The downfall of media representation: a look at the massive cancelation tide of queer-woman-led shows of 2022

A little more than a year ago, I published a piece on what I called “the queer renaissance” where I reminisced on Lexa’s legacy (The 100) and showed optimism on the representation scenario given the variety of shows airing or to be aired with queer woman among their characters, and the grand amount of WLW couples in committed relationships that had on-screen marriages between 2020 and 2021. But even then, when things were still looking up representation-wise, I pointed that a cloud of worry was coming due to the end of many beloved shows that featured queer characters. There, I mentioned Black Lightning (Grace and Thunder), The Bold Type (Kat and Adena), Supergirl (Alex and Kelly), Brooklyn99 (Rosa), Atypical (Casey and Izzie), Genera+ion (Riley and Greta), Dickinson (Emily and Sue), Motherland Fort Salem (Raelle and Scylla) and Killing Eve (Eve and Villanelle). Little did I know that my optimism was foolish and that the worry brought by the end of the above-mentioned shows would only grow stronger after a very disturbing 2022.

The first cancelation tide came in April. When rumors started regarding the selling of The CW, queer fans immediately started worrying for their beloved shows, specifically for DC Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman. Turns out they had a reason to worry because even before the network was sold by Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to Nextstar, The CW axed a long list of names from their portfolio. The shock was evident since The CW traditionally renewed their shows and allowed departing series to have a final “goodbye” season, as they did with Supergirl. But what called everyone’s attention was the fact that Legends of Tomorrow last-airing season (the seventh of their run) had done great regarding to critics and ratings. It also had more views than shows that would get renewed, like Riverdale. Media outlets later revealed that the apparent cause for cancelation was that the uncertain future of the network at that point led Warner Bros. to not want to commit to another long-term lease on the sound stages in Vancouver. The fact that they also did not renew their deal with Netflix for distributing content largely affected their revenues as well. Not to say that any of these issues did not play major parts on the future of our beloved shows, the fact remains that series that were in similar conditions, that is, also shot in Vancouver, also distributed by Netflix, and with similar or lower ratings and approval from critics, were renewed. In contrast, Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman were not. The difference between then and the ones that got renewed: both were led by woman who loved other woman. And one of then was led by a black woman.

           It was not easy moving on from such losses and being left without a proper ending to beloved characters and couples. But the cancelation wave did not slow down. Gentleman Jack was canceled in July by HBO. Despite BBC’s desire to move forward with the show, they still needed HBO as a co-producer and global distributor. It was hypothesized that the gap between the first and second seasons, caused by the pandemic, led to lower ratings and, thus, cancelation. But the untold reality was that HBO somewhat sabotaged the show by changing its time slot to air in the US and not pushing as much publicity for season 2. This kind of approach reminded me of the way Nickelodeon treated The Legend of Korra, constantly changing its time slot and ultimately moving it to streaming for the fourth and final season. Korra was a pioneer in queer representation for animated series.

The Wilds was canceled after a second season mostly focused on new male characters instead of the group of girls that led the first season, including the couple Shelby and Tony. Some shows had briefer runs, like Prime Video’s Paper Girls and Netflix’s First Kill. So short indeed that it makes me believe that genre TV for sapphics is the ultimate streaming queerbaiting. It is worth mentioning that many people, including LGBTQIAP+, stated that these shows were better off being canceled since they were poorly scripted and had terrible CGI. Addressing these issues, I have to say that poor visual effects never stopped series from getting renewed (just see Supernatural) and shows with really horrible scripts are constantly made and renewed by streaming platforms (Netflix’s Elite is a perfect example). However, I do not agree that they are badly scripted at all. Despite heavy criticism, First Kill had an expressive number of views and ranked well in Netflix’s Top 10 in many countries, also showing great numbers on socials which were at least comparable to Heartstopper (already renewed by Netflix).

But it was not enough for Netflix to cancel First Kill, and the news about the cancelation of Warrior Nun hit colder than ice. Warrior Nun was already a beloved show that grew its audience during the pandemic. Although some had reservations for the first season because of a possible queerbaiting, this possibility was erased by season 2 and the beautiful slow-burn romance between Ava and Beatrice. The momentum the show gained by the launch of its second season was impressive and it was impossible to go through the Twitter timeline without seeing some post or photo related to the show or Avatrice. The impact was so big that made people go back and watch the first season as well. Rotten Tomatos season 2 critic ratings were 100% and audience score was 99% with 7925 reviews. In fact, season 2 had the highest Netflix audience rating ever. The audience, already aware of Netflix MO, grew the engagement of the series on social media, despite Netflix showing zero effort for advertising the new season whatsoever. And again, despite the great ratings, views and engagement, the show got axed without much explanation, leaving a passionate audience with multiple unsolved cliffhangers.

Netflix, having one of the largest portfolios among networks and streaming platforms, is naturally the home of many shows with LGBTQIA+ characters. It does not feel like a coincidence that these shows, especially the ones featuring lesbian and bisexual woman, are the main targets for cancelation. The cycle continues: platforms pick up shows with a queer character for producing to fill the diversity box; they offer little to no support for the people involved on the actual making of the show, offering lower budgets compared to other equivalent series; besides the low production value, they also put little effort on advertising these series, making very hard for the show to do well outside the queer bubble; still, some audience, specially queer woman, sign to that platform to watch the series, grow attached to the characters, ship the couples, engage on social media, and do what they can for it to get to as many people as possible, since the network or streaming is doing virtually nothing in this regard; ultimately, the show either performs poorly as far as visualizations, mostly due to the sabotage of their own producing platform that offered a low production and advertising value, or performs well, but never well enough to them. In the latter case, it feels like woman-led shows are always held to a much higher standard than the male-led ones, having to do so much better to get same recognition. Misogyny and lesbophobia are the two words that come to mind describing this heartbreaking cycle.

At the end of the day, what we are left with? Series that give terrible endings to their sapphic characters, like Killing Eve. Series that are giving us kind of a bad type of representation, like The L Word Gen. Q season 3 (destroying character evolution and pushing outdated plots). Series with great representation which we are so afraid to get attached to just so we’d be disappointed again (like A League of Their Own and Sex Live of College Girls). And series that we will never even know the ending (choose any of the above-mentioned series). It is worth pointing out that all the fandoms are fiercely fighting for their shows to get pick up by other platforms and find new homes, as they should. A great example that the fight is worth fighting is Wynonna Earp. The show was canceled after its third season, leaving the audience with many cliffhangers. The fans fought hard and SyFy pick up the series for two more seasons. Ultimately, season 5 never happened, and its only owned to the creator Emily Andras, who did not want to make the same mistakes as season 3 and leave multiple loose ends, that we got a satisfying beautiful ending at season 4. But even with only one extra season, it was so worth it. And one final season could be all we needed to feel a sense of closure for all these falling series.

It is worth highlighting that LGBTQIAP+ representation is so important for so many people to recognize themselves in the characters and feeling less alone in this world, for helping people accept themselves, come out to their families, and just to normalize in general the existence of LGBTQIAP+ people in all sorts of environments and genres. We are currently seeing undoubtedly a major regression on how media approaches representation in general. We started back then being either sexualized or straight up killed, evolved into great characters with diverse well-thought-out plots, only to now have our shows canceled. And, although we are all exhausted, we cannot go down without a fight. A unified fight with all fandoms from canceled shows. As we did in 2016 after Lexa’s death, we need to make our points to major media outlets, go after the sponsors of the platforms, make a fuss in social media, look for alternatives. I still hope that, together, we have the power to make a difference if not for the series that were already canceled, to at least avoid that the shows that are still running or just starting to have a similar fate.

From the dark ages of queer representation to its renaissance

There is a quote credited to Sir Francis Bacon that says, "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present". I don't know if this quote is actually his, but what I know is that this phrase proved to be true in the hardest year for queer representation in media. Of course, I am talking about 2016. In that year, it became clear how some tropes in media were used to "bury your gays". According to The Hollywood Reporter, until that year 146 lesbian or bisexual characters were killed off in their respective shows, while only 18 couples experienced a happy ending. This discussion gained momentum when Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) was killed from CW's The 100, after sharing a love scene with Clarke (Eliza Taylor), which was quite traumatic for the queer community after losing many other beloved characters that year. By that point, people already knew Debnam-Carey would have to leave the CW sci-fi drama to star on The Walking Dead spin-off, Fear The Walking Dead with a much bigger role. But the way that the writers decided to deal with her departure left all of us with a bitter taste, reinforcing the idea already so ingrained in our minds that we don't deserve a happy ending. Killing her after an intimate scene just made things that much worse, and the bad repercussion led to Lexa coming back for the season finale (and ultimately in the series finale that aired in 2020).

But as I started saying, our light shines brighter in the dark. And in this hour of darkness, the queer community came together in a movement that significantly changed representation in media in the years to come. And it not only resulted in projects to support LGBTQIA+ youth, such as The Trevor Project, but also in a queer fan event that would bring together writers, producers, actors, and fans, called ClexaCon. Such an event by itself marks a huge change in the way that the industry sees the queer community, recognizing it as a huge market with great potential if they are able to listen to its demands. And a steppingstone for that change was Wynonna Earp, which first aired in 2016. Emily Andras, the showrunner who was already loved for her work in the Canadian show Lost Girl, was also behind this western dramedy. And when she stepped into the stage of her first ClexaCon, she decided to make a commitment that they wouldn't kill off queer characters (a commitment that she made for that season, but that remained true for the whole series running).

It is understandable why the fans made such a massive effort to save the show from an early demise after season 3. With billboards even in Times Square, they showed their support to the show and specifically to WayHaught, the couple formed by Waverly Earp (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Nicole Haught (Kat Barrel). And thank the goddess they did, because season 4 was filled with the best kind of WayHaught content, including one of the sexiest and most intimate love scenes that I've ever seen anywhere, and the most beautiful wedding. The WayHaught wedding is a reflex of what I called the queer renaissance, which is a phenomenon related to the rising number of queer characters and queer weddings recently, especially between 2020 and 2021. To mention some of the ladies who tightened the knot, besides Waverly and Nicole, we also had Mazikeen and Eve from Lucifer, Grace and Thunder from Black Lightning, Sara and Ava from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Carina and Maya from Station 19.

But a cloud of worry is coming with the end of many of these beloved shows. Lucifer aired its sixth and final season in 2021, and so did Wynonna Earp, with its fourth season. Other shows that either ended or are coming to their last season are Black Lightning (Grace and Thunder), The Bold Type (Kat and Adena), Supergirl (Alex and Kelly), Brooklyn99 (Rosa), Atypical (Casey and Izzie), Genera+ion (Riley and Greta), Dickinson (Emily and Sue), Motherland Fort Salem (Raelle and Scylla) and Killing Eve (Eve and Villanelle). The future of others, such as The L Word: Generation Q, hangs on the balance as the network hasn't renewed the show for another season just yet. The same goes for Legends of Tomorrow, which is airing its seventh season. It feels like, after a light breeze of advance, we are still bound to be left in a vacuum of representation.

But the future is brighter than the past, indeed. While shows like Grey's Anatomy, and its spin-off Station 19, still are beacons for representation after 18 seasons, new shows are claiming their space. Gentleman Jack and Vigil, both starring Surrane Jones, are good examples of that. Sex Education 4th season is already confirmed, and we will continue to expect great things from newcomers, such as the adaptation for TV of the acclaimed game The Last of Us, starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal. In the game, Bella's character Ellie is queer. Although it appears that the adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will no longer be produced by FreeForm, it is still said that the adaptation will happen somewhere else. And we can always expect new shows to appear and knock our socks off. This means that the progress that we all made in the past few years was just the beginning. And while we will miss some of these characters dearly, I don't believe that we will be left alone to deal with their absence. This change of mentality in media started from a small but vocal group, and it created a revolution. A revolution that showed the power of seeing yourself on a screen, how that creates acceptance for all to live all kinds of love.