Huh. I meant to make a post about Time of Your Life (which was so many levels of awesome), but I stumbled upon an unusually sane post about critiques of Joss Whedon's works. There was no "lalalala he's not a feminist and all he does is made of suck" or "lalalala Joss is my master and his work is the perfect paragon of ~superior~ to feminism." So, uh, obligatory post about things I've noticed about Whedon's works that bother me.



I admit, on the Angel stuff I could be wrong, because I only watched part of S5 and otherwise just read about the show.


That Race Thing
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is very white. Ridiculously so. Kendra (black) gets bumped off after her second appearance, and then we get Faith. (I love Faith, but the point stands: white.) We see a Chinese and another black slayer in flashbacks who are, obviously, killed by Spike. Giles' ~special friend~, Olivia, is black, but never really does anything ever. S7 there's Principal Wood (black), who's a regular. There's a gazillion slayers gathered at Buffy's house, but there were, what, two who weren't white?

Season 8 brings two new slayers who are pretty prominent, Satsu (Japanese) and Renee (black). Renee gets bumped off, and Satsu is now working off-screen. Yay?

I think Gunn (black) is about it for Angel...

Firefly had Zoe and Book (both black) in the main cast. But no Chinese characters. Which is extra odd, considering Kaylee was supposed to be Chinese originally. And, you know, China is one of the two world powers and everyone swears in Chinese and signs are written...in Chinese.

Dr. Horrible was white-tastic.

Dollhouse probably has the best track record. Boyd (black) and Sierra (Asian) are part of the main cast, and Loomis (black) and Ivy (Asian) are recurring.


Dead Girlfriend
I just noticed this, but unless I'm missing something, Whedon always kills the girlfriend, but not the boyfriend. (With the sole exception of Wash.)

Miss Calendar? Dead. Tara? Dead. Anya? Dead. Cordelia? Dead. Fred? Dead. (LOL rhyme.) Renee? Dead. But...Angel? Got his own show. Oz? Came back, ran off again, will be making another return in S8. Riley? Made a cameo, returned again in S8. Spike? Resurrected to appear on Angel. Even that jerk whats-his-face Buffy slept with lived. Satsu's still alive...so far. Kennedy better watch her back, too.

Oh, and Penny? Dead.

EDIT: Oh, and Mellie's still alive. So far.


Sexuality
Sexy, kinky, and/or bisexual apparently = evil, warped, or disturbed. It's an old trope, but needs to die. (Wouldn't a prudish villain be amazing? And potentially lolertastic?) Obvious examples: Spike, Angelus, and Drusilla; vamp!Willow. (In contrast, regular!Willow is strictly "gay now.") Buffy and Spike in S6. Faith. Only Xander and Anya are very lightly, and very jokingly implied to engage in kinks. (Spanking?)

Lesbian characters are a-okay: Willow, Tara, Kennedy. Even Buffy (the straightest straight girl who ever straighted) gets to be a little bicurious, plus heaps of intentional lesbian subtext between herself and Faith. Inara took on female clients, on-screen. Okay, awesome.

But gay men? Spike/Angelus is implied in one single line after several years. (Even though they're vamps, which equals evil, which equals bisexual!) And Giles/Ethan in the past is mentioned as a possibility only when the writers were directly questioned. (I wish I could find that quote...) Or else they're just jokes: whats-his-face that bullied Xander. (He gets eaten.) Andrew. (Seriously, Joss. Andrew needs to come out already. 100% gay now. I'm with Danny Strong, Warren was totally doing him.) Lorne. Hell, Xander-might-be-gay-teeheehee was a recurring joke, and it was a 50/50 chance whether it would be him or Willow who would come out. (The Dracula/Xander thing...seriously!? Gaaaay.)

That gay storyline for Dollhouse that didn't make it into S1? Better see it in S2. (Looking sideways and squinting, there was that guy with Whiskey and Alpha as part of his fantasy...) I get the network can be a douchenozzle, but if Whedon really wanted to pursue any of those storylines, he could. Hello, early Willow/Tara not-so-subtle subtext? Otherwise, it's coming off like he's just obsessed with lesbians.