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Hire Jane Espenson to write all the things. Or create an army of Jane Espenson clones to do so. If this is not technologically possible, you can settle for hiring more female writers, producers, show runners, and directors, in general.
I'm sorry, WHAT? THE? FUCK?
Elizabeth Perle, Goddammit, are you INSANE? I mean, REALLY? Look, just take Jane Espenson right out of the equation. Replace her name with "Approved Female Genre Writer." So now what we have is giving ALL the work to ONE PERSON because of COURSE this ONE PERSON is the ONLY WOMAN who can be trusted to write genre. But hey, if that's impossible (and so far, it doesn't seem to be), then we'll "settle for" hiring LESSER female writers. While not ideal, if that's all we can get, then that's what we'll take.
I would expect this from a clueless guy (not that all guys are clueless, but you know there are many). But a female self-described geek? No. Elizabeth Perle is contributing to the culture of inequality by picking ONE name out of a hat because that ONE woman is the ONLY one who can be trusted to write genre. What a fucking insult to the women who have written, CREATED and RUN TeeVee shows!!!!
But her list doesn't get much better:
Bring back Buffy. Okay don't. Okay do. No, don't. Um. We're conflicted, okay?
OR -- and maybe THIS is a stretch -- actually put on shows like Buffy. They're out there. So are the women who want to create them, but if Elizabeth's assumption that Approved Female Genre Writer as the only go-to writer holds true, then it logically follows that none of these women is going to get her shot. Also, Buffy was created by a man. So was Veronica Mars. So was Mad Men. But then that's a whole other issue, and one Elizabeth Perle doesn't feel strong enough to tackle.
Discover the female George Lucas. Or Kevin Smith. Or Simon Pegg. Or Seth Green. She's out there, but no one is paying attention.
Irony. Yeah, nobody's paying attention. But let's take a slightly different angle on this thing. There's a division happening in TeeVee right now. There are people who make their living on writing staffs, and then there are people who make their living selling shows. And of course, there's going to be overlap primarily because agents negotiate nice deals for their clients when they are upper level and get on shows. They get development as part of their deal. So a writer on a show will also be writing a pilot. But let's say that as an upper-level writer (male or female, doesn't much matter at this stage), you've gotten to that level by being on staffs. Maybe a bunch of different staffs, maybe just the one. While you had better Goddam know what you're doing after all that time, there's also the question of whether or not you've been able to develop your voice. And based on pilots I've seen and read, it's something that should be discussed.
So rather than focusing in on one Approved Female Genre Writer whose name you've seen on your television screen, why not do some digging and find out who is creating shows? Who's selling pilots at the expense of a life on a writing staff?
No, I'm seriously asking you, WHO IS DOING THAT? Because as we had better be aware, 99.999% of all TeeVee shows are created by men. And since 99.999% of all writing staffs are male, it sure makes sense that someone as jedi-tastic as Elizabeth Perle has only heard of Jane Espenson.
There's a lot of jabber in the comments about for whom these shows were created. While it's true that TeeVee writers have to think about where they're likely to sell a project, shows are rarely born out of a desire to target only a certain segment of the population. There's a point at which a show must be allowed to create itself, before the writer steps in to harness it. You can tell when shows haven't been given this freedom, and then you can tell when they have.
But I guess the majority of America just doesn't give a shit, and writers are falling victim to that. There are SO many levels you have to get through before you can sell a show. Every level, every gatekeeper, changes your idea. It's a fine line between giving the buyers what they want and keeping your vision intact. And it's quite a different line than that which staff writers walk.
This brings me to the few TeeVee pilots I've seen. I watched three, none of which got on the air. The first was Wonder Woman.
(waiting patiently for the howls to die down)
Yes, I saw it. It's not great. But it's interesting to note why. There's no point of view. David Kelley just seemed a bit lost. He has NO familiarity with the genre, and that comes through constantly, as he tries to update, dismiss and reinvent it -- ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Not surprisingly, this doesn't work. At the end of the day, Diana Prince and Wonder Woman get totally and completely lost. It doesn't seem as if Kelley set out to entertain ANYONE. He doesn't seem inspired by the material or by any thematic content. It's not really a good thing when you don't have any idea what drew the writer to the project. Maybe he wanted to stretch himself. I don't know. He's trying, but he just doesn't quite get there.
I also watched Locke & Key, and you are very very sad that this didn't make the cut. The reason appears to be one of programming -- where does Fox put it? There are kids in it, and it's also really scary. Flummoxed! But also Goddam stupid. They found a place to put the dinosaur show, which has kids in it and is also scary. Not picking up Locke & Key is a mistake to me because it's an awesome pilot. Weird and spooky and cool and visual. A real shame.
Also in the "real shame" category is 17th Precinct, which is one of the best pilots I've seen in a long, long time. Admittedly, the best pilots I've seen don't always turn out to be huge smash successes. I'll direct you towards Miracles, which is one of my favorite pilots of all time. Or American Gothic, which was SO taken apart by CBS.
An awful lot of genre shows plain forget about the world-building. Some urban fantasy shows seem to believe that because the shows are set in the present day and on Earth, no world-building is necessary. This is bullshit, and it's why most genre shows don't hold my interest. And no, I won't tell you which ones they are. But regardless of what others think, world-building is crucial. Ron Moore does this flawlessly. He did it on Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, and he does it here. 17th Precinct is an immersive experience and its construction is meticulous. It's our world, only magic developed instead of science. It's SUCH a simple premise but apparently the fucking testing said it was too confusing. Look, testing audience, you are assholes for not liking this show. For killing this show. I don't know how the show was viewed internally and if NBC didn't like it, I don't want to know. I hope they're all totally depressed over there that this show didn't get on.
What's weird is, urban fantasy is SO popular in fiction right now. I realize there's a big disconnect between People Who Read and People Who Watch, but when a network gets a show like THIS, they would be doing the world a favor by putting it on.
Not only is the premise clear and concise, but anyone who's ever seen a procedural should just flat-out understand this show. So I have to think that the grunts doing the testing really fucked this up. The characters are real and terrific and the ending, which the entire pilot story works towards, takes the premise of the show and tweaks it so that you know INSTANTLY what the series will be. I mean, it couldn't be any fucking CLEARER. It's so organic and beautifully delivered.
Ron Moore wants to entertain the audience. He wants to give them something to root for, and something to fear. The way he builds the pilot story to its surprising conclusion is fucking masterful. And I felt his enthusiasm throughout. He has no interest in hiding anything from the audience. He doesn't care if they sit there afterwards and go, "Wow, you're really clever!"
He's not Steven Moffat.
It's a real shame that Locke & Key and 17th Precinct fell victim to pilot season. They deserved SO much better.
Speaking of Steven Moffat, I'll have a bit more on Who next and also will address a few comments. Just wanted to get this one out!
8 comments:
I have little to add to the first portion of your post because you're right. I will say that I've said similar things about mainstream TV shows, movies, and musicians who allegedly forward LGBTQ issues while really only doing that for a narrowly targeted person, but yep. It's in genre TV writing, too.
But damn you for teasing us about Locke and Key and 17th Precinct! When I saw who was attached to both pre-pilot-pickups, I almost wet myself in excitement. And I'll never get to see either pilot, even!
Love your message about giving more attention to female writers, but I do think Elizabeth Perle's comment is a bit more innocuous than its perception.
My interpretation is that it was meant in jest (as evidenced by the clone comment) and I doubt she meant any harm by it. There's no doubt there are many amazing female genre writers, and Ms. Perle's joke happened to highlight one of the more prominent; it wasn't meant to undercut nor demean any of the others. If a music reviewer in the 70's joked that John Lennon should write every song, the joke doesn't demean Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen or Carole King -- there is plenty of room at the table for everyone's successes.
The energy here should be focused on continuing to keep amazingly talented female genre writers on the front burner and not getting disproportionately angry over a joke.
The viewers give a rat's ass about who's writing the show as long as the show's good.
That being the case, and maybe I'm wrong here, I don't write teevee so the fuck do I know, it seems that it falls entirely on the execs making the decisions on who to hire.
So what the fuck are they waiting for? Since when are women NOT able to write genre?
I see this occasionally in the crime fiction community where some idiot insists women can't write noir. And then ten thousand people beat him over the head with Patricia Highsmith, Megan Abbott, Sara Gran, Christa Faust...
And how the fuck does Precinct 17 NOT get picked up? Where they hell did they test it? Southern Georgia? Irkutsk? The back room of a fucking nunnery?
I know Joe Hill has hinted that he might be posting the Locke & Key pilot online, which I'm hoping actually happens, but we'll see. I have no idea if he actually has the rights to do it.
But is it even possible for the unconnected proles of the world (like, you know, me) to even see the Precinct 17 pilot or is it going to sit in a bin somewhere and collect dust?
I get that the point of teevee is to make money and they're risk averse and want to cater to as wide a base as possible, but do they have to ignore the examples of genre shows that have been successful?
Is this an example of cross-genre fear? Oh my god! We can't mix a paranormal AND a procedural! The heavens will crack asunder!
All right. I'll stop now.
Amy Berg. Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft. Marti Noxon. Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas. And that's just off the top of my head. It sounds like the Jane Espenson remark was facetious, but you make a good point--she's not helping her argument by acting like there's only one woman out there doing that kind of work. There are a lot, and there could be a lot more if everyone would get over the idea that women can't write that kind of show/can't run that kind of show/don't watch that kind of show/whatever.
Which reminds me (because this smacks of the "women just aren't funny" fallacy) did you read the eight billion page AV Club interview with Community creator Dan Harmon? I haven't read the whole thing yet, but he says some really interesting things about the fact that his writing staff is 50% women and why.
I have 48 women writing TV on my Twitter list, and most of those write genre (Twitter being a self-selecting medium for such things) or comedy. And every week I find more. There aren't enough, but to cite one as "the exceptional girl" is laziness of the highest order. Or maybe she thinks life is a Spielberg film.
I'm kinda gutted about L&K and 17thP. I read the scripts and was really, really excited about those shows. The WW pilot struck me as Iron Man via Hannah Montana, with the same disconnect from genre that you mentioned, so I'm glad they nixed it.
I'm very sad 17th Precinct didn't make it. That's one of the few shows I was looking forward to.
I don't want to see a "female George Lucas" or a "Jane Espenson clone." I want to see more women writing and selling and running shows, but I want them to be individuals, not clones or female "versions" of someone else. I want them to be themselves. With strong, creative points of view.
How do *I* get to see The 17th Precinct? ;) I think that pilot had the most buzz of anything, because it seemed like a Battlestar reunion--and Stockard Channing to boot! Man, what a crushing blow to people who like a) good TV and b) good fantasy and c) good women.
I think people worship Jane Espenson because she's the only female writer they know. And she's EVERYWHERE. She even wrote an episode of Game of Thrones. GO AWAY, JANE ESPENSON! I liked you enough on Buffy, but why do take all the writing jobs in television? (Yet apparently not enough for that Huff Post author.)
Somewhere a Browncoat is wishing Jane Espenson and Joss Whedon would be married and busy populating the world with cute little writer baybeez, which all would look like Nathan Fillion, natch. And in this fantasy scenario, I am gagging.
I saved up Torchwood to watch after Doctor Who ended, and while I've always been disappointed by the show in the past, the American production seemed to hold some promise of more sophisticated storytelling. Forgive me for posting this here, but there really is no other outlet for speaking out against these sacred cows of fandom in which unconditional love for characters always trumps quality of content.
The first episode of Miracle Day was long and sometimes cheesy but fun and enticing. It made me eager to see what would happen next. Hopes ran high.
But the writing went downhill from there and hit rock bottom with the third episode, which played out like embarrassing fan fiction. From that point on it became a growing insult to the intelligence. Every character is played stupid and unrealistically passive except the darling fawned-upon main characters (aside from the times they need to be inexplicably dumb too, right episode 6? How did the scene of the supposedly dead guy grabbing the jittery character's leg not get laughed out of the script?)
Every relationship is a stereotype. Every character is a caricature. It's like the writers got all their ideas about what people are like from watching other bad TV shows. They even resort to reusing set pieces from previous seasons of Torchwood like good fans (and bad writers) are wont to do.
All the political bullshit the story keeps throwing in just shows Hollywood is so mired in a circle jerk of myths and cliches that it's ruined its ability to tell good stories. The bitter jabs and outdated melodramatic sexist jokes are so forced and untrue that they reduce the storyline to a joke. Getting the details of the real world so wrong makes it impossible to suspend disbelief in the sci-fi parts. This inability to put their own solipsism and prejudices aside for even a second is just another symptom of poor writing and failed imaginations stuck in the same place all the time. That's why there were never any surprises. We're always way ahead of the characters, and it gets boring waiting for them to catch up.
Why do main characters keep forgetting the premise of the show -- that people can't die? Why did writers forget the premise that even the shredded dead remain conscious? Okay, that one I know. It was easier to phone in cliches about death camps that away, so everone could turn a blind eye except our noble heroes.
I was really hoping Torchwood would be good this time. The people involved had good reputations that turned out to be completely the opposite of what they produced. It's always sad to see such wasted potential, but this time it came with terminal disillusionment. At least Bill Pullman did a great job. From everything else I see, I have to guess his acting alone saved that stereotype from the garbage heap too.
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