This is a strange story even by Internet standards. In her (reasonably positive) review of ABC’s new series V, Chicago Tribune columnist Maureen Ryan used an aside to chastise ABC’s other sci-fi shows, Lost and FlashForward, then went on to slag Syfy’s Stargate Universe:
(And let’s face it, we sci-fi fans are a frequently disappointed lot. ABC hasn’t quite managed to quite recapture the magic of “Lost” with any of its subsequent genre-flavored offerings. “FlashForward” still seems like a show that is more about its concept than its characters. And the other notable fall genre offering, Syfy’s “Stargate Universe,” is a boring, poorly plotted, lamentably sexist mess.)
It seems SGU executive producer Brad Wright read the review of V, saw that his own show was being slammed and left a comment defending his series while calling Ryan petty:
Maureen, I find people who write “I have no axe to grind” are often the ones most likely to grind axes. Taking the time to slam SGU in your review for “V” is not politically tinged, it’s just petty. I really wish you hadn’t given up on our show so quickly. I was surprised, considering your past (occasional) support of the franchise. You can’t have seen a finished version of “Darkness” or “Light” because the weren’t even closed to being finished at the time of your review. I don’t know what the network sent you. SGU seems to be a love it or hate it sort of show. You obviously fall in the latter camp, but fortunately there are enough viewers and reviewers who think SGU is neither boring, poorly plotted, or sexist to keep us on the air long after “V” is just a letter in the alphabet again.
Not content to let the strange argument (hey, anyone want to actually talk about V based on this V review? Anyone?) end there, Ryan wrote another piece responding to Wright. It’s pretty long, but the gist of it is that Ryan says, “If I seem passionate in my disappointment in Stargate Universe, that’s only because, in my experience, people are more intensely disappointed by things they had high hopes for.”
Yikes, no middle ground there. It remains to be seen if Wright will keep the V discussion Stargate Universe discussion going or this will be the end of it, but in the meantime it’s a pretty entertaining read.
News article courtesy of SyFy Wire