The Women of Cascade, or how a shoot-em-up show about a superhero treats its female characters.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Women of Cascade, or how a shoot-em-up show about a superhero treats its female characters. |
| Creator: | magician113 |
| Date(s): | August 30, 2010 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | The Women of Cascade, or how a shoot-em-up show about a superhero treats its female characters., Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Women of Cascade, or how a shoot-em-up show about a superhero treats its female characters is an essay by magician113.
"This is a meta complement to the podfics entry submitted by laurie_ky for the ladiesbigbang."
Some Topics Discussed
- The Sentinel
- regular characters: Naomi Sandburg, Megan Connor, Carolyn Plummer, Cassie Wells
- many other minor characters
Excerpts
So, right away with the title “The Sentinel”, you know that everything else is going to play second fiddle to Jim, his life, and those super-senses. And it does. Alternating between blessing and curse, we see Jim use his powers of awesomeness as he stops the bad guys week after week. The only other regular characters listed were Blair and Captain Simon Banks, Jim’s boss in the police department. Carolyn Plummer, Jim’s ex-wife and head of Forensics/Technical Services, was also given regular status, but she left before the first season ended. There were a few recurring characters, including Inspector Megan Connors. Very early on, though, “The Sentinel” evolved into a buddy show – Jim and his odd sidekick Blair. Some fans believe it went beyond buddy into a deeper relationship. Thus, the enormous amount of J/B slash fic (and virtually no het fic) in the fandom.
When we fervent fans look at Jim and Blair on the screen, there hardly seems room for anyone else. Yet, besides the regular players, there were new guest characters every week, and many of them were women. How were they treated by the show’s writers? How do we fans treat them?
Overall, I’d say the writers did pretty well. Sure there were some throwaway bimbos, but there were also lots of strong women. Sarah Finkelman (Finkelman’s Folly), was a captain put in charge of a premiere department when Simon Banks is recovering from a gunshot wound. Elaine Walters (Poachers) was the lead investigator of an important undercover operation. Akiko Keno was a sharp lawyer, who turned out to be an even sharper FBI agent deep undercover. The Forensics department seemed to be populated with nothing *but* strong, intelligent women: Carolyn Plummer was followed by Samantha, Cassie Wells and Serena Chang. Even Rhonda and Vera have gumption – they handle themselves well as hostages in “Siege”.