Raeka, I like your idea! My only fear (which applies to my earlier post as well) is that a point system sort of thing would replace the in depth writing that we have here now, which frequently does address the same breakdowns. We need to be able to address, through one way or another, the complexity of the art that we discuss, and how even a single aspect of it can be both maddening and attractive.

I mean, there’ll have to be a ton of nitpicking to narrow down categories, etc, but I was also thinking that that’s what the brief explanation would be for: to say ‘this is why I liked the show. This was not so great about it, but overall I felt it was worth it.’

Ummm…I’m not even sure what shape or form this Recommendation list is taking at the moment, so I couldn’t say whether I know how to code it or not. Even so, I’m hesitant about offering what little I do know, since I’m generally terrible about getting things out on any sort of reasonable time schedule, unless my grades depend on it.

I’ll keep watching the thread, though.

I’m willing to do what people want, to the extent I know how, but you should understand I am totally self-taught on the webmastery thing and it took me 5 years to figure out how to build a drop down menu like the one you see at the top of the site now.

I also remain concerned about the idea that it’s remotely possible for one person to tell another what they can watch without cringing. I don’t really like the idea of “recommending” stuff because… okay, imagine a movie in which there’s a really good white female character who’s totally what we’re looking for. But then there are men of color in it with ghastly stereotyped roles. Do you “recommend” something that contains terribly stereotyped men of color because it also contains an interesting female character? I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. Additionally, no matter how good a show or movie is, it’s extremely rare to find not even a token white male lead, since that’s the formula. Do we praise these shows when they also contain women who don’t suck?

That’s why I have always avoided “recommending” stuff.

One final note: lately, I’ve been thinking I’m very, very tired of saying good things about shows that follow the formula of “Mr. Honky Saves the World with his little friends” just because the “friends” contain a woman or two who’s not a vapid fool or who has conversations with other named women about something other than men. It’s not good enough. I want to reserve “recommendation” for stuff like Cagney & Lacey, that really breaks the mold.

So, I recommend C&L, and Xena, and um… that’s it! Night, folks!

Maybe a couple of pages listing shows with staff notes on why we put them on one list or the other, or both. Or maybe one list with ratings of shows from 1-5 or something? It’s worth talking about behind the scenes, for sure.

…unless such a thing already exists, and I just haven’t noticed it?

Sorry it cut off your comment. I think it was because of the funny little character at the end, right before the period. That’s an HTML code character, so it could have confused the comment form, so to speak. If you still have the rest of your comment, I can edit it in there.