(no subject)

[oselle]

I'm officially loathing the CW network right now for being the cheese-factory that they are. I don't know if any of you guys watch Reaper, but they ran a promo during tonight's episode. I won't call it a promo for either Smallville or Supernatural, it was a promo for, in their own words, "The Girls of Thursday" i.e. Ruby, Bela and that new gal on Smallville. Kara or whatever.

I can't say anything about Kara on Smallville because I don't watch that show, but promoting two new, untested and so far, poorly received characters as the reason to watch Supernatural, and promoting them in a cheesy commercial that says absolutely nothing about the show other than "check out these chicks, they're hot!" is just such a cheap-ass, juvenile and downright offensive ploy that I don't even have the words for how much it pisses me off.

And I don't ever, ever want to hear about how Bela sleeps "naked on silk sheets, rolling in money" again (that was a line they used in the commercial). People may say, hey any new viewers for Supernatural is a good thing, but if they're tuning in to watch Bela talk about her silk sheets, then they're not watching for the reasons the fans have been watching for the past two years, and that means the show ain't gonna be what it's been for the past two years, period.

Comments

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

I asked myself if I would have preferred a similarly styled spot about "The Boys of Thursday," directed at female viewers. To be honest, I wouldn't have.

That’s why I added the modifier of “mature” to female fan – we want good plot and characterisation with our pretty. For heavens sake, I only started noticing that Sam and Dean were good looking when I was on about my third consecutive run-through of S1!

I’ve deliberately avoided the “girls of Friday night” promo when I’ve seen it online because I knew it would annoy me. It’s not just the “lowest common denominator” bit that worries me, it’s the suggestion that the show is similar enough to Smallville that it can be advertised on the basis of the same “qualities”. I had to bail on Smallville very early on when it became apparent that Superman was going to take a backseat in his own mythos to one of the most vapid female characters I’ve had the misfortune to come across - and, given that I’m a lifelong Marvel supporter, it had to be pretty bad to get to me! I hate the idea of Supernatural being promoted as the “Ruby n’ Bela show featuring the Winchester Brothers.” because, if that promo does manage to pull in the oh-so-precious teenage boy viewers then the writers will be under even more pressure to move it in that direction.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Smallville and Supernatural are similar enough strictly in terms of genre that I do think they can be marketing together, in the sense that one is a good lead-in for the other (i.e. Smallville makes a lot more sense as a lead-in for Supernatural than Gilmore Girls did). But I agree that lumping them together in a "Girls of Thursday" ad tells the audience that hot babes are the only reason to watch either show -- and as you said, if that strategy works, it's just going to be hot babes all the time.

Lana may be a pain in the ass to all devotees of the Superman mythos, but at least, at LEAST, she was a part of the show from Day One, so you had the chance to bail out early. They didn't give you two whole seasons to get attached to the show and then suddenly throw Little Miss Perfect into the mix and tell you how much you had to love her.

I'm just so annoyed. After "Fresh Blood" I had some hope, but between that commercial and some of the things I'm hearing the writers saying about plans for Bela's character, I have a feeling there will be a lot of upcoming eps I watch on fast forward.