Long post ahead. After a discussion with a newer Person of Interest fan, I started writing some show and fandom history: my POV as an ‘official’ fandom old-timer. Just season one stuff for now. This includes mentions of anti-black racism and misogyny, fyi.
Lots of the advance promo materials left Carter out. TPH was one of three regular cast members at that point (Chapman wasn’t a regular until later), and she had an Oscar nomination. *sigh*
The pilot episode aired 22 September 2011.
At first you could watch the early episodes of season one on the CBS website.
Fannish speculation back then pointed at Warner as the source of the problem. After all, CBS did initially the post episodes online. Why would they choose to stop, especially since the show was doing so well?
Episode 1x06 was when my own interest level in the show made a big leap, because of Catwoman! I was using livejournal as my base of fannish activity, and most other fans at the main PoI comm there were not excited about Zoe. I didn’t know it was a sign, but it was.
PoI is both my first and last fandom for a TV show with two white men in the leading roles. You’re the worst, fandom.
I wrote my first fanfic (in less than a week!) for PoI thanks to Catwoman.
Early in season one, Nina Tassler, CBS executive, stepped in and told the show runners to bring Carter into the fold sooner rather than later.
So 1x09 featured a lot of Carter, including flashbacks. We finally got a first name for her!
And that was when I saw fandom’s totally-not-racist (hah) analysis for characters of color applied to Carter, including:
I can never forgive her for [action the white men also did]
Azar and I crossed paths, and she suggested a Carter-specific comm. After 1x10 aired (December 2011), and so much of fandom’s reaction was negative toward Carter, we made the comm wegetcarter.
I should mention that my brief forays into other places for fannish content were all terrible as well. Television Without Pity had a PoI forum, and a fan there actually called Carter a cockblock to Reese and Finch. In season one! IMDB was a cesspool of thinly veiled racism. One reviewer popular within fandom declared that Carter was (unforgiveably) rude, and ranted about that for a couple of paragraphs.
Someone out there made an online petition in December 2011 to get Carter killed. This will be relevant (heh) again in season two fandom history.
All of this was happening while fandom was really quite small. The show was a big hit on CBS, especially once Carter joined the team, but online we were a tiny presence. For example, the show was an eligible fandom for Yuletide 2011, and there were seven fanfics written for that. (Granted, only 10 episodes had aired by then.) One of those stories was my Reese & Finch zombie fic.
Okay, back to bullet points for a bit.
I began to understand the appeal of tumblr - not that it was a safe haven for Carter fans, but it was definitely less horrible than livejournal.
I mentioned how tiny PoI fandom was. At one point in January 2012 I googled “Detective Joss Carter” and one of my livejournal entries about the show was in the top ten results.
Since I live too far from a big city for free TV, and I didn’t have cable or satellite, I usually found alternate ways to watch season one. That meant waiting until the next day to watch.
Not watching until the next day usually meant delaying my own participation in episode discussion posts. I FELT SO LEFT OUT.
The promotional material for 1x17 “Baby Blue” made it look like a light-hearted baby romp. LIGHT-HEARTED. Hahahaha…
Well, I guess it actually was, until Elias happened.
There was a three week hiatus after 1x17, and I wrote not-fix-it fic twice in that time. LOL. (Not a fast writer, I just really wanted to not-fix things.)
Season one wrapped up with that cliffhanger (Finch in Root’s tender care), and I started writing my one and only multi-chapter fic. It took all summer and even a bit into season two for me to finish.
I ordered a blu-ray player just so I could buy the fancy blu-ray discs for the show’s first season.
Right before season two began, there was a post about Carter on the main livejournal comm. The post and comments included the angry black woman trope (”Carter is rude!”) and a long and nit-picky discussion of her clothes and shoes, in addition to the usual stuff about bad writing and acting choices, and even more! That was the final straw for me. I already had tumblr and the Carter comm; I just gave up on that comm as a place to talk about the show.
And then season two began. It was even more exciting than this. O_o
eta: I’m white. PoI fandom was my first real close-up look at racism within a TV fandom. I’m sure I missed plenty because I didn’t know to look for it yet. Also, if I messed up, you can tell me.
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
