Currently watching season 1 of h50 and i'm scared thinking of watching next season and over because of steve and cath loveline etc, like i got used to watching tv series with real gay ships now i forgot this is a queerbait tv series made in 2010 of course there will be no real gay ship in it
Hey anon!
Incoming doddery fandom elder who is about to go off topic a few times while trying to help…….
I feel you. We went through it in real time. Never a good feeling when something you don’t like gets prominence in something you enjoy for a load of other reasons.
And yes, this is a cbs procedural and they are barely brave enough now, let alone 15 years ago. But it’s good you acknowledge that and limit your expectations.
For me, as someone old, getting full on text ships has been a rarity so I am well practiced in how to cope when your ship isn’t what is pushed on screen. Weirdly, this one is easy to give very valid, frankly canon or canon adjacent reasoning for as well…
So here’s some advice on how to cope with mcdanno!
1. Subtext.
Look, we know Alex and Scott shipped it and likely tried to throw us a bone or two along the way… Alex even writes a favourite trope into his season 10 episode. Scott ad-libbed his air heart near the end of season 1, their couch cuddling is all them. Alex was vocally against mcrollins as a ship by season 6/7 time. So try to enjoy and squee when the ones actively involved in acting everything are attempting their subterfuge!
We know that Lenkov was an ass when it came to doing actual queerbaits but everyone else involved in the show did it with good intentions.
But it’s canon that Uncle Steve loves Grace and Charlie, it’s canon that Steve and Danny spend far too much time together yet refuse to be apart, it’s canon that they have zero personal space issues, it’s canon that they appreciate how handsome/attractive the other is, it’s canon that they will go to the end of the earth for the other, it’s canon that Danny is the person Steve cares about most in the world, it’s canon that Danny considers Steve to be an important part of his family, it’s canon that they are married (relatively speaking).
Don’t think of those as queerbait, think of them as subtext…. Writers and actors circumventing those who would oppose a full on romance and hiding it all in plain sight. Much like Xena had to do in the 90s to avoid the censors. And now H50 can be a precursor for cbs to be braver… they did a queer ship in NCIS Hawaii I think? H50 walked so it could run. And it walked so 911 could run (I don’t watch that but I see a lot of crossover so … 🤷♀️)
2. DADT and internalised homophobia etc
You can see the entire show as a slow burn pre-slash fanfiction. Remember, this show is based on another show and is literally the fanfic of the executive producer. He just happened to get a budget from CBS to film it.
So here’s how to think of it… let Steve be closeted because of DADT and his very military focussed family. He is still struggling with his feelings and desires. He dates who he dates because it’s expected of him. You can interpret the mcrollins ship as friends with benefits the entire time… it is framed as that in canon for a long time. Neither of them ever say they love each other (to my recollection) nor even want to commit (pod!Steve from season 6 is an aberration) to the other. They are together for convenience half the time and a fun game of owing things to each other. They care for the other but it’s no epic romance. We know nothing about Catherine, we know very little about how those two even met, frankly canonically Steve knows very little about her either. We only see them post pilot and have to work out what we can for ourselves. No energy was ever given into developing them properly or giving us backstory. Therefore it is not worth your time and energy caring about them as a couple in return.
(Mcrollins shippers have said those who don’t like Catherine are misogynists but they don’t know what the word means… personally I prefer depth in my ships, I prefer to know who the characters are, to have them be well rounded… and I prefer actual chemistry. The misogynists are those who wrote a show with ‘strong’ female characters but neglected to give them personalities. And shippers who only ship cos the actors involved are pretty and conforming.)
The only female character I ever saw chemistry with for Steve was Lynn, and because of that and the way fans liked mclynn more than mcrollins, he killed it as soon as he could and lobotomised the character. From then on we knew for sure where his head was and prepared accordingly! I called what would happen years in advance… the man was nothing if not predictable. It’s a shame he had to shoehorn things in that didn’t actually make sense.
Back on topic…
For Danny, in my mind he’s bi or pan. Because Scott has chemistry with a paper bag so he can make any relationship spark. We all know that Danny was written as an idiot for always trying again with Rachel, also frankly inappropriate for dating Melissa (I don’t care that the canon age of the character is older than the actress but not old enough for me to get behind it!). I loved his season 2/3 relationship with Gabby though, and I love him with Harry from season 7 onwards. So yeah, he’s happy to date anyone he likes and Steve just needs to get his head on straight (pun not intended) before they can get together. But there may be some apprehension for him to admit anything to Steve for fear of backlash, or just that because Steve hides so well, Danny assumes the man is straight and so any of his feelings are unrequited.
It becomes a torturous slow burn but it’s there!
There’s longing looks, stolen glances, miscommunication, bad timing, dreams, everything we would all read the shit out of in a 300k slow burn fanfic. So just enjoy the ride and know that we didn’t see the pay off but it’s going to be there post show.
3. The fast forward button / skip button
Save yourself! Use the equivalent of a filter or block button!
Okay, on a first watch you may want to see everything because you’ve not learned what to skip yet, but by season 4, I stopped watching episodes that Scott wasn’t in… I relied on gif sets if anything good happened or would find the episode, buzz to the good bit, then bail on the rest of it. Nothing important ship-wise is going to happen if one is missing. Sounds like you aren’t worried about spoilers for a now ‘old’ show so check out what ones to not watch… or I will provide a list on what to avoid and what to definitely watch. I should do that anyway… a mcdanno ranking of each episode.
If, like me, your problem lies more with Michelle Borth rather than Catherine so much, then yeah seasons 3 and 4 are more of a slog. She was only brought on as a regular to cover for Grace Park’s pregnancy then was due to go back to recurring, but we think CBS limited that further after Borth’s social media meltdown (I have this weird thing where I wish she’d got another job so she was unavailable for H50 appearances but since she’s not a brilliant actress, alas, that never happened!). I now fast forward through scenes she’s in. Also easy because she was in episodes when Scott was missing… to me that’s quite telling in a number of ways… all speculation of course.
By skipping, x2 speeds etc you’re not missing much, trust me. And once you get to the end of season 4 you get a reprieve. Honestly the only bad ones though, in writing of the episodes themselves or just in not wanting a mcdanno ship to be affected, it’s episodes 1-3 of season 6. I have never seen them and have no intention of ever watching… it’s one of the main reasons by season 6 fixit fic picks up after that point!
Anyway, hope that helps.
Im sure others can attest to the fact that it’s worth getting through the crap to see the good stuff.
