Joss Whedon

Roni sent a link to Annalee Newitz’s latest column, the beautifully titled, “O Joss, My Joss.”

Newitz begins with the Joss Whedon blues, a lament familiar to all Buffy, Angel and Firefly fans: “It’s been almost a year since the last drop of Joss got wrung out of TV, and still I can barely stand to turn on the damn thing.”

Let it be said that at least Buffy and Angel had long runs; The lone season of Firefly, on the other hand, was broadcast out of order and nixed before given a fair chance (another grudge to hold against Fox). But why doesn’t the brilliant Whedon have networks fighting over his complex creations? Newitz cites oft-repeated concerns that Whedon’s alternative worlds are in fact too alternative for our reality-obsessed culture, or perhaps “fantasy and science fiction are just too retro 20th century”:

In the 21st century, audiences want to see "real" people dealing with "real" issues - you know, like being stranded in a multimillion-dollar mansion with a bunch of craven anorexics trying to marry a mousse-headed twit. Or being forced to live under surveillance while rooming with Vanilla Ice. Or trying to win the respect of Donald Trump, Richard Branson, or Tyra Banks. [...] If reality banished Joss from TV, then I’m convinced reality is going to ruin pop culture. There was more truth in a single episode of Buffy or Firefly. than there is in the entire two-year run of The Swan. I don’t want to sound like Theodor Adorno bashing on Georg Lucaks, because I was always partial to the Lucaks side of that debate. But if the point of pop culture is to feed our imaginations - and I’m sure even the most cravenly commercial masters of the mainstream media like Steven Spielberg would agree with me here - then losing Joss is a harbinger of terrible things to come.

People need overtly fictional stories in order to escape from the grind of reality. At its best, fiction reminds us not to trap ourselves in the narrow kinds of thinking that make us believe that we must look like beauty contestants to be happy, or that people will always betray each other to survive.

With that I couldn’t agree more. Overall it’s a persuasive column, though I think Newitz’s shot at the "cookie-cutter plotlines and beefy male stereotypes" on Lost is overkill. Not that I don’t have issues at times with the male gaze (bikinis = liberation? how groundbreaking!), but the castaways’ back stories so far have been brilliantly done. The success of this series is likely to inspire television networks to greenlight more complex and challenging fare.

Earlier this year I attended WizardWorld mainly for the opportunity to hear Whedon speak. I never did get around to writing anything back then, but I dug out my notebook for these highlights:

— Audience member, referring to the pink backpack Whedon brought with him on stage: “What’s with the girlie backpack?”

“Dude, have you got something against girlies?,” responded Whedon, to much laughter. He continued:

“I am a girlie man. I stand before you today to tell you that I am a girlie American. And if you don’t know that about me, I can’t believe you got this close.”

— After Buffy had been on television for two or three seasons, Whedon pitched the idea of an animated Buffy-style series and was told a male character as strong and cool as Buffy would have to anchor the show, or boys wouldn’t watch.

“Raise your hand if you’re a boy,” said Whedon. The overwhelmingly male crowd complied.

— Many Buffy viewers never got over the death of Tara, Willow’s girlfriend, and blamed Whedon to succumbing to the cliché that lesbians in a happy relationship must be pulled apart — punished, as it were, for their bliss. Whedon was asked about this and replied that he planned on bringing Tara back from the dead (via a reality-altering wish Buffy would get to make), but behind-the-scenes discussions with actors didn’t work out.

We were also treated to a trailer for the upcoming Serenity movie. Let’s just say those of us in mourning will have some redemption next year — though we’ll now have to wait until Sept. 30.