Directed by Joss Whedon: ‘The Nevers’ Proves You Can’t Separate the Art from the Artist
What do you do when really horrible people make really good art? It’s a question we have been asking throughout the history of people, and art.
*Caravaggio happened to be a violent brawler who had a tendency to murder people. (The Observer).
*Pablo Picasso was an open misogynist who purposely destroyed the women in his life because he felt it gave him creative energy. (the Paris Review)
*Bob Kane, co-creator of Batman, stole sole credit and all the royalties for the Dark Knight from his partner, Bill Finger, until 2015–41 years after his death. (Comics Alliance)
*John Lennon wrote songs about world peace while abusing and neglecting his son and hitting the women in his life. (Vice)
The way we’ve been answering that question throughout most of our history is to suggest that you can separate the art from the artist and enjoy the work without supporting the bad acts of the person who created it. You can fight crime with Batman or sing with the Beatles and let the rest fade to the background. But can you?
· Can you watch ‘American Beauty’, ‘Seven’, or ‘The Usual Suspects’ and not wonder if Kevin Spacey is a good actor or if he made a career out of characters who were secretly vile because that’s who he is, and it wasn’t acting at all?
· Can you listen to a Louis C.K. comedy routine and not wonder how a man so insightful could really not know that repeatedly exposing himself to the women he worked with was not okay?
· Can you watch any Woody Allen film about a neurotic old man having sex with a much younger woman and not connect with the fact he married his partner’s stepdaughter with whom he once had a parental role, or the mountain of evidence that he molested his daughter?
· Can you watch a series written and directed by Joss Whedon, director of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Avengers’ and ‘Justice League’ and not see the bullying, misogyny, and false feminism that has come to light in the past few years?
In the case of HBO’s ‘The Nevers’ the answer is, “no.”
How can I say that so confidently? Because I didn’t know Joss Whedon had anything to do with ‘The Nevers’ until I saw his name in the first episode credits after I watched it. Then the whole show finally made sense in a very sad way.
‘The Nevers’ should have delighted me. It had all the elements I generally love — steampunk, Victorian-ish era sensibilities, good acting from the female leads, tons of action, and a generous sprinkling of humor. It’s essentially an alternate reality X-men with corsets and quips. The whole show landed with a glowing, blue thud.
Before my very eyes, every tragic female cliche and trope was paraded by with good posture and a British accent. The women of ‘The Nevers’ have incredible powers (called a “turn”) granted to them for mysterious reasons. Everyone in London fears and despises them without any kind of rationale. Don’t you think a woman who could freeze what she touches would be handy in a world where they still use ice houses? A woman who compels people in her presence to always tell the truth would be an asset to any police force. Let’s face it, Mrs. True has the ability to see the immediate future and fights like angry tiger inside of a Marine. Surely, she would be the most famous bodyguard some Earl could ever have. But no. These women must be kept poor and oppressed because — women.
Beyond the weird hatred everyone has for any woman who is “touched” there is also the denigration of women at every step. Patience can build anything from a Steampunk car to the world’s first recording and projecting device. Does she have the gift of engineering? Is she spoken of as an inventor? No, she has the lackluster turn of “I can feel electricity.” If we were going to see men the same way I guess we would say DaVinci could “understand ceilings.”
Mrs. True has more fight scenes than all of the Rocky movies put together. She exhibits amazing courage by pursuing a violent murderer while a man in the direct path just watches the killer go past and gets credit for maintaining his sexual arousal (yes, really). Then poor Mrs. True goes through the indignity of having her dress stripped off during the chase and must fight the whole scene in a corset. Because that’s how “the girls” do it and there’s a lot of cleavage to be shown. To add injury to insult, when a bystander voices awe that the man is still aroused, the camera never leaves his face. They just look down, off-screen, and smile.
Near the end of the first episode, I knew there were drastic things wrong with ‘The Nevers’. The narrative is a tangled mess of sub-plots, villains have no purpose other than to beat up women, the touched women are stereotypical disasters and there are no explanations anywhere in sight. When the episode ended, I saw the first credit.
“Directed by Joss Whedon.”
Then it all came into view. Why are the men shown reading, playing chess, and in meetings while the women are shown taking baths to get ready to go out? Why is the only woman with any self-determinacy an emotionally stone-cold witch in a wheelchair? Why do acts of genius and bravery get glossed over but a hyper-sexual gentleman’s club owner gets large blocks of screen time to talk about his exploits? In fact, what was the point of the sex club in the first place?
“Directed by Joss Whedon.”
Whedon, once acclaimed for writing “strong female characters,” has been exposed as a sexist, bullying egomaniac by people who have worked with him as far back as ‘Buddy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997). Critics lambast the fact he only created “strong female characters” by subjecting them to terrible (and often unnecessary) trauma. When his proposed ‘Wonder Woman’ script was leaked it showed his vision of the superhero required her to be wrapped in sexiness and conquering with her curves. Later, actors on the set of ‘Justice League’ would claim with substantial evidence that he created a toxic work environment at every opportunity.
In the case of ‘The Nevers’ can we separate the art from the artist? No. His fingerprints are all over it. HBO kept his involvement quiet which is stunning when you consider it is his project from start to finish. They didn’t send him out on a press tour. His name isn’t on the promo poster (see above). His name is not on the trailer. Yet, once you’ve seen an hour of this visually stunning, needlessly objectifying, well-acted disaster, it won’t matter. At every slap, and bustle, you’ll know exactly who did it, and it will harder than ever to escape the ugliness of the artist and fall into the world of the art.
Whether the people of ‘The Nevers’ like it or not, the times are a changin’ and we as a society are looking for better answers to the art/artist conundrum. The same old characterizations just won’t play like they used to. Like Mrs. True, HBO must have seen this coming. It’s not “Joss Whedon’s The Nevers.”
Whedon stepped down from ‘The Nevers’ as soon as principle shooting wrapped in November 2020. HBO issued a statement that they had ‘parted ways’ with the director. They have already made a commitment that next season will have a different director and a different direction. Whether HBO can save Mrs. True, Patience, and the rest of the show remains to be seen, but “the touched” might be able to keep their clothes and their dignity on long enough to make some sense out of their brave new world now that it is no longer “Directed by Joss Whedon.”
