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For the asian show anon: White Nights on Netflix (Night Lights) mainly focuses on the first female lead and then the second female lead. It’s one of the rare ones where there’s barely any m/f relationship (there’s only minimal references to the past brief relationship between the first female lead and male lead). In terms of the level of subtext, there’s quite a lot between the two women from the parallels, dialogue, and OST lyrics? It feels like TPTB def wanted to go in that direction bc they said that ‘womance’ was the focus, but probably there’s only so much that they could do considering it was on a broadcast network. Seo Yi-kyung is one of my favorite characters of all time so maybe check it out if you’re interested!

Awesome, that sounds perfect for what anon wanted. It also sounds pretty great to me, I’m putting it on my list!

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Do you watch any asian shows? Do you know any with f/f relationships or at least ones that doesn’t focus on hetero rs too much?

Ummm, honestly, no, not that many. Precisely because there are so few with f/f OR no m/f, which as you specified, are two different things. I follow people into kdrama, for instance, so I can see that there are a fair number of shows which focus on platonic relationships with women (and then m/f romances for them, but that’s how it goes), I just haven’t watched them myself. From Japan, Miss Sherlock (RIP Yuko) was a great example, and was pretty subtexty. Seonam High School Investigators had them solving cases and one of them was actually f/f. 

Oh, Four More Shots Please, an Indian series on Prime, about a group of female friends and one’s a wlw. Oh, gosh, I forgot about The Rich Man’s Daughter from the Philippines, it was such a rollercoaster ride, but if you go in just kind of ready to skip the second half or skim through it, the first half was cute…well, I mean…there were also dark parts then…it’s a telenovela, lol. Oh, also from Japan, there was Transit Girls, canon f/f. 

But for the most part, webseries are probably the way to go. There was the odd Lily Fever from SKorea, Maaya 2 and The Other Love Story from India, Just Another Love Story from Nepal (though I had an issue with it but if you can get past it, as others have, you might still enjoy it). 

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on my dash about m/m ships from Thai shows, not as much f/f, but it’s an odd coincidence you asked this yesterday because just the day before, I’d been skimming through the f/f parts in a show called Friend Zone, it starts here if you’re interested. 

Honestly, I’m sure there are a million shows that could fit under what you want, I just don’t know them or can’t remember. 😮

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I mean if they do treat successful shows like that I would enjoy a heads up from Netflix so I know agh I miss cable. Streaming networks while convenient sometimes have all these different annoying rules and shit and they either don’t release or lie about their ratings and you can’t live tweet and just ughhhhh

Yeah, there’s some things I appreciate about Netflix’s model but there are a lot of downsides too. I’m pretty glad, for example, that after dropping the whole of The Expanse s4 at once when it first moved to Prime, this year they’ll do it weekly. Some shows you want to sit and absorb. 

And again, I do like that we at least get a full season before they decide not to continue with something, like I’d rather have the first seasons of Desenfrenadas, TBH, and Away than just as pilots hidden away. And I think this is the way to approach them going forward, a season at a time, both for us and writers, I don’t think they can force Netflix to renew by ending on cliffhangers. But of course ideally I wish they’d give these more of a chance than often one badly promoted season. And maybe more of…an even chance, considering what seems to be promoted and successful.

And another anon:

Apparently 17 of Netflix’s most recent cancellations are Female led or have queer characters or people of color

That’s…not a good look. Like, fine, part of it is because they’re including more of that in general, it’s just how proportion works, but still. And if you dive in deeper into which of the shows with that did get renewed and which didn’t, the showrunner and target audience, it still feels like there’s some content that’s acceptable and some that isn’t. Emily in Paris vs TBH, you know? Or even TBH vs Ratched. The latter two can both compare queer female white leads but eesh, the target audience of Ratched is quite different from TBH’s.

And another anon:

What I don’t understand is why so quickly? Away only premiered six weeks ago?

I think from previous decisions (like G*psy’s cancellation) it’s become clear that Netflix looks at the streaming results in the month and a half or so after release to make up its mind, that they can extrapolate interest in their shows from that time. Which isn’t entirely wrong, unless something goes unexpectedly viral, which is extremely rare, you’re not going to see a significant increase in interest months after, right. Even when people continue to watch, it’ll be at a steady rate much lower than right after release. In Away’s case, I think they looked at the budget and covid and were like, yeah, we’re done with that one. :/

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As someone who works in TV I can understand why Netflix are doing a cull of things. Even if they had a successful first series. The logistics of everything now is a nightmare. On top of the extra expenses for Covid testing/PPE/Cleaning equipment. There is ensuring correct transport that will keep passengers and drivers safe (all which have to be approved by a Covid supervisor). Additional rig days to ensure each department gets space to work (which is fine for light entertainment shows and just about manageable for sitcoms) but high end dramas? That’s so many additional days. If you add in potential weeks for shut downs which might occur if they have someone test positive, this then adds on an extension of costs for equipment and space. It wouldn’t surprise me if Netflix, Apple TV etc have sat down with a list of shows and gone through which ones they are willing to spend the money on. If shows are easy to make normally, then they will more likely be higher on the list to film during times of Covid because of the potential for them to cost less than a show which would normally require a larger budget. America is also very unionised so everything there takes longer anyway. So it wouldn’t surprise me if shows that film outside of the USA (take Warrior Nun as an example) get priority of those within the USA. It wouldn’t surprise me if shows also get filmed in the UK/Europe instead of the US

Okay, first, asks can be this long (again)?? What the.

But oooh, thanks for your expertise! From what I saw, that does sound spot on and it is…so much. I get it, and yet. Doesn’t make it feel any better, right. And can’t they just delay some of these? Shorter seasons?

Oh, and I think Away actually did shoot in Canada, but not sure if that’s relevant. Hopefully WN will be okay with the Europe cases rising again.

And another two anons:

Covid just fucking ruins everything huh

I know COVID has caused a lot of big shit but we can be mad at the small shit too right? Like all the shows it’s ruined for example

Lol, I was thinking that too, like of course, it’s actually killing so many and separating families and costing jobs (although these are jobs too), is it okay to be mad about this thing, since it’s mostly just us being upset at not getting certain shows… But I think we can be, we’re not saying it’s anywhere near that level of awfulness, it’s just one of many ways in which this has sucked. 😡

And another anon:

Lu and Mei deserved better

Truly, whatever else the show had going on, that was such a unique little gem in the middle, something I’ve legit never seen in American media, adult professional Chinese wlw who clearly cared about and understood their culture. There are so few at all, but they’re either teens or like, action-centric. And the more I look at characters played by actresses like Michelle Yeoh and Ming-Na Wen, the more I appreciate a character from that mold.

But representation aside, they deserved an explicitly happy ending!

And another anon:

I doubt they would have even had to like do a lot of COVID stuff? Just cut down on the mission control scenes and quarantine the five actors together near the Mars set?????

Btw that anger was directed at Netflix but you

I can’t remember if I said not or but in that last ask so I wanna clarify Netflix not you

Lmao, this made me burst out laughing. How dare you! But no worries, it was clear in context anyway. But from what the first anon above said, I do think there are a whole lot of very specific expenses that they can’t just can’t skimp on. And it wouldn’t be just the five actors, but all the crew that would interact with them. 

But yeah, I don’t think there’s any kind of exact algorithm they’re using, it’s not as if they judge profitability in the same way other businesses can, they’re at the point where interest doesn’t automatically translate to new subscriptions because so many people have subs already, so it’s a whole thing to figure out what actually is a success and what isn’t. It may be more a gut feeling thing, what they think is better rid off or not.

And another anon:

The showrunner of Away said he had a COVID plan already in place and that Away worked perfectly for it ugh didn’t even let him try

Do you mean Jessica Goldberg? I feel like I read something like that, but I guess it was still too expensive to them, and of course, she was still a showrunner trying to get her show renewed, anyone in the same situation would say the same.

And another anon:

Away was one of my fave shows ever *Sigh*

Ouch. Sorry, bud. Brave of you to get invested in a Netflix s1…though I guess it seemed like a safe bet at the time! Still pretty shocked at it, tbh. But at least they ended on a high note, overall? You could imagine the mission going well, with of course the technical and emotional hiccups, and then back on Earth as celebrities.