In the midst of all this, the show's co-creator, Peter Tolan, made the mistake of taking to the message boards of website Television Without Pity to defend his and Leary's dramatic choices, and received a deluge of sometimes brutal attacks from the site's posters, many of whom felt personally offended by the content of the episode. Chastened, Tolan left after posting a few messages, and an FX spokesman later told The New York Times that Tolan regretted going online to defend himself at all.
Although there are dozens if not hundreds of websites devoted to the in-depth discussion of TV, none has had such an influence both on the way that people talk about TV shows as well as on the shows themselves as Television Without Pity. In addition to Tolan, other prominent creators who've spent time either lurking or posting on TWoP include The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas, The O.C.'s Josh Schwartz and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon. The denizens of the site take the "without pity" part of the title pretty seriously, and creators are often shocked and humbled by what they find there.
Reaction comes in different forms: Sorkin once devoted an entire subplot on The West Wing to one character taking the remarks of message-board patrons way too seriously and again mocked online obsessives on his new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Other creators have embraced input from fervent online fans, perhaps to their own detriment; Schwartz has complained about the impossibility of making TWoP posters happy, and Thomas listened to fan input in shaping the second season of Veronica Mars, only to have many of those same fans later turn on the show.
The transformation of blind devotion into feelings of deep betrayal drives a surprising number of posts on the site's message boards, as well as the primary content, detailed recaps of around 25 popular shows, ranging from Survivor and America's Next Top Model to Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy. The founding editors, Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting, have also recently published a book called Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (And Hate to Love) About TV (Quirk Books, $15.95). And while much of the writing both on the site and in the book is clever and savvy, it's also developed a sense of entitled bitchiness that has only grown with the site's popularity.
Like the often-myopic fans who post on their message boards, TWoP recappers frequently have very personal investments in the shows they write about, becoming inordinately attached to certain characters or storylines and expressing disproportionate dismay when things don't progress exactly as they'd hoped. You'd think that Buffy's relationship with Spike, for example, came at the expense of her relationship with the show's recappers. The level of hate directed at certain shows that are perceived as having betrayed their fans in some way by changing direction or evolving their main characters is astounding, and the lengthy rants on the message boards and bile-filled recaps often do more than simply treat television without pity; they turn the viewing experience into one of bitterness and resentment.
And that's the problem with the site and especially the wearying book, which is set up like an encyclopedia, with alphabetized entries about various TV ephemera: The writers purport to love TV, but spend more time nitpicking and insulting characters and actors than they do praising anything, and at least half of their positive comments are delivered ironically. The idea of not pulling punches when it comes to TV commentary is admirable, and at their best TWoP recaps can get at what's exciting and stimulating about being passionately devoted to a TV show. But far too often the site is about demanding rather than experiencing, and its influence has turned from constructive to insidious. To paraphrase one of the most popular recap catchphrases: Shut up, Television Without Pity.