Why is the SSC fandom sleeping?
@savingssc asked this honest question in this interesting article. This is my politically incorrect response.
I don’t know if y’all realize but comparing with other shows, outside Tumblr, the fandom of Still Star-Crossed is almost non-existent. And nowadays trendy cool stuff happened on Twitter and Youtube, the golden age is of Tumblr is definitely over.
Every nights, a lot of programs (even with black people), are trending, but it never happened for Still Star-Crossed. Same for the discussion around the show : almost nothing.
Do not underestimate the consequences of the lack of promotion, the horrible marketing and scheduling by ABC,and the bad critics.
They have literally killed Still Star-Crossed.
You have no idea how many comments I read from :
- People who discovered it by chance.
- People who saw the trailer in 2016 but didn’t know it was finally coming in May 2017.
- People who hate Shakespeare and thought it was a remake of Romeo & Juliet.
- People who thought the show was cancelled after the first break.
- People who thought SSC was not broadcast anymore when ABC banished it on Saturdays nights.
- People who are not informed that SSC is cancelled (so now how could they fight to keep it?).
I remember the launch of How to get away with Murder on ABC and it was a real party comparing to SSC, with a lot of articles, interviews, magazine coverages and videos. Even if Viola Davis, the main actress, was already a star. The Catch was also well-promoted this is why I hate when people compared the situation of SSC with this show.
There are TV series that I’ve never watched but I know them because they were well-promoted and people talk about it all the time and everywhere. It’s not the case here, most people don’t know that SSC exists, most people don’t talk about SSC, which is really sad because there are so many things to say about it !
I am frustrated that people don’t take these details in consideration to elaborate these Save Still Star-Crossed compaign and it discouraged me.
I think it would be good to spread the word about the existence of SSC AND ask a season 2. Both are essentials.
Nevertheless, I think the petition is a good idea to bring people together, as a communication tool, and to send a message to ABitchC, “despite your sabotage, some people watched this show and liked it.
Other great tools in my view :
- Videos : Youtube is still a very popular platform. I, even myself started to watch TWD because of YT. If you have skills to know how to make beautiful fan videos of if you have a youtube channel <3.
- Blog post (and not only Tumblr) : because when you look for some reviews on search engines, the result is terrible. There are only bad critics.
- Netflix : Send a request to them according to your country to broadcast the first season of SSC. It will be easier after to ask a second season.
- Twitter is a powerful platform with a lot of possibilities. it’s not a good idea to use it JUST to begging ABC and Shonda to renew SSC. Especially with the new mutation notification option. I think tweeting TV series recommendation, the petition, Thread and content about SSC (gifs, articles, quotes, videos) are more effective.
- Fan fictions on fanfictions.net, i read an article that said it was the most popular platform, more than other sites.
- IMDB : If you have an account, please, change the notation and write some reviews.
- Wikia : Still Star-Crossed
- Make some noise on Instagram (I’ve just discovered the page recently lol, but of course the first picture was published in May 2016 and they are only 28 publications).
- Hulu : I don’t know how to exploit it but I feel there are interesting things to do. People often ask hulu recommendation on Tumblr for example.
- Make some playlists on Spotify like this.
- (A fan website with a lot of cool stuff?)
In resume, we need to spread the word about the existence of Still Star-Crossed to widen the fandom and not only on Tumblr.
But be careful, I think sometimes the diversity argument is overused and gives the impression that SSC is only good to watch for this reason and we all know that is not true. I think most people can see the cast is highly diverse. Also, it can be hypocritical when it’s come from people who only worshipped the white/light-skinned characters (Benvolio, Count Paris, Isabella vs. his dark-skinned black brother even if she’s harder than him). So, don’t overuse this argument please, especially when it’s not sincere, because the show has other qualities.
This is my honest opinion about this topic.
