say what you will about Person of Interest but its show runners' reactions to their manly man action/sci-fi show being embraced by women shipping their two male main characters (that they would never in a thousand years see as anything but straight) was almost perfect. they kept up the importance of the finch/reese connection almost to the end*, they never shied away from letting them being close or physical w each other, they had other queer characters & treated them w respect. they had reese & finch pose as a couple for an event & treated it exactly the same as if had been reese & shaw posing as a couple.
basically, they never treated their audience as idiots for ever IMAGINING that their two totally straight main characters could be in love after being shown in text to love & need & value each other. they were always like, huh that wasn't our intent & we don't see it that way, but w/e, have fun w it, keep watching our show pls.
bbc sherlock & the mcu & star wars could NEVER. & neither, tbh, could supernatural.
*the random retcon of Carter being the MOST important person ever to Reese & his savior felt less about ignoring/diminishing his connection to Finch lest that be seen as GAY & more about amping up the tragedy of Reese having lost a person he loved & valued (& also I would argue setting up the fact that he was going to die at the end). Bad character writing but not imo malicious.** Same w his weird & awful relationship w his therapist in the last season -- more about setting up how hopeless it was for Reese to even try to have a normal life, again setting him up for his noble sacrifice at the end. Again, bad writing, but I see the vision.
** I also get the feeling both these moves were based on pressure from Jim Caviezel. The show runners may have been fine by the queer readings of the show but I bet he wasn't 😂
