What and Why I'm Watching TV during the Fall 2013 Season

I grew up watching a lot of TV.  I found it a way to see other ways of doing things, I found it a nice distraction from an often subtly dysfunctional household, and I just really liked it.  Instead of curbing my creativity I believe it strengthened it and it certainly influenced my writing and teaching both but making it clear to me that visuals can be important.  I'm also a terrible channel flipper, I'm the "guy" in my house in this respect and it drives the men in my family crazy not because they want to be flipping but because they'd like to pick a show and stick with it.  While I'm willing to give a wide range of shows a try, I find that I'm actually fairly picky.  I'm hoping you might find this interesting and be encouraged to think about why you watch the TV you do so here's what I'm watching right now in the evenings and why.

Sundays: I have an evening gaming group so I'm actually DVRing things.

     "Once Upon a Time" -- I got into this because several female friends I respect said they really liked it, told me it had strong female characters without having weak male characters.  Sounds like the type of stories I try to write so when the first two seasons were on Netflix I gave it a try.  I have to say that Season 3 has not been as interesting to me, I find Pan annoying and I just can't relate to him or his "boys" so I hope the show either gives me a reason to care or we get past them soon or I may stop watching what I've DVRed for a few weeks.

"The Walking Dead" -- I watched episode one and was so turned off by what I felt were all too common set-ups for "zombie" types of shows.  A friend of mine begged me to try the next episode and after that I've been hooked.  No, I haven't read the graphic novels and don't really plan to since I've met so many "fans" who hate the show for changing things.  I've also read online complaints about how slow the show is but soon those folks reveal that they really don't understand who the "walking dead" really are in the show and were just interested in kills not the plot or development of characters.  The "Walking Dead Fan Rally" I hosted at a science fiction convention went well last year so I think I'll propose it again this year.  My biggest complaint about the show is that there is a lack of main cast female characters especially with very recent changes.  Given that we can see female (and child) characters all around what is the reason for that?

Mondays: Nothing I watch live but I do DVR things when they catch my eyes.
   

     "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" a 15 episode series created in 2011 is currently being shown and I've been watching it since I just happened to find it one evening while channel surfing.  My only complaint is the creator's voice; I wish they had another voice narrating it.  I'm discovering a lot of cool films I'm not trying to find and add to my Netflix queue.


Tuesdays: Big day now for live and DVRing for me.

"Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" is something I watch with my men and we all like it a lot.  I can't say that I love it as much as "Buffy" or some of the seasons of "Angel" but I can say that I'm pleased with the general balance of male-female characters and the variety of personalities.  I think the internal mysteries are not being ignored but the focus is on the weekly mission packed with TV level action.  I hope there is more cross-over with the movie series, too, though I know that movie salaries probably make it difficult to have more guests than they've all ready had.

     "Supernatural" became a favorite of mine again after some friends told me that they thought I'd like it.  I was hesitate to watch because I worried it was a rehash of "Buffy" but with dudes to ease the bruised egos of all those boys and men out there who didn't like a girl beating up monsters.  That is the one solid complaint I do have about the show -- not enough female characters.  Oh, there are reoccurring characters but then they are sent off on other missions or are killed or simply recede.  The stable of supporting characters though are all men for our two brothers and while these are pretty to look at and I think more developed than often given credit for, it would be nice to have two stable female characters.  That the boys are pretty to look at and get beaten up or tortured from time to time is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned.






Wednesdays: Are too crowded!  Move some of the shows I like around a bit more please.

"Criminal Minds" has been a regular show for my own partner and I and in the past two years we've gotten my husband to join us in watching it.  I like the dual nature of "case of the week" plus plot arches of the series and the fact that the characters do change.  However I find it annoying that far more female characters have come and gone on the series while the male characters stay on for the most part.  I also wish they'd hire Nicholas Brendon as a regular because I found that romance believable and wish it could be a more constant side story because I adore Garcia's character on so many levels.

     "CSI" is something I loved for years but now I just watch it when the guys want to do so.  I haven't liked some of the one and two year characters the show has had and frankly I want more on the personal lives of some of the original characters like Greg and less on these new folks.  I also find it a bit repetitives at times (seriously I just ignore the testing montages now) and I think this is more a science fiction or fantasy show than crime drama.

"Law & Order: SVU" has been a show I've watched from day one.  I was into the original series on and off but this I never miss and my partner watches it with me regularly, too.  Why?  Olivia is a constant, strong but realistic female character I feel and I like that with Elliot leaving the strong has focused more on her, I hope she goes on to become the Captain of the department.  Perhaps I like it because I am a survivor of childhood and stranger sexual assault myself and it gives me hope that some authority out there cares.

     "American Horror Story Coven" is another show I watched only after a few friends urged me to do so.  I had watched the first three episodes of the first season and was bored.  Luckily the show picks up and you have to have a tolerance for crazy and slow development with sudden jumps in plot to appreciate it.  Most seasons the show has strong female characters but I find most horror anything I like does. I do think the male characters are too weak this time around but they have time to make it more balanced.  Mostly I like watching it with my friends who come over to watch it with me now.

"Ghost Hunters" on Syfy is one of my fun shows I like to watch for thrills and laughs at the same time.  Like it is "Paranormal Witness" on the same date though the new episodes are not on a identical schedule.  I watch these generally when I'm alone or with my husband who likes to tease the shows until he sees something that makes his eyes go wide -- I like watching him watching it!




Thursdays: We do our "cultural" things on this evening so sometimes I am simply not around these evenings but I either DVR or watch these shows.

     "Big Bang Theory" was a show I came late to when an acquaintance at a convention mentioned he wonder if my house was like the show in any way since I live with two scientists turned computer geeks... I gave it a try and yup, I could see of lot of them in some parts of the characters.  The show has been wonderfully surprising to me because unlike many situation comedies this has both plot and character development that continues from one season to the next. The introduction of two more stable supporting female characters has been very welcomed by me because I feel more connected now to the show, I can see myself more often now in more of the characters.

"Once Upon a Time: Wonderland" is quite different from the series it spun off from.  Oh, still a strong, central female character but this time the action just kicked right off and has barely taken a break.  I watched this for two reasons: Loved the original and genie... love me some genie especially when it is "male" as anyone familiar with my story "Eternal Pain" can confirm I'm sure.  I also like that we getting the same level of backstory for the major characters as I love with the original. This makes even the big bads relatable to me and that's important if I'm going to invest in a show over time.

     "Elementary" was a trial show for us since we liked the new BBC "Sherlock" series but were disappointed with how short the seasons were.  We gave it a try as a family and fell in love with the quirky characters and the boldness of making Watson a woman, one who can stand toe-to-toe with Sherlock.  The guys strongly disagree with me but I hope that an unusual, unique romance might happen between the two main characters at some point.





Fridays: Half my monthly Fridays are spent with friends -- just me and my friends while the guys stay at home on their computers... I'm the "guy" in the house if you haven't figured that out yet!

     "Dracula" is currently the only show I watch or DVR on this evening. Vampires... if it has vampires I have to give it a try (or robots, I have to give that a try to but for moral reasons I won't watch anything on FOX) and I was enticed by the first episode.  So far I'm not disappointed and I hope it continues to develop and we start seeing more of this vampire culture that the big bad human group is afraid of.  The basic underlining premise reminds me of John Carpenter's "Dracula" which twists some common ideas about the story.






Saturdays: Right now nothing on Saturdays has my attention.  Normally I'd be on Syfy or BBC America but their current shows do not appeal to me.  I'm waiting for "Doctor Who" to come back and something that looks more entertaining than lame to pop up on Syfy... but I'm not holding my breath for that.

So anyone watch any of these shows, too?

Gut-Level Academics

I'm watching a television series with my partner, in this case "SeaQuest," and their third episode involves the finding of the sunken Library of Alexandria. The Academic in me, the one who is an ancient historian with graduate level work in archaeology and folklore, is going nuts as the dive teams are touching, unrolling, and just poorly storing every bloody artifact they find. I'm watching and cringing, making horrified noises, and from time to time yelling at the characters.

Your wet and you take out a scroll, why would that possibly be a problem?

 Of course I know this is just a television show and nothing they are touching or "finding" is real but this is a great example of how difficult it can be to enjoy popular culture when you an "expert".

 I'm sure most of you reading this have training or education or experiences that cause similar reactions when you are watching a TV show, a movie, reading a book, or checking out a play or piece of music even. Usually I can control this gut-level academic reaction so I can enjoy things with my family and friends. 

Today I would like to walk you through the steps I take to try to I enjoy what I'm watching/reading/etc without over-reacting. Let me say that I have a a very different expectation for scholarly or science documentaries about the ancient world than the expectations I have for pop culture or entertainment media.

 I have zero tolerance for misrepresentations of facts for documentaries and educational material but entertainment should first and foremost entertain the target audience and secondarily get the facts right.

 Yes, pop cultural use of history should still be historical, fictionalized events should still be logical and rational, reflecting the best information and playing with the unknown or the data that is debated. I think most mass media historical recreations or forays into the science of archaeology and related fields could be just as entertaining with the correct facts as with pure imagination. You just have to have better writers, better directors, better actors, and higher production values.

If you are on the History Channel or a documentary that is claiming to be fact then you have zero excuse for messing things up.  If you can't do better than a freshman in one of my university classes, you have no business being involved in making this program or show.

 When I'm watching something that is going to have a trigger period or science for me I try to do a few things so I can enjoy it.

 1. Repeat to myself -- it's just TV/movie/book... this can get tiresome depending on how bad the show is.  I find my tolerance is also based on other things going on in my life.

2. Watch with someone who knows nothing -- as they enjoy I hope to get caught up in their feelings.

3. Focus on the actors, costumes, set, etc. -- this works particularly well if the actors are attractive to me or are one of my favorites.

4. Research the show so I am aware of any problems -- this might seem like it would only rile me up more but actually I'm one of those folks who doesn't mind knowing the plot or the ending because I'm more interested in the journey. I find that knowing what is wrong before I start watching/reading/listening helps me ignore it, sort of a "someone else all ready bashed this, I can enjoy it!" feeling. For example before seeing "Troy" starring Brad Pitt you might want to read this review.

5. Remember that I can always turn it off -- unless I need to watch it for a class or because I've been asked to write a review, I don't have to watch it.  In a theater?  I can still walk out.  Have it on DVD?  Return it; this works great with Netflix because I get unlimited rentals each month so who cares if this one sucks.

So there you have it.  Yup, I can enjoy the ancient world in all aspects and still feel like a historian... usually.

Please tell me what you do to enjoy entertainment and still keep your expertise satisfied while you are watching mass media.

Note: The image is from http://blackandgoldreview.com, borrowed simply because I do not have the skills to capture my own stills from something I'm watching.

Non-Heroic Attitudes on "Heroes of Cosplay"

I'm a science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc fan and author so I had to check out the new SyFy series "Heroes of Cosplay" even though I don't normally watch competition shows.  I've seen some episodes of a few other art competition shows in the past and thought may this might also have commentary on geek culture and conventions that have been getting so much attention on the Net this year especially in regards to women in the subculture. After three episodes I feel that I need to express some of my thoughts.

Episode one made it clear that this was not a regular competition series.  This isn't "Face Off" (SyFy), "Design Star" (HGTV), or "Top Chef" (Bravo) where a group of competitors have specific tasks they most complete and then a winner or loser is declared for each episode.  Thank goodness!  I find so many of those shows contrived and I get bored after awhile as the artists and chefs start arguing while they are supposed to be creating.  No, "Heroes of Cosplay" follows eight artists who compete in the cosplay category at science fiction, anime, and related conventions around the USA. The ninth "hero" is Yaya Han who has turned her own cosplay and competing in contests at convention into a career.  Given that only one man is a "hero" on this show, though there are support male staff, assistants, and lovers of some of the other "heroes" I hoped this show would address some of the fandom problems that have be getting Net attention this year.

My hopes were almost dashed in episode two when our cosplay competitors get together at the convention to welcome the newest member Chloe Dykstra.  Up until this point in the show I had been impressed with the helpful advice and commentary from Yaya Han .  However during this dinner the other cosplayer competitors there, the vast majority of whom are female with only a few supportive males at this dinner, start making comments about how certain body types should not be doing cosplay and when Chloe objects they basically tell her that she is naive and they are trying to protect people from rude comments in person and online.

STOP!

What?

One of the threads in this episode before this dinner was Yaya telling us and Monika Lee (whom she sees as a good friend and protégé) that sexy shouldn't be the focus for cosplay.  Yaya is the "Ambassador of Cosplay" and at first I thought the "sexy isn't the point" was a pretty cool statement to make.  Yaya's own career shows that she tries to make the characters she is playing come alive, yes, some of them, many of them, let's be honest, are sexy because this is how women have been shown in much of geek culture.  I thought she might be making a comment about how anyone who wants to cosplay should and that promoting just the sexual spin is undermining the point of cosplay.

Until she and the rest of the cosplay competitors used that old excuse of caring about overweight people's feelings as a reason they shouldn't cosplay as certain characters.

Had the group at dinner been discussing competing in cosplay competitions their weight comment would have made perfect sense.  In the competitions you are judged on the quality of the costume and the quality of your acting like the character.  If you being an existing character it makes perfect sense that you want your body type to match as closely as possible the character.  But they didn't say they were only talking about the competitions, they made a blanket statement about who should and how they should cosplay.

Some reviews online of this episode and the previous one have pointed out that Becky Young, another competitor, said that she picks characters that fit her body type and are attempting to make the dinner conversation and her state equivalent.  They are not the same and this is why.

Becky's comment was about her choices as a cosplay competitor, someone who does contests for money and to promote her career.  She was not making a comment about how other people, especially non-contest cosplayers, should be dressed.  One comment is personal, the other comments are presented as a group acceptance of some universal standard for anyone who wants to cosplay in public.

Note that the sexy isn't the point idea is also presented as Yaya's vision not an ideal embraced by the group of competitors on the show.

Yes, people can be cruel but telling others how to dress because you don't want their feelings hurt is really just empowering that cruelty to continue. It is really just promoting the stereotypes about geek culture and not confronting them.

But then again is this show about confronting stereotypes and promoting cosplay for a wider audience?  Given that so many of our competitors are trying to make careers out of this not just as cosplayers but as prop and costume makers I'd think they'd want to maximize their potential buyers circle.  You don't do that by saying who can and can't pretend to be a particular character for fun. You do that by making a wide range of sizes or opening up the custom made aspect but you also do that by speaking up for every geek's right to embody their favorite characters without cruelty.

Episode three seemed to happen in a vacuum with only a few of our previous competitors showing up for Megacon.  The episode fell back on the relationship between competitors and their supportive lovers and friends or in this case the potential break up of the Jessica and Holly team who have been friends for even longer than they've been business partners.  I suppose this relationship stuff is interesting but given that we don't know how the cast was chosen for this series I'm not as invested in them as individuals as I am in their approach to cosplay as potential career versus fun hobby, buying into the stereotypes of fandom versus expanding the audience and customers of cosplay.  On the up side I wasn't turn off or inflamed by this episode so I'll watch again and see if the bugaboo of sexism and sizism rears up again.