Mr. Millicent's Peculiarities

Thank you so so much for all your hard work, and the hard work and devotion of the entire Save Gotham campaign.

Thank you so much! I know this ask was sent quite a while back. I’ve been away from Tumblr, for the most part, for weeks; I got very ill with pneumonia right before Thanksgiving and I’m just now making a comeback. I’m still not 100%. I appreciate your encouragement.

The Save Gotham Campaign on Twitter is alive and well. The group has expanded and there are several new mods working on the Power Hours, which are taking place Monday through Friday at the same times as before. Even though Gotham season 5 ended in April, Gotham is gaining new fans all the time thanks to the show being available on Netflix. Many people who didn’t watch it while it was broadcast live are discovering it now. It’s very encouraging!

There are a number of reasons for optimism, which I’ll go into in a different post, soon. To keep this short, here’s what Gotham fans can be doing right now to support Gotham:

1. Watch Gotham on Netflix. The streaming numbers indicate continued interest in Gotham; networks, servers, and Warner Brothers pays attention to this.

2. Recommend Gotham to others. People often ask for recommendations of what to watch on Netflix; or, they’re caught up on other shows in general and looking for something new to watch. Tell them about Gotham.

3. If you’re on Twitter, support the ongoing fan campaign. (There are ways to support Gotham on most social media. Will post more about that soon.)

I have a lot of asks that have been waiting for a while, and if you sent me an ask and I never responded, thank you for your patience!

You've mentioned fan campaigns getting hate on Twitter. I completely don't understand what that's about. Is it random trolls or is there some specific motivation behind it?

If you look at the viewers of any TV show, some of them are going to be fans, right? People who are enthused about, and participate in, fandom activities of some kind. Fans are useful to content makers because they provide all kinds of free publicity for a show. They work to promote the show for free.

The show, however, isn’t making as much money for the content makers after it ends. The content makers, the people making money off the show-Warner Brothers, or Disney, or whoever: they want you to watch new shows. They want that fan effort to go into free advertising for new shows. This is why content makers promote the idea that fans who engage in fan campaigns for canceled shows are “bad fans”.

The TV industry is tough to break into. Anyone who wants to score points with potential employers (because potential employers are going to check up on your social media accounts) is going to come out in opposition to fan campaigns, and in favor of new shows.  This is the main source of the hate that we, and other fan campaigns, receive.

Here’s an article you should read. It’s by a writer who talks very honestly about being in the industry, and what he has to do to cater to studios so he can be successful. It’s an eye-opener: about deliberate falsehoods, strategies to silence fans when fans are inconvenient, and manipulating readers into believing what the studios want them to believe.

There are some people who think they can build up their own fandoms by tearing others down, that’s an issue also. The fandom of a show that’s been canceled makes an easy target. If you’re going to stay in a fan campaign for the long haul, you have to grow a thick skin.