I think it all depends on the story and how the characters fit into it.
The last show that I loved with the fiery passion of a thousand suns was Human Target. It started out as a show about three male characters (an ex-assassin working towards redemption by being a bodyguard, an ex-cop who was like his AA sponsor for his redemption, and another assassin, who was unrepentant but our main character's best friend). And it was freaking brilliant. It was episode after episode of straight badass action, with them slowly revealing the mystery of who our leading man used to be and what he was trying to atone for.
Then the network execs got a look at it and decided that they needed some female characters to draw in female viewership (as if women don't want to watch good looking men on TV! HA!). So they grafted on two new female characters. a woman who suddenly became their "Boss" (and Chance's love interest) and a female thief who had absolutely no business on the show since there was almost never anything that needed stealing. They didn't fit the original concept of the story at all. They just hung out, not fitting in, for the entire second season. And not surprisingly, fandom hated them, because they didn't belong there. It wasn't an anti-woman thing, The problem was, they added the wrong female characters. If they'd added a female ex-assassin also on a redemption arc, or a female hacker, or a female cop chasing them or working with them, they might have fit better into the show. But instead we got a girly girl in high heels who was always either in the way or needing to be rescued, and an annoying teenager.
I suspect that there are few writers in Hollywood who have any idea how to write strong female characters. And oddly enough, they're usually male writers (Joss Whedon, J. Michael Straczynski, etc.). But that's a whole nother issue about women writers in Holly wood. Which I was thinking about recently when I read this -> http://marthawells.livejournal.com/479995.html
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The last show that I loved with the fiery passion of a thousand suns was Human Target. It started out as a show about three male characters (an ex-assassin working towards redemption by being a bodyguard, an ex-cop who was like his AA sponsor for his redemption, and another assassin, who was unrepentant but our main character's best friend). And it was freaking brilliant. It was episode after episode of straight badass action, with them slowly revealing the mystery of who our leading man used to be and what he was trying to atone for.
Then the network execs got a look at it and decided that they needed some female characters to draw in female viewership (as if women don't want to watch good looking men on TV! HA!). So they grafted on two new female characters. a woman who suddenly became their "Boss" (and Chance's love interest) and a female thief who had absolutely no business on the show since there was almost never anything that needed stealing. They didn't fit the original concept of the story at all. They just hung out, not fitting in, for the entire second season. And not surprisingly, fandom hated them, because they didn't belong there. It wasn't an anti-woman thing, The problem was, they added the wrong female characters. If they'd added a female ex-assassin also on a redemption arc, or a female hacker, or a female cop chasing them or working with them, they might have fit better into the show. But instead we got a girly girl in high heels who was always either in the way or needing to be rescued, and an annoying teenager.
I suspect that there are few writers in Hollywood who have any idea how to write strong female characters. And oddly enough, they're usually male writers (Joss Whedon, J. Michael Straczynski, etc.). But that's a whole nother issue about women writers in Holly wood. Which I was thinking about recently when I read this -> http://marthawells.livejournal.com/479995.html