Haha, it is a bit not what I would have expected for a space show, especially after For All Mankind. It really searches out that personal drama first, before even space plot and action. But that’s also what gave us Lu/Mei so, you know. I didn’t mind Emma, tbh, just at certain points, the writing was…mhmm. I actually liked her husband a lot and his plot was interesting to me, but I do think they got the balance wrong of just how much we had to see of the daughter’s plot. We didn’t need that much. I’m curious to know what the general audience thought, because I feel like they’d have loved Emma and Matt but the daughter? Hmm.
When the show found out about Lu and Mei’s relationship, the china crew leader mentions that she found a slip of paper with her handwriting on it, which I found kind of strange because it could’ve been written by anybody from their crew. Do you think they said that to move the story on quicker or were there too few crew members from the China team to have pinpointed it directly to their only astronaut representing the country?
Well, I figured it’s like any handwriting, it can be pretty distinctive? Is that not the case? Especially as Lu’s a talented calligrapher, I’d imagine her writing for an ILY would be prettier than what most people could manage?
What exactly is the storyline for lu and mei? I keep seeing gifs of them
Well, I don’t know how much detail you want, but basically, as I said, the show is about five international astronauts on a three year mission to Mars, with of course some extra focus on the family back on Earth of the lead of the show, the American. Who is Hilary Swank, I mean, she is the big name here.
But anyway, Lu is the Chinese astronaut and is married (to a man) and has a kid. There’s a lot of cooperation between the different space agencies so this particular team’s communications liaison at the NASA command center is a Chinese woman named Mei. In flashbacks, we see how Lu and Mei met and bonded and fell in love and how they didn’t act on it because Lu couldn’t do that to her husband, or son or country, being the whole face of China on this historic mission and all. In the present, after the mission’s started, they’re found out anyway and Mei is transferred to a different position away from the team. Lu is frantic to reach her to make sure she’s okay and finally is able to talk to her for a bit and their arc ends on a hopeful note but for now that’s the last we see of Mei.
They only really get the one episode (ep 3) but it’s so romantic, they center the other person and care about them and what matters to them in such a respectful, loving way. Like, I can be pretty judgy on endings, right, and I didn’t love that Mei was sent away so quickly, but what we got of them, they got me. The actresses really sold the emotion of it, the way they both openly accept they’re in love and how there’s that awareness in all their interactions. I just liked it. 🙂
Let me see what spring is like – Chapter 1 – MinaMauveine – Away (TV 2020) [Archive of Our Own]
Let me see what spring is like – Chapter 1 – MinaMauveine – Away (TV 2020) [Archive of Our Own]
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Away (TV 2020)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mei Chen/Lu Wang (Away TV 2020)
Characters: Mei Chan, Lu Wang
Additional Tags: Yearning, Longing, introspective, Traditions, Chinese Customs, Chinese Culture, breaking traditions, happy endings, First Time, Marriage Proposal, Marriage
Summary:Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a, Jupiter and Mars
In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby, kiss meOr
Just this once, Lu wants someone for herself.
She wants Mei.
i really know what you mean abt Away having mixed genre and not fully delivering on either. Like i felt my eyes totally glaze over every time the focus was on the daughter or even the dad, even though i didn’t mind their stories independently i just wasn’t all that invested. whereas i really loved all the crew by the end of the season bc they all do so much more growing and don’t feel as stagnant. also the “problem / conflict of the day” episode format can be fun with sci fi but it gets pretty stale with family dramas lol
Yeah, I wouldn’t have minded the stories existing as they were but wayyy toned down, especially Lex’s, like, to see Emma trying to be a supportive wife and parent from space and dealing with these conditions, sure, that’s interesting and novel, but it should have been much more in Emma’s perspective than actually following Lex meet and spend time with this boy. There was just nothing novel or new about it, even Matt’s added a lot more, there are way fewer stories about disabled people out there, compared to a pretty ordinary teen romance.
It seems to be a really common complaint from what I’m seeing, so hopefully they take a cue from this for s2 (if we get one) and focus more on the astronauts.
And another anon:
I think your points about Away are spot on. I even started to skip the teenage stuff. There would have been so much more interesting topics/storylines to go deeper: science!!!, religion/atheism, cultural differences,… I was also disappointed that in the end it was Emma’s husband who solved the water problem, it made her look even more incapable of doing her job. (Which should have been Lu’s anyway imo)
Oh, lol, same. And seriously!! These astronauts and their backgrounds and the intersections and contradictions are so interesting. Just language ALONE, I loved that unlike, for example, Sense8, another very international show where they mostly all spoke accented English, here they actually speak the language they naturally would and people actually have to ask for translations and banter about it organically, like Misha and Lu teasing Emma for not knowing Russian. That’s fair! Or the way they’re each slightly snobby about their area of expertise.
The only thing I didn’t love was just how far apart they started the mission, kind of petty and immature in how they were arguing, but still, at least they put their differences aside. There’s just so much scope in that, it feels a bit of a waste to focus on the interpersonal drama that could have existed in any old show and then, as you said, the lead-biased writing, where in this case Matt has to be the one to fix things to justify being a lead.
I guess it’s working, Away’s been at the top in the US Netflix rankings since it dropped, but I hope they take more time with the other astronauts next season too.
I am literally losing my mind over Lu and Mei, the yearning, the tenderness, the resolve, the isolation. Even tumblr buzzwords feel alive again bc their dynamic is just so good. I watched the al l the lillies compilation bc I don’t have time for the whole show LOL but the final picture…iconic…I wish I could talk about this with someone because it’s a cosmic entity I stg
I know! I just keep repeating the same words, the pining, the yearning, the selflessness, the romance, but they apply so completely to them. I mentioned before how stripped down their scenes are and how that actually highlights just them and like, remember that Renault ad that briefly went viral, with the two childhood best friends that fell in love? One of them was a redhead and it was set to a slowed down female cover of Wonderwall? This is like that, where because the flashback scenes are deliberately limited, you feel their significance all the more, like these are the moments when things Changed, when huge pivotal shifts happened.
Like, even with the huge jump between the very start of the calligraphy lessons and the night before the launch, you know they’ve passed these two YEARS without making a move or acknowledging what’s been them, just silently aware, because Mei bringing it up now is a new thing. The way she brings it up, having made the decision and picking the quote, practicing the calligraphy for it, engraving the ring and preparing that little speech, it’s so moving. And Lu, who’s usually so decisive and knows the right to do, helplessly giving in because she wants it tooooo. Not only will they be apart for three years, it’s not impossible that she’ll die up there, and she can’t help but want this to be her last night on Earth too. ;_;
And then, anon! They lie next to each other without making a move! By the time they meet again at the end of the mission, having been in love with each other for FIVE years, they STILL WON’T EVEN HAVE KISSED. That’s why I need the fic, lol, get me to that place, please. Mei so in love she’s carrying that ILY note around with her so it can be found in her desk, and for Lu to know the depths of Mei’s feelings for her at the same time she realizes Lu’s being punished because of her sentimentality in leaving that note. It’s too, too much.
Oh, and tbh, while it’s nice to see Lu through the season, you’re actually fine just watching the compilation, removing Mei cut down a lot on what could have been sprinkled throughout the rest of the scenes. 😡
You can talk about it with meeee! I can’t stop thinking about them.
Waitt. I was reading your tags on Away, does Mei leave the show or here interactions diminish after ep 3?
She doesn’t appear on the show after the third ep, just some mentions.
How’d you like Away? Idk if it’s bc Emma is our lead but I don’t like Lu so far, hopefully I warm up to her and she warms up to her commander too
Oh, hmm, well, it’s hard to say how much I liked it as a whole, a lot of it is colored by how much I liked certain parts. I don’t think it fully succeeded, tbh, in what it was attempting, as I mentioned in the previous ask, it was blending different genres and to me, it didn’t fulfill its potential in either. For one thing, Lex, the daughter, her arc seemed so out of place on this show, where the rest of the drama and stakes and characters were on such a different level, and then this teen romance.. And the various adult romances popping up, like, maybe it’s hypocritical to say that when Lu and Mei are my favorite part, but they’re defined by their literal restraint and not following through, it’s not just about the romance but culture and willpower and they only got the one ep, instead of all these random friends and coworkers with their season-long inappropriate arcs.
Yeah, when you start off, Misha and Lu really don’t come across well, which is unfair because Lu especially is correct, Emma was impetuous and didn’t listen and caused the fire, but Emma is also our sympathetic lead so the audience naturally sides with her. As I did too. But I very much started to warm to Lu, partly because of her romantic arc, which is entirely intentional, even the general audience should like her by the end of ep 3, but she also warms to Emma a lot. Also, she’s just funny and badass and so smart and good at what she does. It’s hard to not like her even if she weren’t a wlw.