Links and Updates

So we're in the second week of March, and I've been slowly but surely making my way through a dozen or so shows that I need to catch up on.

The second season of Broadchurch came to an end (review forthcoming, though to sum up my initial thoughts: this town has the worst cops, lawyers and parents of all time) and over a single weekend I devoured the first two seasons of both Vikings and Black Sails. I'm currently more obsessed with the former than the latter, but both have their strong points and a great collection of characters. Let me finish up the current seasons and I'll write something more substantial on them both.

I also finished the second half of Sleepy Hollow's second season and ... oy. Again, I'll probably write up a longer review when time allows, but talk about a show losing its way! I don't think there's been a sharper nosedive in quality since Heroes first aired.

It remains to be seen whether it'll be renewed for a third season, though for the sake of the cast I hope it is. I have this theory that getting cancelled after two seasons is one of the worst things that can happen to a show. If something is canned after one season, it probably wasn't all that good to begin with – no big loss, move on to the next project. If it manages three seasons, you can congratulate yourselves on a healthy trilogy, with a beginning, middle and end. But two? Two seasons means you were given time and space to develop your premise, characters and world-building – and you blew it.

It's not always the case. The Legend of the Seeker was just getting warmed up when it was unceremoniously axed, and Pushing Daisies was a victim of the Writer's Strike, but for the most case (especially in genre shows) the rule holds true: Atlantis, Dark Angel, Dollhouse, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... they had the vision and the talent and the budget – but they blew it.

(Hopefully I haven't opened myself up to vicious debate on this score; suffice to say that I know there are exceptions).

But if there is one show that's a confirmed trilogy, it's The Fall – complete with Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dorner. No doubt regretting everything after the Fifty Shades of Grey press tour, Dornan has hedged his bets and ranked critically acclaimed television over the siren call of Hollywood. Let's just hope this doesn't result in an influx of new fans whose prerogative is to insist that Christian Grey Paul Spector is Just Misunderstood and only Needs Someone to Love Him.  

Still, this is good news. As divisive as I found the end of season two, Dornan's return means the cat-and-mouse game between Stella and Spector is not yet over. He's not going to escape justice by dying in Stella's arms under a clear blue sky. My dream ending – of Spector facing permanent incarceration – is still a possibility.

In saying that, I still think it all could have (should have) been wrapped up in two seasons, but I've just spend three paragraphs explaining why that's a bad thing, so trilogy – whoohoo!

Furthermore, along with Colin Morgan (presumably) for The Fall, Angel Coulby is finally returning to my screen with the renewal of The Tunnel for a sequel series. They're my two favourite Merlin stars, so this is a big deal for me. In fact, I've been wondering if Angel has been out of commission for a while (since the run of Good People ended) because she was caught in limbo over whether or not a Tunnel sequel would be greenlit. Now that it's set in stone, hopefully her schedule will allow for more projects. Either way, I'm glad she's returning!

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Between Penny Dreadful and Orphan Black (and Game of Thrones, I guess) April is shaping up to be a pretty great month for television, with the release of a new Orphan Black trailer:

Though to be honest, this isn't a particularly inspiring trailer. All the main clones are present and accounted for – Sarah, Cosima, Alison, Helena – and there's a strong emphasis on their newfound male counterparts, but no sense of the storyline or the stakes. And however sinister the line "count your sisters" might be, it's somewhat negated by the considerably-less encouraging "I've got a bad feeling about this" soundbite that finishes things off. C'mon, it's not even that iconic in Star Wars!

We get a brief glimpse of James Frain, who obviously felt that this was one genre show (along with Agent Carter and Sleepy Hollow) that he had to be a part of, and the likes of Paul, Art and Delphine also make appearances.

Naturally Felix and Siobhan are also involved, but an odd lack of Cal and Kira. I fear in the former case Michiel Huisman is busy on Game of Thrones, and in the latter Skyler Wexler is aging too quickly for the time-line to allow. Fingers crossed the writers find a way around both problems.

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Over on Tor, Kate Elliot has written a fantastic article on writing female characters, specifically in regards to how easy it is to fall into traps. You know, the female character types that keep popping up everywhere and yet are never questioned (my comments in brackets):

If a woman is introduced as a potential love interest for the hero and then killed so he can be sent off on a quest or spurred to seek revenge, not every reader and viewer will recognize that as The Disposable Love Interest or The Fridged Woman; rather, people see this as an established and suitable narrative theme. (Candlelit vigil for Shado on Arrow).

The Nameless Raped Girl is often described as “realism” even though every person who has ever been raped has a life and a personhood that such a plot obliterates in service to the story. (Looking at YOU Vikings, and that serious season one misstep in what is otherwise a great show).

A female character who behaves like a guy and is portrayed as “one of the boys” or “as good as a man” in a way that elevates her above all those uninteresting women whose lives consist of boring-women-things doesn’t elevate women characters on the whole, nor does it show respect for the historical diversity of women’s lives in the particular. (Hi Game of Thrones, and your consistent need to have Arya and Brienne scorn and ridicule all things feminine, including other women in ways that are totally inconsistent with their book characterization).

The Exceptional Girl walks alone, almost never interacting with other women except maybe in competition with them, but often people don’t remark on how much of a stereotype it is to situate one girl away from other women as if women are somehow made more important the farther away they get from other women. (Hey, remember when the Merlin writers made Guinevere go at least four in-show years without talking to another female character?)

Be cautious with the popular Mother Figure, for as I once described the film Immortals: Men can aspire to be divine. Women can aspire to have sons who can grow up to be men who can aspire to be divine. (So long Katrina from Sleepy Hollow. The writers could have salvaged you, but it was easier not to).

The Evil Seductress With Her Sexually Tempting and Irresistible Wiles; The Slutty Girl Who Pays For Her Sexual “Freedom” With Her Life; The Girl Too Ugly To Get Married; The Passive Bride who will either Be Crushed By Life or who will Find Her Strength; The Withering Old Woman Who Hates Her Youthful “Rival” Because There Is No Meaning For Women Beyond When They Cease Being Sexually Attractive to Men; The Peaceful Matriarch Whose Nurtures All Because It Is The Essential Nature of Womanhood To Nurture.

They write themselves.

They really do, and it's a great article.

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And Frozen 2 has been announced. Prayer circle for parents everywhere.