[Poll] The Science of Slashiness

[thefourthvine]

Recently, cimness posted a graph of genius, comparing level of canon gay and quality of canon writing across several fandoms.

I, of course, immediately looked at it and thought: this calls for science. Because clearly what we need are definitive numbers for each of these values for many, many fandoms, so that they can be plotted on graphs. This will make me HAPPY. Possibly it will also make you happy - or perhaps you are just interested in increasing overall happiness in the universe! - in which case I direct you behind the cut.

ETA: lolitakun has provided us with some preliminary scientific results here. Go and behold!



A quick note on the selection of the fandoms: I picked ones I thought a lot of people would have opinions on. If I left something critical out, feel free to tell me in the comments.

A quick note on voting: When I say "slashy," I include femslash. Buffy/Faith, Gabrielle/Xena - these are pairings worth considering! Also, if you haven't seen an episode of the show, please don't vote on canon writing quality. (Ideally, you would have seen three! Or even more!) But if you think you can make a fair estimate of slashiness based on vids or YouTube pieces or transcripts, by all means, vote on that.

ETA: For quality, 1 = worse than anything you could find on fanfiction.net, even if you were funded by a grant solely for the purpose of finding the worst writing the world has ever known. 10 = genius unparalleled. For slashiness, 1 = straighter than a ruler. 10 = they could suck cocks or finger each other right there on the screen and it would only reduce the overall slashiness. Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity, lolaraincoat!

And now it's time for...SCIENCE.

[Poll #1352713]

Comments

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

I will never understand the general disdain for the writing on Sentinel. At worst it's mediocre, no worse than SGA or Smallville, and far less aggressively insulting than, say, the third season of SPN. But it's a truism that it's terrible, and who am I to fight a truism.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

To be fair, there's something seriously wrong with a show where a cop loses his service weapon almost every time he gets into a fight. And, you know, keeps his job. WTF, show?

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

You could say that about any of these shows, though. They all have some dumb character gimmick like that (Smallville, my god, every character has something like that, it's hilarious). And yet Sentinel is the one that has the unshakable reputation for being terrible. I just don't get it.

[red-eft.livejournal.com]

*nod* I mean, I'm just watching it now, and maybe it's just my lowered expectations, but- seriously, it's not that bad.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

The way people talk about it, it starts to sound like some rotted corpse of a show, doesn't it? But I've just never seen what was so bad about it. Some episodes are silly, but some are genuinely good, and on the average... well, that's it. On the average, it's average. I'm fine with average, I guess. At least I've never felt like this show hated me. *shrug*

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. Granted that it's been a while and I only saw maybe 3/4 of the episodes, but I remember it being a perfectly watchable silly show. And they were genuinely good about some things, such as casting actors of color. (Which I realize isn't the writing, but I put it down to a general sense that they were *trying*, y'know?)

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Silly, sure, sometimes, but what show isn't? It was an average cop show (with a twist and lots of slash), though you'd never guess it from the way people talk about it.

And they were genuinely good about some things, such as casting actors of color.

They were really good at that, weren't they? And not just "Token Black Cop #2," but a wide variety of major and minor parts, good guys, bad guys, victims, all sorts of ethnicities (Cascade had more "Little Whatzit" neighborhoods than TV New York ever does)... they were less good at strong female characters, though I quite liked both Carolyn and Megan. Carolyn and Jim's relationship, especially, was something I've hardly ever seen on TV. The show wasn't perfect, but at least I felt like they were trying, in that sensitive, 90's kind of way. *g* I can think of a few current, better-regarded fannish faves that could learn a thing or two from poor ole Sentinel

Hee, blah blah blah. I guess I was feeling more defensive than I thought!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I've only seen the pilot, so possibly I shouldn't even have voted on that one. It's not like the pilot is usually the peak of writing quality for a TV show.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wouldn't rate anything on the pilot alone, be it The Wire or Poltergeist: The Legacy. Though, to be fair, Poltergeist did have a newborn infant dragging his mother around by the umbilical cord, so I wouldn't blame anyone for being a bit judgey.

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

a newborn infant dragging his mother around by the umbilical cord

WHUT.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Hee! Would it help if I said it was an evil demon baby? Strong little guy. Yeah, that pilot had someone being crucified on a scarecrow, rape by demon-disguised-as-dead-husband, and the most hideous birth scene ever to be seen on Saturday afternoon TV. Even the edited version was gorey. Oh show, you were so wacky! ;)

[ratcreature]

Me neither. I've always thought it was solid, with highlights that were awesome.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

solid, with highlights that were awesome

That's a really good description. It has silly episodes, it has genuinely good episodes, and overall it's the kind of solid show that makes up most of television.

[janetk.livejournal.com]

I'd been reading TS fics for a couple of years before I saw any episodes,and I was shocked at how lame the writing was. It's amazing that all this wonderful ficcage has emerged from it. You can't keep good characters down, I guess.

And I don't think Smallville writing is that bad. That was the big surprise for me here.