#nbc crowded

[ziegayler]

I happened to watch Crowded with may parents today and I figured out that I am indeed Shea and my sister is Stella

[my-sun-and--stars]

This is the worst show and it’s only the first two minutes. Go away Miranda Cosgrove.

[thewildertype]

The 100, Cultural Shifts & Societal Vacuums

I’ve been thinking a lot about what went down last week, and realistically anyone who watched the 100 or has touched the 100 fandom in some way, has done the same. What was done is the latest in a series of examples of well-meaning, but misguided and culturally unaware, content creators acting in a vacuum.

There are lots of vacuums in western society, specifically, US society. We’re raised to find our niches–the places we belong and compartmentalize ourselves so that it's so VERY fucking easy not to listen to anything outside of your world view. It’s why people believe proven lies (like antivaxxers, those that would deny evolution) with such conviction – they’ve shaped their worlds in such a way that they exist inside an echo chamber.

It’s also how people, even well meaning people, can extend things like “race and gender and sexuality don’t matter” which is true IN THE SHOW to their writing without, always, considering the realtime lens that the show is consumed in. And that’s how things like Lexa’s death or having all the leaders of the xenophobia anti-grounder brigade (I hesitate to refer to them as villains, although the show has set them up that way), be POC can happen and be problematic.

And while I was thinking about Lexa and the 100 I kind of drew it outward into our culture and the tectonic shifts that have happened since people of my generation have come into adulthood.

By my people, I, of course, am referring to millenials.

Look: we get shit on a lot, even by my friends who would deny that they’re part of us (they are; being on the upper end of a generation makes you part of that generation, even if you have a unique vantage point). But I would posit that it’s because we are powerful, even when economies haven’t been kind, when entire television shows are created to shit on our existence (NBC’s Crowded–I AM LOOKING AT YOU), when people continually mock our optimism (first with Dean, then with Obama, now with Sanders) or try to disenfranchise our right to vote. We are powerful and we have, and continue to be, a voice for social change.

But while we have made strides, there are still issues and we haven’t gone far enough. We won’t probably ever get there–there are new problems to tackle, after all, but I have a theory on how this can start to make real lasting change.

HIRE US.

It’s no secret that we are underemployed. We are also creative and resourceful. But if I’ve learned anything from watching media and, especially, watching both the 100’s decision to kill Lexa after building her up so high in the way that they did, and also the pilot for NBC’s extremely offensive new show “Crowded” as well as several other shows and movies, it’s clear the only way to hear our voice is to let us into the process.

This isn’t just a plea for inclusion, it’s also good business sense. The Millennial age group is large and a market that people want to capture. Hell, I listened to a podcast with Michael Jacobs (creator of Boy Meets World), and the reason Disney created BMW was to capture our advertising dollars when we were between the ages of 2-11! Now that we have become adults, I’m sure they’d like our money and our eyeballs again.

So, network execs, show runners, production companies etc. please hire us. And not just the white cis males, but the women, LGBT, POC millenials. We want to have media that represents us. We want to be heard. You want our attention and eyeballs. It’s a pretty symbiotic relationship when you think about it.

So why don’t you do it?

[beautifulballad]

Check out new photos from Crowded 1x03 “Brothers”, starring Miranda Cosgrove. You can check out more here.