Sunday, December 26, 2010

Why are Female Friendly Shows Being Cancelled/

I recently heard that Caprica, the BSG series targeted at female audiences, has been cancelled and is to be replaced with another Battlestar Galactica series, Blood and Chrome, about a "hotshot young pilot" Will Adama. Do we need any further evidence that the sci-fi channel is dumbing itself down even further than normal? How many times do we have to go through the "Top Gun" hotshot scenario before it gets old? It was entertaining in the BSG remake, but only because Starbuck was such a well conceived character. Clearly, this move is aimed at the testerone section of the public who wants more blood and battles.

This represents a continuing trend in sci-fi television to cancel shows that are either female friendly or portray complex female characters. I think that's one of the problems that Firefly (which I recently finished viewing) has had with the general audience. It made the mistake of viewing women as three dimensional human beings with complex personalities, personalities not reducible to stereotypes. Gina Torres's character (sorry, forgot the name), River, Caylee, and in particular, Inara, were superbly drawn, and therefore not appealing enough to men raised to simply view women as sex objects. This accomplishment was all the more remarkable considering that Inara's character was a Companion character, only the second starring sci-fi tv character to be a prostitute (Callie from the original BSG was the first). I think the real problem with the sci-fi genre as a whole right now is that it primarily read and watched by men, and is therefore targeted at the male, rather than female audience.

3 comments:

  1. I saw BSG but by the time that was over I was no longer interested in the setting so I never gave Caprica a chance. So I may watch it on netflix or hulu or whatever now.

    I am not remotely interested in a BSG Top Gun kinda show and will gladly miss that one.

    I've always enjoyed the shows that treated women as humans, Joss Whedon being a major part of this. But I am an unusual sci-fi fan.

    I believe the programming folks have decided that the women folk will be too busy watching vampires [Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc.] to bother going for the female demographic. I'm not sure that's true or smart, but whatchagunnado.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I, for one, was able to take the fully fleshed out female characters of Firefly as sex objects. But maybe I am attracted to fleshed out women and not bimbos. Hmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Budd,
    I think you accepting the women as fully fleshed characters and at the same time sexually attractive really isn't treating women like sex objects. Sexual objectification occurs when a woman is "only" appreciated for her body, rather than when that body is merely part of a complete package. Just my opinion though.

    Nick,
    I suspect you are right about that vampire connection.

    John

    ReplyDelete