Face off: Miss, Good Riddence and PLEASE GO!

Sadly everything comes to an end - and this definitely applies to Urban Fantasy television series. We’ve seen some awesome series end, others we’ve been glad to see go - and yet others we’re counting  down the days until they can finally be cancelled.

So we decided to have a competition in the same vein as the old Marry, Fuck, Kill Game: Which show will you miss? Which show were you glad to see the back off? Which show just needs to END already?





Sparky
Missed Show:
Other than the obvious (Firefly, oh Firefly, I miss thee - as all right thinking people do), I think I’m going to go with The Dresden Files. Not because it was good - but because it was GETTING good, just as it ended. It felt like it was just getting in its stride. Of course, with it gone I lay in hope that maybe, just maybe, someone may try again, but do it right this time.

Glad it’s Gone:
The Secret Circle oh dear gods, reviewing that show was down-right painful. The plot made no sense, it destroyed its own canon, the characters were beyond vapid and I loathed all of them. Sarcasm was the only thing kept me going.

Please just END!
I’m going to say it... and I know someone will shoot me for this. But I’m going to go with... True Blood. Not, I hasten to add in a desperate attempt not to be killed, because it’s the worst thing out there - it’s not, Vampire Diaries, American Horror Story and Sinbad are all much less fun to watch. But True Blood seems to be slowly descending in quality and I think I’d like it to end now when I can remember it fondly, than for it to slowly drag on, more zombie than vampire and definitely beginning to smell.

People of Colour as Extras do not Equal Inclusion

Here’s an interesting phenomenon, I think there’s a population of POC mole people in the world, or at least on TV.

For example, on the Secret Circle there were only 3 POC (including 2 people who managed to make a brief appearance for 2 episodes), who actually spoke. But when they’re at school, when there are crowds of people in the corridors - suddenly there are several POC! Yes, the POC mole people came out from the corners and the shadows to show their face for Essential Inclusivity Crowd Scene and then, when there’s actually speaking lines going around, they fade back into their secret lairs. I actually expect the white cast to look around in shock “where did these guys come from?!”  

One of the most obvious examples was the season three premiere, “Happy Birthday Elena.”  This episode stood out not because something spectacular happened in the plot, but because they managed to scare up so many people of colour for Elena’s birthday party. Where did they come from? I thought Black people were only for the purposes of snacking or to do magic when Elena needs a favour.  

On Falling Skies, the representation of people of colour is well below population demographics, which would lead one to believe that for some reason, the aliens find us to be extra tasty; that is until it’s time to show a crowd scene and all of the people of colour come out of hiding to wave at the camera, before being saved by the ever-so-heroic white knight Tom.

Crowd scenes are a major time for the POC mole-people to show up to hit those essential inclusion moments - and how many times do we see this? An all white cast, but the minute we’ve got a crowd of people going in front of the cameras, the POC mole people emerge! And yea the casting director pats himself on the back, because a face in the crowd with a bit more melanin and lo, inclusion is achieved!

Who do they think is actually falling for that? If the best you can do for inclusion appears in the credits as “man crossing road #3” then you do not have inclusion.

Then you have what we like to call recurring tokens. Members of the protagonist team who are POC, but extremely tertiary (they’re not even side-kicks) to the other cast members. The absolute best example of that is of course T-Dog from The Walking Dead.  First, we have to deal with the fact that though we have been promised Tyrese would make an appearance, the ineffectual T-Dog (could they have chosen a more uncool 90’s name?)  is the only representation of Black masculinity.  We have been given a reason to invest in every other character whereas for T-Dog, we have learned that he is handy to have around as a driver if you are running from zombies, or if you need a big heavy box moved.  More often than not an entire episode can go by without seeing him and when he does appear, chances are he does not have a single line of dialogue.

But he’s hardly the only one. Melissa on The Secret Circle, is virtually an afterthought. On Bedlam season 1 we had Molly floating around everyone else’s life. In Falling Skies, despite being part of the team since the very beginning and one of their most skilled and experienced scouts, Dai still takes a secondary role to the teenaged Hal and the new recruit Maggie. He’s always around in the background, especially on any dangerous scouting missions, but most episodes he doesn’t even have a speaking role. These characters aspire to become side-kicks, they’re hangers on who are occasionally useful, but their main role is to show a face that isn’t white to the cameras.

Another useful POC token to throw in is the external support staff. They probably won’t show up every episode and when they do, it’s only briefly for their expertise - they’re not involved in the main storylines, they won’t have any storylines of their own, they usually won’t have any real character development - but they’re there to assist the main (white) protagonist’s story.

The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 16: Lucky

So, Secret Circle’s back, everyone! Are we thrilled? What waits in store for us? Maybe they’ll repair their mangled canon? Maybe Melissa will actually have a part? Maybe Faye will have a purpose? Maybe Adam will cast aside his Wet Lettuceness? Maybe Jake will decide that trusting murderous witch hunters is a bad idea? Maybe Jane, Cassie’s grandmother, will crawl out of the plot hole she fell into! Oh so many possibilities!

So we open with Faye (Mean Girl) being, well, Faye and dropping a bombshell on Dawn (Evil Parent #1) that Cassie’s dad, John (Evil Sorcerer… uh, Evil parent #3 I guess? Y’know, it’s actually kind of hard to see the witch hunters as wrong when so many of the Parents Circle were actually evil) is ALIVE! DUM DUM DUM!

Meanwhile Cassie is playing hostess to her father (that would be the Evil Sorcerer guy) and she still has no real reason to trust him but since when has that stopped her? She does get to make sarcastic comments about his evil dark magic – because, y’know, that’s totally how you deal with an evil sorcerer in one’s living room, sarcasm. Yes, yes it is. I especially like how she doesn’t want him staying with her because he’s a “complete stranger who everyone is terrified of” yes an actual quote. See, this is new Ms. Manners etiquette – it’s acceptable to share coffee with evil sorcerous strangers but gauche to have them as overnight guests.

Ok sarcasm aside, they have a talk about Dark Magic and how it changes and twists people – John (Evil Sorcerer Parent) thinks it warped him and Cassie shouldn’t do it. Cassie think it’s a nifty trick. I hesitate to say it, but John is kind of the voice of experience Cassie’s dismissing. Gah, Cassie, why do you make me agree with people I dislike? First Adam (Wet Lettuce) and now John!

Circle meeting time (Ok Faye’s “then you could each have one” comment was wrong. And mean. And awesome – damn I wish I’d thought of that line!) in fact, Faye continually makes mean, but very true statements while Diana (Chief Scooby) is kind of vapid and fluffy, Jake (the Sexy Witch Hunter Lover) and Adam (Wet Lettuce) are busy testosterone duelling over Cassie. And Melissa is just, well, there.  Jake is all in favour of trusting John (Evil Sorcerer Parent) because he just looooves trusting people who may kill them.

Thankfully discussions about Black Magic, witch hunters and other life and death matters are put aside after, oh, 2 minutes so they can discuss the next school event. No, really. And of course Diana (Chief Scooby) is organising things with the help of Melissa (Universal side-kick), her trusty servant. I wonder if Faye and Diana have organised a time share roster with Melissa so they both have their side-kick on hand. Couldn’t they just bring back Sally then they could both have a black side-kick! After all, she used to be the one doing all these dances and events before she fell into a plot hole and Diana took over.

Anyway, Diana and Melissa are collecting party gear and meat cute Australian guy called Grant (hereby known as Unnecessary Distraction) whereby Melissa does her side-kick duty and does her best to set Diana up with Grant. Grant’s pick-up lines include excessive lectures about proper viticulture and implying Diana’s name is old fashioned.

And speaking of Unnecessary Distractions, Lee (White Voodoo Guy) has saved Eva, his old girlfriend after much plotting and she rewards him be declaring eternal loyalty/stalking.  Faye also goes looking for Lee because she wants a date for the special party Diana is setting up. Lee doesn’t bother to explain to Faye that Eva is back on the scene. This calls for Faye to meet up with Diana and Melissa, so Melissa can play best friend to both of them at once. She’s got multi-tasking skills! So Faye goes back to seduce Lee and meets Eva. Oh funsies.

In the abandoned house Cassie spies on her father, seeing him hiding something and breaking the furniture, which naturally has to be reported to Adam (Wet lettuce). Adam knows what he was looking for – a Swaye, an amulet that steals a witch’s power (exactly like the last amulet we saw. C’mon, isn’t it a little early to recycle concepts?). Adam talks sense about Cassie not taking the power stealing amulet to confront her father with since he has a past history of stealing witch’s power. It being sense and all, Cassie doesn’t listen.

John claims that the Swaye actually transfers magic to a mortal – and it was how Eben (Evil Black Witchunter) was able to subdue the Parent Circle – and someone in the Parent Circle must have spelled it to help him when he killed half the Parent Circle and he needs the Swaye to find the traitor. Quick meeting between Cassie and Adam (Wet Lettuce) and Cassie suspects Ethan (Adam’s father – the only Parent in the Parent Circle who isn’t evil) and Adam is annoyed that Cassie is accusing his dad ion the word of Evil Sorcerer John. She then decides to take her suspicions to Jake because Jake is so impartial in this. Jake then takes that to John (Evil Sorcerer), yes Jake is trusting dangerous, possibly evil people, again.

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, episode 47: Back off hiatus!

We're back after the holiday hiatus! This week we discuss:

The Hunger Games! It's a Hunger Games special discussing the full triology and all the many wonderful themes that run through these books

We also look at Secret Circle, Vampire Diaries and Once Upon a Time

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, Episode 38

This week we discuss Vampire Diaries, the Secret Circle, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time and The Walking Dead and the tropes within all their latest episodes as well as shows we plan to watch that are coming up





Please note: next week our podcast will be moved to Tuesday 1st November

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, Episode 36

This week we discuss the Vampire Diaries, Lost Girl, The Secret Circle, the role of WoC in urban fantasy series, the Parasol Protectorate series and JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, Episode 34

This week we discuss Vampire Diaries, Season 3, Episode 2 "The Hybrid", Lost Girl's season 1, The Secret Circle, Vampire Empire by Susan and Clay Griffith, The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by JR Ward, Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series.