philippos42 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philippos42) wrote2011-01-22 12:24 am
philippos42) wrote2011-01-22 12:24 am
Entry tags:
I'm not boWWered
I for one am glad that the David E. Kelley Wonder Woman series appears to have been picked up. The movie rights have been held for over a dozen years by producers who never did anything with it apparently for fear of doing it imperfectly.
At some point you have to do something, even if it's wrong, & get it out of your system. Then, two years later you can try again. If we had the nerve to treat Wondy as an endlessly reinventable & exploitable trademark--in other words, just like we do Batman--we could have had five ridiculous failures in the time we've had nothing, & maybe one of them would have had a spark of cool.
Let's suppose (optimistically?) that the new series is 85% Ms. Marvel, 7% She-Hulk, the rest a mélange of Ally McBeal & Better Off Ted--and all it gets from Wonder Woman is the name and the costume. It could still be good, just irritatingly misnamed. And at least it would be different from the usual attempts at "genre" series, such as the Bionic Woman revamp.
Now let's say, because it's NBC, that it's canceled after one airing. Gee, would that mean that producers might be leery of taking a shot on the concept for a few years? Possibly. And that's different from what we already had, how?
On the other hand, someone at another network might think it could work, and do their own version with the serial numbers filed off. And that's what we want, if we're concerned about getting this kind of thing (female superheroes, or what have you) out there. If NBC & David E. Kelley are doing a Wondy series, that increases the likelihood that CBS will rush into production its own "answer" to that. And one of them might work, or at least inspire future creators before being cancelled 6 weeks in.
That's what I want, that inspiration. And "Wondy McBeal" is a fine sacrifice to make that happen. If it crashes and burns, let it burn up & make a pleasing offering to Heaven.
Really, a more irritating outcome might be if it succeeds, like Smallville, & ends up reshaping the fandom, like the Timmverse with its Bats/Wondy ship, & even ends up influencing the comic, like the 1970's Wondy tv series.
At some point you have to do something, even if it's wrong, & get it out of your system. Then, two years later you can try again. If we had the nerve to treat Wondy as an endlessly reinventable & exploitable trademark--in other words, just like we do Batman--we could have had five ridiculous failures in the time we've had nothing, & maybe one of them would have had a spark of cool.
Let's suppose (optimistically?) that the new series is 85% Ms. Marvel, 7% She-Hulk, the rest a mélange of Ally McBeal & Better Off Ted--and all it gets from Wonder Woman is the name and the costume. It could still be good, just irritatingly misnamed. And at least it would be different from the usual attempts at "genre" series, such as the Bionic Woman revamp.
Now let's say, because it's NBC, that it's canceled after one airing. Gee, would that mean that producers might be leery of taking a shot on the concept for a few years? Possibly. And that's different from what we already had, how?
On the other hand, someone at another network might think it could work, and do their own version with the serial numbers filed off. And that's what we want, if we're concerned about getting this kind of thing (female superheroes, or what have you) out there. If NBC & David E. Kelley are doing a Wondy series, that increases the likelihood that CBS will rush into production its own "answer" to that. And one of them might work, or at least inspire future creators before being cancelled 6 weeks in.
That's what I want, that inspiration. And "Wondy McBeal" is a fine sacrifice to make that happen. If it crashes and burns, let it burn up & make a pleasing offering to Heaven.
Really, a more irritating outcome might be if it succeeds, like Smallville, & ends up reshaping the fandom, like the Timmverse with its Bats/Wondy ship, & even ends up influencing the comic, like the 1970's Wondy tv series.