Thinking the Thoughts
Feb. 15th, 2004 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedeadlyhook| Marriage is love. | |||||
As probably everbody on my friends list probably already knows, this year will be it for Angel the series. There's not going to be another season. I've been slow to post my own reaction to this and let myself spend a day or so absorbing others' reactions instead. After doing so, I've got a better handle, I think, on my own feelings. Don't worry, no rants here.
I find it easy to relate on some level or another to all of the opinions I've read - all the dismay, all the shock, the mournful loss of something good and valuable and thought-provoking... that I get, for sure. I also get the anger, the write-in campaigns, and the behind-the-scenes speculation. I get the it-just-isn't fair question of "why is a good show like AtS getting canceled when crap like Charmed is still going?" Every point of view makes sense to me. I don't think it's likely that the WB will respond to a campaign, but I don't see that as a reason not to try - go out fighting, no? But yeah, eventually, we're all going to be dealing with an aftermath.
And here's the one opinion that keeps coming up in almost all the posts, and this is where I take hope for the future - the desperate note about the sadness of the fandom itself vanishing... that once the show is gone, all these people who came together over BtVS and AtS will no longer talk, or have anything to talk about.
Friends, I'm here to tell you that's not gonna happen. It'll change, yes. The tone will change. The party atmosphere I've been sort of vicariously enjoying from the sidelines will by and large be gone, because that game of telephone that takes place with each new epiosde will no longer be available, because there won't be any more new episodes. So that, unfortunately, will be a thing of the past. And that's sad... but it's also not something that could have gone on forever anyway, That event was always waiting in the wings, either this year or next year, and it so happens it's happening now. So we have to deal.
What will continue: The fanfic archives. The philosphical discussion sites. No, these won't be as active as they used to be, but they will be meeting places - more valuable than ever, in fact - for people who are still using their brains to ponder these subjects. And if I were going to prophesize here, I'd say the show itself going away is more likely to be a catalyst for people to want to come together in person, when they might not have before, through conventions and whatnot. There will still be talk here on LiveJournal, because some people (cough, like me, cough) just can't stop talking once they get a bug in their ear about a certain topic. I have whole reams of material I've been wanting to get out about gender politics on these shows, and how they relate on a conscious and/or subconscious level to the larger culture. I may even have a book in me someday on this sort of thing, and I have the deep thoughts from BtVS/AtS to thank for getting my mind organized on a lot of it, ramped up and amped up and really noticing patterns in our society and how it portrays social issues. These aren't things I'll stop thinking about just because the show went away, and I daresay a lot of other people - plenty of deep-thinking fic writers out there I could name, especially - feel the same.
So yes, the show is ending. I have thoughts still about where the season might be going and how it might end, but will leave those for the episode discussions I mentioned above. Knowing that we only have a little time left is all the more reason to savor it while we can.
But finally, here's a thought which might bring some cheer: to address the "what a lame culture we live in" cry of why a TV network would choose to jettison AtS in favor of mediocre programming and more reality TV... this happens constantly. It's the natural cycle. There are always visions that get ahead of the culture as a whole. It's actually no real surprise that the WB doesn't "get" why a large portion of AtS's audience got something more significant out of the show than simple Wednesday night entertainment - if anything, that pretty much proves that it was saying something significant, just like truly groundbreaking musicians aren't usually as popular during their lifetimes as they are later. They're breaking ground, so of course they don't fit into the overall pop culture... yet. That's why it's so important that the rest of us keep talking about the issues that got brought up here and carry them on to the next generation.
Here's an example. Original Star Trek only ran three seasons, and that only because intense fan campaigning kept it on the air. It's fair to say the producers of that series didn't "get" what its viewers got out of that show either. (This is not to say every show that gets canceled had a lot to say about the human condition, but I'd say it's fair of most with a strong fan base, like AtS.) But its viewers certainly did, and for quite some time after that show went off the air, pretty much anyone who got into the space program was doing so because they believed in the promise of a future like the one they saw on Star Trek... and also that a future like that was worth fighting for.
So on BtVS and AtS... time is going to have its own say on what these series meant to the culture as a whole. I have my own opinions about the varying levels of success or failure in some of the messages the show was trying (or not trying) to send, but that they were significant is beyond questions. They've had an effect. And it's the people who keep speaking about these issues and messages after the shows themselves are gone get to be the new standard carriers. (And no, I'm not trying to make this sound like a holy crusade.) So I'm excited, in a way. To see what the future brings. To see what kind of future the viewers of these shows will make.
Till then, let's dish about the eps. I'll be here. ; )
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-16 06:04 pm (UTC)I didn't know about the cancellation until this morning (oddly, my relatives-in-law at the wedding aren't so into AtS). I am awfully sad. And I hope the fandom goes on.
Are you going to writercon, or any of the other cons in the next 6 months or so?
Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 07:14 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 07:21 pm (UTC)You should go!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 07:23 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 07:34 pm (UTC)Good night!
Re: Oh Happy Day!
Date: 2004-02-16 09:02 pm (UTC)Okay, pimp alert! Herself is a fanfic goddess. She writes the most intense, angsty BtVS fic out there. Reading her work is like drinking tears straight from the bottle, no joke. It's beautiful. If you have not yet discovered her fic, please do so now. The new story on her LJ is a continuation of "Mrs. Grieves and the Abandoned Husband," a veritable masterpiece of originality, hearttfelt emotion, historical detail, intense character study, and a lot of other superlatives I'd use if I were a good enough writer to summon them up. Read her fic. If you need a starter piece, go to the site linked off her LJ and try "Disenchantment," "Leather," or "What She Deserves." Mind-blowing work.
And totally don't worry about clogging my LJ! It's what it's here for. : ) Thanks for the site kudos (believe it or not, I really do intend to finish up my reivews on the rest of the season, and Angel as well), and the convention recs. I've never been to Pennsylvania, so it's hardly out of the question that I might go, unless something else comes up this summer... I love traveling. Las Vegas is of course close, so I'll be giving that one some serious thought.
Goodnight, and happy reading!