Even though we've not actually seen it yet - unless you're in the TV preview industry or you know how to work the internet - the knives are out for The Bionic Woman. Not the show as such, but the star, former EastEnder Michelle Ryan.
I can't tell you the amount of people who are really thrilled it's about to be axed because, and I quote, 'what's she doing in it in the first place?'. First, how do they know this without having seen it, and second, why does her failure to keep the show alive give them such pleasure?
It's not jsut around here though. Every media outlet, especially The Guardian, were hugely snippy about Ryan being cast in the role. They couldn't get over the fact that a no great shakes soap actress had landed a plum role in a major new US drama. How dare she! She's a soap star, therefore she's crap. OK, I'll admit, she's not the world's greatest actress, but she's not Chelsea Fox either, and everyone deserves a break, so good for her. People were genuinely annoyed.
In the US, coming out of a soap is not such a big deal as it is here. Sure, things have changed drastically post-Nick Berry and Sarah Lancashire and the rest of that life after soap generation, but in the US it's always been that way. There's no snobbery. A soap is a place you go where you learn your craft on the job and use it as a stepping stone to better, more exciting things. Of course, not everyone's going to make it, and yes, there are some crap actors out there - and not just in soaps.
But it's the schadenfreude I can't (under)stand. Michelle Ryan was never one of those 'I'm off to Hollywood, peasants! See ya!' types. She never showboated, she never grandstanded. She just did supremely well. And now people are revelling in her failure.
Why?
