#warehousewatch: Giant-Size Superhero Special

Where better to set your musical episode than a series of warehouses?

Welcome to #warehousewatch, in which we track the most integral thing on the CW Network: the warehouses! This giant-size super-special installment takes us from the start of March through to the season finale of the CW’s three biggest superhero shows: THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL, and ARROW. A second mega post will cover JANE THE VIRGIN, LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES through to their finales, with a look at the first few episodes of iZOMBIE. And since I’m waaaaaaaay behind on both THE 100 and THE ORIGINALS (those pesky The series), they’ll each receive a separate, full-season report at an unspecified point in the future.

If you missed the previous posts in this series, you can find them under my CW Scholarship tag.

As always, I’ve organized this vitally important scientific data by show and by episode, and I’ve counted warehouse appearances rather than individual warehouses. There are also lots of spoilers in the mix. You may wish to skip the episodes you haven’t seen yet and/or go straight to the stats section at the bottom of this massive, unwieldy post.

#warehousewatch: January and February 2017

Supergirl, like so many CW characters, lives in a converted warehouse.

I’m forever amused by how very many of the CW Network's shows feature warehouses, abandoned or otherwise, so I’ve set out to track every warehouse on every CW show I watch throughout the 2016/2017 season.

For science.

We're now nearing the end of the project, so if you missed the first two instalments I’ll direct you to the October report (which also contains more information about the genesis of #warehousewatch) and the November/early December report.

And now, without further ado, here’s a complete¹ list of warehouses that appeared on the CW in late December, January, and February:

#warehousewatch: November and December 2016

Abandoned warehouse: best place for a superhero team-up or what??

The CW Network loves no setting so much as a warehouse, so I've set out to track every warehouse on every CW show I watch throughout the 2016/2017 TV season. For science.

If you're new to the #warehousewatch project, you can catch up on the October stats here. Remember, for our purposes a warehouse is a large space with a concrete or packed dirt floor, suitable for storage and/or industry. That said, when you watch TV through a warehousey lens, there comes a point where everything looks like a warehouse. It's possible I've mislabelled a few spaces, but I ain't too bothered about it.

Television: #warehousewatch, October 2016

The Ultimate Setting

The CW Network is big on tropes. The various writers’ rooms adore Secret Babies, DARK PASTS, Random Half-Siblings, elaborate faked deaths, and Crime Lord Mothers to a degree that loops past the absurd and right around to the sublime, in every sense of the word.

But even more than their signature DARK PAST-ed Secret Half-Siblings (who're liable to fake their own deaths with or without the assistance of their villainous mothers), the CW loves warehouses. Loves them. Which makes sense, really, because where else are you supposed to manage your criminal empire, hold your greatest enemy captive, or fight a ninja/assassin? And what's the point of a show in which none of those scenarios every crops up?

I’ve long wondered whether warehouses are as integral to the CW's brand as they seem at a casual glance, so throughout the 2016/2017 season I'll be conducting my most important piece of CW scholarship to date: a comprehensive list of every warehouse appearance on every CW show I watch¹.

This began as an impromptu Twitter project and will continue there as #warehousewatch, with monthly blog updates as per Amber's suggestion.

What Counts As A Warehouse?

For our purposes, a warehouse is any large space with a concrete or packed dirt floor, suitable for storage and/or industry. High ceilings and metal shelves are common, but not an absolute requirement.

I strongly suspect many of the CW’s “warehouses” are actually parking garages the set designers have dressed up to look like warehouses. Others may be after-hours factories. I'll be counting them same as the rest.

A Comprehensive List of Warehouse Appearances: October 2016

The reason I called you here today. Let's break this down, by show and by episode.

Television: Three Korean Dramas

When Tasha suggested Korean dramas would be very much in my wheelhouse, I assumed I was in for quite the time commitment. A quick Netflix search showed me how wrong I was. Yeah, Korean television produces a fair number of shows on the same model as UK and North American TV--ie, 10- or 20-episode seasons of 40- to 60-minute episodes—but I was surprised to discover that many of the series in my Netflix list were refreshingly short by my standards. And as an added bonus, each of them was a complete story with a proper ending.

I dove in, and quickly discovered Tasha was right. The Korean drama industry knows exactly what I want from my television. If you, too, are looking to experiment with K-Dramas, I highly recommend the three I started with:

Television: Aldnoah.Zero

Last year, I decided to start watching more foreign TV as a counterpoint to my excessive CW consumption. I wasn't out to watch a different kind of TV, mind; I just figured subtitles might lend an air of legitimacy to the usual faked deaths and Secret Babies.

I asked Netflix what they had for me, and Netflix was like, "We think you should watch some anime. Here's a well-rated SFnal thing called ALDNOAH.ZERO."

A this point, I’d watched one anime in my whole life (SKIP BEAT!, based on the manga of the same name) and that wasn’t even on Netflix, but I was like, "Okay." Because Netflix has learned what I like, and the whole no-anime thing was situational rather than preferential. When I was a young person, anime was super expensive and hard to find, so I didn’t bother. Netflix is relatively cheap and easy to access, so I figured it was time to explore the medium.

I generally give new shows two or three episodes to hook me. ALDNOAH.ZERO managed the feat inside of ten minutes.

Regarding Recent Events on The 100

This post contains spoilers for The 100 S3E7, “Thirteen”.

Yes, friends. Spoilers. Big ones.

Go read something else if necessary.

Okay? You’re prepared?

Right. The spoilers start now.

Television: Gossip Girl

I used to think I was one of those people who craves Deep, Meaningful Television in which everyone makes Very Serious Choices and faces Dramatic Yet Realistic Problems. Caps necessary on all fronts.

A few years back, I realized I was lying to myself. Yeah, I watch the occasional piece of DMT, but for the most part I’m a trashmonger. I want improbable and exciting plot twists, vile schemes, and characters who behave in horribly unrealistic horrible ways, possibly involving monsters and/or Secret Babies.

Bonus points if these characters are well-dressed and rich, making them eye candy with few limits on their schemes. Bonus bonus points if they harbour the sort of secrets that’re bound to blow up in everyone’s face. The more soap operatic my TV is, the more I love it.

Basically, GOSSIP GIRL is everything I've ever wanted and I’m mad at myself for letting it languish unwatched for so very, very long.

The premise: no teenager on New York’s Upper East Side is safe from Gossip Girl, a society blogger with a nose for scandal. Her particular targets are the friends (and frenemies) of one Serena van der Woodsen, a notorious party girl who fled Manhattan a year ago for unknown reasons. When Serena returns from her self-imposed exile and starts dating a Brooklynite (ugh), Gossip Girl steps up her game and chronicles the misdeeds of her favourite muse with ever-greater fervour over the next six years.

And I’m trying not to all-caps at you about it, because damn does this show ever know my wishlist. IT HAS ALL MY FAVOURITE THINGS, FRIENDS! ALL OF THEM!

(Well, all of them except space battles, killer robots, and people who can shoot fiery bolts out of their fingers, but I can forgive it for that.)

The CW Character's Guide To Handling Secret Baby Crises

In my journey through the CW, I've noticed there’s no plot element the network's various writers’ rooms love more, or use more often, than the Secret Baby.

All but two¹ of the CW shows to which I have given my devotion contain at least one male character² with at least one kid he’s only just learned about. This season alone, there are three newly-introduced Secret Babies on my TV screen and I’ll be less than surprised if more emerge after the holiday hiatus.

You can guess how well the characters are dealing with this.

There’s a reason the writers love Secret Babies so much, and the reason is DRAMA.

Since it’s safe to assume Secret Babies aren’t gonna drop out of the CW’s list of priority plot devices any time soon, I figured I’d write up some guidelines to help these fictional dudes handle such situations going forward. I’m confident that every last one of them will listen to me, because it’s not like they live inside TV shows committed to delivering maximum drama through minimal common sense.

Super-Important Life Lessons From the CW

The CW is my very most favouritest TV network. It feeds me a steady diet of contemporary, high stakes dramas populated with attractive, well-dressed people faced with realistic situations we can all relate to.

This commitment to realism ensures the CW isn't just entertainment. Its many shows have taught me pretty well everything I need to know about American society. It’d be rude to keep this knowledge to myself, so without further ado, here are the most important things I’ve learned from the CW.

Everybody graduates, always.

You don’t actually have to attend school.

Yeah, you oughta enroll, but you don't really have to go. Feel free to skip class to deal with a super-dramatic event that might destroy the world, kill your one true love, and/or cost you your social standing. And if you wanna fall off the grid for a month or three so you can find yourself in the wilds of Appalachia, you go right ahead.

Maybe you’re worried about how this will affect your college prospects. While you’re likely to experience a massive and tragic setback (unrelated to your attendance record) when you apply to your first choice school, you’ll always have a place at the prestigious local college no one ever mentioned in the first two to three seasons.

And hey, the attendance rule transfers to college! You should make a show of registering for classes and joining extracurricular activities in your first year, but all bets are off after that. Start a newspaper or take over your mother’s fashion empire instead of finishing school. Get shipwrecked on a hell-island or cursed to sleep for seventy-plus years, even. It’s all good. Nobody’s ever gonna call you on your lack of post secondary education.

In the unlikely event that you do graduate college, you’re probably never gonna make it to that law school interview. Sorry.

Bechdel April: Analysis

All through April, I tracked my TV viewing to see how often my shows passed the Bechdel Test. It’s been a week since the experiment ending, so I figure it’s about time we made some sense of all the data I collected.

Biases

These results are obviously biased towards my own particular TV tastes. I made no attempt to branch out and watch anything new in April. Even DAREDEVIL, the one new-to-me show featured below, falls in line with my established preferences.

In the main, I like what I call “trashy” television; shows that are, on some level, soap operas. If there’s a good chance one or more characters will discover they have a random half-sibling and/or an evil twin, I’m there. Bonus points if someone fights a ninja. Triple bonus points if they sing about their drama. Quadruple bonus points if there’s any sort of space battle.

I gravitate most strongly towards shows with female protagonists, though I've added a few more male-led shows to my viewing schedule over the last couple of years. I enjoy fantasy, both contemporary and secondary world. I’m on a quest to sample every vampire-focused TV show ever made. I love superheroes. Fight scenes bring me joy, whether or not there’s a ninja involved. Interpersonal relationships are my jam, especially if they can in any way be considered “turgid.” Friendships make me even happier than romances.

Most of my regular TV viewing is American or British.

That's where I'm coming from here.

Stats and Charts

Throughout April, I watched a grand total of 75 individual episodes of 13 different shows. 22 of those episodes were from a half-hour soap opera with 15-20 minutes of actual content¹. 1 was a sitcom with 22 minutes of actual content. The remaining 52 episodes were hour-long dramas with 40-60 minutes of actual content.

22 of the 23 half-hour episodes passed the Bechdel Test.

40 of the 52 hour-long episodes passed the Bechdel Test.

Bechdel April: Week Five

The Bechdel Test asks that media contain at least two female characters who speak to one another about something other than a man. I tracked my viewing throughout April to see how often the shows I watch meet the test, and I did it publicly because I figured it was of potential interest to other folks as well as myself.

This is the final round of data. An analysis post will follow next week.

Shows Watched This Week

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is a fantasy drama about a bunch of vampires (and a handful of non-vampires) who enact a turgid supernatural soap opera.

ONCE UPON A TIME is a fantasy drama in which a variety of fairy tale and public domain characters are exiled to a small town in Maine.

THE 100 is a science fiction drama in which a hundred young criminals return to Earth a century after a nuclear war to see if the planet is once again capable of supporting human life.

CORONATION STREET is a soap opera set in a fictional Manchester suburb populated by working class people whose lives are packed with drama. I watch it on the Canadian schedule, which is about two weeks behind the UK schedule.

THE FLASH is a superhero drama about a forensic scientist who gains the ability to run really fast.

SUPERNATURAL is a fantasy drama about two brothers who hunt monster.

NASHVILLE is a contemporary drama in which an assortment of musicians at every stage in their careers struggle to stay on top of the charts, or at least to keep afloat in the cutthroat music business. It’s my favourite.

ORPHAN BLACK is a science fiction drama in which a family of clones protect themselves from the forces arrayed against them. It's my other favourite.

The Results

I've broken my viewing down by each individual episode, then by scene. One bullet point represents one scene, so even the spoiler-averse among you can tell at a glance how well each episode does.

Bechdel April: Week 4

The Bechdel Test asks that media contain at least two female characters who talk to one another about something other than a man. I'm tracking my television consumption throughout April to see how often the shows I watch meet this seemingly simple criteria, and I'm doing it publicly because I figure it's of potential interest to y'all as well as to me.

Shows Watched This Week

ELEMENTARY is a crime drama in which Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson consult for the NYPD.

ORPHAN BLACK is a science fiction drama in which a family of clones protect themselves from the forces arrayed against them.

SUPERNATURAL is a fantasy drama about two brothers who hunt monsters.

ONCE UPON A TIME is a fantasy drama in which a number of characters from fairy tales and other public domain stories are exiled to a small town in Maine.

THE 100 is a science fiction drama in which a hundred young criminals return to Earth a century after a nuclear war to see if the planet is once again capable of supporting human life.

CORONATION STREET is a soap opera set in a fictional Manchester suburb populated by working class people whose lives are packed with drama. I watch it on the Canadian schedule, which is about two weeks behind the UK schedule.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is a fantasy drama about a bunch of vampires (and a handful of non-vampires) who inhabit a turgid supernatural soap opera.

THE FLASH is a superhero drama about a forensic scientist who gains the ability to run really fast.

NASHVILLE is a contemporary drama in which an assortment of musicians at every stage in their careers struggle to stay on top of the charts, or at least to keep afloat in the cutthroat music business. It’s my favourite.

The Results

As always, I've broken things down by episode and by scene. Each bullet point covers one scene, so even the spoiler-averse among you should be able to gauge how well these shows do on the Bechdel front.

Hers Is the Glory

Jodie is hosting an epic Female Villains Theme Week at Lady Business, and she invited me to stop by and talk about my very favourite villain. Whee! You'll find me over there today, gushing about Glory, the mad god who causes so many problems for the Scooby Gang during BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER'S painfully good fifth season.

Bechdel April: Week 3

The Bechdel Test asks that media contain at least two female characters who talk to one another about something other than a man. I'm tracking my television consumption throughout April to see how often the shows I love (and/or watch) meet this seemingly simple criteria, and I'm doing it publicly because I figure it's of potential interest to y'all as well as to me.

I'm also trying not to use the project as an excuse to watch lots and lots of TV, but I fear I'm failing. In my defense, I use TV as drug-free pain relief and I really, really needed it last week.

Last Week's Shows

DAREDEVIL is a superhero drama about a New York lawyer who uses his superpowers to take down criminals in Hell's Kitchen.

GAME OF THRONES is a fantasy drama in which a number of warring factions fight to seize control over their continent.

CORONATION STREET is a contemporary soap opera set in a fictional Manchester suburb populated by working class people whose lives are packed with drama. I watch it on the Canadian schedule, which is about two weeks behind the UK schedule.

THE FLASH is a superhero drama about a forensic scientist who gains the ability to run really fast.

NASHVILLE is a contemporary drama in which an assortment of musicians at every stage in their careers struggle to stay on top of the charts, or at least to keep afloat in the cutthroat music business. It’s my favourite.

The Results

As always, here's breakdown of how each individual episode does. Each bullet point equals one scene, so a quick glance should help even the spoiler-leery among you gauge how often these shows pass the Bechdel Test.

Bechdel April - Week 2

The Bechdel Test asks that media contain at least two female characters who talk to one another about something other than a man. I'm tracking my television consumption throughout April to see how often the shows I love meet this seemingly simple criteria, and I'm doing it publicly because I figure it's of potential interest to y'all as well as to me.

Last Week's Shows

CORONATION STREET is a contemporary British soap opera set in a fictional Manchester suburb populated by working class people whose lives are packed with drama. I watch it on the Canadian schedule, which is about two weeks behind the UK schedule.

THE 100 is a sci fi drama in which a hundred young criminals return to Earth a century after a nuclear war to see if the planet is once again capable of supporting human life.

THE ORIGINALS is a fantasy drama in which a family of vampires contends with an assortment of supernatural beings both friendly and non on the streets of New Orleans.

MODERN FAMILY is a contemporary sitcom about a large extended family. I don't watch it regularly; it was just kind of on while I was hanging out with my own family.

NASHVILLE is a contemporary drama in which an assortment of musicians at every stage in their careers struggle to stay on top of the charts, or at least to keep afloat in the cutthroat music business. It’s my favourite.

DAREDEVIL is a superhero drama about a New York lawyer who uses his superpowers to take down criminals in Hell's Kitchen.

The Results

And now, a breakdown by episode, in the order I watched them rather than by series. This'll be much longer than last Saturday's installment since a) this covers a full week rather than three days b) I made an effort to catch up on some DVR viewing, and c) some of these shows do really, really well with the Bechdel Test.

Then again, some of 'em fail. Miserably.

As before, these notes may qualify as spoilers. If you're leery of that sort of thing, be assured I've listed everything in bullet points, with each bullet point representing one scene. A quick scan should give you an idea of how many scenes in each show contain Bechdel-qualifying moments.

Bechdel April - Week 1

The Bechdel Test originated in a 1985 installment of Alison Bechdel’s seminal comic, DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR. It asks that media meet three simple criteria: that there be two female characters who talk to one another about something other than a man. Some critics have narrowed it to cover only named female characters.

Whether or not you demand the characters be named, it’s amazing how seldom books, movies, and TV shows pass the Bechdel Test.

I've always been interested in how the shows I love measure up, so I plan to keep close track of everything I watch over the next month. I imagine this could be of interest to some of you, too, so I’ll post the results every Saturday in April.

I'll try, too, to keep this project from becoming an excuse to watch lots and lots of TV. We'll see how that goes.

Shows Watched This Week

First, a few words about what I watched in the first three days of April. (Hello, short week).

THE 100 is a sci fi drama in which a hundred young criminals return to Earth in the wake of a nuclear war to see if the planet is once again capable of supporting human life.

CORONATION STREET is a contemporary British soap opera set in a fictional Manchester suburb populated by working class people whose lives are packed with drama. It's my favourite show in the entire world. I watch it on the Canadian schedule, which is about two weeks behind the UK schedule.

NASHVILLE is a contemporary drama in which an assortment of musicians at every stage in their careers struggle to stay on top of the charts, or at least to keep afloat in the cutthroat music business. It’s my favourite.

ELEMENTARY is a contemporary police procedural in which Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson work as consultants to the NYPD. They solve a different case each week, while the ongoing evolution of their partnership adds an emotional thread to the proceedings.

The Results

And now, a list of Bechdel-passing moments (or lack thereof) from each individual episode. Some of these moments may qualify as spoilers, depending on what you're shy about knowing.

A Totally Scientific Study on the Pros and Cons of Vampirism Across Multiple Franchises

Once upon a time, I was a hardcore vampire purist. If the vampire in question didn't closely match Anne Rice's vision of the creature, I wasn't interested.

Thankfully, I got over it. These days, I'm up for any and all interpretations of the myth. Give me vampires, be they televised or in print, and I'm a happy girl indeed.

There’s one trope that consistently bugs me, though. Pick a franchise, any franchise, and you'll find at least one vampire who spends an ungodly amount of time wringing their hands and wailing about their lost humanity.

These vampires who’d rather not be vampires annoy me.

I mean, I sort of get it. Vampires are literal monsters who eat (er, drink) people, so becoming one requires a pretty major adjustment to your self-image. It’s probably hard to control your insane thirst around tasty human-types, too. It’d be like trying to make friends with the juiciest, most delectable bacon cheeseburger in all the land.

But y’see, I’m pretty sure I could be friends with a bacon cheeseburger, just so long as the bacon cheeseburger could talk. And vampirism’s many advantages could very well be enough to counteract the whole self-image issue.

That said, the whole thing depends an awful lot on what kind of vampire we’re talking about. There's a pretty big difference between the life of a bumpy-faced Buffy vamp, one of Anne Rice's virtually indestructible immortals, and Stephenie Meyer's sparkly undead family.

Therefore, I've decided to use SCIENCE to conduct a franchise-by-franchise evaluation of how much being a vampire sucks compared to how much it rocks.

Ain't no arguing with SCIENCE.

This is non-exhaustive, of course; I’m not familiar with every vampire story out there (though I’m working to remedy that). Please feel free to chime in on any vampires I’ve missed, or to add your own pros and cons to the lists below.

Television In 2013, Part IV - Current Viewing

We’ve spent the last three weeks talking about my favourite new-to-me shows of 2013. Now let’s look at the stuff I watch on a weekly basis.

Or, well, a semi-weekly basis. Sometimes even a monthly basis. I added a lot of shows to my roster late last year; so many that I now watch more TV as it airs than I have ever watched in my entire life.

I guess this is what happens when you catch up on every current show you started watching on DVD even as people keep recommending stuff to you.

I’ll try to break them down for you as briefly as I can, omitting ELEMENTARY and SUPERNATURAL because I’ve already discussed them elsewhere. I’ll also limit myself to shows that aired new episodes between September and December; so, nothing that wrapped up early in the year, like GAME OF THRONES or TRUE BLOOD, and nothing that’s just begun, like DOWNTON ABBEY or BITTEN.

Television in 2013, Part III - Avatar: The Last Airbender

This post contains one major spoiler for the end of Book Two and an implied spoiler for Book Three. Sorry, y’all; I can't properly discuss my reaction to the series without bringing these things up.

Last week, I told y’all about my first super-awesome life-changing show of 2013. I encounter such shows so seldom that I figured SUPERNATURAL was it. I’d had my amazing show for the year. Maybe even for the next couple of years.

That was before I gave in to peer pressure and borrowed the first disc of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (hereafter, ATLA) from the library.

Peer pressure is probably too strong a term. It’s not like my friends badgered me relentlessly as I took my sweet time starting the show, but they did remind me every so often. "This is great stuff," they told me. "You should watch it. You’ll like it."

"Okay," I said. "I’ll get it from the library."

Then I kept forgetting to, you know, do that.

Oops.

I did eventually remember to borrow to the first disc, though, and it made a most favourable impression. I promptly requested the rest of Book One¹ and got down to watching it.

By the time I’d finished, I was desperate for more--but the library, alas, had only a few discs from Books Two and Three. Horrors! Thankfully, Netflix Canada had the entire series available to stream. I waited until I had enough spare time to actually make use of the service, then signed up for the free trial².

You can guess what happened next.