Why the H50 fandom sucks the fun out…

If you start to read this, you read it as written & you read it through to the end. You’ll not try and find hidden meanings or try to turn my words into something they’re not. What you read is exactly what I want you to read and what I mean for you to read.

I may lose followers from both sides (meaning McRoll & McDanno fans) on Twitter & here, but I’m so freaking tired of going online & be bombarded by negativity by some of them. And lets be clear here we’re talking about only 6-8 ppl on either side, but that rather small number is enough to make going online an unpleasant experience because word does get around and wanted or not others do feel the need to respond either way.

I also want to make clear that I’m NOT talking about fans on either side which merely share their love for their preferred ship, share pictures, their thoughts, their wishes and imaginations of said ships & otherwise stay away from the back & forth of those roughly 12-16 individuals.

I’d be sad about losing followers because I genuinely like my peeps no matter which side they’re coming from, including outside of the shared fandom.

I’m just tired of the constant complaining and bickering, the insults thrown at each other.

The whole cyber war happened only because Catherine Rollins became a regular character on the show. That sentence alone should tell ppl how null & void it all is.

While at first the dislike stayed with the character and both sides still got on rather well with each other, at one point it changed and became extremely personal.

McDanno fans were labeled perverts, delusional, stupid etc.

McRoll fans were labeled bullies, asskissers, blind to the obvious etc.

That quite clearly says neither side has any right to clap themselves on the back & go all ‘we’re the good ones’.

Both sides have lost focus on how to talk, how to discuss, how not to get personal.

Ppl blame Michelle Borth & Peter Lenkov for this cyber war getting out of hand, because Michelle pushed back & Peter supported her quite obviously.

Now Michelle may have made a fault by chosing the wrong opinions to get angry about, opinions that were clearly about the character & not directly adressed to her, but

a) how much shit could you take for something you do & are passionate about day in and day out and take it with silence

and

b) she apologized for it, repeatedly, publicy & with direct tweets too.

Weeks ago when the fandom first got into a huge uproar about Tweets from Michelle I too got caught up in the storm and was blocked by her.

One had two choices about that, be angry about it & show it or be quiet & accept it. I was naturally confused & had my suspicions, but suspicions are just that & rarely proofable. I had given my opinion and although I might have thought the way I did was ok (meaning there were no insults or attacks involved) it still mustn’t necessarily have been ok. So I decided on the latter, namely be quiet & accept it.

Once it all calmed down a bit Michelle unblocked & followed some of those initially blocked, including me. Now again there were two choices…be indifferent about it or take the olive branch extended & get in contact.

Once more I went with the latter choice, followed back & contacted her.

What happened is, we two spoke for a bit with each other & it ended with both of us apologizing and doing what’s right, namely moving on.

And that exactly is the problem of the 12-16 individuals I’m adressing here. None of them can move on. One says something, you bet the oposing side jumps on it and all bats are off again.

A word about Peter Lenkov, yes I am of the opinion an executive producer should always be neutral (other shows went down the drain when producers went up against fans & I don’t want that to happen with H50) but I also tried & put myself in his position.

Last year, the Lori character was anything but welcomed by the fandom & Lauren German had been personally attacked int he worst way. This year, while initially the dislike was about Cath, the signs were clear where it will go sooner rather than later.

Here, no matter the reasons for disliking Cath one CAN come to the conclusion that regular females outside of Kono will not be accepted.

Now how often do you think an executive producer can take the words ‘the ep/show was/is bad because Catherine was/is in it’ without feeling like your WHOLE work is trampled on. Never mind that the performance of all actors & actresses gets ignored. The above sentence gets labeled as opinion and feedback. I’m sorry but an opinion always has reasoning, that sentence doesn’t include one, aside from the obvious…dislike about the character. Feedback includes both positive & negative parts.

My feedback for 3.20 went like this (it’s just an excerpt):

I know a lot of people were unhappy about Catherine being the one to back Steve up. I liked her in this ep, considering that she’s in the Navy and sure had some basic training, it made sense to have her in this ep. Michelle did a really good job as back-up. I also liked Cath’s little talk with Danny. There was affection between the two of them which too speaks of friendship.

Once again though they try to glamorize a female character by having her say ‘I’m just as qualified as you’re when it comes to taking care of myself’. One huge minus…you do NOT EVER put a female character, no matter how far she had been trained on the same pedestal a Navy SEAL belongs on.

This glamorizing of a female character is not the first time!

I was already more than a little disappointed when the writers had Kono take down a highly trained black ops guy in 2 seconds flat this season.

Fiction or not, try and make it all at least a LITTLE believable. 

They did it with Lori too & do the same with Cath (seriously throughout the season she won every single fight…are you kidding me?). Just as Lori all knowing & all capable…at least Cath steps up to the task. Or rather Michelle has the physique and stamina to make the badassery believable. Said badassery by now though has gotten old though.

That IS feedback, it has positive & negative parts and it’s nowhere said that Cath has to go.

Some say Cath comes in between the bromance, but does she really? For me, we may’ve gotten less of it this season, but the bromantic moments were far more significant & meaningful than ever before (ep  3.06, 3.10, 3.12, 3.14, 3.17 just as examples), the so called carguments have instead often turned into private talks instead of real arguments.

The problem quite simply is the writing this season. The writing so far stretches between good, mediocre, fantastic and really bad. Mainly plotholes, drawn-out storylines & characterization suffer badly. I mean the characterization of pretty much all characters aside from the additional characters named Max, Kamekona & Charlie. These three are always in character.

So, all in all, the whole situation has once again gotten out of control because ppl are unable to voice their thoughts in an acceptable manner, others happily jump on that & thus we get the terrible back and forth of pointing fingers & throwing insults.

Thank you very much…NOT!

I simply can not understand why it’s so hard to take a step back, look at yourself & try to get yourself out of the constantly negative mindset & focus on what you love, what you enjoy & accept that some things are just as they’re.

I can not understand why some ppl seem to strive for keeping the negativity & others love to go on all out attacks on those unable to see the positive too.

I can not understand why both sides of those 12-16 individuals think it’s just fine to suck the fun out of the fandom & show.

Like and dislike whatever & whomever you like, ship whomever you want to ship, but don’t take a whole show down or attack a whole group of shippers.

I apologize for the long post, but I’ve enough of this cyber war & if I reach even one individual & have them calm down I’d already be happy.

My review for ep 3.20

I liked this episode, it was a good one, but by no means epic, stellar or even the best of H50.

Who was epic, stellar and did his best performance so far…Alex O’Loughlin! His performances don’t surprise me, they don’t ever since I knew he played the psycho-/sociopath Vincent in the Criminal Minds episode ‘The big wheel’. Without knowing who played Vincent back then I knew the actor who did is a hell of a talent & will make his way.

Alex did & he owned this episode from start to finish. The end was more than poignant, because having his Team show up at the furneral for someone they didn’t know is a nod back to ep 1.08. Back then the whole Team showed up for Danny’s friend Meka whom they too didn’t know.

That’s Ohana, that’s saying ‘we’ve your back’.

Alex’s Steve brought tears to my eyes when he grieved for his friend, but they fell during the furneral, when he spoke with Freddie’s daughter & when he saw his Ohana showing up.

I loved getting to know him better from a time before 5-0 & this peek into his past explains a lot about Steve.

I know a lot of people were unhappy about Catherine being the one to back him up. I liked her in this ep, considering that she’s in the Navy and sure had some basic training, it made sense to have her in this ep. Michelle did a really good job as back-up. I also liked Cath’s little talk with Danny. There was affection between the two of them which too speaks of friendship.

Once again though they try to glamorize a female character by having her say ‘I’m just as qualified as you’re when it comes to taking care of myself’. One huge minus…you do NOT EVER put a female character, no matter how far she had been trained on the same podest a Navy SEAL belongs on.

This glamorizing of a female character is not the first time!

I was already more than a little disappointed when the writers had Kono take down a highly trained black ops guy in 2 seconds flat this season.

Fiction or not, try and make it all at least a LITTLE believable. 

They did it with Lori too & do the same with Cath (seriously throughout the season she won every single fight…are you kidding me?). Suddenly she’s seemingly everywhere & just as Lori all knowing & all capable…at least Cath steps up to the task. Or rather Michelle has the physique and stamina to make the badassery believable. Said badassery by now though has gotten old.

Why seemingly everywhere? Knowing Cath will feature prominently in this episode why was she chosen to take Kono’s rightful place in the undercover roller-derby ep 3.18? I liked that ep, but that did stand out.

As much as I like Cath, I can fully understand people being fed up about this character at times. The way she’s written, the way she’s put into cases that solely belong to the Hawaiian 5-0 Task Force, makes her a thorn in many peoples sides.

It all comes down to…BALANCE. Use a character in the wrong capacity, glamorize that character on top of it & the audience gets unhappy. H50 is about the Task Force. The members of the Task Force are Steve McGarrett, Danny Williams, Chin Ho Kelly & Kono Kalakaua.

The writers & producers were always able to have that balance with the other additional characters (Max, Kamekona, Charlie, I also consider Duke an additional character). Why is it so impossible for them to do the same when they bring in another female character? In other words they try too hard to have their female characters be liked & gain the exact opposite as a result.

Keep Cath where she belongs as happened in this ep, as happened for example in 3.06…the Navy & her Navy Intel (they stretched her role pretty far in 3.20 but whatever, I’m fine with it). If they make her work with mom (a character and storyline I’ve absolutely no interest anymore…talk about underdeveloped character & storyline. Never mind stretching a storyline until you just can’t care anymore) fine too.

Ease up on the character some & incorporate her the way you do with Max, Kamekona, Charlie (all three whom you see in pretty much every episode as well) & Duke, without trying to make her outshine every other character.

To another huge minus of this ep…

I was totally aboard with honoring the whole ‘we leave no man behind’ rule (I read some people say ‘what about Jenna, she was left behind’, but we’re talking about a Navy SEAL, a man who died in the name of his country and not a private gal that went on her own private mission) and bring back the body.

Where they went wrong however for me is the whole revenge part. In the end the writers made Steve look like a (to put in bluntly) vindictive and vicious murderer.

Instead of going that route they should have just made it harder to get the body, have those they went after attack them first & thus make it a necessity to kill them. Wouldn’t have made it entirely right considering that part of the ‘mission’ wasn’t sanctioned, but then the whole mission for Freddie & Steve was a ‘secret, we won’t acknowledge your participation or you at all’ to begin with.

So the ep was good, but for these reasons by far not perfect & even less epic.