gelbes_gilatier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gelbes_gilatier) wrote2010-03-28 05:47 pm
gelbes_gilatier) wrote2010-03-28 05:47 pm
Entry tags:
TV executives and why I wonder if being an ass qualifies you to be one.
So Brad Wright chose to address the fans about their concerns and criticism about SGU... very noble and courageous indeed, since the concerns and criticism were manifold.
However... to me the whole article just served to heighten concern and did nothing to get me off my major points of criticism. Seriously, I tried to like SGU since after all it's still Stargate (although I'm starting to doubt that after 'Justice' because... leaving a man behind? And willfully at that? That's so not Stargate and it actually made me choke with anger over both Young and the writers that made him do that) but it never became easier.
I do have a few characters I really like and would like to see more often (James because she just kicks ass, Greer because he seems surprisingly complex and also kicks ass, TJ because she's got potential and for a major character is way too underused and - surprisingly - Rush... maybe because he's one of the few people who actually dare to put Eli in his place) but there are some I really couldn't care less about (Eli because he just pisses me off and makes nerds look bad and just gets on my nerves, Scott because he's a pathetic excuse for an Air Force officer with his hypocrite tendencies and his general blerghness, Chloe because she's the damsel in distress far too often and 90% of the time practically useless) and sadly those are the ones that seem to get the most screentime.
I also have a general problem with the way female characters are written and treated in SGU. What really irritated me was that most of all in the first couple of episodes, all the important decisions were made by men, all the problems were solved by men and the men also had - at least for me - more screentime. Also, most of the female characters were shown as either useless (Chloe), insecure about their capabilities (TJ) or scheming bitches (Wray). The only one that was shown as capable and confident (thought not flawless... I mean, she was in that storage closet with Scott), James, lost a lot of that when they chose to make her Eli's spying target and filmed her from that crappy, crappy, crappy angle that showed off two rather... physical 'assets' and from that day on she was just 'that Lieutenant with the boops' in fandom (at least in German fandom...). Also, is it just me or did they gradually scale down her screentime and pushed her to the background more and more? I really got a little pissed about that since I think her character is way more interesting than Chloe, for example.
Yes, the show had a few good moments; for example the scenes "The Worst Day Since Yesterday" showing daily life about the Destiny (because, you know, I'm just a sucker for daily life scenes), the scenes with Wray and her girlfriend Sharon (since they really managed to portray the two as having a stable, warm and mature relationship and managed just for once to keep out all clichés) and a few scenes with Rush and TJ (because Carlyle and Huffmann have a knack for giving them great chemistry)... oh and the little stand-off between TJ and Greer (because for the first time TJ got to show that she's not only a medic but an officer... to be honest, for me she appeared to be three times the officer that Scott is in that scene :S) but unfortunately, it had much more bad moments (almost every scene with Eli, the church scene with Scott, the scene with Scott at Annie's house, the whole thing on the ice-planet - seriously, if that was Scott at his best how is "Pain" going to be which is supposed to show him at his worst??? - the whole Young/Emily/Telford thing, Young leaving Rush behind...) and that's why I will keep on being wary and critical of SGU.
Now, regarding Brad Wright's address... that was just a load of pointless bullshit. He basically said nothing in the article and I find that pathetic. But the parts I found most annoying were the following ones:
Second thing was what he had to say about criticism concerning the female characters:
What the...? Does anyone get what he's saying here and how that's supposed to say anything about the very valid point several fans and critics made about the writing and treatment of female characters on the show? All he said was "Yeah, well, they were right." and "We don't intend to do anything about it, though, so just suck it up, will you?", right? That's just... GRRR! I mean, as a long-time fan I'm kind of used to fanfiction authors being ten times better at handling female characters and giving them their appropriate moments to shine but still... those guys are getting paid for writing Stargate... why haven't they still learned the importance of writing female characters they way they deserve to be written? Jesusfuckingchrist, I'm really starting to get fed up with that old boys club and hope that hiring a female writer/producer will make a difference in the near future.
Last thing that majorly pissed me off was the following statement concerning Wright's less than stellar decision to comment and rave against Chicago Tribune author Maureen Ryan is response to her well-founded and correct criticism of SGU:
However... to me the whole article just served to heighten concern and did nothing to get me off my major points of criticism. Seriously, I tried to like SGU since after all it's still Stargate (although I'm starting to doubt that after 'Justice' because... leaving a man behind? And willfully at that? That's so not Stargate and it actually made me choke with anger over both Young and the writers that made him do that) but it never became easier.
I do have a few characters I really like and would like to see more often (James because she just kicks ass, Greer because he seems surprisingly complex and also kicks ass, TJ because she's got potential and for a major character is way too underused and - surprisingly - Rush... maybe because he's one of the few people who actually dare to put Eli in his place) but there are some I really couldn't care less about (Eli because he just pisses me off and makes nerds look bad and just gets on my nerves, Scott because he's a pathetic excuse for an Air Force officer with his hypocrite tendencies and his general blerghness, Chloe because she's the damsel in distress far too often and 90% of the time practically useless) and sadly those are the ones that seem to get the most screentime.
I also have a general problem with the way female characters are written and treated in SGU. What really irritated me was that most of all in the first couple of episodes, all the important decisions were made by men, all the problems were solved by men and the men also had - at least for me - more screentime. Also, most of the female characters were shown as either useless (Chloe), insecure about their capabilities (TJ) or scheming bitches (Wray). The only one that was shown as capable and confident (thought not flawless... I mean, she was in that storage closet with Scott), James, lost a lot of that when they chose to make her Eli's spying target and filmed her from that crappy, crappy, crappy angle that showed off two rather... physical 'assets' and from that day on she was just 'that Lieutenant with the boops' in fandom (at least in German fandom...). Also, is it just me or did they gradually scale down her screentime and pushed her to the background more and more? I really got a little pissed about that since I think her character is way more interesting than Chloe, for example.
Yes, the show had a few good moments; for example the scenes "The Worst Day Since Yesterday" showing daily life about the Destiny (because, you know, I'm just a sucker for daily life scenes), the scenes with Wray and her girlfriend Sharon (since they really managed to portray the two as having a stable, warm and mature relationship and managed just for once to keep out all clichés) and a few scenes with Rush and TJ (because Carlyle and Huffmann have a knack for giving them great chemistry)... oh and the little stand-off between TJ and Greer (because for the first time TJ got to show that she's not only a medic but an officer... to be honest, for me she appeared to be three times the officer that Scott is in that scene :S) but unfortunately, it had much more bad moments (almost every scene with Eli, the church scene with Scott, the scene with Scott at Annie's house, the whole thing on the ice-planet - seriously, if that was Scott at his best how is "Pain" going to be which is supposed to show him at his worst??? - the whole Young/Emily/Telford thing, Young leaving Rush behind...) and that's why I will keep on being wary and critical of SGU.
Now, regarding Brad Wright's address... that was just a load of pointless bullshit. He basically said nothing in the article and I find that pathetic. But the parts I found most annoying were the following ones:
Wright said that he doesn’t agree with many objections that have been leveled at the show, including the complaints of too much sex and the comparison to Battlestar Galactica. “Eli is not remotely Battlestar Galactica,” he said. “The guy does not fit in that world at all. And kinos and communication stones — these are all things that are unique to our show. The Stargate itself [is different]."That paragraph is just... it made me go "WTF???" and led me to suspect that Wright ether hasn't seen an episode of BSG in his whole life or didn't take at least a moment to get what the criticism was actually about. The whole look and feel they try to go for, the drama, the announcement and foreshadowing of civilians going up against the military members of the crew and of course the hand-camera not to forget... does Wright really think fans are stupid enough not to notice those overwhelming similarities? And does he really think fans are stupid enough to buy that sorry excuse of an explanation why SGU is not like BSG? It's just so... I really hate it when TPTB think they can play stupid with the fans. We're intelligent individuals who don't want to be fed stupid crap, dammit!
Second thing was what he had to say about criticism concerning the female characters:
“I think it was probably a fair criticism at the very beginning that our female characters weren’t as present,” Wright said. “And again, I would argue that it’s a function of a) not being able to service every character as much as we could, and b) there was so much in the first two hours, especially about Chloe and her father and her coming after Rush.”
What the...? Does anyone get what he's saying here and how that's supposed to say anything about the very valid point several fans and critics made about the writing and treatment of female characters on the show? All he said was "Yeah, well, they were right." and "We don't intend to do anything about it, though, so just suck it up, will you?", right? That's just... GRRR! I mean, as a long-time fan I'm kind of used to fanfiction authors being ten times better at handling female characters and giving them their appropriate moments to shine but still... those guys are getting paid for writing Stargate... why haven't they still learned the importance of writing female characters they way they deserve to be written? Jesusfuckingchrist, I'm really starting to get fed up with that old boys club and hope that hiring a female writer/producer will make a difference in the near future.
Last thing that majorly pissed me off was the following statement concerning Wright's less than stellar decision to comment and rave against Chicago Tribune author Maureen Ryan is response to her well-founded and correct criticism of SGU:
“I thought she was basing her opinion on unfinished, out of order material and was behaving more like a disgruntled fan with an axe to grind than like a critic,” he said of the encounter — which prompted even more direct and detailed criticism of SGU from Ryan. “But I should’ve kept my mouth shut. … You never go up against a critic.”He's right in his assumption that he just should have kept his mouth shut... but "You never go up against a critic."? There's a land called Passive-Aggressiva and he's their supreme ruler or what? Seriously, he makes it still sound like Ryan had no point in her criticism and was just misusing the Chicago Tribune as a platform to settle an account with the guys that cancelled Stargate Atlantis for no apparent reason other than they clearly lost interest in it (a look at Season 5, most of all the second half, confirms that assumption pretty clearly) when in fact she was right and very much spot-on with her criticism. Someone's got a problem with being criticized, methinks (and no, it's not Ryan).
This is all just so... pathetic, most of all considering for how long that guy has been in the business and how dependent TV executives are from the fans' good will. It's what's really pissing me off: people like Wright and my personal nemesis favorite Mallozzi thinking it's okay to ignore and in Mallozzi's case even ridicule the fans' concerns and criticism and telling them "If you don't like it, don't watch it, morons." See if we don't just do that one day... and then see how fast you find yourself out of business.
I'm not saying they should cater to every fannish whim... but I am saying that they should damn well listen to what the fans tell them and react to massive criticism not by being prima donnas but by being mature and actually thinking about changing their approach. If they don't want to or aren't capable to do that anyway, they should either stop being TV executives or stop communicating with their fans altogether (i.e. stop blogging, appearing on podcasts, in newspaper interviews etc.). Because as long as they do communicate with fans, they have the responsiblity to listen to them.
And to wrap this up, the reason why I always get to riled up about that kind of stuff: Those people get paid to create and play around in the Stargate universum. In a way, that's our money - either via cable fees we pay or via the products from the commercials in between that we buy and so on - and it's our goddamn right to expect them to be good at what they do... so they better be!
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Hopefully working on getting Atlantis back to the Pegasus galaxy or even back in Pegasus already and going head to head with Sheppard over some issue or the other :D
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