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Eleutheria ([info]eleutheria) wrote in [info]fandom_rant,
@ 2009-04-05 07:17:00
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Current mood:Peeved

dear condescending fans
I get that our show is very likely to be cancelled, and in the face of that, you're defensive about loving the show. I get that. But this narrative that this show is some kind of high art that only the smart and educated can understand, and that you're some kind of drooling moron if you don't appreciate the meandering navel-gazing wastes of episodes in the middle of the season artful, masterful way the writers wove this season's plots is really fucking annoying. I'm glad that your "MFA-in-writing" told you how special and carefully contextual all the hidden, coded messages in the season were, but a lot of people disliked them and thought it was so much wasted space and angsting emo-teenager-ness and plots that could have been done in half the time and been infinitely more tolerable. So many people, in fact, that the show is teetering on the brink of cancellation heaven. So you rely on calling all those irritated fans idiots, and say how other, more popular shows are a "chancre" on society (yes, SPN and 24 fans, your show is for idiots and it's ruining the world, didn't you know?, and go on about how this show is the next "Mad Men" and the writer is "just like Whedon" (I swear, if I hear it compared to The Wire, I'm going to start punching people). Look, I and a lot of other people like what they're doing with it now, but think it's too little, too late. That's a valid opinion, even if it's not yours, and people who hold it aren't stupid or less educated than you. Get over yourselves.

Also, people can like whichever characters they want and dislike whichever characters they want without getting your permission in advance. Because some people are angry at their favorite character getting offed and no longer care about the show doesn't make them "irrational". The title character is your favorite. That's great. But people are perfectly within their rights not to like her, or the way the show portrays her. Yes, you can be a fan of a show and not glom onto some parts of it. Really. Again, get the hell over yourselves.


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[info]coffee_mug
2009-04-05 12:56 pm UTC (link)
I fail at guess fu, so I'll just ask. Which show is this?

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[info]liz_marcs
2009-04-05 02:51 pm UTC (link)
Sounds like it's The Sarah Connor Chronicles, since that's the one big fandom show-only death that happened this week that had my FList a-twitter. Although I admit I've seen surprisingly little wank about the character death, or the near-certainty that the show's been canceled. It actually seems like I've seen more quiet resignation than anything else. I think most people were just glad to get the additional season they did.

Although, this whole rant could apply equally (minus the character death) to Dollhouse, where according to fans, if you don't like you're An Idiot for Not Seeing Joss Whedon's Genius and Can't Be a True Fan.

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[info]scifantasy
2009-04-05 02:55 pm UTC (link)
Sounds like it's The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Good call. Especially the "female title character" part.

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[info]liz_marcs
2009-04-05 05:52 pm UTC (link)
*shrug*

There are a couple of shows with a female lead, so it doesn't automatically follow that TSCC is the show in question. It was more the "character death" part and the "hate the lead female character" part that pointed to which show it was.

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[info]coffee_mug
2009-04-05 03:11 pm UTC (link)
I had no idea TSCC collected such a following of fans of the "this is intellectual and stimulating and amazing writing" mentality! Good to know.

Re: Dollhouse, on my flist everybody's reaction has been "wow, this is so skeevy/wrong/off-putting .. but I can't stop watching, it's a trainwreck!".

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[info]weaselistic
2009-04-05 03:44 pm UTC (link)
Re: Dollhouse, on my flist everybody's reaction has been "wow, this is so skeevy/wrong/off-putting .. but I can't stop watching, it's a trainwreck!".
I do watch it for the trainwreck factor (it reminds me of "Ninja Cheerleaders" - isn't sexual exploitation horrible? yes it is, now have some more strip dancing scenes), but there are actually people who defend Whedon, the series and even the Dollhouse employees' actions. The fandom is its own trainwreck.

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[info]liz_marcs
2009-04-05 05:49 pm UTC (link)
It's kind of fascinating watching people in the fandom twist themselves into knots.

There are those who do watch for the total trainwreck factor, and totally own the skeevy, which is totally cool IMHO.

And then there's that hardcore "Whedon is My Master Now" group who is trying to convince the world that it's not really skeevy, you just think it's skeevy but really it's not because it's a Criticism of Big Hollywood (?!?) or a meta-commentary on how Women are Exploited by the Patriarchy (?!?), which you should know because Eliza Dushku is blinking in code. Or something.

Seriously, the Whedonesque comment threads on Dollhouse is like stepping through the looking glass. For the first time ever, the LJ fans are the sane ones.

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[info]weaselistic
2009-04-05 06:05 pm UTC (link)
Criticism of Big Hollywood (?!?)

Wow, I didn't know that was a common interpretation. o_o I haven't looked at Whedonesque yet, but I saw the same idea on TWoP...

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[info]puipui
2009-04-05 09:05 pm UTC (link)
My god. Your icon. *awestruck*

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-06 01:47 am UTC (link)
Much of my rant is about the TWoP SCC forums (with a side order of LJ comms having a milder version of the same stupidity), and reading your comment it looks like the same idea is replicated into Dollhouse.

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-06 01:45 am UTC (link)
Any idea where I can find discussion of the show that's in the former category? I've looked, and all I can find is the "Whedon is my master!" crap.

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[info]brown_betty
2009-04-06 07:30 am UTC (link)
coffeeandink had a series of posts, although a lot off her lj is locked atm.

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[info]sparkthatbled
2009-04-06 12:50 am UTC (link)
Is that Cheerleader Ninjas with porn star Kira Reed, or Ninja Cheerleaders with George Takei?

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[info]weaselistic
2009-04-06 09:17 am UTC (link)
The latter.

Idon't think I saw Cheerleader Ninjas, but maybe I've seen a trailer. Is it good? (By good I mean... entertainingly trainwrecky?

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[info]sparkthatbled
2009-04-06 12:37 pm UTC (link)
Well... There's a lot of farting going on. And a group of nerds who are basically "Trekkies". And at one point there's a giant robot fight in which one of the robots farts. A lot of farting going on. And gay stereotyping.

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[info]weaselistic
2009-04-06 02:06 pm UTC (link)
That sounds horrible. :( In that case, I prefer Ninja Cheerleaders.

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[info]bigbigtruck
2009-04-06 07:32 pm UTC (link)
"Ninja Cheerleaders"

I only know of this movie's existence by its appearance on the Photoshop Disasters blog.

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-05 05:53 pm UTC (link)
I had no idea TSCC collected such a following of fans of the "this is intellectual and stimulating and amazing writing" mentality!

More like the "this is intellectual and amazing writing, too bad it's stuck with such a moronic action-franchise fanbase that doesn't like good writing" mentality, which is wrong. Action fans (which you'd expect, given that the show is still called Terminator) like good writing too, just not the navel-gazing fest and trip to Dawson's Creek that we had earlier this year.

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[info]sandglass
2009-04-05 10:52 pm UTC (link)
It was only a trainwreck until episode five, and then episode six came around and everyone started wondering how they were made by the same people.

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[info]firebad
2009-04-05 11:47 pm UTC (link)
And then episode seven came around and I was back to wondering how this piece of crap ever got made.

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[info]sandglass
2009-04-05 11:50 pm UTC (link)
I think Fox has a hard on for firing Wheden.

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-05 05:50 pm UTC (link)
Yup, Sarah Connor Chronicles

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[info]livii
2009-04-05 05:50 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I haven't seen the stuff you're saying for this show, but I don't follow the fandom much outside my flist.

I do have mixed feelings on reactions to the death, though. The very concept of the Terminatorverse is that there are killing machines programmed to hunt down and kill the lead characters, and anyone who gets in their way. As such, a Terminator actually killing one of said lead characters is pretty much exactly within the remit of the show, and I think they should have been doing it more often, or they're pretty bad at being killing machines. I'm so pleased they've moved back to more of the Cyberdyne/Skynet storyline but as a result I expected more characters we care about to die. That's the way the series go.

I get that it sucks if your favourite character dies, but I saw people saying that it was the show's jump the shark moment - when it's more like the show reinforcing the 'verse it inhabits, moving back to its core concept, which is the antithesis of jumping the shark!

(I heard the actor - can you tell I am trying to be vague about spoilers, argh it's hard - signed on with another show, which is probably why they did it. But given the time travel mechanics of this show, it would be trivial for them to bring a different version of the character back, so I do think that's something for the character's fans).

TL;DR: I thought it was one of the awesomest things they've done in the whole run of the show, but I'm a 'verse fan, first and foremost.

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-05 06:00 pm UTC (link)
I was more reacting to the people pulling out the "bad fan" card and calling fans of that character "irrational" for saying they were done with the show. A lot of people come into a show following an actor or a character, it's not all that unusual. Me, I don't have a problem with the way the death was done, since it's just a bit ridiculous to always have everyone walk through a hail of bullets unscathed. (And yes, I'm thrilled that they've moved back to more of the Cyberdyne/Skynet storylines too. I just worry/fear it's way too little, too late.)

But no, I don't think that's a jump the shark moment. The whole "fighting the roaring '20s Terminator with a tommy gun" thing may well have been one, but not the death. IMO, anyway.

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[info]livii
2009-04-05 06:41 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I think this show, in some ways, suffers from the divide between fans of the whole verse and fans of the show; I took a long time to warm up to Derek, in part because I felt he took away from the characters I had started watching the show to see - John, and Sarah, and various Terminators, being a big fan of the movies as the only reason I ever tuned in. If you're a 'verse fan, it does feel a little irrational to pull out over what was essentially a secondary character, but it's not very friendly to call other fans that.

Fighting the gangster 20s Terminator with a tommy gun was one of my favourite parts of the whole season! Oh my god, I love the cheese. The 'verse is full of cheese and that embraced it. :D

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[info]missdaisy
2009-04-05 09:40 pm UTC (link)
It's getting cancelled? Aw. My husband likes TSCC and I was just starting to follow along.

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[info]bravest_spinja
2009-04-05 11:21 pm UTC (link)
On one hand, being angry at the public for not liking your show is pretty obnoxious. On the other hand, it at least makes more sense than thinking networks are out there trying to kill the show and don't want it to be successful. Because they greenlit and financed it at gunpoint in the first place or something.

Anyone who isn't grateful Sarach Conner Chronciles got a second season is a delusional.

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[info]microclimate
2009-04-05 11:57 pm UTC (link)
I honestly don't understand the hatred towards networks when it comes to picking up and canceling shows. For starters, people tend to act as if only evil networks cancel shows, and not networks that have budgets they want to maintain but can't by holding on to shows that don't bring in a lot of revenue. Cancellation is a necessary evil in broadcast television. Fox, ABC, whatever network you want to crai over for canceling your favorite TV show -- they aren't out to get you. They're trying to run a business.

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[info]ecchaniz0r
2009-04-06 04:59 pm UTC (link)
Sometimes networks DO make stupid decisions about such things, but - yeah. it's about zee cash.

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[info]eleutheria
2009-04-06 01:49 am UTC (link)
It's partly being angry at the public, but my rant was mainly about the anger at other fans who are irritated with the way they did part of this season. We like the show, we just think the showrunners ran it straight into the ground with a lot of what they did this season.

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[info]ecchaniz0r
2009-04-06 04:55 pm UTC (link)
I can sympathize with this. i was/am an X-Files and a Buffy fan, and - oh, sharks. You poor sharks. They jumped you so much.

*cough*

Well, to my eye, YMMV, etc. But in spite of all the sharks and the jumping and the hey hey hey, I do still like both shows. Early seasons MORE, but I do like them.

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