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Post by snacky on Aug 26, 2014 5:43:14 GMT
In the News/Reviews area recently I posted a couple of pieces about what made William Murdoch different as a character. The first proposed he should be a new feminist hero because his unassuming demeanor gives women the opportunity to develop their personalities ( HERE). The second differentiated the "plain man blending into the backgorund" William from the egocentric, eccentric, narcissist, bad boy detectives that represents, well, all other TV detectives ( HERE). All jokes about rabid shippers aside, I have realized William represents (to heterosexual women) "the man you marry". He is responsible, reliable, considerate, kind, honest, caring, capable, grounded, steadfast, patient, decent, serious, and full of integrity. He has a stable professional job with a pension. For icing on the cake he's smart, yet he's soft-spoken so he'll also let a smart woman get a word in edgewise. He's got impeccable manners! He's good-looking and can really pull off Don Juan when he wants to! This isn't to say he's perfect (which would be annoying): he has his awkward moments and communication problems. Perhaps he can be too cautious and reserved. But the fun part of marriage is negotiating issues like that! Yes, William is the man you marry, and women know it on some Jungian archetypical level. Now compare the TV "heroes" you see on American TV: these guys are all the wrong guys to marry. They might be pretty to look at, trophies on your arm at a party. But that aggressive, high-powered lawyer that gets high on conquering all he sees will be sleeping with 10 other women if he even bothers to marry you: he feels "above" being tied down. What about that wounded artist type that breaks all the rules and needs you to take care of him? He's basically a boy who needs you as his mommy, not his wife. He will use you and betray you. All these men probably call you a 'Ho when they are with their friends and think of you as a prize they won in the game of life, but they will discard as soon as they "level up" to a better one. The only "happily" married men seem to be on religious TV channels, on the most saccharine of "faith-based" TV shows. Tangent: American Entertainment Moguls also push commercials for sugary cereals and soda on kids and came up with "life stye advertising" for liquors that would otherwise have no taste like vodka. In other words, the TV power elite are a bunch of boys themselves, trying to indoctrinate America with their stupid boy fantasies. Anyway, since the marrying age for women is getting older (and apparently there is an expanding trough of "YOLO stupidity gap years" that take place), I can see how MM is spinning toward an older female demographic than it prefers. However, the message it sends would probably be healthier for a younger female demographic than it's getting to, in America as well as Canada. ESPECIALLY in America, where girls are in danger of thinking Justin Bieber is the man you want to be with, just because he is apparently cute in their eyes.  Anyway, William Murdoch is the man you want to marry. And you don't have to be of any particular religious denomination, or religious at all, or particularly "hokey", to want to underscore that. This type of show would do American TV, and Americans, particularly American women, a lot of good. But who knows how to get that across.  |
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Post by Hodge on Sept 11, 2014 5:39:13 GMT
In the News/Reviews area recently I posted a couple of pieces about what made William Murdoch different as a character. The first proposed he should be a new feminist hero because his unassuming demeanor gives women the opportunity to develop their personalities ( HERE). The second differentiated the "plain man blending into the backgorund" William from the egocentric, eccentric, narcissist, bad boy detectives that represents, well, all other TV detectives ( HERE). All jokes about rabid shippers aside, I have realized William represents (to heterosexual women) "the man you marry". He is responsible, reliable, considerate, kind, honest, caring, capable, grounded, steadfast, patient, decent, serious, and full of integrity. He has a stable professional job with a pension. For icing on the cake he's smart, yet he's soft-spoken so he'll also let a smart woman get a word in edgewise. He's got impeccable manners! He's good-looking and can really pull off Don Juan when he wants to! This isn't to say he's perfect (which would be annoying): he has his awkward moments and communication problems. Perhaps he can be too cautious and reserved. But the fun part of marriage is negotiating issues like that! Yes, William is the man you marry, and women know it on some Jungian archetypical level. Now compare the TV "heroes" you see on American TV: these guys are all the wrong guys to marry. They might be pretty to look at, trophies on your arm at a party. But that aggressive, high-powered lawyer that gets high on conquering all he sees will be sleeping with 10 other women if he even bothers to marry you: he feels "above" being tied down. What about that wounded artist type that breaks all the rules and needs you to take care of him? He's basically a boy who needs you as his mommy, not his wife. He will use you and betray you. All these men probably call you a 'Ho when they are with their friends and think of you as a prize they won in the game of life, but they will discard as soon as they "level up" to a better one. The only "happily" married men seem to be on religious TV channels, on the most saccharine of "faith-based" TV shows. Tangent: American Entertainment Moguls also push commercials for sugary cereals and soda on kids and came up with "life stye advertising" for liquors that would otherwise have no taste like vodka. In other words, the TV power elite are a bunch of boys themselves, trying to indoctrinate America with their stupid boy fantasies. Anyway, since the marrying age for women is getting older (and apparently there is an expanding trough of "YOLO stupidity gap years" that take place), I can see how MM is spinning toward an older female demographic than it prefers. However, the message it sends would probably be healthier for a younger female demographic than it's getting to, in America as well as Canada. ESPECIALLY in America, where girls are in danger of thinking Justin Bieber is the man you want to be with, just because he is apparently cute in their eyes. Anyway, William Murdoch is the man you want to marry. And you don't have to be of any particular religious denomination, or religious at all, or particularly "hokey", to want to underscore that. This type of show would do American TV, and Americans, particularly American women, a lot of good. But who knows how to get that across. Not sure how I missed this post originally. I agree with you about William, he's the perfect, not so perfect, man. I'm not sure the show's attracting an older female viewer than they would like though. I got the impression they're perfectly happy to appeal to ANY age group, babies to centenarians, as long as you watch! |
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Post by snacky on Sept 11, 2014 6:20:20 GMT
Not sure how I missed this post originally. I agree with you about William, he's the perfect, not so perfect, man. I'm not sure the show's attracting an older female viewer than they would like though. I got the impression they're perfectly happy to appeal to ANY age group, babies to centenarians, as long as you watch! I seem to remember that CBC and/or Yannick ticked off some of the over-30 demographic last year by suggesting they needed to get their numbers up among younger female viewers. I hope they will trust that continuing to present William as a complex character and allowing him to interact with other interesting characters while pursuing engaging mysteries in an unusual period setting will continue to "attract" an audience. Dangling a "cute" guy is a shallow attraction that won't last long in any age group - just like real life. I do think the Murdoch character is offering something very different in a male protagonist, and the CBC has yet to fully play the card it has. I think a bigger audience is looking for this show but has no way of connecting/learning about it. But most of all I think, for the female audience - at least the American one - there's something particularly positive about it. Maybe MM will finally attract some notice this year. This gives me some hope, lol: /photo/1 |
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Post by Hodge on Sept 11, 2014 6:44:02 GMT
Not sure how I missed this post originally. I agree with you about William, he's the perfect, not so perfect, man. I'm not sure the show's attracting an older female viewer than they would like though. I got the impression they're perfectly happy to appeal to ANY age group, babies to centenarians, as long as you watch! I seem to remember that CBC and/or Yannick ticked off some of the over-30 demographic last year by suggesting they needed to get their numbers up among younger female viewers. I hope they will trust that continuing to present William as a complex character and allowing him to interact with other interesting characters while pursuing engaging mysteries in an unusual period setting will continue to "attract" an audience. Dangling a "cute" guy is a shallow attraction that won't last long in any age group - just like real life. I do think the Murdoch character is offering something very different in a male protagonist, and the CBC has yet to fully play the card it has. I think a bigger audience is looking for this show but has no way of connecting/learning about it. But most of all I think, for the female audience - at least the American one - there's something particularly positive about it. Maybe MM will finally attract some notice this year. This gives me some hope, lol: /photo/1 I didn't start to watch MM until last December so don't know what, if anything, was said. I was talking of Shaftesbury when I said they don't care. Yes, dangling a cute guy is shallow, actually I'm amazed I like Murdoch because of that but his character is just my quirky kinda guy so I'll forgive the looks.  Murdoch is so different I'm amazed he's popular, but that could come down to the looks for many. Murdoch is a great role model for modern men who seem to have forgotten how to behave like gentlemen. As far as CBC fully playing the card I think that really depends on the writers rather than CBC. I'd love to see a bigger audience as long as the show didn't change to appeal to more people but they'd lose their current audience if they did so it would be self defeating in the end. |
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Post by snacky on Sept 11, 2014 7:15:56 GMT
Murdoch is so different I'm amazed he's popular, but that could come down to the looks for many. Murdoch is a great role model for modern men who seem to have forgotten how to behave like gentlemen. As far as CBC fully playing the card I think that really depends on the writers rather than CBC. I'd love to see a bigger audience as long as the show didn't change to appeal to more people but they'd lose their current audience if they did so it would be self defeating in the end. Funny story that... I started watching MM for various elements of the show - I did not recognize Yannick Bisson at all, even though I had seen him in various shows before! But he was initially hired on to MM as a "heart throb" type, and he did deliver on quite a few female fans who watch the show mainly because Yannick is in it. After I started watching the show, I suddenly recognized who Yannick was. If you look under the "Yannick" section of the forum, you can find my shocked post where I discover that not only is this the same, unrecognizable, actor...but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was a decent guy as well (or at least trying to come across as one). One thing I did find frustrating when trying to gather MM fan videos is that you could tell when people were primarily fans of the actor, and they weren't really watching the show he was currently in yet. It took years for people to realize he's not an midwestern FBI agent anymore! That's kind of sad considering that he did such a great job transforming himself for the role in MM that I didn't even recognize him, when I've seen him in at least 3 different shows before. |
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Post by Hodge on Sept 11, 2014 16:13:13 GMT
Murdoch is so different I'm amazed he's popular, but that could come down to the looks for many. Murdoch is a great role model for modern men who seem to have forgotten how to behave like gentlemen. As far as CBC fully playing the card I think that really depends on the writers rather than CBC. I'd love to see a bigger audience as long as the show didn't change to appeal to more people but they'd lose their current audience if they did so it would be self defeating in the end. Funny story that... I started watching MM for various elements of the show - I did not recognize Yannick Bisson at all, even though I had seen him in various shows before! But he was initially hired on to MM as a "heart throb" type, and he did deliver on quite a few female fans who watch the show mainly because Yannick is in it. After I started watching the show, I suddenly recognized who Yannick was. If you look under the "Yannick" section of the forum, you can find my shocked post where I discover that not only is this the same, unrecognizable, actor...but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was a decent guy as well (or at least trying to come across as one). One thing I did find frustrating when trying to gather MM fan videos is that you could tell when people were primarily fans of the actor, and they weren't really watching the show he was currently in yet. It took years for people to realize he's not an midwestern FBI agent anymore! That's kind of sad considering that he did such a great job transforming himself for the role in MM that I didn't even recognize him, when I've seen him in at least 3 different shows before. When I saw my first episode of MM, last December, I was instantly hooked on the show, it had everything. I couldn't watch it when it was on City as we didn't get it and when it moved to CBC I wouldn't watch it as it was Stephen Harper's favourite show and if he liked it I wasn't watching it!! It was only when Igor Pugdog 'said' he was going to be in an episode (Blast of Silence) that I decided I should take a look, that first ep was Ragtime, not my fave ep now but still a decent one. When it finished I turned to my husband and said "WHAT HAVE WE BEEN MISSING!! I have to admit that I didn't know Yannick at all, he was just some good looking actor that got the job as the eye candy. It was only later when someone mentioned Sue Thomas that I realized I'd seen him before, I'd seen two seasons of ST and still didn't recognize him. I knew about the show Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy but never watched it, other than the trailers, so had no idea he'd been in that too. I didn't recognize him from Sue Thomas as he looks so different as Murdoch, what a transformation! Funny, I love Murdoch, just my kinda guy but truthfully, until recently anyway, Yannick did nothing for me. Not sure when I started liking him, maybe when I started studying his acting technique. I rarely like the good looking guys, there has to be something behind the looks for me, so I was stunned when I liked Murdoch, Brackenreid would normally be more my type, but it's his charm that I think I fell for. Murdoch will be the role Yannick's always remembered for and it's great that he loves the character. He puts so much into him it's too bad TPTB don't recognize just how much he does put into this role but I think he makes it look too easy, it's NOT! He deserves some recognition in the form of an award. This man's talent stuns me. The one thing that Sue Thomas fans did do was give the show an audience when it first started, I think they now appreciate the show for what it is, quite unique. |
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Post by snacky on Sept 11, 2014 17:46:23 GMT
It was only later when someone mentioned Sue Thomas that I realized I'd seen him before, I'd seen two seasons of ST and still didn't recognize him. I knew about the show Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy but never watched it, other than the trailers, so had no idea he'd been in that too. I didn't recognize him from Sue Thomas as he looks so different as Murdoch, what a transformation! Funny, I love Murdoch, just my kinda guy but truthfully, until recently anyway, Yannick did nothing for me. I started from an even worse place. I had seen Yannick in High Tide, so if I had recognized him off the bat, I would have immediately dismissed him as a bad actor. That's part of why I was so blown away when I realized it was the same actor. Because he had grown up to be: 1) not Justin Bieber despite starting out in the "heart throb" category and 2) a hard-working, interesting actor. As Julia would say - fascinating! But it's a nice trivia side dish for a show I'd love whether or not there was this curious metamorphosis of the main actor. |
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