Can't say I'm surprised. In general, I thought the first season was -- well, not so much badly written as just not compelling. In general, the series feels kind of like the first season-and-a-half of B5, ending just when you could see that this was starting to get pretty cool.
As for the female characters: hmm, interesting. The series does develop female characters as it goes along; indeed, at least half the cast eventually, including some of the tougher and smarter characters. But the leads (as well as the most central secondary characters) continue to all be male, and very few of the female characters are as well fleshed-out. Unusual for JMS, now that you mention it. OTOH, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- the central story so far is this male-bonding thing with Jeremiah and Kurdy, and female leads would probably not have worked in that chemistry. And while there are broad hints dropped that one of the female secondary characters was going to become more primary later on, that clearly got eliminated in the sudden cleanup at the end.
Indeed, that's the one thing that makes the series rather disappointing. The middle of season two drops several random prophecies and foreshadowings into place, and hers is by far the most intriguing. It irks the hell out of me not to know what that was going to grow into. Oh, well -- nothing for it but to continue reading JMS' work, and see where those plots reappear. He never wastes a story: he just changes the names and retells it in other formats...
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As for the female characters: hmm, interesting. The series does develop female characters as it goes along; indeed, at least half the cast eventually, including some of the tougher and smarter characters. But the leads (as well as the most central secondary characters) continue to all be male, and very few of the female characters are as well fleshed-out. Unusual for JMS, now that you mention it. OTOH, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- the central story so far is this male-bonding thing with Jeremiah and Kurdy, and female leads would probably not have worked in that chemistry. And while there are broad hints dropped that one of the female secondary characters was going to become more primary later on, that clearly got eliminated in the sudden cleanup at the end.
Indeed, that's the one thing that makes the series rather disappointing. The middle of season two drops several random prophecies and foreshadowings into place, and hers is by far the most intriguing. It irks the hell out of me not to know what that was going to grow into. Oh, well -- nothing for it but to continue reading JMS' work, and see where those plots reappear. He never wastes a story: he just changes the names and retells it in other formats...