Hopefully, this post is not directed at me (the only thing I'm really guilty of is squeeing too much about Sherlock/Andrew Scott/Martin Freeman and not watching anything on NBC. I admit it: I'm still butthurt over the Conan vs Leno debacle. I'll get over it. Eventually.)


Yet another Two White Guys Do The Same Thing Every Week show starts airing. Fans cream themselves instantly and jump on the show, declaring it the best thing ever, shipping the two white male leads, and occasionally pointing out its problematic aspects in between.


True. Sometimes though it is a white man and a white woman (Chuck, Bones, Law and Order SVU, etc). And yeah, people are still squeeing about those shows. Sadly, most shows are still white. The trick is to get people with the Nielsen boxes to start watching the shows with the minority leads.

As for characters with handicaps (I'm assuming you mean physical, not mental because then I could include Tara from United States of Tara), I only know of two currently on tv: Artie (on Glee) and Auggie (Covert Affairs). I suppose you could count House? But House's disability seems to be barely there *shrugs*

(There used to be Kerry Weaver on ER, the only female character that I can recall with a physical disability on tv. Unfortunately, she was never portrayed as sexy, but rather just as a bitch. Sigh). Sadly, I think it will be a long time for a female lead (ER was more of an ensemble show than a show with a clear lead) with a physical disability to be on tv (and to be shown as sexy).


There are long and plentiful meta posts about how Supernatural or Sherlock OMG TREATS THE FEMALE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERS OF COLOR SOOO BADLY!

I read that as "long and painful meta posts" which can sometimes be true. :)
I do not like to read those posts. Yeah, I realize that Sherlock doesn't have a lot of female characters, but the books didn't have a lot of main/major female characters either (and Moffat and Gatiss are trying to be true to the books).

Thankfully, I haven't written any meta posts about Sherlock and I don't plan to. I am sorry that those meta posts (and whoever wrote them) was your introduction to Holmes fandom. I like Sherlock (BBC version), but I can understand that not everyone does. Hopefully my squeeing on tumblr hasn't annoyed you too much (I have tried to keep it off my lj, at least until it airs in the U.S.).

Meanwhile, fans write the most horribly sexist and racist posts about, say, River Song, or Samantha Bloom, thinly veiled as criticism borne of concern for social justice issues.

The hate for female characters isn't new in Who fandom. I've read comments where people like River, but hate Amy, or they like Martha, but hate Rose (vice versa) and all variations of the above (and that's not even getting into Donna, Romana, Jenny).

So the hate posts have happened in Undercovers fandom already?! Damn, that was fast. I was not really expecting that at all. Usually people like the lead characters (okay that's not entirely true: I remember people saying that they hated Buffy and i was truly baffled by that.) Fandom is weird sometimes (and not in a good way).

Why do they hate Samantha (in Undercovers fandom)?

OT: Undercovers is doing okay in the ratings (according to TV By the Numbers)—not great, but not terrible either. I think NBC is going to cancel Outlaw with Jimmy Smits before they cancel anything else.

Who is "Sjers"?