US version of Torchwood
Well. http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/01/fox-readying-us-version-of-torchwood-.html
This is a fairly strong rumor and if so it's about as nightmarish a scenario as I can imagine. Fox – of Fox News – picking up a show that (used) to have a welcome and strong queer content. A show that, in its previous season had characters on the show spew mocking and homophobic messages and then fridged the (supposed) queer. And then the produce and creator of the show hared off to Los Angeles for his career.
Offhand, I can't think of a situation that plays more strongly into the worst interpretation of the events surrounding CoE than this.
*When CoE first aired, there were theories that the death of Ianto Jones was partly due to the desire to 'mainstream' the show.
*That the increased heteronormative message in the show (Gwen's ... uh, 'desire' to have her baby, the death of the child of a single parent, the punishing of characters with different lifestyle choices) as another mainstreaming attempt.
*There were theories that RTD was breaking the toys in Britain to shore up his career in the US.
*That they'd create a brand-new Torchwood by burning down the old.
Gee. It looks less hysterical now.
Whether or not RTD intended it, the picking up of the show (if true) by a conservative US station, after the events in CoE really, *really* look like pandering to homophobic mainstreaming demands. It makes pattern and style of Ianto's death, Steven's death (child of a single mother, remember), Jack's suffering (the queer hero always ends up broken by his own desires), so very much a piece with the worst crap spewed by mainstream US media.
US TV is by almost anyone's definition, more regressive and stereotyped than most any other European TV show. Torchwood drew a contingent of watchers who liked the show because it *wasn't* regressive and (I was going to say stereotyped but then … Toshiko), but still the show allowed for a wider range of stories and story elements than US TV generally does. Plus, Fox – not only the most conservative of the US stations, it is traditionally the place where good shows go to die.
I sincerely hope this rumor isn't true but it sounds sickeningly likely.
This is a fairly strong rumor and if so it's about as nightmarish a scenario as I can imagine. Fox – of Fox News – picking up a show that (used) to have a welcome and strong queer content. A show that, in its previous season had characters on the show spew mocking and homophobic messages and then fridged the (supposed) queer. And then the produce and creator of the show hared off to Los Angeles for his career.
Offhand, I can't think of a situation that plays more strongly into the worst interpretation of the events surrounding CoE than this.
*When CoE first aired, there were theories that the death of Ianto Jones was partly due to the desire to 'mainstream' the show.
*That the increased heteronormative message in the show (Gwen's ... uh, 'desire' to have her baby, the death of the child of a single parent, the punishing of characters with different lifestyle choices) as another mainstreaming attempt.
*There were theories that RTD was breaking the toys in Britain to shore up his career in the US.
*That they'd create a brand-new Torchwood by burning down the old.
Gee. It looks less hysterical now.
Whether or not RTD intended it, the picking up of the show (if true) by a conservative US station, after the events in CoE really, *really* look like pandering to homophobic mainstreaming demands. It makes pattern and style of Ianto's death, Steven's death (child of a single mother, remember), Jack's suffering (the queer hero always ends up broken by his own desires), so very much a piece with the worst crap spewed by mainstream US media.
US TV is by almost anyone's definition, more regressive and stereotyped than most any other European TV show. Torchwood drew a contingent of watchers who liked the show because it *wasn't* regressive and (I was going to say stereotyped but then … Toshiko), but still the show allowed for a wider range of stories and story elements than US TV generally does. Plus, Fox – not only the most conservative of the US stations, it is traditionally the place where good shows go to die.
I sincerely hope this rumor isn't true but it sounds sickeningly likely.