I took a lengthy vacation from a number of things recently and I’ve only now started catching up on new shows. Usually I’m running ahead and watching as many screeners as I can for them, but this year not so much. Thus, when I heard that Abby McEnany was on Tracker, I got excited, only to be massively disappointed.
Background Regulars
The conceit of Tracker is that this guy Colter is an expert at finding people, and he is a ‘finder for hire’ who drives around the nation with his camper and saves lives. Fine, pretty standard for an action series on network TV. Only then we all saw McEnany, who’s queer, and got our hopes up. As it turns out, she’s playing Velma Bruin who, with her wife Teddi (of course one of them has the ‘butch’ name), finds jobs for Colter and raises a million rescue dogs and cats.
That certain looked interesting. While it was a paint-by-numbers job on the character backgrounds (Colter is tortured because his older brother might have killed their dad when the dad was having a long-term mental breakdown, lesbians have pets, etc), it was what I call a ‘fine’ show. It’s never going to win millions of awards, it’s never going to be a shining star, but it will probably get one or two solid seasons, three if they’re lucky, and be one of those shows you see and wonder who watches it.
I would be fine with that, except that this is on NBC, and their boring setup is a glaring shitshow when you compare it to one of NBC’s other shows.
The Common Queer
NBC has another show that just finished its second season that I adore. It’s Quantum Leap. The series is a continuation of sorts (one of the main characters was a leap-target of the original, and they talk about Al a lot). The Quantum Leap Team has a lead computer hero named Ian, played by the out-non-binary actor Mason Alexander Park. Ian is also non-binary, and their gender is respected by everyone on the team. There have been multiple episodes where Ben (the leaper) works with queer people and saves them.
Most recently, in Season 2, Episode 10 “The Family Treasure” (set in 1953) Ben leaps into the body of a young woman on the trail of her father’s lost treasure, with her siblings. The middle one comes out as Non Binary and is accepted by their sisters (after Ben teaches them about Non Binary, and tells them about his best friend, Ian).
This is one of those touching moments that Quantum Leap (both versions) is known for. For bringing empathy and humanity into the action and adventure.
Both Is Good
I happen to find no issue with ‘normal’ TV. Normal, boring, out of the box, paint by numbers TV has it’s place in the entertainment world.
On a show like Tracker, it’s kind of logical that the lesbians are that stereotypical. The whole show is bog-standard kind of series. You know exactly what kind of show you’re getting, you can predict the ‘shocking’ twists and turns. It’s Coplandia light and sometimes that’s what you want. You know the good guys win, you know the lesbians have pets, it’s all fine. And I will stand by my statement that there’s nothing wrong with a show like that. Not every show has to be a huge drama every week (and some drama shows should take a week off here and there). Mediocre TV has its moments, like when you’re sick on the couch or just want to chill out and watch without thinking.
When you go to Quantum Leap, you have to pay attention. You have to look for the clues and the hints at what’s next. Is so and so dead? Is this returning character just a followup or a larger plot point? Are the jumps leading Ben to teach him skills he’ll need later on? Will Ian get the math done in time? Most weeks have mid-stakes, Ben has to save someone, but a B plot of getting him home, and sometimes it’s goofy and sometimes its not, but you have to keep both eyes on the screen or you’ll miss something big.
Balance
The problem is that the majority of queers on TV are stereotypes. Sure, Ian breaks them, Ben’s love for his best friend breaks them, and sometimes Ben changes the world by being the caring human he is. But at the end of the day, that’s a rare bird.
More and more shows are bringing on characters whose queerness is not a factor in their lives, and they’re getting it wrong. Yes, we want queers to be seen as everyone else, but the reality is they’re not. We’re not. The balance has to be there, showing both the positive and the negative, giving us a story that includes the parts of their lives that aren’t normal.
We’ve seen show after show that tries to ignore the differences in characters, be that the color of their skin or their religion or their sexuality. That’s not what the world is like. Showing one-note characters does us all a disservice. We have to show our differences and not fall into the trap that just by handing us a character from an underrepresented group, we’ve solved the issues of representation.
Being queer is a part of our lives. It sets us apart from our friends when we realize who and what we are, and we are treated differently. Similarly, men and women are treated differently. You can still write a mid-tier drama, like Tracker, and give characters depth and nuance. Like Velma. She’s obsessed with saving animals and her job is helping Colton save people. What drives her to that? It doesn’t have to be her queerness that gives her that empathy, but it could.
Give more balance to characters, give them some nuance, and your shows will be even more popular because people do like seeing themselves.
