When Fandoms Divide...

[cj2017]

Fed up with the TSCC haters? Me too.

When Fandoms Divide…
 

 

I’ve been a fan of something for as long as I can remember: Dr Who (when I was young enough not to notice the cardboard sets), Northern Exposure (still love it), A Country Practice (you’ll never have heard of it), Midnight Caller (sorry), James Cameron movies (post Piranha 2, pre-Titanic)… It seems to be ingrained in my geeky little soul: fall hard, fall utterly. 

In the early years, I was always a fan in isolation. Watching on my own, collecting, writing, and trying and failing to find other people who shared the same love. Then came The X-Files and the internet. I was at university and the ‘net was new. I had already become hooked on Mulder, Scully and their respective quests, and suddenly there were newsgroups and websites and other fans. There were other people who knew episode titles, and directors, and could randomly quote from 1X14 without having to go back and rewatch it. I spent hours and hours online, ran a fanzine, devoured fan fiction, made many friends, married one of them and lived happily ever after. The fandom was a community and it felt like home. As the show ran on, and the fandom grew exponentially, predictable splits appeared. There were those who preferred Mulder to Scully, and those who thought Mulder was a toe-rag who wasn’t worthy of the little red-head’s devotion. Mulder got paired off with Skinner, or Krycek, and occasionally with both simultaneously. The Mythology was lauded by some and despaired of by most. Attempts to create rifts between the lead characters within the show were systematically debunked, treated as hokum and tolerated with good humour, until Chris Carter behaved himself again. When the show needed it the most, during those first shaky Friday nights, the fans were there; talking it up, creating momentum and more importantly creating a buzz that reached beyond the internet into wider publicity. The X-Files lived or died based on its internet fandom and it didn’t just survive its Friday night death-slot, it burst out of it and became a massive hit.

So why is it going so wrong for TSCC?

               TSCC is the first show I’ve truly geeked-out on since The X-Files. I’ve had dalliances in between: Farscape (stupidly fell in love after the fact, when it was already cancelled), Buffy, Xena and Alias, but nothing like this. Not to the extent of sleepless, adrenaline-filled nights following great episodes, chatting on forums for hours, writing and posting fan fic, watching most of Lena Headey’s movies (including The Contractor and The Cave) and of course the obsessive worrying about the ratings and demographics and Live +7 numbers. I love this show; it’s occupying an unhealthy amount of my time and I’m relishing every minute. There is, however, something that’s eating away at me, and it’s there screaming constantly at the Official Blog, at the Wiki, and occasionally but in much politer terms at The Sarah Connor Society: the fandom is completely and utterly divided. And when we rate 3 million live viewers, we’re not a large enough entity to be tearing ourselves apart. This show, this one that we all love, we’re going to kill it if we’re not careful.

               The split seems to fall into two factions. Those who appreciate the show for what it is, who value Sarah as a lead character, but who are perfectly capable of enjoying episodes focusing on other plotlines or characters (such as Allison from Palmdale or Self Made Man, both Cameron-centric). And on the other side are those who don’t rate (and occasionally announce they won’t even watch) an episode unless Cameron/John are front and centre, or shit is being blown up, or ideally both at the same time. The decision to open the Back 9 with the continuation of a three episode Sarah-arc fanned the flames, then added a bit of gasoline and poked it with a stick for good measure. Two of the best episodes the show has ever produced (The Good Wound and Some Must Watch…) received some of the most vitriolic criticism from the J/C fans, who slammed them for being slow, for being boring, for not having Cameron shooting enough shit out of stuff. For just not having enough Cameron.

And herein lies the crux.

TSCC is a show with a leading actress (Headey) and a leading face (Glau). Glau was always going to bring in her established fanboys/girls, so, while Headey was acting her heart out in The Good Wound, Fox were advertising the episode and the new timeslot with that Grindhouse trailer featuring Glau, guns and nothing but Glau with guns. People tuning in on the back of that advert were, understandably, a little perturbed by an episode focusing on Sarah’s struggle to get a bullet out of her leg, whilst holding conversations with her deceased love. Glau, meanwhile, got a couple of scenes and so few lines you could count them on one hand. Two weeks later, Some Must Watch… aired, and – with the Official Blog taking a pre-emptively defensive position - the shit really hit the fan. If ever there was an episode that delineated the split in the fandom, this was the one. Personally, the episode left me reeling, choked with the sudden twist away from what I had imagined was its reality, and utterly drawn in by Headey’s performance and the layers upon layers that the writers had managed to fit into 43 minutes. This was as good as the show had ever been. Many thought likewise. Just as many disagreed, and did so with vehemence: “Thanks for killing this show”, “I don’t understand why an established main character like Sarah Connor needs to have her mental problems explored”, “ Are you trying to get the show canceled? Less drama, more robots.”* The Wiki was so negative that a thread for fans who actually enjoyed the episode was opened, because they were tired of being drawn into discussions wherein being right meant being able to shout the loudest. One week later, and Cameron and John shared the focus in Ourselves Alone, and it’s all sweetness and light again on the boards. The damage, however, may already have been done.

I don’t have a solution, but there’s definitely a problem. Fox have to assume some of the blame for their marketing decisions, which have consistently given fans false expectations of the show, and consequently left them feeling bitter and deceived when those expectations are not met. Instead of marketing TSCC as an intelligently written drama (albeit with a SF-bent), featuring some of the strongest writing for female characters currently on television, they threw Glau’s face onto everything and hoped that would be enough. The show is worth more than that; it’s better than that. At no point should the production team be apologizing for steering the show away from the image created by its merchandising. They should be standing up, telling people “yes, we wrote that, we’re proud of it, and y’know what, if we get the opportunity we’re probably going to do it again.” As fans, we aren’t supposed to be uncritical or unthinking. We aren’t supposed to sit back and blindly adore everything that our chosen show gives us (Desert Cantos on anyone’s favourites list? Thought not.) But so much rampant negativity and divisiveness breeds more of the same, and - with five weeks to go to until the show ends its run – it might be time we all started cheering for the home team and appreciating exactly what we’ve got, before it’s too late.

 

*quotes lifted verbatim from the Official Blog following the airing of Some Must Watch…

Comments

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

First rule of TSCC Fandom - don't go to the Wiki
Second rule of TSCC Fandom - don't go to the Wiki
Third Rule of TSCC Fandom - ignore the idiots on the official blog
Fourth Rule of TSCC Fandom - don't go to the wiki
Fifth Rule of TSCC Fandom - don't over-estimate the importance of internet fandom to a show: internet *traffic* is good. A single forum howling about this character or that is more or less irrelevant.
Sixth Rule of TSCC Fandom - don't go to the Wiki.
Seventh Rule of TSCC Fandom - read what Josh Friedman says not what people write about what he says.
Eighth Rule of TSCC Fandom - there is a silent majority, which you can see here on LJ that *does* like the show that's being made, not the one that's never going to be made. Embrace them and make your own point of view heard.
Ninth Rule of TSCC Fandom - remember that the one fanpost to be linked from the official blog was written by RoxyB.
Tenth Rule of TSCC Fandom - don't go to the Wiki.

And First General Rule of Fandom - all internet fandom is *exactly* like this. Second seasons are always when the howling morons come out of the woodwork upset that the show being made doesn't match the show in their tiny pinheads. I've seen it with X-Files, Xena, Veronica Mars and, Dear GOD, the divisiveness over the fourth season of Farscape continues to split the fandom To. This. Day.

Official boards and forums tend to be the most toxic because they're the easiest to find and tend to have the least restrictive posting policies. The SCS, for example, is heavily moderated for content and language. TWoP likewise although to a different standard. The Wiki and the Offficial blog are, to greater or lesser degrees free-for-alls in terms of opinion. Read the comments at your own risk.

Edit the third - cofax7 makes an excellent point on another subject that the other problem with official forums, like the comments section on newspapers, is that there's almost no community, so there's no sense of accountability. Hence the nasty.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thank fuck for RoxyB.

Problem with TSCC is that this *is* pretty much still its first season (thanks to the writer's strike) - these should be the good fandom days not the tearing apart days. What chance do we have with new viewers if the opinions of the loudest fans are so toxic and public? It also gives grist to the cancellation mill: "well, even its fans are sick of it."

I love the SCS forum because it has more of the sense of community that there was with online XF fandom. It seems to be a refuge where people come when they've been beaten down or shouted out by the haters. As a rule, I don't go to the Wiki, I can't bear it. I read the Blog occasionally - more so for the updates than the opinions. I know it's within our nature as fans to form factions, it just seems to be a really, really bad time to be doing so, right now. Makes me sad that the show has a branch of its fans who define themselves as "Haters." Isn't that a contradiction in terms?!

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Alas, not really.

Wait until you get the "alternative season" gang who will rewrite the episodes to suit their personal kinks.

But from a survival standpoint - they're still watching right? The problem starts when people *stop* talking.

[roxybisquaint.livejournal.com]

Augh yes. Yes. Yes.

You've expressed my frustration so very well...

The nonstop screaming of "you're doing it wrong, show!!!!!!" is absolutely toxic and it makes me not want to interact with the larger fanbase at all. I feel safe here on LJ and at SCS for the most part, where the fans seem more interested in actually discussing what the show *is* instead of what it's not. And what it's not is exactly what Fox has consistently marketed it as being: an action show starring Cameron, the sexy girl cyborg. WRONG. SO wrong. Couldn't be more wrong.

It's an adult character-driven drama set against a sci-fi backdrop, with some action. And that's not exactly easy to pin down from a marketing standpoint. I get that. But by going the bait and switch route, Fox has created it's own problem. They have viewers who don't want what they're seeing on screen.

I don't have a clue what the solution to this problem is either. All I can come up with is a great big SHUT THE FUCK UP! shout at the chronic complainers. The show I want to see is the show that grabbed me a year or so ago and hasn't let me go since. And I'd honestly rather TSCC die on it's own terms than evolve to fit the marketing or cater to "fans" who don't even like what it is.

I love this show. Please don't die, show. And please don't change (unless that change includes reinstating Sarah VOs).

[roxybisquaint.livejournal.com]

So then what happens in fandom in a 3rd season? Do the factions get louder and meaner or do people start calming down?

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

You get old skule fans.

It's all rather... juvenile.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

Third season is traditionally a "rift" season of some description. When the PTB try to bugger things up between lead characters by throwing the proverbial spanner into the works. TSCC jumped ahead with that though by breaking Sarah and John up for most of this season, chucking Jesse in with Derek and - for good measure - adding Riley. Boy, when they go for rifts, they really go for it!

As for S3 fan factions, I think that's when they start with the "it's not as good as it was", "it's sold out to the mainstream", "does Summer look pregnant, or did she just get fat?"

Hell, for a season three, I'd take all of the above.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

I worry about that slightly: the fitting to the marketing/more vocal fans aspect. I would love a third season, I would make a lot of deals with dubious, soul-sucking demons for a third season, but I want it to be a third season of *this* show, the one that I love, not some refashioning based on market trends.

We already know Fox got involved in shaping S2 - Riley, Terminator of the Week, less serialisation -so it concerns me that the official forums are the forums that are jammed with the viewers shouting, clamouring for their changes to be made. Having said that, I think of Earthlings, The Good Wound and Some Must Watch and get a warm fuzzy that Josh has his own vision for the show and he's sticking to it. And the ratings for Ourselves Alone sucked the worst of all so maybe the Jameronians won't get their way! It does amuse me though, the amount of "Dear Josh, do it like this" type posts. I do like their optimism.

[cats-paws.livejournal.com]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, y'know - here goes :-)

Are you not confusing the fandom tearing itself apart with the show doing so? Shows do not generally live or die depending on the harmony of their internet followings.

If a fandom's splitting up, maybe it's just reached critical mass - it's not just the anonymity of the internet that allows rudeness and factionism, it's the size of the fandom - the necessity or otherwise of repeat encounters determining the need for co-operation.

And preferences for different pairings isn't really a sign of a fandom disintegrating - you're always going to get different permutations, you always did - even back in the olden days with TXF, and (to take your example of M/K) a liking for slash has never necessarily precluded support of a het OTP. It doesn't mean the show's dying, it's just people enjoying different aspects of it.

Even if a show did live or die by its fandom, would you really want one in which everyone must be uncritical and agreeable at all times? Perhaps you should be happy that TSCC is healthy enough to allow factions, when some fandoms I might mention are so tiny they have to huddle together and play nice with others barely-related to get noticed at all...

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

I think it's easy to forget that a bunch of impossible-to-please gits online, doesn't make or break a show. It's especially hard to disconnect from that fear when you become so immersed in the fandom. You forget that there are five million + people tuning in regularly and only a tiny fraction of these are vocal online.

I know there are always going to be different pairings favoured - wouldn't have it any other way. Problem with some of the fans for this show, is that they're not satisfied just writing/reading fic, they want to see their vision made reality in the episodes and if it's not then their interest might wane. And we need their numbers. Simple as.

Slash fans have traditionally been very happy reading slashy signs here, there and everywhere in the episodes, they're well aware that Mulder is never going to run off with Krycek but it's fun when the writers throw them a knowing bone(so to speak!) The push for more (I am *not* going to say "Jameron") John/Cameron isn't the same as regular slash, these fans actually expect to get a result.

As for uncritical fandoms. Never. Not for a minute. I can find something good to say about most of the episodes (some I struggle more with; Vick's Chip and Heavy Metal) but would never watch in a blind faith mindset of "it's all great just cos it's TSCC." Constructive criticism, I'm all for it. "I hated that Sarah one" just doesn't cut it though.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

So say we all.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Good point - second season is also the point when, hopefully, your following growns. The more people in fandom, as you say, create less need to get along with fellow fans. You can hive off, start your own cliques and so-on.

[cats-paws.livejournal.com]

Cliques, yay. Speaking as someone who has stayed awake through almost every ep so far, I think if TPTB took more notice of the Derek/Charley clique (surely, there must be one?) the show would be massively improved...

Slash fans have traditionally been very happy reading slashy signs here, there and everywhere in the episodes

No, no signs necessary, at all ;-)

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

Y'know, that is one pairing I have never seen. All I can see now is their two incredibly dodgy hair styles in the ambo in Samson & Delilah and it's making me giggle thinking about them being slashy. That's just too much lame hair for anyone to want to get slashy!

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

Ayup. I hear ya. Sending big wishes to the Ratings Gods for tonight...

[cats-paws.livejournal.com]

Nowt wrong with short dark hair, surely? *points at cj2017's short dark 'do*

And, slash - you're doing it wrong ;-)

[castellan-craft.livejournal.com]

I was browsing over your past posts looking for more fics, and found this. Even if it is a bit old...

Just wanted to thank you for airing this so coherently. Lord knows I can't. I've ducked my way out of so many fan sites of so many fandoms from fan rifts. They've been created over everything from sell out lack luster story telling, to SUPPOSED sell out that no one can recognize as a good archetype, to not enough exlosions... though the worst I ever had was an "old skule" like queen mentioned: fans beating down other fan's ideas and interpretations cause THEY met the creator at a convention and they could swear they REMEMBER him saying that wasn't the case even though they certainly don't have a transcript. Sorry. Tangent. Bitter tangent. Anyway...

The thing that worries me most isn't that the fans are bitching but that the fans including the complainers are up on the technology curve when the networks AREN'T. The fans are using every means they know to make themselves heard when at the same time Nielsen is stagnant and the fanbases are typically a LOT bigger then they can predict because they're behind the tech of the times. It makes the whiners look like that much more representative a group. A few percentage points in their craptastic favor can really make a difference.

~CC
PS, while Desert Cantos wasn't my favorite, I have to admit that upon first watch it didn't strike me as being as bad as some people seem to think it is. It just didn't really stand out much. o.O

[dj-aidatest.livejournal.com]

Excuse me while I squee - but as I was reading the first few lines I came across "Midnight Caller" and my brain went bzzzt!! Eee!! Damn. Midnight Caller, with Gary Cole, right? I've got the intro music as a ringtone on my cell.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

*LOL* Gary Cole is right. I had a big ol' crush on Devon...I loved it, and I bet it's completely unwatchable now, some shows just don't age well at all!

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

(^_^) Probably not! Would still like to see it again sometime, though, if only for the lolz. It's been years.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

^^ If you want to be really scared. Search for it on Youtube. There are some clips (I have no clue why I was looking!) and they are quite terrible. Although not quite as bad as Beauty and the Beast (Linda Hamilton version) which I used to love and is now nigh-on unwatchable.

[cj2017.livejournal.com]

The fans are using every means they know to make themselves heard when at the same time Nielsen is stagnant and the fanbases are typically a LOT bigger then they can predict because they're behind the tech of the times. It makes the whiners look like that much more representative a group.

I think that's what bothered me the most at the time. The people slamming all the Sarah eps on the Blog were shouting so loudly that they appeared to represent everyone watching. I think I jerked my knee a bit hard in response because it's obvious that they only shout for a very small number of the overall audience (an audience who tune in consistently no matter who or what the focus of the ep is.)

If the show does come back, I have faith that the writers involved will have the integrity not to lose/betray what made us fall in love with the show in the first place. I have irrational (or not so irrational, they meddled in S2 to a significant extent) fears that Fox might have other ideas...

One thing that is lovely about the show's writers (from my very Sarah-centric POV!), they do seem to get a kick out of writing for Sarah...

[4tcleric-lynx.livejournal.com]

an action show starring Cameron, the sexy girl cyborg. WRONG. SO wrong. Couldn't be more wrong.

OMG, that`s what I`m thinking about... look: vids on Youtube - Cameron, funfics - mostly Cameron. And I`m almost stat to think that it`s something wrong with me, `cos "Hello, people, this show is not about "terminatrix", it`s about humans, Sarah, John, Derek... And machine are cool, but she/(it) just add drive, make story more complicate (John`s attachment to her/it), more entertainment. But its definitely not about her!"