After seeing yesterday’s glowing press release from TVNZ about the ratings for Agent Anna I thought I would pose the question is Agent Anna worth watching to those who, unlike myself, had seen more than the first episode. I had given the show a poor review so, wanting to be fair, I thought I’d see what response you, our readers, had towards the show.
The results of that poll ended up being a little skewed and biased after Robyn Malcolm, posted on Facebook and Twitter:
Fancy voting on this? V cynical poll re Agent Anna I reckon, with comments based on only first episode. If you feel like having a say go for it!! x
and
And from our director/writer Vanessa “Despite our super successful ratings this website <throng.co.nz> is polling people to vote against my little show. Support it please. Support me, Floyd Alexander-Hunt, Robyn Malcolm, Maxine Flemming, Rachel Gardner, Peter Salmon, Theresa Healey , Kayleigh Haworth, and everyone else who got some funny women on screen with kiwi accents in prime time. It’s the first time ever! And we are super proud of our ratings.
I even got accused (By someone called Whakapuaki) of being sexist over making comparisons to other types of characters show producers tend to create (besides, it was actually Rachel, my wife and co-founder of Throng, who came up with that particular description comparison)
‘She hasn’t been set up to be the flustered housewife turned glamorous career woman’ So? How is that relevant other than revealing your insidious sexism? Maybe I love the fact she is a flustered housewife, maybe I anticipate that those very characteristics will make her heroic. I love that we have female driven comedy that allows a fresh, under represented, brave and long overdue voice on nz television. I challenge your sexism Regan, I call you on it. I’m f###ing sick of it.
Great Southern Television’s Philip Smith also decided to engage in the conversation in the small hours of this morning:
as the maker of agent anna i can only thank throngs people for giving it such an enormous thumbs up. we are stoked! wow! episode five has been described as an nz comedy classic by pre screeners so … standby. thanks to regan and his team for supporting a show outside the safety zone! it must have been a really really scary experience. cheers again to the 69% of throngers who love it. ep 5 – for you all. phil smith
Despite not liking Agent Anna, and not expecting to want to watch anything further, I genuinely thought it would be worthwhile crowd sourcing some thoughts on whether or not I should give it another go. We’re generally pretty pro local content here and I generally get lashings for liking content that others hate (even if it, too, rates well) so it’s a little disappointing to see Vanessa Alexander suggesting we’re polling people to vote against her show.
Philip’s sarcastic response is also disappointing considering he’s very good at what he does and we’ve given high praise to a number of their other projects, some of which earned us a few of the lashings I mentioned before.
I don’t expect that I will like every piece of television that is produced in New Zealand by New Zealanders but I reserve the right to have my own opinion. In some cases I will side with general consensus. In others, I won’t. But for the record, can I suggest, if you want to engage with Throng and respond to any criticism, you are more than welcome to do so. Whether you choose to believe it or not, we’re actually on your side.
As Vanessa mentioned, having a bunch of kiwi women on our screens in primetime is certainly a great thing. Robyn Malcolm, and Theresa Healey are both stars. I didn’t like the pilot of Agent Anna and despite a bit of a sour taste left in my mouth from yesterday’s response, I’m still prepared to give it another go…
I will let you know what I think.
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