#YELLING ABOUT BITCHIN FANTASY DESIGN WORK

[fieldbears]

Siren - the soft queer poly diverse mermaid show I had never heard of

So I am going to start yelling about Siren because I have seen/heard very little hype for this show and I think a lot of people would like it... here we go. I’m on the 4th episode. You can watch this on Hulu. 

Would you like to watch a fun kissy mermaid show? Do you love a strong cast of supporting actors from various backgrounds who have been underappreciated by Hollywood? Did you love The Fifth Element’s Leeloo but wish she wasn’t so selectively helpless toward the end?

First warning: some of the acting is Lacking. I will not name names. But it’s important to note that someone VERY wisely decided that if their white male protagonist was not going to be extremely talented at Tones and Expressions, the least they could do would be to take a page from Teen Wolf’s book and make him the softest, goodest boy who drinks his Respects Women Juice with every meal. Ben starts out as a generic American dude but is slowly revealed to be curious, EXTREMELY forgiving, and very empathetic.

Second warning: a lot of the plot reads like fanfic. But ... woke fanfic. Hold on, I can explain: in the first episode, our Everyman is driving down a winding road when he spots a Mysterious Naked Girl stumbling around, lost, who then FAINTS. I think that’s bingo already, right? But here’s the thing - this show embraces a lot of fun cliches but, so far, abandons the problematic shitty ones. Ben, the Everyman? 0% skeeve, 0% male gaze. The helpless moment for the Mysterious Girl? That’s really the last time we see her be defenseless. Even when she’s clearly Lost or Confused, she still keeps her agency, picking up new information and making the most informed decisions she can; she’s also perfectly capable of dealing with anyone who threatens her.

(Which, TW for anyone who does not feel comfortable seeing an attempted rape scene: she takes a ride with a strange guy who seems nice at first, and it goes badly for him. If you want to skip past it, all you need to know is that he tries to take some liberties and she literally eviscerates him and throws him through the windshield. She moves on immediately and clearly has no remorse of any kind about what she did to protect herself.)

Third final warning, pretty mild: the Generic Bad Guy Military is out to experiment on the mermaids! Their facilities are... poorly designed! Their protocols are ... unclear! Their opsec is.... nonexistent??? The actors playing high-ranking military personnel are... not well suited for the parts they’re playing! This warning is really only for people who cringe at lack of trigger discipline in films, or otherwise know just enough about weapons or US Military Stuff to see when something isn’t well researched. But they’re more of a vehicle for plot, and so it’s easy not to sweat it too much.

Now on to the positives. I have many more positives than I do warnings.

The mermaids look fucking rad. I’m sorry, but I’m opening with this. The notes were clearly “realistic, but also gorgeous, and also predatory as fuck.” Look:

For a narrative with so many opportunities for dumb choices, they never Split the Party or Go Investigate That Weird Noise. We’ve got a cast of mostly young adults, none of whom have the full picture of what’s going on, but even the two Cliche Dude Bros have real scenes of discussing their feelings! Working out their misunderstandings! Doing their best to trust each other! It’s extremely refreshing - so far the various tensions aren’t brought on by needless lack of communication or love of drama.

Speaking of lack of drama, I have been holding onto this long enough, they are setting up a poly triad and I am fucking here for it. The two main human protagonists are dating, and work at a marine biology center together. As they learn more about Mysterious Girl together, they both become closer to her. Without spoiling anything major, there have been some scenes that are very clearly laying the groundwork for Clear Consent and Lack of Jealousy - this human couple has a healthy relationship and while plot is definitely happening very constantly and very loudly, there is an undercurrent of, this Mysterious Girl? This extremely pretty, extremely fascinating Mysterious Girl? Seems to like us? Both of us? Her cheekbones are unreal and we don’t know how to deal with this yet? It’s very sweet.

This show has real parts for extremely underappreciated POC actors. I haven’t seen Fola in anything before, which is criminal, not just because I’m extremely gay for her but because I want to see how her performance changes when she isn’t concentrating on an American accent. Gil Birmingham, who you definitely recognize on sight if not by name, plays her father, a competent (!!) sheriff who is clearly a good man (!!!!) and so far is getting a lot of screen time as he investigates Mysterious Things. You also know Patrick Gallagher, who plays the level-headed local doctor who Can Absolutely Tell Something Is Up. Curtis Lum and Ian Verdun play the dudebros, and Rena Owen plays a local weird lady and gets to use her own accent. Lastly, Sibongile Mlambo plays a Second Mysterious Girl, who is coming into the narrative more as we go on. I’M NOT EVEN NAMING ALL OF THEM. The white people are, off the top of my head, Ben Softboy Protag, his shitty family, and... most of the government folks? Of those, Softboy Protag is the only one with significant screen time.

And let’s talk interpersonal roles. So far, the show follows Ben the most, but it’s fairly clear so far that the show isn’t interested in establishing him as The Leader. There’s a vague Scooby Gang coming together, only two of whom are white men, and nobody’s taking on a leading role so much as negotiating and discussing what is best in These Mysterious Circumstances. I have so far gotten no Black Best Friend vibes and I am hopeful moving forward.

Also, not much is made of the fact that Ben is dating a WOC. His mom has made one shitty comment about how he always liked the ‘wild’ ones, but it’s unclear if that’s because Maddie... has tattoos? Isn’t rich? The mom is clearly set up to have shitty opinions, so the line is definitely a reflection on her and not on Maddie or the relationship. Also, and I realize how low this bar is, but: Maddie has Native American ancestry on her father’s side, and this is made clear without any unnecessary mysticism, cliche music in the background, anything. There are points where her knowledge of myths leads to interesting dialogue, but it’s not presented in... you know... that way?

That’s what I have so far. Yeah. Hulu.