That's very interesting - especially that you devoured the fanfic first, then found the show not much like the fanfic. I imagine this would happen a lot. Fanfic develops its own ... currents, I think. I don't think it's conscious, but it's true that writers who read fanfic are affected by it, and something that occurs in one fic here, another fic there, becomes a kind of minitrend. I don't think that's bad - it's just a social aspect of fandom - but it can lead the body of fanfic work further from whatever consensus there is regarding "canon." (Such a slippery word anyway)

It's just so odd, to me, that someone would look for fanfic from a show they knew nothing about - you can only assess based on whether the writer is telling a good story or not. Would you agree with me that it is then, in essence, original fic to you as a reader?