[Gender On Television: It's Like Feminism Never Happened]

Heh, I can't really comment on FNL since I never watched that show, but I'll pipe in with my obligatory comment of how Nice Guys are the worst. 

 

Here's an article to whet everyone's appetite: Orange is the New Black's irresponsible portrayal of men. O-kay. Go and watch OZ if you want a show about a men's prison. Let women have this one thing, damn.

[Gender On Television: It's Like Feminism Never Happened]

When in our world did it become okay to bash someone with a different opinion than ours? Kirsten Dunst recently created a firestorm when she backed traditional gender roles in relationships. It's a conservative viewpoint to be sure but she has just as much right to have it as someone with a more progressive opinion.

It's okay to call someone else's opinion out if you believe that their opinion is ignorant or misguided. Of course Kirsten has the right to her opinion, and other people have the right to think that her opinion is wrong. A person absolutely does not have the right to say what they think with no blowback whatsoever. And for me, it was the way that Kirsten Dunst worded it that got under my skin. It's fine if traditional gender roles work for her on an individual level:

 

"We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking – it’s a valuable thing my mum created.

Great! No problem with what she said here. But then...

 

And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armour. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work…"

...Um, no. Nice gender essentialism there. 

 

One thing that I keep reading about in entertainment articles are female celebrities denouncing feminism.  Yes, the word itself has been corrupted by idiots who never knew what it was, but when I read about Madonna or Shailene Woodley say that they aren't feminist I just roll my eyes.  Really?  They don't believe that women deserve the same rights as men?

I think that there are legitimate reasons to not identify with the mainstream feminist movement, but ~omg misandry~ isn't one of them, which seems to be the most common reason that celebrities trot out for not being feminist. In which case, yeah, I definitely roll my eyes. But at least we have people like Ellen Page and Martha Plimpton and Amy Poehler to take up the slack:

 

Ellen: “I don’t know why people are so reluctant to say they’re feminists. Maybe some women just don’t care. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?”

 

Amy: “Some big actors and musicians feel like they have to speak to their audience and that word is confusing to their audience. But I don’t get it. That’s like someone being like, ‘I don’t really believe in cars, but I drive one every day and I love that it gets me places and makes life so much easier and faster and I don’t know what I would do without it.’ ”

 

Martha: “I take a lot of pride in calling myself a feminist and always have. We’re going to have to insist on correcting bigotry as it happens, in real time. And fear of women’s equality, or the diminishment of it, is a kind of bigotry. I think it’s important to remove the stigma associated with women’s equality, and as such, yes, normalizing the word ‘feminist’ and making sure people know what it means is incredibly important, whether we’re talking to celebrities or anyone.”

[Gender On Television: It's Like Feminism Never Happened]

In the TV news area of gender issues, related to this idea of prioritizing women as mothers... Anybody catch the latest Matt Lauer controversy?

 

This was Matt questioning General Motors' first-ever female CEO:

LAUER: You’re a mom, I mentioned, two kids. You said in an interview not long ago that your kids told you they’re going to hold you accountable for one job and that is being a mom.
BARRA: Correct.
LAUER: Given the pressures of this job at General Motors, can you do both well?

This sort of question annoys me as much as the idea of fathers "babysitting" their kids. 

[Malia Tate: She Used to Run With Cougars]

I don't think Malia is a Mary Sue at all; she's not a particularly well developed character right now, but she's not a Mary Sue. IMO the term "Mary Sue" is overused, especially when it comes to female characters.

To me, she truly is just Cora 2.0, the character that Jeff screwed up and is trying to correct, the one that 'could have been', so to speak. Their personalities may also be a bit similar.

Probably. Adelaide Kane did say in an interview that Cora was meant to be the one to punch Stiles' V card, lol.

[Show Recommendations Topic: Ask Or Give]

I like to pimp the New Zealand show This Is Not My Life whenever I have a chance. This is the Wiki blurb: "Set in the 2020s, the show centres on Alec Ross (Charles Mesure) who awakes one morning to find that he doesn't know who or where he is and doesn't recognise his wife or children."

 

I'd recommend the show for people who like anti-utopia conspiracy tropes. I've never seen either The Prisoner or Persons Unknown, but I've heard the show draw comparisons to both.

 

Unfortunately, for anyone not in New Zealand, the show is almost impossible to get unless you're not opposed to piracy. I'm in the US and got it via torrents. And hey, I totally tried to purchase the legal DVD set - which is out of print now, I think - because I like supporting my favorite shows, but I never received it. The perils of international shipping. /whine

[S04.E01: The Dark Moon]

Malia's more Mowgli than a feral child. She's not stunted. 

Mowgli is an example of a feral child. And The Jungle Book is a fable where the animals are a lot more anthropomorphized. Unless Malia was running with fellow were-animals (which would be more humanizing than regular coyotes), then I don't think that's a particularly apt example at all, especially considering that he's fictional. Yes, Teen Wolf is fictional too, obviously, but since we're discussing how realistic/unrealistic Malia's behavior is, I don't think he can really be used as a defense. Kipling was hardly concerned with making Mowgli realistic. (I don't think Jeff Davis is either, unless it's convenient lol.)

 

Why are people arguing over the realism of a human girl who spent eight years in the body of a coyote? It's a totally unreal fantastical premise to begin with.    

I've never bought this argument. What I think is interesting about science fiction and fantasy is these SF/fantasy elements being grounded by realistic/believable human behavior. I like seeing how people would react to all the fantastical and weird shit going on in their lives, and it's nowhere near as compelling if the writer doesn't at least try to make it believable. IMO, the idea that we shouldn't think about how a girl trapped as a coyote would react to being returned to the human world because it would never happen in the first place is a cop-out.

 

I'm pretty sure there's a quote from some bigwig SF author addressing this idea, but I can't find it. And I also like Moff's Law. For the record, when Teen Wolf is staying away from the more genuinely upsetting unfortunate implications (e.g. the disparity in terms of who gets killed off, although that looks like it's getting better), I do enjoy Teen Wolf in all its entertaining hot mess glory. The Malia/Kira dancing scene was weird, but I thought it was amusing in how out of place it was. (And anybody else think that Kira seemed really into it? LMAO.) The show wouldn't be anywhere near as good (well, "good") if it actually tried to take shit seriously. But if other people don't feel the same way, hey, to each their own. 

[S04.E01: The Dark Moon]

No offense but it's not really for you to say that it's not a D+ episode.

I think it's okay for people to say whether or not they think a particular grade is warranted or not. The other person was stating their opinion, just like the AV Club article writer was stating their opinion. 

 

I don't think they're acting like Malia and Stiles are soulmates.

I don't think they're acting like they're soulmates, but it feels like Malia has a pseudo-imprinting thing going on with Stiles, and it creeps me out. Bad memories of Twilight, I guess. Not that Malia/Stiles is anywhere near as bad, god no. 

[S02.E02: Take Me Out]

but it seems like a lot of what I'm reading (not just here) about his character is giving the character's actions a pass

I'm not giving his actions a pass. I just don't think the show is framing his behavior in a way to make him look like a horrible person. 

[Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions]

I don't think The Fosters has suddenly become so terrible and almost unwatchable. Yes, I think the writers have an unfortunate tendency to throw every hot button issue under the sun at the characters, and the show could do with a bit more breathing room in that respect. But damn, people are acting like it's now on the level of Glee or Heroes and I just don't agree at all.

[S02.E02: Take Me Out]

I feel like I root for all the people the show doesn't want me to like/root for. ... And, no actually guys, Callie's dad isn't a terrible person because he wants to know facts.

I don't think we're meant to think that Robert Quinn is a terrible guy. On the contrary, IMO we're supposed to empathize with Quinn and think, "Hey, he's not so bad." The show has already gone the "terrible bio parent" route with Ana, I think they're going down a different road here. They're going to show Quinn and his family being pretty stand-up people to set up some sort of conflict with Callie feeling torn between two decent families.

 

Yes, the episode showed the individual characters acting hostile towards Quinn, but that's different than the show itself portraying him as the villain. What with the reveal that he didn't know Callie's mom was pregnant, and the note from his other daughter, and his general demeanor, he's not really being portrayed as some shifty ne'er-do-well.

[S04.E01: The Dark Moon]

Unless she's into the under 18 types (gross). 

This has been a large point of contention in the Teen Wolf fandom. IIRC it was implied in season 1 that Kate had a relationship with Derek when he was underage, but I am pretty sure that that wasn't Jeff Davis' intention and was simply a result of his not being able to keep his timeline and ages straight. I think at one point he admitted that he had fucked up with the ages in that he wasn't sure how long ago something had happened, and that he was surprised that so many fans had picked up on that.

 

People keep asking how old Derek was when Kate slept with him, and I don't think even Jeff Davis knows.

[Malia Tate: She Used to Run With Cougars]

I think the show's intention at least was for them to only have had a makeout session, not full-on sex. Dylan O'Brien said at Alpha Con that the original plan was for them to have sex, but that he convinced Jeff Davis to nix it because he thought it'd be derailing to the rest of the episode.

[Spoilers with Speculation]

Meh, nothing wrong with the "Little Coyotes" comment IMO, although I'm personally not in favor of all those cutesy fan nicknames.

[S04.E01: The Dark Moon]

Goddamn, Holland Roden is a terrible actor.

 

I think Ian Nelson is adorable, and honestly Derek usually bores me to death as it is because he has around two facial expressions, so even though Deaged Derek is kinda making me cringe at how fanficcy it is, it can't make his character any worse for me. 

 

 

One, she was cut off from human contact when she was 8 years old, not 1. That means that she had 8 previous years of human interaction, cues, and speech to fall back on. That means that her "rehabilitation" would not be as stunted as people keep saying it "should" be.

Well, it's not like anyone has said that they expect her to be another Genie or (more relevant) Victor of Aveyron. If Malia had been cut off from human contact when she was one, then I'd have issues with her even being fluent in English. In any case, there is still a HUGE difference between an 8-year-old and a 16-year-old. Like, monumental. It's not like she was alone in the woods for only a couple of years when she had already hit puberty. So no, I don't think that someone cut off at 8 would really know how to handle herself in a club the way Malia did. 

 

That said, I haven't thought this show was actually good for a long time, and at this point Davis' inconsistency and lack of continuity and love affair with slow-mo amuse me more than anything else. It's pretty much in "love to hate it" territory for me. And as inconsistently as Malia is being written, I think she's amusing... whenever the Stalia ship isn't being pushed, that is. I liked her interactions with Kira more. 

[Spoilers with Speculation]

I've heard about that being done on other shows, as well - sometimes to good effect and sometimes not.  IA, in general it seems like a bad idea, because it limits what the actor can bring to the show.

I think it depends on the sort of show and storylines we're talking about. I can see not telling an actor about some major surprise event that's going to happen. But for a show like Teen Wolf, that seems to want to build up some sort of ongoing arc/mythology, and that likes having all these ~mysterious characters with unstated motivations and purposes lurking around, it's really not the best idea, IMO. Didn't it turn out that Haley Webb had no idea until the last minute that Jennifer was the Darach? That's the sort of thing that you might want to clue the actor in on. What if Deputy Parrish ends up being the mysterious Benefactor? LMAO.

 

What I'm curious about is whether Jeff Davis keeps his actors in the dark because he's worried about spoilers or because he just makes shit up as he goes.

[Spoilers with Speculation]

I don't really find Malia's character troubling. It's just that a) I couldn't care less about Stiles' love life and 2) I couldn't care less about the Hales. Malia is tied to both. I did really like Shelley on The Secret Circle, so I'm hoping there's more to her character than just being caught in Stiles' or the Hales' orbit. Maybe her relationship with Stiles will be more on the periphery as she tries to navigate her return to the human world and involvement in the pack, for example.

 

Anyway, moving on, I read an interview with Ryan Kelley (Deputy Parrish). The following part stuck out at me:

Q: What can we expect from you as Deputy Parrish on this new season of “Teen Wolf”?

 

A: While I can’t talk about a lot of this now, but on ‘Teen Wolf,’ a lot about my character really will be revealed and will come out. Last season I did like six or seven episodes and my character was just getting into the mix of things. This season you’ll learn a lot about who is and where he comes from. The crazy thing about the show, we’re kept in the dark almost as much as the audience. Except for the scenes and specific episode we’re shooting on a given week — we’re not given any information on where it all could be heading. That makes it exciting for us too.

I don't think that's the best way to go about it. No wonder some of the cast members' acting choices look weird.

[Malia Tate: She Used to Run With Cougars]

Her character already has more connections to established characters on the show (Peter, Derek, etc). 

Well, that's another potential issue for me, honestly. I find the Hales dull as dirt and I absolutely loathe Peter, so I'm not really looking forward to the idea of Malia's presence meaning increased Peter screentime. Unless it leads to Peter's death.

[Spoilers with Speculation]

Y'know, when The Secret Circle was cancelled, I remember wishing that Shelley Hennig would get more work. This isn't what I had in mind. Guess I should have specified that I wanted her to get good work. 

[Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions]

I like Orphan Black, but it's not really a good show. The only thing about it that makes it stand out is Tatiana Maslany's incredible performance,

Yeah, Tatiana's performance alone makes the show worth it for me, but if it weren't for her, as starved as I am for some female-centric shows, I'm not sure I'd be tuning in. 

[Spoilers with Speculation]

New Jeff Davis interview.

 

Hm, so Kate's in charge of the Berserkers. 

[S02.E01: Things Unknown]

I find Emma just as annoying as ever. I can't feel sorry for her friend trouble when she shits upon other girls and acts like hanging out with them would be the worst. Ugh. Seems like Emma is dealing with a lot of internalized sexism; unfortunately, I'm not sure the show sees it that way. 

[Teen Wolf In The Media]

The new season 4 opening credits!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9sMRWTbztg

 

Impressions:

 

1. Glad they changed up Tyler/Scott's opening. The previous one was a bit too Jesus-y for my taste. 

 

2. I'm annoyed that they have Arden after Shelley. Seniority, man. 

 

3. I wish they would have given Holland and Tyler H. new bits too. 

[Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions]

Delphine/EB: Was Delphine doing some shady shit most of this season? Yes.

What I didn't get were all the people saying how they didn't trust Delphine in the sense that they thought she was still on DYAD's side or meant to screw Cosima over. Yes, Delphine had her own agenda, and yes, she deliberately disregarded Cosima's own wishes, but I thought it was pretty obvious that said agenda was to save Cosima at any cost. Her priorities are: 1. Cosima, 2. Cosima, and 3. Cosima. 

[Wasted Talent: Shows That Never Lived Up To Their Potential]

Terra Nova takes the cake on this one, I think. It was a show featuring dinosaurs and time travel! It should've been impossible to make the show as boring as it ended up being, but somehow TPTB managed. I want to know who the hell thought it was a good idea to revolve an entire episode around a girl's search for new batteries for her tablet. In a show about dinosaurs. And time travel. And conspiracies. 

 

The Secret Circle could have been great cheesy CW fare, but it was a total miss. I think the problem there was that TPTB tried too hard to ape The Vampire Diaries (except with witches!). Sure, they were both based on LJ Smith series, but the show should have tried to find its own identity. And the cast was a bit of a misfire as well. Britt Robertson can't carry a show IMO, and the male cast members were total flops with zero charisma. 

[Malia Tate: She Used to Run With Cougars]

I don't need a character to be a good person in order to find them enjoyable to watch,

Neither do I - I mean, I loved Joffrey on Game of Thrones - but Ian Bohen's such an asshole and his acting isn't nearly good enough for me to overlook that, so my view of the actor tends to bleed through to the character. Plus, I never found Peter that enjoyable to watch regardless. He was just...there. Considering how Davis has a propensity for killing off so many of the female villains while letting the male villains live (of course, now Kate's back too...sigh; the man just needs to let characters die and have them stay dead) letting Peter stick around and just be Sassy Uncle Peter sticks in my craw. It's like he's a reminder of how fucked up some of the gender issues are on this show. And it's not like Peter fulfills some sort of super-important role on the team, I don't think we'd lose out on much if he were to die. 

 

Braeden lost some cool points with me when she saved his butt, man. 

 

ANYWAY, bringing this back to Malia since that entire paragraph is OT, I hope the writers develop her so that she has more to do than be Stiles' love interest. Like I know she's Peter's kid so obviously at some point that's going to come into play, but as of 3B at least, her main thing has been with Stiles. I know she's getting a lot of flak from fandom, and I'm not sure if that's because people think she's poorly developed as a character or because she gets in the way of more popular Stiles ships (Sterek of course, and Stydia).