I have given that show 6 years of my life haha. It's so much of what I want to see in media aimed at young women, but it's also so much of what's wrong with media in general. It's one of the top 3 most frustrating television experiences I've ever had. I can think of few characters that mean as much to me as Emily, and I know a lot of other people who feel the same. But it's hard to forgive a show for wrongdoings that almost every other show is guilty of when part of the pedestal they hold themselves on is being a progressive and inclusive work. It's especially disappointing to me given that the showrunner is a queer woman. On the topic of Aria/Ezra (I'm sorry, you opened a major can of worms haha) it's so clear to me that they're being told to push it as a romanticized situation because of how the cast tweets about it but then in practically every video interview she's ever done, Lucy Hale calls it out for being creepy. I know that there was also a situation where Troian Bellisario went to the writers and said that a lot of the language being used towards characters that were mentally ill was making her uncomfortable.
Also, y'all should be watching Wynonna Earp. Amazing women protagonists, queer representation, and all the villains are gross white men. The showrunner was involved with Lost Girl and I believe Killjoys as well. It's loosely based off the Wynonna Earp comic series and is a lot of fun. Paging @Tim this is right up your alley
Really? I didn't hear that about Troian and if that's true that's awesome. She's my favorite. Aria and Ezra makes me angry for the message they give but at the same time I find myself rooting for them in the way that I am an adult and recognize how problematic it is and know that in real life the situation would never fly. It is hella creepy. But ezra's so damn cute. And that's where half the problematic shit lies is that they don't SAY it's creepy. Like they cuold get away with doing creepy shit if they made it clear that IT WASN'T OKAY. but they don't do that. And I agree 100% with the top part of your comment. They got praised for being so diverse and progressive and then over time they basically just threw that out. Like you said it's disappointing but at the same time Marlene used her "I'm a queer woman" as an excuse to be able to write Charlotte the way she did. Like that doesn't make that okay.
Yeah, Troian is great. I believe it was about a lot of the insults that were hurled at Mona post-season 2. The biggest missed opportunity with Aria/Ezra is like you said, they could easily show it through the perspective of being creepy. And it's a pretty important message to say that not every predator you come across is a gross old guy. Being pretty doesn't give you a free pass. I thought when they had the whole Ezra's-writing-a-book reveal that it was great because they were taking the opportunity to show that he knew up front that she was underage and that he had been stalking high schoolers, but instead they literally had him take a bullet for everyone and be redeemed. I'm 100% annoyed with this show at this point
SyFy, 5 episodes in with 6 airing tonight. It has @morgantayler's stamp of approval as well if mine isn't enough
Pretty bummed Faking It got cancelled. I thought for sure they'd get one last season to wrap everything up
CBS didn't order its adult Nancy Drew pilot, which had a WOC lead, because it "skewed too female" ‘Drew’ Pilot Dead at CBS, Shopped To Other Networks | Deadline
Marvel required a male villain for Iron Man 3, says Shane Black All I’ll say is this, on the record: There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female … So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making. Now, that’s not [Kevin] Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore.”
Speaking of Marvel, I'm really pissed over the whole "a Black Widow movie is possible!" It's always been possible, the only thing holding it back is Marvel. They seem to be the only ones who don't want to make a Black Widow movie
if they can make a movie where the protagonists are a talking raccoon and a monosyllabic tree who are bffs they can make anything a movie
Now that Kevin Feige doesn't answer to Ike Perlmutter, I think we're basically guaranteed a Black Widow film in Phase 4. Perlmutter is also the guy who used the Supergirl, Catwoman, and Elektra films to "prove" that women shouldn't lead comic book films, as seen in the Sony email leak. (He also supports Trump, which feels somehow relevant.) Maybe Feige is just as much to blame, but especially since Lexi Alexander has spoken well of him, I'd like to believe his decisions will be better going forward.
ah, Ike Perlmutter, that's who i was about to mention (i couldn't remember his name) yeah, now that that douchey dude isn't in charge of the Marvel films anymore i'm wondering and waiting to see if they'll follow through on giving proper representation to the female (and PoC) characters in their stable. or if they just used Ike as someone to place the blame on for them not wanting to make female centered films (which i hope isn't the case)
Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains have all been pretty lack luster. If the idea of a female villain was too much for them in Iron Man 3 that it possibly held them back from actually having a good villain, the poo poo on them.
I like Iron Man 3 more than most people but it's always sounded like it suffered from the sort of creative restrictions Marvel Studios put on great filmmakers like Shane Black and Edgar Wright. Hopefully a lot of that isn't happening anymore with Perlmutter gone.
'Blindspot' boss on that heartbreaking death uh, Blindspot spoilers. Maybe the show did recently reach a point where this was inevitable, and it just so happened to be that her character was lesbian. I want to give the show the benefit of the doubt because, like Quantico, they didn't have to cast a black woman in a position of authority in the FBI in the first place, let alone (in Blindspot's case) have the character be LGBT. Still shitty, though.
http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/cbs-fall-lineup-white-male-problem.html CBS Boss Glenn Geller Defends Lack of Diversity on Fall Schedule
Robin Wright Rightly Demands and Gets Equal Pay for 'House of Cards' Robin Wright decided that she's essential to the show and was all like "pay me or else"....and so they did. the internet talked about it too