After watching Suicide Squad (and the emptiness that followed), so, so aware how desperately we need change in the film/tv industry, like 150 years ago.  The tough guys with manpain, the creepy stalker/thug all the little boys idolise, the tragic anti-hero who has no trouble beating women, but finds redemption – it is so dull and overdone and needs a ticket on a train to the nowhere it came from. Suicide Squad might have given itself a few points with Will Smith and Viola Davis in the leads (and they were the best things in it), and a character like Diablo, but there was no missing how white everything else was (including the audiences, no doubt).   

We need to see women, POC, queer characters, black characters – all with agency and ability wrecking havoc on these screens. Queer baiting needs to end and real queer content on the screen needs to be embraced, bright and bold. The weakness of the white (straight) (mostly) male hero/anti-hero standard has to be written out. Enough. The racism is so blatant. Write it out.  The sexism is blatant. Write it out.  The peoples of this world are so diverse and we stick with telling the same old stories.  

Next time the hype train pulls up to your platform, forget the ticket, don’t get on board.  Wait for a better train.  

Content creators: build a better train.