#castle talk

The news about Stana Katic leaving Castle are already representing everything that remains to be wrong with television. Here we have a TV show, that might in its name rely on its male lead, but in reality is one of the most balanced shows when it comes to its two leads. They share the screentime, the stories, and I would go even as far as to say that there is a lot more weight to the character arc of Kate Beckett throughout the entire show. Fillion may have the bigger name thanks to past projects, but it was Katic's performance that was consistently praised by critics and viewers alike, it's their dynamic that the whole show revolved around. And yet, apparently when ABC was considering renewing the show for a new, shortened season, and wanted to cut its budget... they did that by not inviting Katic to prolong her contract. In fact, both she, and the show's other female regular, Tamala Jones, have been already told that they wouldn't be back for a new season, while negotiations with Fillion have been apparently ongoing for months now. It's a blatant and baffling example of sexism in television. There is no real, logical explanation to this turn of events, and yet it follows a particular pattern that was evasive in this TV season alone.

It's arguably started with Arrow, that filled its "one major death per season" quota this year by killing off Laurel Lance, the show's Black Canary incarnation. Now, you might say, Laurel wasn't truly the female lead at this point. She was introduced as such however in the show's first season, until she stopped being the 'love interest', and therefore the writers started sidelining her. Because, obviously, a female character’s worth drops immensely the moment she stops filling that particular role for our male lead.

But then again, Arrow was never quite good at NOT being sexist and treating its female characters like shit. Laurel's death however still remains to be a new low in the show's history. Not only she was the incarnation of one of the most iconic DC characters, not only her death blatantly centered around the male lead's man!pain, it was also completely unnecessary. Laurel didn't die for budgetary reasons, or because the actress wanted to leave the show, as it stands. No, she died because someone had to die, to keep up with the show's traditional shock factor, and it seems like her character was... disposable. Or so the show seems to believe. You would think that they learned their lesson after killing off and bringing back to life Laurel's sister, Sara, after the massive fan outrage that followed despite her smaller role, but alas... Creativity and thinking is hard.

Sleepy Hollow on the other hand, really went there. Here we have another show with a male/female co-lead structure... that thought that it could survive without the latter. Of course, Sleepy Hollow's issues started long before it killed its revolutionary female lead, Abbie Mills, who has been consistently sidelined for almost two seasons now. Audiences noticed this. Nicole Beharie, the actress playing Abbie has noticed it. Which is why she got fed up and has been trying to leave the show for a while.

Obviously, you could argue that well, if the actress wanted to leave, it isn't really the show's fault. Except it is. Because the reason why she wanted to leave in the first place is because of the show's and network's negligence. Because the more reasonable approach that the network and the show could've made is to negotiate further with Beharie, listen to her complaints, and try to work something out together. You know, what most shows do anyway, especially when it comes to their male leads. They could've kept Beharie if they truly wanted. But they didn't. They didn't think she and her character were important enough to the show's survival, so they killed her off in a way, that disrespected everything that the character represented, especially when you taken into consideration that she’s also a black woman.

Not long after that, Arden Cho broke the news that she wouldn't return to Teen Wolf. Her reasons were eerily similar to Beharie's - negligence and mistreatment of both her and her character, and an unwillingness on the show's part to accommodate her schedule, that she was never able to make outside of the show, because of the uncertainty of not knowing when she would be needed there.

Of course, Cho's character, another woman of color at that, never actually felt like a lead to most viewers. In season 5 alone, she was missing from multiple episodes, including the midseason finale. Even in the finale, she only turned up in the very last minutes to help and save the day, only to say her goodbyes. Which is disconcerting, once you realize that she's the love interest of the lead, a position that should ensure her plenty of screentime and focus. It certainly did for Scott's previous boo, Allison, played by Crystal Reed.

...except what happened to Allison exactly? Oh right. She died. According to all the stories, it was Reed's decision to leave, and yet it seems rather worrying that the moment she approached the showrunner, his response wasn't to try and convince his female lead to stay, but rather to excitedly start planning her upcoming death scene. That was two years ago. Frankly, I'm still pissed about it.

You thought that we were done? Nope, because here comes The Blacklist, a show that might be sold with James Spader's name, but is equally led by Megan Boone's Elizabeth Keen. I, for one, have only become interested in it because of her character and I would like to think that I'm not alone in that. And yet, when Boone got pregnant, and after the show has accommodated its storyline to include her pregnancy... she got killed off without much fanfare. After completing her purpose, which was apparently to deliver her child. Her husband character may get a spin-off too. For reasons. The fuck understands why the network thinks that people are more interested in him.

Now, I guess maybe I should still give the show the benefit of the doubt. Even though the statements made by the network and the actors seem to contradict it, I guess they could've faked Liz's death, in order to remove Boone from the last few episodes of the season, given her pregnancy. We've seen an example for that in Person of Interest recently. However, once again, the statements seem to contradict that (something that PoI avoided back at the time as far as I know), and the show would certainly need to confirm Liz being alive before the season ends for that to work.

Oh, and honorary mention goes out to The Shannara Chronicles that made its female lead turn into a goddamn tree in its season finale. Yes, I know that it's how it was in the book. No, I don't care. Unless the show retcons that and brings back the character, I'm still gonna be pissed about it. Not to mention all the other... *cough* misleading moves they've made throughout the season. If that show gets renewed, I sure as hell won't be touching it until the season is done and I heard the feedback.