my take on queer baiting is that Person of Interest fully killed any sympathy i have for it as a plot device/ way of making people interested in the show or increasing hype via discourse & fandom drama
like the writers and showrunners heard fans saying “damn there’s some heavy and intriguing chemistry and general queer vibes here between these two women—maybe explore that”
and then they just… did it
we got both the extended tension of the “will they, won’t they” while Shaw and Root circled each other. we got the chance to watch them scope each other out and thirst for each other
and then we actually got a canon story line where they got together and there was a resolution (of sorts) to the question of “hey what would it be like if these two characters & actors with incredible on-screen chemistry got together for realsies? how would that impact them? how would it change the narrative?”
and it was so good. it was well done. it created new and interesting dynamics in the story (trying so hard not to spoil it because this show is one of the rare cases where i think spoiling the story ruins some of the thrill of watching it the first time )
so like. if they can do that on PoI, a relatively less fandom-y show that i only got into because my grandparents always watched it alongside the other procedurals they DVRd or TIVOd or whatever so they could watch them in the evenings, then other shows (especially ones with bigger budgets and more engaged audiences) can do that too
they just choose not to. because of laziness. because sometimes telling a worse and less interesting story means bigots will enjoy the show unchallenged and so they don’t take any creative risks that might cost them a handful of viewers. or because of their own bigotries and lack of imagination
i really don’t care what the reason is: if you don’t want to have an artistic practice that evolves, shifts, and grows due to audience engagement then TV just isn’t the medium for you. make a movie maybe
