To Whom It May Concern

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“There’s a time and place for everything, and I believe it’s called ‘fan fiction’” Joss Whedon

To Whom It May Concern

My Dearest Television Show,

I am writing to you in hopes of conveying an important message to you and whomever it may concern.

We are a small group of elderly women who gather once a week around the television set to watch our favourite program and then afterwards analyze the events with a shot or few of our favourite brew. Guess you could call us Fan Girls, even though most of us have passed the age of eighty. We each have our favourite characters and root for them while watching. Some of us even dared to venture out into the World Wide Web and sent out a few notes to the actors playing the roles. I believe they are called twats or something or other.

But I digress.

Although we appreciate all the effort you put into your craft and accurately so, take pride in the quality of your work. Unfortunately lately the direction the show has taken, is stirring a little trouble in our small group. Most of us agree there is trouble ahead, apart from Helga, who loves the idea of romance at a later age. The rest of us, however, are of the opinion, she should go watch a day time soap opera if she has the hunger for romantic liaisons. After all, this is a crime story, not a daytime drama.

As I mentioned earlier, we are analyzing each show to the extent and we have noticed the changes implemented for the major characters. Strong characters and believable storylines were the reason our little knitting group started watching in the first place. As women and kind of feminists, strong female leads got us hooked right from the start.

Please take this advice from someone who has reached the ripe old age of eighty five:

In real life people do not change, not to a degree of one hundred and eighty degrees, abandoning their basic personality traits and beliefs. A strong woman does not always need a love interest to survive the wilderness that is out there. Trust me, I have lived by myself for the past fifty years and am managing excellently and enjoying my life to the fullest surrounding myself with family and friends. And of course, my favourite past time, watching your delightful show.

Now, we all know this is just a fictional storytelling on the tube, but, still it remains a big part of our lives, and we want to be invested in the process.

Yours Sincerely,

Margaret Watson and Friends

From favourite TV character idolizing to borderline obsession

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“Everything is the same as always”

From favourite TV character idolizing to borderline obsession 

We all have our favourite TV shows and in them the characters we like, some more than others. And at some point the line between liking and obsession starts to disappear and then you realize it is time to wake up, put the kettle on, the cat out for a pee and admit ‘it’s just a TV show’!

It is generally believed the TV audiences do not want anything new and exciting. They want the same old plot twists and familiar characters to appear on their small screen every week. Major dynamics’ changes between the characters or the plotline may not go well with the viewers.

Let’s face it; for most people, it’s best everything to be as black and white as possible:

The good guy needs to wear ‘the white hat’ while the bad guy is all dressed in black. The Evil Lynn is a shapely brunet with blue eyes while the girl next door is a brown-eyed blond and for heaven’s sake: Leave the gays in the closet!

I like to think myself more of a gray kind of person. That being said, this is what happened for one of my top favourite shows:

I usually try to avoid reading anything on the world wide web regarding the shows and fandom or what the actors behind the characters are like or what else they do, but for some reason I went online and googled this particular show.

Much to my dismay, I read some alarming changes to be happening in said show and after reading was close to a panic attack!

No way in hell was I going to accept these changes! It was completely off for the characters!

This ranting went on first in my head (and I might have said it out loud even a few times) and later went on and on about it in familiar company (not that anyone understood what I was on about and why I was so upset over a TV show).

So what happened is that instead of being excited about a new episode and watching it on the allotted timeslot I taped the show and did not dare to watch it.

Almost a whole week went by until I finally broke down and watched the episode. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I lead myself to understand from what I read on the Internet, but it wasn’t good either.

In the end I got over it and real life won 😉 The series still remains among my favourites, I watch it and try not to get too attached to the characters. After all, it’s only a fictional television show.

The lesson learned:

If you don’t like what you are watching, I can see three options available for you:

  1. Turn off the TV
  2. Live with the writers’ decisions
  3. Write a better story

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