tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post7867016974150579670..comments2024-03-07T20:15:45.996-08:00Comments on The Bitter Script Reader: Short takes on: Streaming, TV shows, Bad movies, Oscars, etc.The Bitter Script Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-21797050509331947352016-02-13T00:28:53.862-08:002016-02-13T00:28:53.862-08:003) A friend of mine runs a TV website that covers ...3) A friend of mine runs a TV website that covers many shows, including ARROW. The shippers have become a bane of his existence because if he interviews Katie Cassidy, it's "evidence of a pro-Laurel bias." (Never mind that Katie might be the only actress offered up for publicity that week.) If there are more pictures of Laurel in a photogallery, people scream that he's "anti-Olicity." (Again, those pictures are provided by the network, not chose at a whim by the webmaster.) And god help him if an episode review he posts is critical of either character at any point. It became more than mere noise last year when these fan groups started tweeting the producers en mass complaining about my friend and basically trying to cause trouble for him professionally.<br /><br />I've been a part of online fandom for a longtime. There have always been shippers pushing for one pairing or another. But even among Dawson/Joey fans versus Pacey/Joey fans (or Buffy/Angel fans against Buffy/Spike fans) I never saw the levels of nastiness, immaturity and pure persecution complexes I've witness in shows of the last five years or so. The goalposts have moved from "I wish the writers made different choices" to "They're not writing the version of the show that I have in my head and that's makes it wrong!" That probably reads like a tiny shift, but it changes the entire tone of the fan/creator interactions.<br /><br />As a matter of fact, I do watch ARROW. I saw a couple eps in the first season, a handful in the second season and graduated to full-time viewing in the third. That gives me a different perspective on the shipper wars there.<br /><br />First, since I started watching regularly, I've rarely seen anything that would make me view Laurel as a romantic partner for Oliver. It's not just that they don't have the chemistry those characters have in the comics, I don't even see the creators writing towards it. So on that front, the Olicity people come off as fighting a battle they don't need to.<br /><br />On the other matter, there's something about actually pairing Oliver and Felicity that seems to diminish both characters. I think it's that it drags an often-fun character into less enjoyable relationship angst. I like Felicity when she's an antidote to all the brooding and self-seriousness around her. She doesn't get to shine in that capacity when she's reduced to Oliver's girlfriend. (Though I admit, her interaction with Ray was a lot of fun.)<br /><br />For me, Felicity's best romantic chemistry was with Barry. (and his with her.) But I also think that's the direct result of the writers being liberated by NOT having to play a long, drawn-out "will they or won't they?" They got to do all the fun cutesy stuff while secure in the knowledge that both characters will remain separated by their two shows. <br /><br />I agree that Felicity is a bright spot on the show, but I don't think she's the ONLY bright spot, nor the sole saving grace that she's held up to be. She was an important element that got added as the writers refined the show. I think it's naive to credit Olicity shippers with "saving" the show. I see it as more a result of an overall rise in quality, coupled with the growing trend in comic book TV shows, and boosted by a compatible line-up (and spinoffs.) ARROW struggled with its paddle out into the ocean, but it managed to get up on the board right when the wave was cresting.<br /><br />I don't know if they could have gotten there without Felicity, but I also don't think they got there ONLY because of Felicity.The Bitter Script Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-11112687788686300082016-02-13T00:06:23.078-08:002016-02-13T00:06:23.078-08:00"In fanboy culture, complaining about shippin..."In fanboy culture, complaining about shipping - generally conceived as a feminine mode of watching TV - isn’t unusual, but it starts to sound like GamerGate rhetoric pretty quickly."<br /><br />I'm going to assume that this was just a poor choice of words because if you're seriously comparing what I wrote to a movement that grew out of an effort to slut-shame, threaten, doxx and harass a woman personally and then blossomed into movement directly attacking any woman (and man) for that matter decrying that behavior, then you and I have nothing to discuss.<br /><br />My experience with shippers have been fairly gender-neutral. I'm aware of the stereotype that it's largely women, but I don't know how much credence I give that, particularly when anyone can hide behind a screenname. Here's what I CAN attest to:<br /><br />1) A female writer I'm friendly with who works on THE 100 tried interacting with a fan board a few months ago. As it turns out, this particular board happened to be a major camp for a specific base of shippers. They immediately started lording this over a rival shipper pairing, apparently passing off this writer's presence as proof that the writer's favored THEIR pairing. This lead shipper group #2 to start attacking the writer when all she had done from her perspective was reach out to passionate fans. That's where all I can see is immature behavior and pissing contests among the shippers.<br /><br />2) I'd noticed a curious trend that occurred whenever showrunner Julie Plec replied to any of my tweets, for the next several days, my mentions would get fairly consistently hit by shippers. usually these were advocating for their cause, demanding a specific pairing, and occasionally arguing with each other in the mentions. Eventually I took a look at Julie's mentions in general and wondered how she managed to even look at her mentions considering almost every tweet she wrote got an instant dozen or so replies along the lines of "Stelena" or "Klaroline."<br /><br />It seems harmless until you see it cross over into weirder stuff. There was one guy (or gal) who sent several messages in quick succession, all of them "Klaroline." I looked at this person's feed and NONE of there tweets were absent that word. It was a weirdly obsessive behavior. And then there were the shippers who openly tweeted death threats to an actress who was a threat to their chosen 'ship.<br /><br />Plec's experience with online bullying was so distressing that she's attempted to raise awareness with anti-trolling hoodies that carry the hashtag #HeyBeNice.<br /><br />(If shipper culture is disproportionately female, that doesn't excuse any of this behavior. Just this week, fanboys really gave the entire culture a bad name when they attacked Drew McWeeny personally for a report he posted about internal concerns at WB over Batman V. Superman. http://www.hitfix.com/the-dartboard/can-superhero-fans-agree-to-disagree-or-must-it-all-end-in-fire-blood-she-saidshe-said)<br /><br />(continued)The Bitter Script Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-5479384039377321332016-02-08T16:39:33.997-08:002016-02-08T16:39:33.997-08:00I don’t want to start anyting (and after re-readin...I don’t want to start anyting (and after re-reading this--BOTH COMMENTS--I'm kind of embarrassed at how much I wrote), but something you said up there really bothered me. I spent three years studying shippers in an academic environment, and I gotta complain that your attitude towards them is really condescending. It shows a complete misunderstanding about how shippers watch a TV show, and intimates that watching a TV show *your* way is the only legitimate way to view TV. <br /><br />Before I switched to actual TV writing, I intended on doing a Master’s thesis on the gendered audiences of comic book TV shows, focusing on Greg Berlanti’s DC universe. Let me tell you, there is a hell of a lot of misogyny in comic book fandom and comic book TV fandom. In fanboy culture, complaining about shipping - generally conceived as a feminine mode of watching TV - isn’t unusual, but it starts to sound like GamerGate rhetoric pretty quickly. Just like you can’t assume all male gamers or fanboys are all woman-hating cave men, you can’t say all shippers are psychos tweeting death threats to writers.. We both know this isn't true. But I note the shippers aren't the onces doxxing opponents and threatening to bring guns to Anita Sarkeesian's speaking engagements. Just sayin.’<br /><br />You mention how much you enjoy The Flash. Totally agree, they balance the serious with the fun perfectly, and every heartfelt chat between Jesse L. Martin and Grant Gustin gets me misty-eyed. I'm loving Supergirl even more, in spite of its cheesiness. A friend with three daughters under 10 has told me how thrilled she is with the confidence levels they've gained, and that usually owe at least a small part to chats about Kara Zor-El, Alex Danvers, and Cat Grant. All the love to Calista Flockheart; she's killing it in that role--and emphasizing how hard it is for a woman in business.<br /><br />The thing about The Flash and Supergirl, though, is they both owe their existence to Arrow. They had the benefit of learning from Arrow's mistakes, and I would say are both more cohesive and with a tighter ensemble and storytelling than Arrow, having avoided things that are still dragging Arrow down in season 4. However, when you trace the press releases, the TV journalism, and the critic reviews, it's clear the show "found" itself when it brought Felicity Smoak on to be part of Team Arrow, and it likely owes its renewal for a second season in large part to the excitement of the Olicity shippers. Love'em or hate 'em, the shippers do a lot to keep the show in the public eye.<br /><br />When I planned on continuing in academia, my MA thesis was going to argue that shipping is a valid way of consuming media, and that it's reductionist to say shippers influence the writers, therefore shippers ruin everything. There are so many production issues behind story choices that character relationships is only one factor. <br /><br />I will say that when a good story falls into your lap, you take it. I cite Felicity on Arrow as my first example; the show was sinking fast under the weight of the Tommy/Laurel/Oliver triangle, that was struggling to move beyond tedium. Along comes Felicity, adding color and levity to the show, and she’s a hit. At their first meeting Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards are showing all the developing chemistry of a Nora Ephron rom com meet-cute, and in a single episode she changed the tone of the show from Nolan-Batman-with-Arrows to something unique.<br /><br />If watching Amell trying to build emotion with the Green Arrow’s “canonical’ love interest, played by Katie Cassidy is kind of painful, then you start thinking of other options. You’re already setting up Felicity to be part of Team Arrow with Oliver and Diggle, and scenes between Amell and Rickards (sometimes with David Ramsey) are the best parts of the show, you take notice. <br />(Continued)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-87472232887636622282016-01-18T11:40:44.743-08:002016-01-18T11:40:44.743-08:00Can't say I blame you for not liking Kingsman....Can't say I blame you for not liking Kingsman. Whilst I found it thoroughly enjoying as a homage/lampooning of the super-spy genre, it's certainly in the love-it/hate-it camp, in the same way Vaughn's Kick-Ass was for the superhero genre. Also felt the film wasted a good opportunity to subvert the sex-after-saving-the-world trope that the Bond films perpetuated.<br /><br />I think I would have liked Unfriended more if the filmmakers took a bolder stance with the story as cautionary allegory for online bullying by making it a more psychological supernatural horror than keeping with the me typical over-the-top killing, jump-scare fest I found it to be -- which is why I found It Follows much more enthralling.<br /><br />/twocentsAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03291019969560457662noreply@blogger.com