Orbitals

I would be perfectly happy if every show and every movie I ever watch existed in a parallel world where women and LGBT people had already achieved radical equality.

I’d much rather have that in real life, of course. But failing that, if it existed in entertainment only at least it could lead the way like Uhura on Star Trek and provide some better entertainment.

I just can’t watch shows (especially) any more where women are just orbitals of the main characters, the “real” characters. Mad Men, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad – those are completely out for me. I just cannot do it. My mind recoils. Even if they are “historically accurate,” whatever that means.

When I find a show like Lost Girl where two women spend longer than a minute talking to each other – it’s like my brain does a happy dance. Even if at times the writing is forced, the dialogue is stilted – but it’s two interesting women! Doing things! And not just orbiting some (as is the case) usually-incredibly-boring guy.

Not that I think every show has to have a female protagonist. And not that I think every guy is boring. No. But in the main, shows like Breaking Bad et. al have been done oh-so-many times before. Come on, do something original. Lost Girl is at the least original.

And when the succubus Bo kills the creepy-but-realistic rapist near the beginning of the first episode– what a great scene. It was wish fulfillment, in the best of the ways. Not that I think all rapists deserve death. But if I saw something like that happening, I’d leave the guy in a pool of his own blood and certainly not care if he lived or died overly much – so I understand. (And not to get kudos from the woman I “saved,” because it is the right thing to do. In fact, I’d prefer that she never know who I am if something like that happened.)

All that said, shows like Breaking Bad were on TV during the 1950s. We can do better now.