@Arkandel said in TV series gone awry:
@Pavel I think that makes room for some interesting questions. For example how do y’all feel about shows which were progressive for their time - even revolutionary - yet which had some real dark parts to them, the worst of which being revealed after the fact and behind the curtains?
The example I have in mind is Buffy/Angel. At the time it changed TV as we know it. And although it definitely had some iffy parts (Spike nearly raping Buffy comes to mind) for the most part it showed on screen things that hadn’t been done before. Gay relationships, dealing with parental loss, sleeping with someone who becomes a total creep afterwards, etc.
However… Joss Whedon was by all accounts a really bad excuse for a human being (this pains me to say, btw - I used to be a huge, huge fan).
How much does that paint your reception retroactively?
So I have very vague memories of watching some random, early season episodes of Buffy when it first came out. It started when I was middle school and was not something I watched obsessively at the time, so I definitely missed that whole cultural zeitgeist moment.
I did, however, try to watch it as an adult several years ago, before the Whedon scandal broke, because I was curious if it really was as revolutionary and influential as everyone said…
I couldn’t even make it through half of the first season. Xander absolutely squicked me out pretty much from the first episode and did not improve in the seven or so that I watched before just giving up. It was bad. It was really, really bad how many “rapey ‘Nice Guy’ that I’m supposed to sympathize with even though he’s absolutely gross” vibes he gave off, so while I had twenty years of social change acting to my benefit when making my judgment, I was more than a little surprised by the level of shock and “B-b-b-but feminist!!!” think pieces that came out about the show later. My response was more along the lines of “Did… did y’all watch a different show than I did? It wasn’t subtext. It was right there, and not subtle, but also something that people just thought was totally okay in the '90s. And '00s. And '10s. And… yeah, you know what, Imma just stop there. Misogyny, hurrah!”