea
References
- ^ Sarah Warn. "Fastlane" Lesbian Episode a Fun But Uneven Ride, AfterEllen.com, January 18, 2003. (Accessed 16 April 2010)
- ^ a b Text and Subtext: Where the Lesbians Are in Prime Time Narrative Drama, presented at N/PCA/ACA April 2003. Link accessed via Wayback, 16 April 2010.