Year after year, it was crap. ALPHA HOUSE, for example, was pretty much the typical crap AMAZON offered and sported. The show wasn't funny and exactly what decade was this show -- with an all male cast -- supposed to be taking place in. As we observed in the 2013 pilot week, the show opened with a woman's bouncing breasts as she jogged. They couldn't create a female lead for the show but they could bring in the T&A. For that 'accomplishment,' they got a two season run from AMAZON -- even though no one watched.
This happened over and over. The following year, the 'great' find was HAND OF GOD -- one of the worst shows ever -- and we called it out long before The Water Cooler Set noticed how awful the show as -- once it started season one. Raunchy trash that even CBS wouldn't stoop to was what AMAZON served up over and over -- hiding behind the claim that it was picked by viewers.
On and on it went for years. In March of 2017, we noted:
It's funny how women make up 50% of the population but no one ever thinks they should have that same percentage of shows revolving around them.
It's not at all funny that AMAZON's doing yet another pilot season where the best show is the one with a female lead (THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL) but you just know that, yet again, AMAZON will ignore the women and pick yet another substandard piece of crap to greenlight.
Amy Sherman-Palladino's THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL stars Rachel Brosnahan and it's like nothing else TV has to offer. But by all means, let's listen to a lot of boys who mistake their drool and cum stains for actual critiques.
For once, sexism lost and THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL got picked up.
Guess what?
People streamed.
Guess what else?
The show won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series and Rachel Brosnahan won the award for Best Actress in a Comey Series. Wait, we're not done. Amy Sherman-Palladino was nominated for a Director Guild of America Award for her direction on the pilot. Still not done. The show won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series -- Musical or Comedy and Rachel Brosnahan won the Golden Globe for Best Actress -- Television Series Musical or Comedy. Wait, we're still not done. The show won the Peabody Award. And it won a Producers Guild of America Award. Yet still, we are not done. It is nominated for 14 Emmys -- including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing (Amy Sherman-Palladino -- again for the pilot) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Alex Borstein).
Why is it that NETFLIX, HULU and AMAZON repeatedly have to be reminded that women are out there, waiting to stream, looking for characters they can relate to?
HULU finally won Emmys . . . because of THE HANDMAID'S TALE.
NETFLIX? Established film director David Fincher already had nominations and awards (GOLDEN GLOBE, BAFTA, etc) when he won an Emmy in 2013 for directing HOUSE OF CARDS. Their first real win -- for talent, not track record -- was Uzo Aduba for ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK -- and she went on to win two Emmys. Lily Tomlin (GRACE AND FRANKIE) has garnered four Emmy nominations, Jane Fonda has been nominated once and won the OFTA for her performance, and both women have been twice nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actress. Four seasons in, GRACE AND FRANKIE is one of NETFLIX's most streamed series.
Critical awards and audiences. Shows that value women can win both.
It's a lesson SUITS should be learning right now. The seventh season saw multiple cast losses -- the soft eyes of Meghan Markle (who left the show to marry someone -- you might have heard about that wedding over the summer), the soft ass of Patrick J. Adams and, most of all, the loss of the amazing Gina Torres. Some may argue Adams' Mike was more important as the young sidekick to Gabriel Macht's Harvey. But it was Torres' Jessica who clashed with Harvey and had a deeper friendship.
Those are some serious losses. The new addition this season? Katherine Heigl as Samantha Wheeler. She and Macht already have strong chemistry. She's also playing a character unlike anyone SUITS has offered so far. Most of all, she's delivering a riveting performance.
It happens. And it's a shame so many have to be constantly reminded of what Abigail Adams advised her husband John Adams in a March 31, 1776 letter, "Remember the ladies."
