Next Stop; Everywhere :: Or, One Girl's Incredibly Mushy Love Letter to 'Doctor Who'

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Let us - for now, at least - put aside the fact that the last time I posted about Doctor Who,  it was essentially a breakup letter outlining all my issues with problematic aspects of the show, and my painful decision to stop watching until a new Doctor (or better still, a new head writer/showrunner) takes over.

And then the 50th anniversary episode happened.

Don't get me wrong, my issues with the show's current writing still stand. I have an an entire alphabetical + annotated mental folder about everything that was problematic about the 50th anniversary episode, including that Mother of All Retconned Plot Arcs (for the record I'm just going to take a leaf out of the rebooted Star Trek's book and pretend that everything that happens in the Whoniverse from this point onwards will be taking place in an alternate timeline, because that is the only way I can make sense of things). And I still kind of want to whack Steven Moffat in the face with a frying pan, if the opportunity were to present itself.

But Sunday's The Day of the Doctor also gave me two things. Two sort of lovely things. Two moments of heart-swelling-throat-lumping-spine-chilling magic that I haven't experienced from Doctor Who in a long, long, long time.

One was the final shot of all twelve doctors gazing out into space, together.

The other was a ridiculously epic cameo appearance from the 12th and next Doctor, Peter Capaldi, which was pretty much nothing more than a 2-second shot of his eyes and forehead. Fandom proceeded to promptly and collectively lose its shit ohmygod. 

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In spite of the clusterfuck of hits and misses which constituted the rest of the anniversary special, I found myself genuinely enjoying Doctor Who for the first time in years. I even felt like a little of its old heart had found its way back, against all odds. And that's the annoying and completely wonderful thing about this weird little TV show that wormed its way into my heart 8 years ago and doesn't seem to want to let me go - I still love it to pieces, in spite of everything.

I was 15 when Doctor Who was first rebooted for a modern audience, and I was 16 when I tumbled headfirst into this odd world of spaceships that looked like phone boxes on the outside and quaintly horrible special effects. The first episode of the show I ever clapped eyes on was the final half of Doomsday, and I bawled. I cried like a fucking baby for fictional characters I had only met 20 minutes ago. And the only thing I could think of was where has this been, where has this show been my entire life? (on an incredibly extended hiatus from the 1980s, as it turns out).

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It was a little tough trying to get friends into the show as well, considering how the series was still trying to find its feet and establish itself in the modern canon. Also, just you try explaining the premise of the show to someone who has never heard of it ; a 900 year old humanoid alien who travels in an inter-dimensional spacecraft which happens to look like a blue police box (but is much bigger on the inside because SCIENCE FICTION) and who convinces people (usually young women - try to make that sound not creepy, go on) to join him on journeys across time and space.

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I can't tell you how much of my mid-to-late adolescence was spent on elaborate daydreams about running away with the Doctor to far away places and far away times (a lot of my adolescence, okay, a lot of it). How much I started falling in love with the Doctor's companions, because - and I've said this before - the show may have his name in the title, but it sure as hell isn't about him. This show is about the very ordinary people who discovered that they could do and be extraordinary things. The shopgirls and medical students and temp secretaries who bumped into a strange man with a magic wooden box full of forevers, a strange man who whirled them around galaxies and universes and helped them be the best versions of themselves they could possibly be. A strange, wonderful man who held humanity by the hand and showed us exactly how pitifully insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things, but also how important we are, how powerful, how capable of love and courage and imagination and curiosity.





A very wise man once said that Doctor Who is "the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism". And while the newer episodes may not reflect that for me personally, a little of the old magic does come trickling back now and then. I almost always come away from an episode of Who feeling a little warmer, a little fuller, a little richer, a little bit more in love with humanity, with friendship, with myself, with the spirit of discovery and adventure, with life, with the stars. With that ridiculous phone box-time machine-spaceship. With that strange wonderful man who keeps changing faces.

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Doctor Who is always going to be much more than just a TV show to me. And as bitterly disappointed as I have been with the last few seasons, and as much as I understand fans being ferociously angry with the revelations of the 50th anniversary episode, I can't help but feel impossibly excited about - finally - getting a new Doctor. I am pumped about Peter Capaldi's upcoming tenure as the 12th version of the Doctor ; the man managed to completely own his role in the span of roughly 3 seconds of screen time and 4 spoken words of dialogue, and I cannot wait to see what he does with a full episode.

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Minus the cussing, maybe.
Oh who am I kidding it's about time we get a Doctor who spews profanity across all of time and space.


p.s Also let's pretend that this isn't the first time I've posted in this dump since August or whatever. I didn't even bother starting off with an apology for my absence so let's just be cool, okay.

p.p.s You guys also have the lovely Lady Disdain to thank (or blame) for my return to the blogosphere. She used a highly effective combination of flattery and thinly veiled threats of violence which succeeded in spurring me into action. Minimal guilt, maximum results!

BAP Shamelessly Watches MTV's Teen Wolf (Or There Is No Such Thing As A Guilty Pleasure).

[warning : this post is LONG and also pretty heavy on the animated GIFs, so I really hope I don't end up breaking anyone's Internet. Also mild spoilers, I guess. ]

It's time for a long overdue confession, guys. Has that post title completely lowered your esteem of me and my otherwise impeccable taste in all things pop culture? I would think so. I spent the longest time refusing to admit my big, sloppy love for this show to anyone. And when I finally came clean I was met with gasps and many disbelieving capslock responses of "YOU WHAT?!!". But you know, I'm tired of having to play down my Teen Wolf love. Or justifying it with dismissive remarks like "Oh, it's just for fun, it was like a little juvenile holiday fling while waiting for the new season of [insert respectable critically-acclaimed TV show here] to start".  I love Teen Wolf. I LOVE it. And I'm not apologizing for it. And I am waaay excited for the season 3 premiere in June. THERE. Now we all know.

Teen Wolf is meant to be a remake of the Michael J. Fox film, but there aren't that many similarities apart from the title. This incarnation features Scott McCall as the awkward, bumbling high school sophomore who is bitten by a mysterious creature (werewolf!) in the woods one night while out looking for a dead body with his best friend (as we all do, no big deal) and must consequently deal with the problems that come with turning into a raging bloodthirsty fur monster once a month, along with more run-of-the-mill adolescent issues like girls and grades.

So allow me, with the use of a list and many pretty GIFs, to illustrate the reasons why Teen Wolf is not as terrible as you may think it is.

1. It's fun.



To be fair, my initial impression of Teen Wolf was not great. I went into this show anticipating horrible acting (but great hair, always great hair), bad dialogue, non-existent character development, and a ludicrous plot. I ended up finishing two seasons in a two-and-a-half day marathon. This show was like junk food to me, in the best way.  Look you guys ; this is MTV. It's not exactly classy shit, like Breaking Bad or whatever it is my smart and cultured young adult friends are watching these days. Actually, I wouldn't even put it on the same level as the first 4 seasons of Supernatural. Teen Wolf is often flawed and can be deeply problematic. But it makes up for it with tonnes of snappy dialogue, self-aware digs at its own expense, great pace and energy and more than enough juicy plotlines to keep things interesting (and keep me coming back for more). And above all, it's just plain FUN. Fun without being frivolous, light without being shallow, and it carries a surprising amount of depth without ever getting too bogged down in its own angst and melodrama. And self-awareness seems to be the key ; Teen Wolf knows it is probably not going to win any Emmys or be touted as a cultural touchstone of our generation 10 years from now. And it's totally fine with this reality. Which seems to give it more license to let down its hair, kick off its shoes, deprive all its male leads of their shirts, and just have a great time. Which leads us very nicely into -


2. The plot. 

So much plot, wow.

 

 LOOK AT ALL THE PLOT.



Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm plot. 



Have you ever seen this much plot in your life? Because I sure haven't.


3. No, but seriously. The plot and writing.

There exists a surprisingly compelling storyline; rich and remarkably consistent in-show werewolf mythology and season-long story arcs. The characters grow, change, reveal layers and facets that are unexpected and very intelligently written ; people you initially think will never evolve beyond the typical high-school stereotype roles assigned to them (bitchy over-achiever, arrogant jock) are shown to be so much more than their generic labels. The good guys aren't always nice, and the bad guys are never all evil. What's that? Why yes - complexity and shades of grey! On an MTV show! Featuring many actors who are all allergic to shirts! But truly, it's a wonderful thing to behold. Because when you have characters who are well-written, well-acted and believable, it's that much easier to invest in them and the journeys and relationships they undertake.

There is also an incredible amount of attention paid to details - from the significance of colours worn by various characters in any given episode to the use of one of the four natural elements as the defining motif for each season (water was the motif in question for season 2, fire for the first season). This sort of well-researched, geeky attachment to metaphors and symbolism and seasonal arcs on the show's behalf is more than enough to get the English major in me all weak in the knees. Teen Wolf knows what I like, you guys.


3.5 There are consequences.  Most shows set in high school, whether of the supernatural variety or not, eventually stop pretending that the characters or the viewers care about actually going to classes anymore. But the kids of the Teen Wolf universe have to deal with the fallout of poor attendance, slipping grades, failing tests, and not completing group lab work. Small details, but utterly refreshing by the fact that all this is actually acknowledged.


4. Stiles Stilinski

Stiles - real first name as yet unknown to us - very quickly made his way into my list of favourite TV characters ever. Played brilliantly by first-time actor Dylan O'Brien (who turned 21 last year so it makes me feel like less of a dirty old lady THANK GOD), Stiles is dorky, smart, and a walking grab-bag of deliciously snarky one-liners and pithy retorts. He's also perhaps the best goddamned thing about the show. Stiles bears the classic hallmarks of your Tortured character with a Dark Past - he is still grieving for his dead mother, he hides his fears and inadequacies behind a veneer of couldn't-care-less motor-mouth sarcasm and flippant humour, and is protective of his (very selected few) loved ones to a horrifyingly selfish and ruthless degree. And I can't tell you how much I love this subversion of what could have been a very straightforward geeky guy-comic relief-sidekick character. There is a darkness and a certain ruthless quality to Stiles that contrasts wonderfully with our protagonist Scott's more open and idealistic hero type. I love it. I love this character, and I love every tone and nuance and gesture and expression through which Dylan O'Brien (may he be blessed with many many lead roles in his career amen) chooses to convey everything that is mysterious and layered and complex and unconventional about this kid. I love it. One of you should give me a call and we'll go out for bubble tea and talk about how much I love Stiles.

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 Because I love Stiles

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A lot.

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5. Everyone else.



It helps that the teenagers are played by actual teenagers, or at the very least people in their very early 20s, so it makes their appallingly attractive faces more bearable.This is also a beautiful cast with some genuine acting chops, and they're also adorable and lovely in real life, which is always a plus point for me. Tyler Posey in particular, strikes me as being the human incarnation of golden retriever puppies and sunbeams.

6. Awesome TV parents!

TV parents usually annoy me to no end, but the ones in this show are well-fleshed out and involved in their kids' lives, not just props to come in once in a while and administer some Generic TV Parenting before conveniently disappearing again. There are positive portrayals of single parent families, and frighteningly realistic depictions of abusive families, and just wonderful relationship dynamics all around. Thumbs up, Teen Wolf. Thumbs waaay up.

7. Bad ass girls!



Allison Argent, born into a werewolf-hunting family (naturally) wields a crossbow like no other, and Lydia Martin flings around algebraic equations and knowledge of arcane languages that defies her status as all-round popular/mean girl. Erica, who suffers from epilepsy and is made a social outcast in school, finds her own means of physical and sexual empowerment.



Jeff Davis, the creator, needs to revise his statement that his show takes place in a world where homophobia, racism and sexism effectively do not exist ; an admirable sentiment, but problematic considering his own less than perfect treatment of women, gay characters and characters of colour. There are elements of tokenism, queerbaiting and other such infuriating things, but as far as the girls go,  this is a hell of a great place to start. Neither Lydia, Allison nor Erica are reduced to pretty faces, love interests or plot devices.Now all they need is as much screen time and development as the boys are getting. And maybe some friendships of their own? I am a sucker for a good, mushy bromance as much as the next person, but sometimes I just really want to see two girls love each other's company and have each other's backs too.

8. Derek Hale : Tall, Dark and Grumpy. 

Our protagonist, Scott, and his best friend Stiles, are both adorably sunny and dorky, so it's only fair that we have a much moodier character to balance it all out. Enter Derek Hale, professional werewolf and expert Mysterious Brooder In The Shadows. Derek enjoys brooding, lurking, creeping around, skulking, not smiling, being morally ambiguous and also brooding. Sometimes, he even broods. Oh and there was that other time he did some brooding for a while. Did I mention brooding? Brooding. Lots of that.



Now that is just precious.

Also I won't wave aside the very obvious fact that the guy is fine as hell, even when he's technically faking a flirty smile (only one of his many weapons of mass distraction) in this scene.

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Derek is yet another character who takes a leaf out of the Good But Not Nice trope page (for now, anyway). Despite his tragic backstory and seeming unwillingness to actually be Evil when called for, his motives typically remain suspect, and his penchant for keeping everything about himself in the dark (including his beautiful beautiful face) do not make him the most open or trustworthy person in town. But this is only because he is in PAIN and drowning in oceans upon oceans of guilt and trauma and repressed emotions and self-loathing, and he needs a good session of therapy and lots of hugs to help him feel healthy Feelings and put him on the road to healing and believing that he is worthy of love and friendship. I love the damaged ones, can you tell? Especially when they come fitted out with leather jackets and pensive, brooding pectoral muscles.

Poor Derek. Take your shirt off and let me love you.



9. It is legitimately creepy when it wants to be. This is no Twilight-lite. The body count in the pilot episode alone is mighty impressive. What's even more impressive is its ability to build and sustain genuine suspense and tension ; the everyone-gets-trapped-in-the-school-at-night episode was probably one of the creepiest + most nail-biting 40 minutes of TV I've watched in a while.



10. My mother's seal of approval. My mom has great taste in everything, and is also very hard to please, and shows no mercy in her judgement of a TV show or movie. I often use her reactions as a gauge for how good or horrible a thing is. For instance, if she actually gives up her daily, sacred afternoon nap to finish watching something, that thing has now received the seal of my mother's eternal approval. So guess who joined me in that two-and-a-half day Teen Wolf marathon (and kept asking me if Stiles was going to be okay)? That's right, my friends. That's right.

At best, Teen Wolf is a lot smarter, funnier, creepier and better-written than it should be, and contains a lot more emotional and intellectual depth and complexity than I would have ever given it credit for. I am delightfully and pleasantly surprised by everything it has done so far, and I am actually super excited to see how it grows and (hopefully) improves from here on out. And even if the show itself does absolutely nothing for you, you are more than welcome to come sit on the couch with me and keep count of exactly how many times Derek Hale broods his way onscreen with no shirt on. Surely no one can be opposed to that. 

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All the panties. Out the window.

Just One Moment When You Are Not A Sad Story : "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012)

I was 17 when I first read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I had never heard of it before, and simply picked it up because the cover looked fairly interesting, and also because I am a hopeless sucker for coming-of-age yarns (don't judge me when I am 40 and still hanging around that part of the bookstore where they shelve Perks and Catcher In The Rye and all their angst-ridden literary peers). While I never entirely identified with Charlie, the protagonist, I received many of his thoughts and observations with "OMG HE JUST TOTALLY GETS HOW I FEEL". That magic didn't always last though ; by the time I was 19 the book was nowhere near as impressive or profound as it had been two years beforehand. I still kept my copy for nostalgic reasons (also I hoard shit like woah and I will not give a book away even if I hated reading it, because I might hurt its feelings. This is clearly a problem of some kind). The Perks of Being a Wallflower had been a very special book for 17 year old me, even if only for a little while. It deserved to stay on my shelf.

 So here's the thing ; you would think it'd be nearly impossible for me to be objective about this film in any way. And you'd probably be right. How much of my impression of the screen adaptation would just be a rush of nostalgic affection, and how much would be valid judgement of how good the film is in its own right? It probably helps that it's been so long since I last read the book that I have very little recollection of specific details, and for the most part I was able to view the movie as a separate creature to the book. And to be entirely honest, I went in fully expecting the seemingly less than impressive cast to just ruin everything anyway (I mean, Logan Lerman? He's cute and all, but really?). I was very wrong. In fact, 20-something me found the film version to be far more profound and touching and lovely than novel, despite the fact that the author himself also took on the helm of screenwriter and director of his own adaptation.

It's probably best to go into this film without knowing a whole lot about it, other than that it's set in a Pittsburgh suburb in the very early 90's, and it is mainly about a very lonely and disturbed high school freshman named Charlie, who sees himself as the ultimate outsider. He is befriended by Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, two older kids who have fully and gloriously embraced their status as misfits, and they help Charlie work through his deep-seated depression and his painful insecurities, and guide him through his first experiences with sex, drugs, alcohol and romance.


The cast is honestly my favourite thing about this adaptation, and they are what saves Perks from tipping over the edge and becoming either painfully sappy or infuriatingly pretentious. Logan Lerman is a perfect Charlie - nervous, awkward, repressed, shy, and thoroughly charming and heartbreaking in all the right ways. His character seems like a quirky oddball at first, but there is an underlying Something that is much darker and deeper than the usual "Loser Weirdo With No Friends" thing, and the movie is in no rush to tell us exactly why Charlie is the way he is.

Emma Watson did not make me think of Hermione Granger even once, which is the highest of compliments I can bestow upon her. Her character has gone through her own share of pain, and she has for the most part, moved on, constantly tries to be better, and is caring and perceptive towards people around her. There is a certain element of prim-and-proper that Emma can't seem to entirely shake off. But it hardly matters - she is moving and elegant and so so so beautiful in this.




And then there is Ezra Miller, you guys. Ezra. Fucking. Miller. I knew next to nothing about this kid before Tuesday afternoon, and now I'm hooked. He comes dangerously close to stealing the entire show from the other two ; his performance as Patrick is loud and witty and charismatic beyond belief and utterly compelling, and there were many times where I found myself wondering when Patrick was going to come back on screen. Ezra brings a depth and tenderness and complexity that elevates the character above your generic Sassy Gay Best Friend trope. Patrick must deal with the social and personal implications of his sexuality, and oh, if only simply being snarky and funny were all the protection he would ever need in the world.  But Patrick is not a token diversity-character, nor is he a joke (though he often provides warm and wonderful comic relief), and while he does suffer, he is not a helpless victim either. As in the book, it is Patrick's part of the story that breaks my heart into the most pieces of all.

But all three performances are absolutely beautiful in their heart and in their sincerity (a word I find myself associating with this movie quite a lot - it's just so bleeding sincere I feel bad saying anything negative about it). You are all multiple Oscar winners. IN MY HEART.

Special mention goes to Paul Rudd, who plays Charlie's English teacher with absolutely 0% of his trademark cynical snark. We've all had one of those teachers, haven't we? The one teacher who challenged you, and made you want to be better, and you never wanted to let them down because they expected you to expect more of yourself. The kind of teacher that makes you feel your life could be a remake of The Dead Poets' Society or something. And it's almost always an English teacher, isn't it?




While Perks may seem like a hazy, grainy, 90's-nostalgia-infused-and-David Bowie-soundtracked trip through adolescence, with lots of coming of age cliches strewn about, there are much darker elements at play, and the film handles these with just as much sensitivity and grace as the book did. Mental illness, suicide, abuse and homophobia are not glamourized or made out to be cool afflictions that plague cool or deep people. They are real things that happen to real people, with real pain and real consequences. Not every issue is given due attention of course, but this is heavy stuff and Stephen Chbosky deserves props for having the courage to tackle the subject matter that he does.

    One thing that struck me super-strongly while watching this movie was just how much it managed to draw out the previous versions of myself (let's say between the ages of 15 and 17? Those were some suitably awkward and angsty times indeed). The loneliness, the alienation, the fear of loss, of rejection, of hurt, of failure, of the future. That keen, yearning desperation to be liked, and to be accepted, and to be loved for or despite all the parts of yourself that were too ugly to show the world. And the other things too - the books, and the music, and the films, that Perks considers to be such an important part of its narrative. That one song you heard when you were 16 that felt like it could change your life. That one film you watched, or story you read, or band you discovered, that made your world that much bigger and better and brighter.




    I felt it all again, acutely and painfully, in spite of the distance from my own adolescent self (which actually isn't all that long ago), and in spite of how much I really have grown past it all for the most part. You forget what it's like to be adolescent and to FEEL all those things so intensely, all the time. We must have all been some melodramatic little shits. But to paraphrase Charlie, it was all very real to us when we were 16, and growing older is never going to invalidate who we were or what we felt when we were young and stupid and hormonal. Adolescence is brutal, but it has its own kind of beauty too, if you know where to look. It's probably why the coming of age story appeals to me so much (also perhaps because my adolescence was really boring and totally didn't have enough rebellion or 80's Brit punk in it, and I can make up for the lack of poetic profundity in my own teen years by watching and reading about other teenagers).

And we come right back to the problem I pointed out at the beginning of this post  ; it is pretty much impossible to be objective about this movie. The book strikes an almost too-personal chord with viewers who have already read it, which makes me wonder how much emotional resonance it has with the casual cinema-goer, and whether the pain and honesty and broken, bittersweet beauty of the characters will really come through to someone who has never read the book. This will probably be compounded by another flaw in the adaptation ; it's really, really tough to adapt a novel in the first-person point of view, which is also essentially just a collection of letters from Charlie to an anonymous pen pal. The plot of the book itself can tend to be rather meandering, and Chbosky does a good enough job of toning and cutting things down to create a cohesive narrative. But again, the direction and progression of the story may not be clear enough to truly hold the interest of a non-Perks reader.

    There is also a tendency for Charlie's voice-over narration to simply explain too much - show, don't tell. There's a tad too much tell in this film, which is perhaps unavoidable when your source material consists almost entirely of your protagonist's thoughts and observations about other people.
 Some scenes and snippets of dialogue may also come across as clumsy, or overly-cheesy, or too try-hard (for instance, the scene where the main trio drive through a highway tunnel in a truck with David Bowie's Heroes blasting exultantly from the speakers will either give you goosebumps and a lump in the throat, or just a severe case of the eye-rolls).

If coming of age movies aren't your thing, or if you're simply annoyed by teenagers and their insistence on feeling ALL the feelings ALL the time, then you may want to sit this one out. Or perhaps just give it a shot? This is a very bittersweet and very sincere movie that isn't trying to be anything more than what it is, and isn't trying to impress anyone. There is no pretentiousness, or cooler-than-thou agenda. It sets out to tell a story about a sad and lonely boy who finds friends who share his pain and make his world a better place. And it tells that story very well, and it tells that story with a lot of heart.
And that's enough, really.

Loving An Imperfect Thing , Or "Supernatural" : A Long Overdue Rant.

*SPOILER warning for all aired episodes of Supernatural, up to the season 7 finale.
**except for you, Sue Fyenn, you need to read this anyway. 
***additional warning for the fact that I initially wrote this only for myself, which means this entire post is pretty much just a gigantic brain dump of thoughts, and probably isn't very eloquent or organized.
**** this is going to be LONG. If Supernatural means nothing to you, then I am so sorry. Cookie? 

Supernatural is a thing I may have mentioned once or twice around these parts. I've been watching it regularly for the last seven (going on eight) years, and have devoted many, many, many hours of my life to reading fan fiction, crafting character-themed playlists, watching crappy camera phone recordings of fan conventions and trawling through the actors' and producers' Twitter pages (creeper love is deeper love).



For the blissfully unaware, Supernatural is essentially about the relationship between two (really hot) brothers who traverse the great American Midwest in a bad ass Chevy Impala, armed with rock salt and holy water, shooting demons in the face and saving innocent people from unspeakable horrors that range from werewolves to mythological gods to serial killer circus clowns. Despite being aired on the CW, and despite featuring lead actors who would look much more at home on One Tree Hill , Supernatural is a lot better than it seems. The early seasons in particular grapple with issues of faith and family, the sacrifices that come with being a hero and doing the right thing, and my personal favourite theme : the brothers being forced to deal with the reality that the world is not a simple binary of good/evil, and that morality comes in nearly infinite shades of grey, and that anyone - be it the monsters they hunt or the humans they save - is capable of falling anywhere on that spectrum. The later seasons bring in heavy elements of Judeo-Christianity - the apocalypse, heaven and hell, sin and purity, destiny and free will, and as always, the brotherly bond between Sam and Dean Winchester. All very complex, heavy duty themes, but in the middle of all this the writers have time to also provide us with a scene in which the anthropomorphic personification of Death eats deep fried pickle chips out of a paper bag.

God, I love this show.

And yet, as much as I love it, I can't deny that there are some pretty serious flaws that I have either never noticed before, noticed but did not want to acknowledge, or noticed but did not know how to articulate. I can't say that I am now any more eloquent than I was a few years ago, but in any case I'm now here to totally call out Supernatural known henceforth as SPN) on some of the things it has been doing wrong over the last seven seasons.

a. Women, sexualized violence & generally shitty character development.

Before I say anything more, I'm going to ask you to watch this video. Context and some knowledge of the show helps, but is not necessary.








No seriously. Watch it.



Have you watched it yet?




No it's fine, I'll wait.






Done? Great!

The video you have just watched (or not watched, in which case you are a horrible person and we can't be friends anymore) is titled Women's Work, and is soundtracked by Hole's Violet. Created by LiveJournal users sockpuppett and sisabet , Women's Work is arguably the most controversial piece of fan-created media in the SPN fandom. Using footage from the show, these fans spliced together images of nearly all the women that had been featured on SPN up to that point : victims, love interests, demons and supernatural creatures, to show how the female characters are all either "victimized, sacrificed, abandoned or demonized" and are sexualized violently at every stage.

I will carry on doing this in numbered lists because I am way too lazy to start organizing all this in a nice, cohesive, academic way.

1. It's safe to say that nearly ALL women featured on SPN, whether as a one-off or a recurring character, eventually get killed off. At this point in time there are a grand total of zero women in the main cast, and none in the recurring line up either. That's ZERO, in case you were keeping count. Zilch.

2. So yes. On this show, all the lady persons die. Some people may counter this with a statistics based argument, something along the lines of "Hey! Men die on SPN too -  in fact, you'll find that more men die on the show than women". Which is well and good, except for simple arithmetic which will reveal that more men die on Supernatural because there are more men featured on the show, period. See No.1 for further clarification.

3. But the key difference doesn't lie in numbers and representation, it lies in the way that death and violence are filmed and portrayed in the show itself. When a dude dies in SPN, it is simply that - a death. It may be gory or gross in some way, but ultimately that's all there is to it. When a woman or girl dies or is attacked on SPN? It's a parade of cleavage and ass shots, naked-in-the-shower shots, clothes-slowly-being-ripped-off shots, long and lingering camera angles that film every implied-rapey moment. You will know exactly what I'm talking about if you've watched the video embedded above. It can all be equally as violent as the male deaths, but with an added element ; the women's deaths are sexualized. Every depiction of a female victim on the show is pretty much torture porn.

4. I will admit that the creators of the show also take the female gaze into account ; the long, lingering shots of Jensen Ackles' lush face and Jared Padalecki's mile-long denim-clad legs aren't exactly accidental (and I enjoy the hell out of them), but the sexualization of the male characters is simply never ever ever on the same level. For just one example, take demon Meg's torture scene in episode 6.10 "Caged Heat".  She is entirely nude with nothing but a thin leather strap across her chest and hips, and the other demon in charge of torturing information out of her is busy inflicting pain (off-screen) somewhere around Meg's lower abdomen and/or genital area. To say that it merely implies penetration or rape would be an understatement.

Compare this to pretty much any other time either one of the Winchester brothers have been attacked, assaulted, tied up, strapped down, or beaten and tortured to within an inch of their lives. They are always clothed. Their vulnerability is never sexualized. Their fear is never fetishized. Their pain is never porn-ified. The double standards are jarring, when you allow yourself to acknowledge them.

5. Leaving aside sexualized violence, we move into the territory of sexualized evil, or SPN's impossibly simplistic madonna/whore dichotomy. Most women are either virginal victims or angelic mother figures ; see especially Mama Winchester's ghost and/or memory appearances as a a barefoot paragon of maternal virtue clothed in a flowing white nightgown of feminine innocence - utterly Taylor Swiftian music video in its proportions). And if they're not mothers, girlfriends or victims, they are evil lady sex demons who wear really low-cut dresses and grind up all over the Winchester boys and talk in breathy, flirty voices because they are evil and use the evil sex to take advantage of the noble heroic menfolk. See especially : pretty much every female demon featured on the show, every other assorted female supernatural creature which uses sex to lure, trap and kill men.

6. It would be pretty irresponsible of me to assert that ALL women in the SPN-verse are reduced to virginal innocents or sexualized villains. Because of course there are some truly wonderful female characters...who all got written off the show. There was Bela ; intelligent, cunning, self-serving, snarky, thoroughly fun to have around, and in the end, utterly tragic. There were the two incarnations of the demon Ruby, who had wonderfully shady motivations and loyalties and could have been one of the most complex, interesting characters on the show. There was the demon-hunting mother and daughter duo of Ellen and Jo Harvelle. Jo in particular could have served as a wonderful foil or counterpart to Dean's journey ; she too lost a parent as a child and was thrust into a world of knowledge and responsibilities she was never ready for. But nope. Jo was introduced as a love interest, put on the shelf when the vocal majority of the fans didn't warm up to her, was brought back a few seasons later, killed off, and then brought back again as a plot device. We could have had it all Jo. We could have had it all.



In fact, SPN has a pretty established tradition of female characters serving as plot devices. Mary Winchester and Sam's girlfriend Jess were both killed off (or more suitably, fridged) in order to provide the Winchester men with their Man Pain, their angst, their motivation to hunt down all the evil in the world. Even according to the show's Big Bad Demon, both those women died simply "because they were there". We never really learn anything about Jess. We do learn some awesome things about the boys' mother, Mary. But even that comes after three whole seasons of the angelic-mom-in-white-nightgown routine, before the writers could find anything substantial enough about Mary to include in the main story arc. All other women in the show rarely, if ever, have a backstory or motivations of their own, or they are written out or killed off before any true potential can be reached. This show truly is about the Winchester boys - their conflicts, their struggles. Their issues are the most complex ones, handled with the most gravitas. Which is a shame, because I think the women on SPN have some pretty kick ass stories to tell, if only the writers would let them (we will always have fan fiction, I guess).

b. Ethnic representation

I'm not American, and it's probably not in my place to comment on ethnic representation in a show from a foreign country which I know best only through its popular culture. But even I have to say that for a show that so prides itself on its sense of mythic Americana (the beer, the music, the roads that stretch out into the horizon) and puts so much effort into creating a real sense of small towns and roadside diners and general American-ness, the America of SPN is surprisingly and blindingly white. The handful of African American characters present in the early seasons have all been killed off, or are essentially missing ; Gordon, Rufus, Agent Hendrickson, Missouri Moseley, Cassie. All characters who were dynamic and interesting and had terrific potential (Hendrickson in particular - can you imagine the Winchesters having a legit FBI agent on their side? And Gordon - a ruthless vampire hunter who must deal with the ultimate hunter's nightmare of turning into the very creature you kill for a living. STOP MURDERING THE INTERESTING CHARACTERS YO).
This post does a much better job of breaking down the race and culture issues in SPN - including the fact that the show has delved into Native American mythology and beliefs quite a fair bit, but has yet to feature more than a couple actual Native American people on the show.

Let's not even talk about the Asians.

Actually let's talk about the Asians.

There haven't actually been all that many actors of Asian descent featured on seven years of the show. The only references to Asian people and culture came in the form of porn. No really, porn. Dean's favourite Busty Asian Girls skin mag, and the hentai sites he frequents when he gets bored or horny or both. Until Kevin Tran appeared in the most recent season. And boy, was Kevin Tran a walking grab-bag of super Asian stereotypes - he was in AP Calculus, he wore sweater vests, he studied all day, his greatest interests in life were getting into an Ivy League school. His best friend (or at least his only friend that we see) is an Asian girl who also studies a lot and wears knee socks. But the season 8 promo clips show us a Kevin who has shaved his hair off, is shooting people in the face with holy water, and seems to have taken up the hunting lifestyle. And I am clinging on to the last shreds of hope that SPN will do something to truly subvert stereotypes and make Kevin Tran as awesome as he deserves to be.

c. The writers, producers and main cast are all part of one big boys' club.

The main characters are all male. The directors are all male. The creator is male. The show was pitched and created with a male target audience in mind, before the fangirls ruined everything and embraced it for their own, because demographics be damned. Sera Gamble was the only main female producer and head writer on the show for 7 years before she too stepped down, leaving behind and even greater sausage fest than the show was before.
I certainly don't believe that all the men working on this show are being intentionally sexist ; the cast especially seem like smart, funny, charming, humble, passionate people who are genuinely appreciative of the fans. So no, I don't think any of them wake up in the morning and go "I would like a cheese bagel for breakfast and also I am going to be a misogynistic piece of douchewaffle today". A lot of our prejudices and perceptions of the world and other people are ingrained, and we don't realize we're being offensive or bigoted until it's pointed out to us, or if we're self aware enough to catch ourselves in the middle of sexist/racist/classist/other-ist thoughts and behaviour. And sometimes I think the dudes of SPN could use someone going up to them and saying "Hey, great show! But the way you guys portray gender and race is kind of problematic - mind if I give you some suggestions?".



In any case, more female input could seriously help the show get over some of it's more problematic aspects. Sera Gamble once spent an entire writer's meeting trying to change a single detail about the character of Ruby the demon ; Gamble wanted the demon to possess the body of an already-deceased woman instead of a living one, so that things would not get icky later on when Ruby would go on to do the The Evil Sexing with Sam (we're talking issues of rape and willing consent - a woman possessed while still alive can hardly be in a condition to agree to sex with Sam Winchester). This is something that the male writing team entirely overlooked, because it didn't even occur to them that this would be a problem..

d. Representation of fandom within the show itself. 

Supernatural has grown to be one of the most meta shows on television - there are dozens of references and inside jokes about the fandom, and an entire episode dedicated to Dean and Sam being zapped into a parallel universe where their lives are the subject of a TV show called Supernatural. It's amazing and weird and hilarious by turns. The show even found time to insert a fangirl character into the proceedings - Becky Rosen. Slavering, obsessive, ultra horny, socially awkward Becky Rosen who spends all her time writing Dean/Sam slash fanfiction and feeling up the real Sam when she finally meets him. Becky was pretty funny until that one episode which shall not be named, which essentially involved her drugging, abducting, almost-raping (?) Sam and trying to get him to marry her while he was under the influence of a love potion. That's when it stopped being funny. That's when you started wondering whether the show was still laughing with you, or if they'd started laughing at you. That episode was a mean-spirited, disturbing, problematic mess.

So here's the deal. Can we have more girls like Charlie please? Because here's the thing Supernatural, this is what most of your die-hard, super-invested female fanbase is like. Young women in their late teens to early/mid 20s with Lord of the Rings themed desktop wallpaper and Hermione Granger bobbleheads and unhealthy levels of attachment to their computers, who can quote any given cult sci-fi TV show at the drop of a sonic screwdriver (HA see what I did there). Icing on the cake? Charlie was lesbian. Like many, many, many other Supernatural fangirls. Charlie did not die in slow, horrible, fetishized ways. Charlie got to keep her clothes on. Charlie walked away not just alive, but as a heroine.  Charlie's sexual orientation was not the butt of jokes, fetishized or paraded around in a show of OMG LOOK HOW PROGRESSIVE AND LIBERAL WE ARE, and neither did it define her entire identity, because she was so much more than your token homosexual character. Charlie was amazing. Charlie is what this show is capable of when it's on top form.

e. Misogyny within fandom

Which is made worse by fanservice on the part of the writers. The Supernatural fandom has a hard time embracing female characters who are not older/mother figures, because any woman who does not fall within those tropes poses a sexual threat to the brothers' relationship. Not all fans are like this of course, but the ones who are have been vocal enough about their disapproval, resulting in at least two female characters being written off the show due to "poor fan response", namely Jo and Bela. Now, fan whining is bad enough, but it makes it worse when the writers simply erase these characters without ever really giving them the room and opportunity to develop into fully-realized creations (and perhaps even win fans over?). I can't say I know how TV works, but surely there's a limit to how far the creators are willing to go before they stop pandering to anything the fans want?



Take the demon Meg, once again. She has been a recurring character (in at least two incarnations) for seven-going-on-eight years, and there is still little absolutely no backstory about her. While the angel Castiel (who showed up in season 4) has had more than one episode dedicated entirely to him and/or his POV. Guess what? If Castiel had been played by a woman (or as a genderless angel inhabiting a female human body) the character would be dead by now ; not just because of the way fans would respond, but also because of how the writers would portray the character anyway. As it is, the currently very male Castiel is easily one of the show's most wildly popular characters and the Castiel/Dean slash pairing is well on its way to a glorious pedestal in internet fandom history. And just for the record, I love Castiel and the actor playing him (Misha Collins is a flawless human being and if you don't like him then you're just wrong, go sit in the corner and evaluate your life choices). But even I can't deny that gender has a LOT to do with the character's current level of popularity among fans.




In fact, there is already an in-show example of this - Anna Milton.

Anna was a fallen angel living life as a mortal, until she regained her angelic swag (and her memory of her true identity), but instead of resuming her rightful place in the grand scheme of things, Anna began to question orders, to doubt God, to contemplate the real meaning of being alive, of having free will and choice, of leading an existence of substance and purpose as opposed to simply taking orders from Heaven. In other words, Anna went through a character arc almost exactly parallel to that of Castiel. And more than that, in fact ; when we first meet Anna, she is a mortal who has already revoked her angel status, has already sacrificed everything to live life as a human and to go through love, pain, sickness, sorrow, joy, death, etc - all experiences that she cannot have as an immortal celestial being. Anna was ballin' awesome. And then Anna died.



Yup.

f. Sexist language and gendered insults. 

Bitch. Slut. Whore. Sam is "gay" or a total "chick" because he is more emotionally vulnerable and open than his brother. Being possessed by a demon is likened to rape or having sexual intercourse with another man (or you know, "Gaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!"). I understand how the language is tied in with the macho-ness and general hypermasculinity of the Winchester family (leather jackets big guns classic rock muscle cars giant hamburgers punching shit in the FACE). But seriously, gay jokes? Can we just not?. And it's a shame too, because with Dean and Sam Winchester, the show has actually subverted your macho male hero type to a degree ; there's Sam who is sensitive to other people's emotions and always ready to TALK ABOUT HIS FEELINGS and cry if needed. And Dean is essentially the family's mother figure - nurturer, caregiver and all-round maternal in his role towards Sam. And both brothers are incredibly emotionally vulnerable. Why undermine all this wonderful character development with OMG U IZ SOO GAY?


So after ALL that, why do I keep watching? Partly because I genuinely do love the show, flaws and all. And also partly because if I stopped watching a show for all the reasons stated above, I probably would not be watching any TV at all. These things aren't issues exclusive to Supernatural. It's all of TV, all of film, all of media. As the wonderful makers of the Women's Work video stated, they could have very easily made the same video using footage from any other genre show on TV ; some episodes of Buffy, the X-Files, and certainly any one of the dozens of procedural cop/crime shows floating around. I guess I'm thankful that there is always online fandom to critique, analyze, subvert, interpret, and most importantly and wonderfully of all, create their own versions of the show.
If you're anything like me, you're horribly protective and clingy about Things that you love, almost as if you had written and constructed and created every aspect of it yourself. So it can be hard to acknowledge, let alone accept that a Thing that you love has deeply problematic flaws. But it needs to be done, and this article by Social Justice League just sums it all up perfectly.

"As fans, sometimes we need to remember that the things we like don’t define our worth as people. So there’s no need to defend them from every single criticism or pretend they are perfect. Really loving something means seeing it as it really is, not as you wish it were. You can still be a good fan while acknowledging the problematic elements of the things you love. In fact, that’s the only way to be a good fan of problematic things."

In the meantime, I'll be catching up with season 8 of Supernatural with all my fingers and toes crossed. Because I'm still a sucker for you, Show. And the admittedly shitty things you do will never negate the awesome parts. I just may have to remember to Internet-smack you upside the head once in a while. We're good, guys. We're all good.

You know. For now.