Hello! I'm Star
Wars Syl and this is the Remember Clone Captain Keeli blog.
Warning: This
post will contain spoilers for the episodes in this season, and any
season that may come before it.
First:
Enjoyment factor.
How much fun did I have watching this season of Beauty and the Beast?
There
were some shining moments of goodguys being smart for once
in this season that I cheered
for. And Evan. Oh, Evan, Evan, Evan. His final moments on this season
were beautiful, and I would not have asked for anything more from
him.
Second:
Fandom factor. How
dedicated am I to these characters?
Gabriel ended up
having more depth to his character than I anticipated, and I
certainly enjoyed his struggle, and his fear of losing himself
completely— to the point where he believed suicide to be an option
over permanently becoming the mindless Beast. There was a desperation
and believably to his fight to live that I could respect.
I
liked Tess right from the start, and that hasn't changed after a
season with her. Heather is adorable and sweet, and I wish Cat
wouldn't get so caught up in Emergencies,
Trademark, to the
point where her sister is ignored and no longer deemed important. I'd
like to see Cat learn to both save
Vincent and cherish
her sister too.
If you've been
following along my episode-by-episode immediate reactions, you
already know how much I like Evan. The man... yes. Definitely my
favorite character of season 1.
I
really like Cat, which is unusual for me. Usually I dislike the
“main” female lead, and end up gravitating towards one of the
side characters instead. But... I really like
Cat.
How dedicated am I
to this plot?
I'm certainly
alright with it. On the run from a Big Murky Organization certainly
gave context to these people.
How dedicated am I
to this world?
Do I want to write
fan fiction set in this universe? I don't think I'm ready to quite
label myself a Beauty and the Beast fan (what are they called,
anyway?), but if they continue on as they have, it might happen. I'm
already toying with the idea of writing an Evan story about what he
was thinking in the last moments of his final episode.
Third:
Representation
factor. Did I feel at home and with friends, or did I get pulled out
of the experience by not seeing my world mirrored back?
Gender
& Sexual Orientation. Cat. A cop who can both interrogate, hunt
down a perp, soundly best him in a hand-to-hand fight, and
give a little victory dance at a
baseball game. She is an amazing fighter, a smart goodguy (quite the
feat in today's story writing climate), a kind person, and a loving
sister. I love the fact that she has a partner who is also a lady.
Cat and Tess are an awesome team, and they get the job done. However,
there are no recurring characters that do not appear
to be heterosexual. I certainly saw no clearly asexual characters, or
clearly aromantic characters. Lots of talk about romance and sex,
however, so allosexual heterosexual people were firmly represented...
and if there are any nonbinary genders involved, the audience is not
told.
Appearance. We have
some characters of color, our heroine and her sister, and her
partner. This is awesome. We also have the boss, and I'm not sure
what to make of him as a person yet, and Gabriel. Whose chapter,
sadly, is closed. Almost all of the recurring characters are
“slender,” to quote the X-Wing books, with only the exception of
JT... the glasses-wearing geek. Who also, at the beginning of this
season, was presented as girlfriend-challenged. Which leads us
straight into...
Subculture. We have
one geek. His appearance is rather standard for a geek in the media.
I still don't know if I'm comfortable with that or not. We have no
recurring character as part of an alternative subculture— and I
can't tell whether I'm sad by this, or relieved, because it means I'm
not having to watch another Goth stereotype. Ah, well.
Faith.
Don't really know. I do hope
that if they decide to touch on the faith aspect, it won't only
be in conjunction with a
serial-killing pastor. Looking at you, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and
so many other
franchises. I'd like to see individuals of various faiths represented
in a respectful, reasonable way.
Invisible
Illnesses/“Disabilities.” I can't think of any, off the top of my
head. Guess that answers that question. Nothing memorable. Though I
did have a bonding moment over Vincent's struggle searching for a
cure and could relate to that, the relatability for me was just that
one episode, and the rest have felt too superhero Hulk instead of
Hero-Fighting-Function-Crippling-Disease.
Let's
recap: what did they do well?
Our hero is an amazing person. She has an awesome partner. These
things are good. Should
the TV show be thrown out because it doesn't mirror the reality of
human experience? No. When you go to write a TV show, would I
appreciate it if you tried to let us see people like us on screen?
Yes.
Fourth:
Stand-out moments
or quotes.
Evan's
decision to help, and all that follows for his character. His death
was beautiful and poignant. Probably my favorite sequence of season
one, because of the selfless love it demonstrated. He loved
Cat, and even though he'd been
given the short end of the stick and was going to die because of it,
he didn't resent that. Instead, he chose to make every last second
count to try to give Cat a chance to live the life of her dreams with
Vincent.
Also:
when Vincent said, “We can never get married,” and
Cat's reply was, there's a lot of people in this country
who can't get married.
Fifth:
Conclusion.
I highly enjoyed
the experience of this first season. Will I watch it again? Because
of Evan, I think there's a good chance I might. I will definitely be
watching his final episode again, whether I go through the others at
that time or not, because it's the kind of hero exit that I really
appreciate.
Am I ready to
cosplay as any of these characters? Not yet, but we definitely might
get there. Fan art of Evan is a definite possibility. Do I look
forward to season 2? It's definitely not going to be a chore.
And that concludes
this in-depth look at how I felt about Beauty and the Beast Season
One!
