Mark Does Stuff
| Name: | Mark Oshiro |
| Also Known As: | Mark Does Stuff |
| Occupation: | writer |
| Medium: | blog |
| Works: | "Mark Reads", "Mark Watches" |
| Official Website(s): | Mark Reads, Mark Watches |
| Fan Website(s): | Mark Spoils |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Mark Oshiro is a blogger who reads books and watches television series or movies for the first time, and describes his reactions to them in his blogs, as well as films his reactions and distributes the videos. He formerly described himself as a "Straight edge, vegan cyclist, Internet community nerd, atheist bookworm, high-five purveyor, author of Mark Reads / Mark Watches series", and now simply as "Perpetually unprepared since '09." [1]
Mark was nominated in the Best Fan Writer category in both the 2013 [2] and 2014 [3] Hugo Awards .
Mark's popularity can be attributed to his enthusiasm, and the fact that he's watching/reading completely unspoiled (his catchphrase is "You are not prepared"). The comment sections of his review posts tend to be very active, with both old fans and people following the canon unspoiled with Mark taking part in the discussion. Commenters are asked to use rot13 encoding when discussing spoilers so as not to spoil Mark or other unspoiled fans.
On July 28th, 2021, Mark announced on the Mark Watches blog that Mark Does Stuff would be coming to an end.
The Sun and the Star, a YA-fantasy novel co-written by Mark and Rick Riordan will be published in May 2023.
Mark Watches Buffy
The Mark Watches Buffy series was very popular for a time within the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom. Mark was not a Spuffy fan, and as the series continued many fans wondered about his reaction to their canon relationship. This is a topic that was discussed on other Buffy-centric boards, like Buffy Forums. Even before Mark got to Seeing Red, Buffy fans wondered how unspoiled commentators would react, and some already believed Mark was not as unspoiled as he claimed.[4]
Some Buffy fans came to dislike Mark and his mods, as they believed fans in the comment section were unfairly and quickly shut down, sometimes with insults, when they disagreed with Mark. It was not uncommon for disagreeing fans to be banned from the site.[5] This was particularly a problem following Mark's review of Smashed.
After this discussion I am done with this site. It has nothing to do with me being a disgruntled Spike fan (he doesn't even make my 'Top 5') and I couldn't care a less about Spuffy. What I can't stand is the way Mark and his moderators have behaved. They have belittled and insulted anyone who disagrees with them, they have characterised these people as being "rape apologists", they have condescendingly told others that they obviously don't know what consent really means, and they have been extremely aggressive and inappropriate in tone. I have seen GIFS of people being placed in headlocks and having their mouths taped shut, I have seen people being called "pieces of shit", I have seen an outpouring of people's individual experiences with abuse all been flatly ignored because Mark's Pain Trumps All, and I have seen person after person banned for daring to speak out.[6]
He named the kerfuffle “The Great Spuffy Meltdown Of 2012,” but as someone who was there reading almost every comment (including the deleted ones) as it happened, I'd suggest more appropriate name would be “The Great Mark/Mods Meltdown Of 2012”[7]
[maybe add something about the imbroglio when he was watching "Seeing Red", and the accusations that he's not really as unspoiled as he claims to be]
Works Mark has reviewed
- Twilight
- Harry Potter
- Lord of the Rings
- The Princess Bride
- Sandman
- Newsflesh
- Discworld (currently reading)
- Emelan (currently reading)
- Firefly
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Angel the Series
- Dollhouse
- Battlestar Galactica
- Sherlock
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Friday Night Lights
- The West Wing
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (currently watching)
- Supernatural (currently watching)
- Kings (currently watching)
References
- ^ About Mark Oshiro
- ^ 2013 Hugo Awards
- ^ 2014 Hugo Awards
- ^ Mark Watched BtVS a discussion thread at Buffy Forums
- ^ Fannish things (Mark Watches, The Hollow Crown, epic facepalm ...) by LJ user kikimay, Jul. 23rd, 2012.
- ^ Comment by sadbuffyfan on Mark Watches ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: S06E09 – Smashed. Accessed 15 September 2019.
- ^ Mark Watched BtVS discussion thread at Buffy Boards, and comment by t.f.flan, 23-07-12.