#a lot of queer characters in american and british tv are sanitized and BORING. first kill wasn't!!!!!!!!! :(

[rythyme]

i'm really bummed that first kill got cancelled. we deserved to see cal and jules' happy ending, but on a more serious note i think the cancellation speaks to a general trend where sapphic-led american and british shows — especially ones with women of color — *still* aren't seen as profitable. when they do occasionally get made they receive overly harsh criticism and get cancelled — see the wilds, batwoman, trinkets, one day at a time, betty, i am not okay with this, even sense8 — the list goes on. there are so many shows with queer women as side characters but they very rarely get to be the true leads.

that's not to say that shows with queer male leads don't face some of the same issues in the states or the UK, but there are significantly more examples of shows with queer men at the helm that have been renewed for second, third, even fourth seasons. i don't mind a show having a short run (when it's planned that way) but renewal is an indication of investment and perceived profitability, and clearly that's not what Netflix or other companies see in their sapphic-led shows.

i see a lot of comparisons between viewership numbers for heartstopper and first kill, and i think it does highlight a bit of a double standard, but it's also worth noting that the budgets for these two shows must have been VERY different. heartstopper probably cost pennies to produce, while first kill has elaborate sets, props, CGI, fight choreography, and a larger main cast.

netflix saw heartstopper as an easy win, but didn't see first kill as something worth the effort to renew despite its success. i think some of this is because of the negative reviews written by people the show wasn't intended for. reviews called it unoriginal and underwhelming, but heartstopper never received that type of criticism. first kill was held to a very different standard. both were designed as teen dramas, but only heartstopper was actually treated like one by critics.

some of this could be that first kill seemingly has a wider audience appeal. first kill has supernatural elements, which is a popular genre for teen and adult viewers alike, while heartstopper is just a slice of life teen romance with less adult appeal. i'd also speculate that sex and violence play a part in how these two shows were treated. heartstopper is about as G rated as you can get. first kill is distinctly not G rated. the presence of sex and violence might have made first kill seem like a better target for wider criticism. no straight adult man is going to write a review calling heartstopper boring, but there's a chance he might write one for first kill.

shows that truly put queer characters front and center — no matter their gender — are not common on british and american tv, but it is true that there are fewer queer female leads than male leads, and shows with trans leads are almost non-existent. it's not quite fair to compare heartstopper and first kill without some caveats, but i do think the comparison still highlights some issues with how mainstream tv here treats queer leads and queer romance — especially queer women and queer Black characters.