Rachel Confirms s7 Casting Spoilers

[x-forgetromeo.livejournal.com]

 


I'd like to take this opportunity to say that whether or not you loved/hated Ashley Seaver, Rachel Nichols as an actress is a human being who did not deserve to be sidelined liked this. She obviously loved her job and her co-workers, and is justifiably upset about this. 

CBS pulled the same stunt with Rachel that they did with AJ and Paget last year. Please keep that in mind. CBS might have fixed one of the symptoms by bringing AJ and Paget back, but they have in no way solved the problem of treating their actresses as disposable.

If you can, please send Rachel some love on twitter. 

Comments

[thecowboycliche.livejournal.com]

Bless her heart. *sigh*

And you know, no matter how much this is a "male-dominated" show or this is how TV works or we should have seen this coming, that still doesn't make it right, or ok, or mean that the people who did like her should just go "oh well, should have expected this, guess we have no reason to be upset about it". People are going to feel however they're going to feel about it. Some will think this is unfair, some won't care, some never liked her character anyway. Just give the people that did like her some space to bitch.

And honestly, will the men on this show EVER be in jeopardy? Think about it. Joe and Thomas are the "big names" and Morgan and Reid are fan(girl) favorites. Firing them straight off would be stupid on their part, so they're not going to do it. The girls however? No one cares about them, so we can just get rid of them. AJ and Paget were not the last hired when they were fired... Joe was. The guys will not leave this show unless it's of their own volition. And I'm sorry but that's a little bit sexist.

[x-forgetromeo.livejournal.com]

It is. And telling people to just "deal with it" is irritating. I'm pissed off about this, and you're not going to make me stop being pissed off about it by telling me ~it's just show business. Show business freakin' sucks, and no one deserves to be treated the way the ladies on this show have been treated in the past year.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

Yes. Just because something happens doesn't make it okay. Just because it is normal doesn't mean that it is the right thing to do or make anger about it any less justified.

[arrivee.livejournal.com]

i would be apt to argue that show business itself is sexist, though.

ps. i'm no way implying that this is correct. much work needs to be done.

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

I have issues with the whole "CBS is not sexist, they can't help it that audiences like dudes better!" argument. So if CBS feels that men = more profit, so they show preferential treatment to male characters/actors or have more male characters... um... uhhhhhhhhhh...

yeaahhhhhhhh

[the-gubette.livejournal.com]

This. Absolutely.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. Here are some excuses I've read here in this post.

1. They want to keep the gender balance of law enforcement- first off, if that were true, there would be one or maybe two female characters. Second, this is fiction. There is no reason whatsoever why they need to do this, and this is not a justifiable excuse.

2. It is the fault of fans for not being fans of female characters. No. Fans are not in charge of the show. And yes, we live in a sexist society. That doesn't make it okay or mean the show runners should keep things sexist.

3. Seaver was badly written and shouldn't have existed in the first place. First off, that is an opinion, not a fact. It pisses me off when people portray their opinions as fact. Some people like her and the way she was written, some people don't. That is opinion, not objective fact. Second, characters and actresses are two separate people. Even if this were true, they still treated the actress badly.

4. It is different because she knew it was coming, and TV is bad to actresses in general. No. Her maybe suspecting it was coming (and clearly she didn't) doesn't make their behavior any different or any more acceptable. Second, just because something happens often, doesn't make it okay. If TV is bad to actors and to actresses in particular, that does not justify it or make it okay.

[the-gubette.livejournal.com]

A++++

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

Uh, fans *are* in charge of the show. If people don't want to watch women lead TV programs, they aren't going to. So to write for characters your audience isn't going to watch is a pretty stupid thing for a showrunner to insist on.

And while it's fine to be upset, it's also fine to be upset such a character existed in the first place.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

Of course it is okay to be upset that the character exists, as long as you don't act like your opinion of her is fact, which I've seen here several times. But the character is not the actress. And the actress is a human being who was treated badly.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

And the actress is a human being who was treated badly.

Again, you'd have a better argument if you weren't talking about someone in the acting business. Rejection is a way of life, and it goes with the territory.

[thenylonkid.livejournal.com]

Uh, fans *are* in charge of the show.
Wow, where's my paycheck?

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

You're the customer, not the employee.

[thecowboycliche.livejournal.com]

*snort*

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

And no, fans are not in charge. TPTB may listen somewhat to the fandom, but in very few shows do fans have very much say at all. Mostly, they ignore fans. On a few shows, like Supernatural, fans have a little more say. But ultimately, it is still TPTB that are in charge and make choices. And they choose to treat the actresses badly and to see the female characters as interchangeable. Not okay.

[tryxkittie.livejournal.com]

If people don't want to watch women lead TV programs, they aren't going to.

lol you just totally pulled that out of your ass. How the hell do you know people don't watn to twatch women lead TV programs? If producers never GIVE the audience such shows in the first place, then how the hell can they make an accurate assessment of whether audiences want it? It's like, you're conducting an experiment, and you give people a choice between yellow and red boxes. Then, after all the data you come up with the conclusion: people don't want purple boxes. DON'T SELL THEM PURPLE BOXES.

The fact is, they got rid of AJ and Pagent THINKING that people wouldn't care because they're women -- and guess what? The internet exploded with hate. Maybe if producers and people who generally think like YOU stopped making sexist, racist etc. decisions (that basically comes down to all TV must privilege heterosexual white males for heterosexual white males and people who love watching the stories of primarily heterosexual white males) then we'd acutally have more diversity on the screen, and actors and actresses that AREN'T heterosexual white males or playing heterosexual white makes for people who primarily love watching the stories of primarily heterosexual white males would be treated better than disposable trash.

[thecowboycliche.livejournal.com]

1. EXACTLY. Fictional TV show here.

2. If the writers and producers of the show want female characters, they'll have female characters, simple as that. Personally on LJ I've met quite a few people who are fans of the ladies first and foremost. Reid is my dealbreaker with this show, but the ladies are probably my second favorite characters. Plus it wouldn't hurt to enhance their fanbase by actually giving them decent plots. See Castle for how to write a HBIC female law enforcement officer.

3. I personally wasn't in love with the way she was written all the time, but I absolutely agree that it's an opinion.

4. The ends do not justify the means hardly EVER to me lol.

[infinitlight.livejournal.com]

1. They want to keep the gender balance of law enforcement- first off, if that were true, there would be one or maybe two female characters.

If we're sticking to profilers, less than one :), but exactly. Other aspects of law enforcement get stretched/creatively refigured to suit the show, so what's wrong with another female character?

[thecowboycliche.livejournal.com]

Actually 1! lol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayle_Hinman

[dysfunkshunell1.livejournal.com]

Excuses? Good way to dismiss what you disagree with. A majority of these were in my comments which you didn't reply to.

1. The ratio on the show IS fictional. Even with shows that have leading ladies in law enforcement, how many women are in the cast (see The Closer, Rizzoli and Isles, Bones) We are actually rather fortunate with how many women there are in CM.

2. If fans aren't responsible for the shows they watch, how did the show get AJ and Paget back? How did Miami get Adam Rodriguez back? The actors have all thanked the fans. You are sadly misinformed. Ratings are what make or break shows and only the fans give them that.

3. I personally didn't put Rachel in the same category as her character but FACT remains that even she stated that her character needed development. This could have been done within the season. For me, I've hardly cared for replacements but found Prentiss wonderfully created. And honestly? You've stated your opinion as fact in the comments here.

4. There is nothing stating that Rachel found out via Twitter. Only that she was sad to hear the news. I feel for her but don't shrink back from finding it the most logical course of events--to bring the show back to it's original cast. IF she truly found out via Twitter then CBS should be ashamed. However, sexism still has no bearing in the decision.

[nytekit.livejournal.com]

Damn. I probably should have read your comment before posting mine as it basically points out the same things. :/ *shrug*

[nytekit.livejournal.com]

It's also an opinion - a rampantly running opinion- that Seaver has been cut simply because she's a female. I will say her cut coming on the heels on AJ's and Prentiss's may make it easier for people to think that way, but we don't know that for sure. With AJ and Prentiss there was more apparent evidence what with both of them being cut and CBS being unable to come up with a true reason.

But as for Seaver's character, I completely agree with blue_sunflowers: Rachel was at the bottom of the totem pole. I'm actually really confused as to why people are so surprised that she's been cut. I expected her to be, especially if both AJ and Prentiss were returning. It may be my opinion that her character was lackluster at best, but it's a fact that the majority of fans did not like her character. Whether that's her fault as an actor or the fault of the writers is debatable.

It's also an assumption that she found out through Twitter that she wasn't returning. She never posted an "oh my surprised!" tweet like Garcia did when she found out from fans that SB had been cancelled. So for all anyone knows, she was told and only posted those tweets to respond to fans sending their love and condolences.

tl;dr Basically, if you're going to point out some opinionated posts, be sure to point them all out, including your own.

[littledrop.livejournal.com]

It may be my opinion that her character was lackluster at best, but it's a fact that the majority of fans did not like her character.

I'm not sure it is, really. That may be true of online fandom, but in terms of CM's general, mundane viewing audience? The majority of CM's audience stuck around. The season six ratings dropped what, one million, two maybe? But a lot of that could be the result of the general decline in standards that happened this year. (Whether or not Seaver is a part of that is a matter of opinion.)

CM still trounced a lot of its competition. I'm... not sure tens of thousands of online fans really matter in an audience of millions. Unless we really believe that online fandom is regarded by TPTB as a reliable and accurate representation of the general audience and, no, I don't think we are an accurate representation of the general audience. Not at all. But there's no way to verify it either way.

[woodchoc-magnum.livejournal.com]

I'm actually really confused as to why people are so surprised that she's been cut. I expected her to be, especially if both AJ and Prentiss were returning.

Thank you for saying what I've been thinking. :)

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

THIS SO MUCH OMG

THANK YOU