Happy Belated Festivus! (+ The Airing of Grievances)

Yesterday, was Festivus and I forgot to post it. Well, I want to wish all who celebrated yesterday a wonderful Festivus. Below are a couple of grievances that I wanted to air.

The Airing of Grievances:

- Why are there so many reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels, etc.? Why are the Hollywood executives not taking more chances with new and different ideas? Instead they are just rehashing old shows and movies. And a lot of times, the new and different tends to get cancelled before the show can find viewers. I can't believe there is this much of a demand for all these reboots, etc., it just feels like Hollywood found a low stakes form of creating. Instead of investing in new ideas.


- Platonic male best friends on shows has been the norm since the beginning of TV, which is why I don't understand where all these negative articles and posts are claiming that there aren't any anymore. They claim that there are too many slow burn friends-to-lovers relationships that have caused the decline in platonic male best friends. I don't understand how they can make that claim when there are no slow burn male best friends-to-lovers that's has happened. Where are all of these relationships at, that they are seeing?

I notice that these same critics don't have the same energy for platonic women and men friends-to-lovers relationships. Especially since this is where the majority of TV show relationships are created from. For instance, there's: Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes (Gilmore Girls), Janine Teagues and Gregory Eddie (Abbott Elementary), Seeley Booth and Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Bones), Monica Geller and Chandler Bing (Friends), Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne (A Different World), Rachel Green and Ross Geller (Friends), Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford (The Rookie), Jessica Day and Nick Miller (New Girl), Penny and Dr. Leonard Hofstadter (The Big Bang Theory), Amy Santiago and Jake Peralta (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Laura Winslow and Steve Urkel (Family Matters), just to name a few. I love all of these relationships which is why I don't understand why there is negative enegery towards the idea of slow burn male best friends-to-lovers.

There are a few male/male friends-to-lovers: David Rose and Patrick Brewer (Schitt's Creek), Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson (Heartstopper) and Dr. Oliver Wolf and Dr. Josh Nichols (Brilliant Minds) but they are not slow burn. It didn't take long for the characters to end up dating. Lately, a lot of this negative discourse started up because the popular non-canon ship of Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz and Evan "Buck" Buckley from 9-1-1 is getting a lot of attention. For the past seven years, fans have been hoping that Buck and Eddie will get the chance to go canon. And with the ship's fanbase increasing, the ship appears to be garnering more attention from fandom and entertainment sites. If Eddie and Buck do go canon, I believe this will be the first slow burn male/male friends-to-lovers relationship. Which would be wonderful but also disappointing that this ship would be the first (but hopefully not the last).

Happy Festivus! (+ The Airing of Grievances)

It's that time of the year when we celebrate Festivus which includes The Airing of Grievances. And some of mine are about TV:

1. Networks, Channels and Streaming Services doing zero or bare minimum to promote their shows. When the shows don't find an audience then they cancel them with the excuse the shows had low viewer numbers. But how can anyone watch a show they don't know exist.

2. I have an issue with those same Networks, Channels and Streaming Services also expecting fans and viewers to do free promotion for them. They're your shows, you're supposed to promote them. It's not the responsibility of the fans and viewers to do it. Fans create things about their favorite shows and characters because it's something they enjoy doing. They are not part of your Marketing team and it's not their job to promote your shows.

3. Showrunners and Writers going out of their way to ruin a show because fans and viewers can guess what's happening. And fans and viewers figuring out storylines isn't a bad thing it just means viewers are paying attention to what's happening in the show. I also notice Showrunners and Writers ignoring fans and viewers when they would like a favorite non canon couple to go canon. And then get mad at fans and viewers because they don't like the relationships the Showrunners and Writers keep trying to place those characters in. Which at times means putting those characters in relationships that don't make any sense or are simply random and lack chemistry. (Yes, this is one is aimed at the Showrunner and writers of 9-1-1).

4. Shows continuing to get fewer episodes per season. How can you build up good storytelling with six, eight or ten episodes? At times, it makes the storytelling feel rushed especially if the show has a lot of characters and multiple storylines that need to be focused on. I wish more shows would go back having at least 20 episodes per season which would give the writers time to really take their time writing good episodes.

5. I don't see why Station 19 had to be cancelled by ABC possibly because 9-1-1 was brought over. Although the shows center around first responders/fire fighters, however, both shows are fundamentally different. And they are not interchangeable. The executives at ABC could have left 9-1-1 on Mondays which is the day it aired on FOX and continued to let Station 19 hold it's day alone on Thursday. Instead 9-1-1 will air on Thursdays at 8PM and Station 19 will be pushed back to 10PM. This upcoming seventh season will be Station 19's final season which is why so many fans have been trying to save the show. There's a petition if you would like to sign it.

With all that said, Happy Festivus!

Festivus: The Airing of Grievances: Toxic Fans and Toxic Authors

Happy Festivus! I know it's a little late to post this but it's that time of the year when we celebrate this interesting holiday with The Airing of Grievances. And here are a couple of mine:

- I don't like how some "fans" harass actors over a character they don't like. There are a lot of characters that I don't like but I'm not going to waste my time bothering the actors because they play a character that I'm not a fan of. Fans need to learn how to separate the actor from the characters they play. It's okay if you don't like a character or you think the actor is terrible at acting, please feel free to write about it, talk about it, etc. but harassing an actor is taking things too far. Please don't be a fan that does that.


- Speaking of harassment, I don't like when authors harass reviewers to remove book reviews they don't like or if the review is less than five stars. I've seen where some book bloggers, bookstagramers, booktubers, etc. have mentioned that they have been contacted by authors to take down their reviews. I don't think an author should be contacting reviewers in the attempt to get a review taken down. I can understand if they feel slighted or disappointed but they have to remember that not everyone is going to like their book and harassing a reviewer is really crossing the line. Even if a book is universally panned by reviewers, I don't think an author should be going around bothering reviewers.

Festivus: The Airing of Grievances: Chloe Sullivan, Finn and Padmé Amidala

I totally forgot it's Festivus and with that comes the Airing of Grievances. Here are few of mine:

- I really wish Chloe Sullivan was written off of Smallville after the fourth season. She was important to Clark's story in high school but afterwards she should have been written off so that Clark could start to figure out who he was in the next chapter in his life. After Chloe found out Clark's secret that he was an alien and had powers in the fourth season, she had become the "brain" and would provide all the answers to whatever problems Clark needed to deal with. Unfortunately, this went on for several seasons making it seem as if Clark couldn't figure out anything on his own. Which was not true because prior to Chloe finding out, Clark solved all his hero problems on his own in seasons 1-3 and most of season 4. It was obvious the writers didn't know what to do with Chloe and she stayed on the show for way too long. It wasn't until the later seasons that Clark was finally able to start thinking for himself again.