I don’t know how many of you watch Person of Interest, a show I have ranted about before. If you have, you may have seen a little known actress by the name of Wrenn Schmidt on few episodes. She played the therapist Iris, who ignored ethics and common sense to become the love interest of the main character John Reese. Unfortunately for Wrenn, the couple had all the chemistry and sizzle of bleached flour mixed with tap water. On Tuesday’s episode they broke up. Both of them looked relieved, but neither was as relieved as the fandom was.
That should have been the last word. PoI is cancelled and CBS is burning off the last season so fast that if you blink you’ll miss it. Fans of the iReese or Riris ship numbered in the single digits, so one cared. Iris kissed John good bye and walked off with much more dignity than she deserved considering she ignored all known standards and ethics for therapists so she could get laid. Fans were just happy to see her go, but Wrenn had one last bit of drama for POI fans, and it’s a story that I think is a terrific example of White Privilege in fandoms.
As you may recall, the fabulous Taraji P Henson once graced the cast of POI, playing one of the best WOC characters on the small screen in the fierce Detective Joss Carter. In a decision that will probably go down in TV history as one of the dumbest casting decisions ever, she was fired in favor of lesser actresses. Fans of Taraji and the Careese (Carter/Reese) ship were furious and stopped watching in droves. Other members of the fandom were angry with the Careesers (a large percentage of whom are black) for not supporting a show that erased a black woman character. They coined the term “Bitter Careesers” to explain away any and all dissent in the fandom, because it was all our fault that the show went to hell you see. The (white) producers and the (white) writers had NOTHING to do with it. POI fandom remains bitterly divided today. Continue reading You Think You Know What Hate Is? Bless Your Heart