News

Tweets vs. Twats: Talking to TV writers on Twitter

When I spoke with Pretty Little Liars showrunner Marlene King a few weeks ago, she surprised me by telling me how much she and all of the other writers in her writers room love interacting with fans on Twitter. She told me the instant feedback is “just plain fun,” and even went as far as to indicate that Twitter criticism (Twittercism?) helps them keep the show on track.

The reason King’s enthusiasm amazed me is because, well, I know Twitter.

Now, look: I love Twitter. I love interacting with you guys on Twitter. I love complaining about how I’m out of ketchup on Twitter. I love, love, triple love reading our AfterEllen-specific hash tags on Twitter. (#GaySharks, #BooRadleyVanCullen, etc.) But I also follow along in real time, sometimes, when I’m watching certain TV shows – #Bones, #Chuck, #Glee – and there’s plenty of inanity to sift through if a person wants to read anything worthwhile.

And, inevitably, after every single episode of every single show, Tweeters start hurling hate at showrunners in 140-character chunks.

We all know the Internet can be a foul place sometimes, like a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland where mummies are actually fueled by the skills of the noble ninjas who fight against them. (That was supposed to mean “Internet trolls only get meaner when you speak rationally to them” but I don’t think I landed the metaphor.) Not long ago, Internet nastiness was confined to blog comments and message boards. TV writers were never going to see how much you hated their guts for ruining your favorite character/couple unless they were willing to scroll through a hundred pages of snark and fury on Television Without Pity’s forums. But thanks to Twitter’s global takeover, we suddenly have unfettered access to the people who write the plots.

And that can only be a good thing, right?

Well …

The only other showrunner I personally know who Tweets is SkinsJamie Brittain. Last season when Skins killed off a major character, fans went ballistic. I took the entire writing team to task in my recap, not because they killed a guy, but because of how they killed a guy. I felt (and still feel) like the Skins writing team is better than that. But at the end of the day, it’s his show, and Jamie and I hugged it out. Fans on Twitter, however, were not so resilient. Tweets directed at Jamie went from shocked to outraged to vicious to downright vile. Some fans just weren’t able to separate Jamie the Writer from Jamie the Regular Guy, and he was finally forced to delete his Twitter account to distance himself from the personal attacks.

The Daily Beast talked to Bones showrunner Hart Hanson and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes about similar Twitter experiences. Hanson recently announced that he will only be interacting with the 300 people he follows on Twitter, instead of interacting with the 25,000 people who follow him. It’s not hard to see why: on any given Thursday night, you can find Booth and Brennan shippers calling into question Hanson’s sanity, his intelligence, his integrity, his looks, his motive, his virtue, and even his value as a citizen of the planet.

So does all that Tweeting matter?

When I asked Marlene King about Twitter she said, “We’re big Twitter fans here, so if we make a mistake, we read about it instantly. And so we’re like, ‘OK, we won’t do that again!'”

Jamie Brittain expressed a similar sentiment, and while he stood by his decision to kill off a main character last season on Skins – and is on record repeatedly as saying that, ultimately, television shows belong to the writers – he did tell me, “Some people thought [the decision to kill off a main character] was just crap. And I have to listen to that. If I don’t, what am I? An arrogant arsehole convinced he’s a genius and that everyone else is an idiot.”

Hart Hanson and Shonda Rhimes have a different point of view. Rhimes told The Daily Beast, “I don’t want to sound like I don’t care, but it doesn’t matter what people are saying [on Twitter] because we’re already so far down the road in the direction we’re going.” Parenthetically, Shonda Rhimes’ Twitter bio says, “I make stuff up for a living. Remember, it’s not real, okay?”

Hanson echoed her sentiment: “It’s absolutely wonderful that we have managed to elicit that loyalty and that passion in our fans. But … a TV show is not a democracy.”

Maybe TV writers really are listening to you your 140-character suggestions. Or maybe they’re not. Either way, no one is going to deny that Twitter is a powerful, driving force in TV production.

Two years ago, nerds harnessed the power of Twitter to save NBC’s spy comedy Chuck (#SaveChuck). And then, ironically, those same saviors almost brought about the Chuckpocalypse the following season when the show didn’t take the characters exactly where the fans wanted them to go. When Chuck writers Josh Shwartz and Chris Fedak introduced new love interests for the show’s main characters, fans used Twitter to spread a new plan: Don’t watch the show live. If you must watch it, watch it online or on your DVR. They figured if they could hijack the ratings, they could also hijack the plot. Schwartz and Fedak took the threats so seriously that they were forced to respond to fans on Twitter, in interviews and on blogs, pleading with them not to morph into a vindictive Tweet-mob.

So, yes, all that Tweeting matters. Writers know it, producers know it, studios know it. Twitter creates a unique kind of publicity that makes a moot point out of the fact that it’s free – because it can’t be bought anyway. If something is trending on Twitter, you want to know why. If a TV show is trending every Monday night at 8:00 for three solid weeks, you’re going to take the time to find out why. And if, after finding out why, you fall in love with it enough to help make it trend, you’re probably going to become part of the community (and/or mob) that interacts with the show’s writers on Twitter.

I have written this a billion times, but I’m going to write it again: People have always been – and will always be – deeply moved by stories. People relate to fictional characters, project onto fictional characters, learn from fictional characters and are empowered by fictional characters. Narrative is a mighty thing: it gives order to chaos, form to madness. So the fact that people have intense reactions to television – the most popular storytelling medium in our culture – isn’t surprising. (I can’t tell you how many pillows I’ve hurled at the TV over the years.)

But having strong reactions to stories doesn’t give us permission to let our Tweets turn us into Twats.

Art breeds criticism. But there is a difference between me Tweeting Hart Hanson to say “I feel like your writing decisions in last year’s finale made the walls in Bones‘ fictional world collapse” and me Tweeting Hart Hanson to call him a terrorist. For one thing, my inability to separate the storyteller from the man makes me an irrational jerk. For another thing, perpetual personal attacks on TV writers creates nothing more a barrier of bullying white noise that can’t be penetrated by helpful, constructive – and even sometimes rightfully angry – commentary.

Communicating effectively with TV writers and showrunners is especially important for the gay community because we need to be heard. We need more lesbian and bisexual characters on television; we need more authentic lesbian and bisexual characters on television; and we need keep the few well-rounded lesbian and bisexual characters we’ve already grown to love. When writers misuse and mistreat lesbian and bisexual characters, we need to take them to task, constructively. When writers amaze and astonish us with lesbian and bisexual characters, we need to show them our gratitude. We need our voices to rise above the noise.

Writers aren’t robots. If we prick them, they’ll bleed. If we tickle them, they’ll laugh. If we poison them, they’ll die. And if we Tweet-bash them perpetually, we’ll get what we deserve: #silence to all of our @replies.

Big thanks to Ashley for sharing all her social media/TV research with me.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button