Avert thine eyes.
Feb. 15th, 2012 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kapuahiSo, here’s the thing. I was going to do a review of 2.16 but there are many of them already bounding about that are far more eloquent than I could be for one. For another I’ve noticed that the departure of Homeland Security Officer Lori Weston has stirred up all the misogynist blatherings that abounded early in her shortlived H50 career.
This is a topic that I have something to say about.
And before I start, let me say I’m not looking for a fight, if anyone comes here looking for one, I won’t be taking the bait, so don’t even bother to go there. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. This is mine, and it’s under a cut for spoilers and the possibly annoying thoughts that it may contain.
I’m not subtle, not even a little. Y'all know that since starting my viewing I've become a staunch AOL fan and equally I’ve always spoken my mind about the new character, so I’m not going to heavily revisit that. Suffice to say I have nothing personally against the actress, my only bitch is the character was badly written, badly introduced, badly used and perhaps her acting skills were not up to what the scripts required. What I really hate is that the introduction of this character has driven a wedge into the centre of the people I call friends in this fandom and has literally destroyed our enjoyment of the second season. More about that later.
To some of you some of what I am about to say will seem like double standards, but in the simplest part of my mind it’s my opinion.
Let me explain myself to you. I’m a mid 40’s Australian woman who doesn’t mind playing on either side of the gender fence, with a penchant for guns, forensics’ and fast cars. Now let me tell you why I watch the show.
1. I love Hawaii, every grain of sand, blade of grass and tiny volcanic rock. I pine for the place when I’m home in australia. I voraciously watch everything that I know is filmed there, every crappy movie, every bad series, always have done way back to my teens when I saw the original Five-0. It was a forgone conclusion I would watch the reboot. Sometimes I couldn’t even tell you what has been going on in the foreground because I’m watching the real star. Hawaii.
2. I’m watching because it’s a crime procedural of sorts. I used to watch them all. The Law and Order franchise, the CSI franchise, the NCIS franchise, Castle, Bones, Body of Proof etc. I like the genre. I now watch just four and only two of them religiously. Five 0 and NCIS LA are downloaded as soon as I get my grabby hands on them. Castle and Bones I watch when they screen in Australia which is usually woefully later.
Why have I reduced to two of my favourite genre?
I’m not watching these particular shows because I want to be mentally stimulated and have all the ‘ism’s of the world acknowledged in a politically correct way. I watch the shows because I want to be entertained. I want to see pretty people with pretty guns and pretty cars in pretty places keeping me involved in the story. Do I need it to be physiologically, forensically or even legally in a real life perspective? Hell No. Do I care if it’s all women who can take care of themselves and the men around them? Do I care if there are no women? Definitely not. Do I care if all the women are love interests? No.
Does that make me shallow? Probably. Do I need to turn in my barefeet and apron? Most of you will probably say yes. I like my team. I like the four core members. They don’t need a full time in the field addition. I’ll say no for now, but I’ll go into that later.
Do the core four need time off? Judging by AOL’s appearance this season, I would say, he at least does. All the introduction of Weston did for him, if anything was increase his workload.
That brings me to…
3. Have I mentioned I’m loyal. If I have an actor I appreciate I will follow them through everything they do, regardless of it’s crap level. I loved DDK in Lost and Grace Park was the best part of the BSG reboot, so it was a forgone conclusion that I would be watching Five-0. Even if it had been Alaska Five-0.
4. My final reason. There is effectively no romance, no Moonlighting Effect, no cluttering up my show with smouldering looks and lingering touches. If I wanted that I would be watching the Bold and The Beautiful. I watch my action/adventure/crime procedurals for a reason. That would be the big bangs and the unexpected crimey stuff.
That would of course exclude one of my favourite parts of the show, but we all know that Steve and Danny will never be a romantic couple on screen, so I will just sit back and enjoy AOL’s acting choices.
That will bring me to my problem with Season 2 of Five 0.
Lori Weston.
And before we all go getting on our high horses and smiting my sorry ass for singling her out as the root of all season 2 problems, I will explain why in my world she is the central problem for me. To you she might be the bright shining star that could have taken the show to another level, but to me she was the reason my season 2 has mostly been in the toilet. And no she's not the only problem but she's the biggest and without her we may not have even noticed the rest.
My reasons?
* Since her very first episode she has been touted to be good at this, better at that, excellent at something else. Never, not once, in the writing or the acting has she shown this. Several times in fact she has looked self-dangerous with her firearms, once I’m sure if it had been a real situation at least one of the leads would have been the victim of friendly fire. Before I hear the female card thrown in or the she’s not had time to get comfortable period, turn your attention back to my favourite female on TV, Kono. Not once in the entire series has she seemed to be anything but a woman who is completely comfortable with her weapons and her actions. To change shows Kensi from NCIS:LA seems as competent or better than most of the men in that show. I adore both of those women.
* ever since that reverse sexism opening scene we had with her offering Steve the sports pages she has played the smitten lassy. It only made her seem a simpering girl who couldn’t deal. More to the point, Show didn’t need that. Not inside the team. It detracted from the partnerships that were already formed and made it even harder to inject into the team.
You want to give him a full time in every episode girlfriend, put her somewhere else. Make her a consultant, give her a role like Laura Hills but not inside the team. It’s unprofessional. Steve has many problems and he doesn’t always follow the well tread legal path, but he is never anything but professional with his current work mates, and I’m putting Cath to one side in that equation because I don’t ever remember hearing that they served together.
* The first season existed heavily on the bromance. Adding a fifth person has only made them play hot potato with her and made them all seem awkward. Granted towards the end of her tenure things seemed to be getting easier and more normalised, but was that what it seemed or just because they pushed the character to the side?
* If as rumour had it she was punishment for Scott Caan and Grace Park’s continual bitching that they didn’t get enough time off, no one could say that that went well. She was supposedly proof that they could be replaced. If that is the case it was an experiment in punishment that backfired dismally. Not only did the lack of Kono and Danny screen time detract from the show, it also damaged Lori’s insertion as seen by the fans as Kono-replacement.
So, in conclusion to anyone who has stayed the distance of this rambling that I needed to get off my chest. It doesn’t matter to me that she’s female, that she’s mary sue or whatever. She needed to go before she killed the show.
They can insert love interests wherever they please (Gabby is a shining example of this), or insert external to the team competent women (Laura Hills anyone) but don’t jam them straight in the middle and expect them to take just like that.
And if you've lasted through that you really don't want to get me started on the Governor, Joe and the percieved acting skills of the extended cast.
This is a topic that I have something to say about.
And before I start, let me say I’m not looking for a fight, if anyone comes here looking for one, I won’t be taking the bait, so don’t even bother to go there. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. This is mine, and it’s under a cut for spoilers and the possibly annoying thoughts that it may contain.
I’m not subtle, not even a little. Y'all know that since starting my viewing I've become a staunch AOL fan and equally I’ve always spoken my mind about the new character, so I’m not going to heavily revisit that. Suffice to say I have nothing personally against the actress, my only bitch is the character was badly written, badly introduced, badly used and perhaps her acting skills were not up to what the scripts required. What I really hate is that the introduction of this character has driven a wedge into the centre of the people I call friends in this fandom and has literally destroyed our enjoyment of the second season. More about that later.
To some of you some of what I am about to say will seem like double standards, but in the simplest part of my mind it’s my opinion.
Let me explain myself to you. I’m a mid 40’s Australian woman who doesn’t mind playing on either side of the gender fence, with a penchant for guns, forensics’ and fast cars. Now let me tell you why I watch the show.
1. I love Hawaii, every grain of sand, blade of grass and tiny volcanic rock. I pine for the place when I’m home in australia. I voraciously watch everything that I know is filmed there, every crappy movie, every bad series, always have done way back to my teens when I saw the original Five-0. It was a forgone conclusion I would watch the reboot. Sometimes I couldn’t even tell you what has been going on in the foreground because I’m watching the real star. Hawaii.
2. I’m watching because it’s a crime procedural of sorts. I used to watch them all. The Law and Order franchise, the CSI franchise, the NCIS franchise, Castle, Bones, Body of Proof etc. I like the genre. I now watch just four and only two of them religiously. Five 0 and NCIS LA are downloaded as soon as I get my grabby hands on them. Castle and Bones I watch when they screen in Australia which is usually woefully later.
Why have I reduced to two of my favourite genre?
I’m not watching these particular shows because I want to be mentally stimulated and have all the ‘ism’s of the world acknowledged in a politically correct way. I watch the shows because I want to be entertained. I want to see pretty people with pretty guns and pretty cars in pretty places keeping me involved in the story. Do I need it to be physiologically, forensically or even legally in a real life perspective? Hell No. Do I care if it’s all women who can take care of themselves and the men around them? Do I care if there are no women? Definitely not. Do I care if all the women are love interests? No.
Does that make me shallow? Probably. Do I need to turn in my barefeet and apron? Most of you will probably say yes. I like my team. I like the four core members. They don’t need a full time in the field addition. I’ll say no for now, but I’ll go into that later.
Do the core four need time off? Judging by AOL’s appearance this season, I would say, he at least does. All the introduction of Weston did for him, if anything was increase his workload.
That brings me to…
3. Have I mentioned I’m loyal. If I have an actor I appreciate I will follow them through everything they do, regardless of it’s crap level. I loved DDK in Lost and Grace Park was the best part of the BSG reboot, so it was a forgone conclusion that I would be watching Five-0. Even if it had been Alaska Five-0.
4. My final reason. There is effectively no romance, no Moonlighting Effect, no cluttering up my show with smouldering looks and lingering touches. If I wanted that I would be watching the Bold and The Beautiful. I watch my action/adventure/crime procedurals for a reason. That would be the big bangs and the unexpected crimey stuff.
That would of course exclude one of my favourite parts of the show, but we all know that Steve and Danny will never be a romantic couple on screen, so I will just sit back and enjoy AOL’s acting choices.
That will bring me to my problem with Season 2 of Five 0.
Lori Weston.
And before we all go getting on our high horses and smiting my sorry ass for singling her out as the root of all season 2 problems, I will explain why in my world she is the central problem for me. To you she might be the bright shining star that could have taken the show to another level, but to me she was the reason my season 2 has mostly been in the toilet. And no she's not the only problem but she's the biggest and without her we may not have even noticed the rest.
My reasons?
* Since her very first episode she has been touted to be good at this, better at that, excellent at something else. Never, not once, in the writing or the acting has she shown this. Several times in fact she has looked self-dangerous with her firearms, once I’m sure if it had been a real situation at least one of the leads would have been the victim of friendly fire. Before I hear the female card thrown in or the she’s not had time to get comfortable period, turn your attention back to my favourite female on TV, Kono. Not once in the entire series has she seemed to be anything but a woman who is completely comfortable with her weapons and her actions. To change shows Kensi from NCIS:LA seems as competent or better than most of the men in that show. I adore both of those women.
* ever since that reverse sexism opening scene we had with her offering Steve the sports pages she has played the smitten lassy. It only made her seem a simpering girl who couldn’t deal. More to the point, Show didn’t need that. Not inside the team. It detracted from the partnerships that were already formed and made it even harder to inject into the team.
You want to give him a full time in every episode girlfriend, put her somewhere else. Make her a consultant, give her a role like Laura Hills but not inside the team. It’s unprofessional. Steve has many problems and he doesn’t always follow the well tread legal path, but he is never anything but professional with his current work mates, and I’m putting Cath to one side in that equation because I don’t ever remember hearing that they served together.
* The first season existed heavily on the bromance. Adding a fifth person has only made them play hot potato with her and made them all seem awkward. Granted towards the end of her tenure things seemed to be getting easier and more normalised, but was that what it seemed or just because they pushed the character to the side?
* If as rumour had it she was punishment for Scott Caan and Grace Park’s continual bitching that they didn’t get enough time off, no one could say that that went well. She was supposedly proof that they could be replaced. If that is the case it was an experiment in punishment that backfired dismally. Not only did the lack of Kono and Danny screen time detract from the show, it also damaged Lori’s insertion as seen by the fans as Kono-replacement.
So, in conclusion to anyone who has stayed the distance of this rambling that I needed to get off my chest. It doesn’t matter to me that she’s female, that she’s mary sue or whatever. She needed to go before she killed the show.
They can insert love interests wherever they please (Gabby is a shining example of this), or insert external to the team competent women (Laura Hills anyone) but don’t jam them straight in the middle and expect them to take just like that.
And if you've lasted through that you really don't want to get me started on the Governor, Joe and the percieved acting skills of the extended cast.
