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This will make more sense if you've seen the Syfy channel original television series Warehouse 13, but can, I believe, be read without that knowledge, as I make several points that are salient to speculative fiction/sci-fi storytelling and social justice therein in general. It is also entirely my personal experience with and opinions about Warehouse 13, and I welcome alternate viewpoints.
SPOILER ALERT through the two-part season three finale, "Emily Lake" and "Stand."
So I didn't get into Warehouse 13 until its second season, which I'm convinced is a good thing. That's because this is a show that took a while to find its feet. I attempted to watch the pilot, but I was put off by two things: one, shaky plot and mediocre dialogue, and two, it was Yet Another Sci-Fi Show About Straight White People. The main cast seemed to be three white people, two men and a woman, and a Magic Negro in the form of Mrs. Fredric and her appearing/disappearing act. There was also Lena, the secondary black woman who ran the house where everyone stayed and was generally relegated to the background.
That is the definition of what I Do Not Want in my storytelling.
However, when clicking through channels I picked it up in season two and got hooked, for two reasons: one, the show had figured out what kind of story it wanted to tell and how to tell that story, and two, Myka and Lena had been joined by Claudia, geek girl and former mental institution patient, and Mrs. Fredric had become an actual person with agency and power.
Wow. Suddenly a show that the pilot episode promised was about the white guys turned out to be about a group of people who included women, characters of color, and nonneurotypical characters as actual people, with story arcs and agency of their own, who drove and moved the plot and were not subservient to the white guy's plots. That IS what I look for in my tv.
( Three seasons, issues and triumphs. )
SPOILER ALERT through the two-part season three finale, "Emily Lake" and "Stand."
So I didn't get into Warehouse 13 until its second season, which I'm convinced is a good thing. That's because this is a show that took a while to find its feet. I attempted to watch the pilot, but I was put off by two things: one, shaky plot and mediocre dialogue, and two, it was Yet Another Sci-Fi Show About Straight White People. The main cast seemed to be three white people, two men and a woman, and a Magic Negro in the form of Mrs. Fredric and her appearing/disappearing act. There was also Lena, the secondary black woman who ran the house where everyone stayed and was generally relegated to the background.
That is the definition of what I Do Not Want in my storytelling.
However, when clicking through channels I picked it up in season two and got hooked, for two reasons: one, the show had figured out what kind of story it wanted to tell and how to tell that story, and two, Myka and Lena had been joined by Claudia, geek girl and former mental institution patient, and Mrs. Fredric had become an actual person with agency and power.
Wow. Suddenly a show that the pilot episode promised was about the white guys turned out to be about a group of people who included women, characters of color, and nonneurotypical characters as actual people, with story arcs and agency of their own, who drove and moved the plot and were not subservient to the white guy's plots. That IS what I look for in my tv.
( Three seasons, issues and triumphs. )
