“One Mississippi” Got Cancelled and I’m Going to Set My Television on Fire

AMAZON PRIME, THE STREAMING SERVICE OWNED BY AMAZON DOT COM, TAKES DAILY BATHS IN ENORMOUS VATS OF COLD CASH BECAUSE IT IS RICHER THAN I DREAMED OF BEING WHEN I ASKED MY MOM TO GET ME A PORSCHE FOR HANUKKAH EVEN THOUGH I WAS 8 AND HONESTLY NOT EVEN THAT GOOD AT RIDING A BIKE

AMAZON PRIME CANCELLED SEVERAL PROGRAMS THIS EVENING, INCLUDING “ONE MISSISSIPPI” AND “I LOVE DICK”

THEY DIDN’T REALIZE I’VE RECENTLY MOVED TO THE WEST COAST AND THEREFORE WAS STILL AWAKE ENOUGH WHEN THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS MADE TO FIRE UP WORDPRESS

THERE ARE LIKE FIVE BUTCH LESBIANS ON TELEVISION AND AMAZON PRIME JUST CANCELLED TWO OF THEM

ONE MISSISSIPPI WAS BASICALLY PERFECT TELEVISION

EVEN THOUGH AMAZON AND SEESO ARE NOT THE SAME THING, THE FACT THAT I GOT SEESO THROUGH AMAZON MEANS I ASSOCIATE THEM IN MY MIND AND THEREFORE EVEN IF IT’S NOT FAIR FOR ME TO DO THIS I BLAME THEM FOR NOT SAVING “TAKE MY WIFE”

SO I AM GOING TO GO AHEAD AND HOLD AMAZON PRIME RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ERASURE OF FOUR BUTCH LESBIANS (ONE WHO ALSO ID’S AS NON-BINARY) THAT USED TO DO FUNNY SMART THINGS ON MY TEEVEE

IS AMAZON AFRAID OF FEMALES CALLING OUT SEXUAL PREDATORS

IS AMAZON AFRAID OF WOMEN DOMINATING THE CONVERSATION ABOUT WOMEN’S SEXUALITY

DOES AMAZON KNOW THAT ‘THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE’ IS KIND OF BAD

HOW MUCH DID IT COST TO MAKE ONE MISSISSIPPI, I’M SERIOUS, THAT IS A BUDGET PRODUCTION AND WE ALL KNOW IT!!! THE ENTIRETY OF ONE SEASON OF ONE MISSISSIPPI IS SHORTER THAN ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’ AND A LOT LESS RACIST, ALSO IT HAD LIKE FOUR SETS AND MOSTLY UNKNOWN ACTORS

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY WHEN A SHOW THAT SO DEFTLY AND SHARPLY NAVIGATES SEXUAL ASSAULT NARRATIVES IS MORE NEEDED THAN THIS MOMENT?

APPARENTLY AMAZON IS MOVING AWAY FROM ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING AND TOWARD “BIGGER BROADER SERIES WITH THE POTENTIAL TO PERFORM WELL INTERNATIONALLY” AND WE ALL KNOW THAT MEANS LIKE, MEN WEARING BLUISH/GREY OUTFITS AND SHOOTING THINGS AND/OR HAVING INTRIGUE

PROBABLY ALSO IT MEANS CGI GOBLINS OR WHATEVER

YOU KNOW WHO I LIKE TO SEE IN BLUISH/GREY OUTFITS, AMAZON?

MASCULINE-OF-CENTER WOMEN THAT’S WHO

DID ANYONE AT AMAZON WATCH THE SCENE OF “I LOVE DICK” WHERE DEVON SMOKES A JOINT WITH HER SHIRT OFF!?!!!

IF THE BUTCH LESBIAN ON THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL DOESN’T ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING GAY LIKE FOR EXAMPLE SAY “I’M GAY” NEXT SEASON I’M GOING TO BUY MY OWN PAPER TOWELS FROM THE STORE INSTEAD OF SUBSCRIBING AND SAVING (i’m not)

HERE’S A PARAGRAPH TO UNPACK FOR A FEW DAYS:

“All three [CANCELLED] shows were developed under Price, who was fired last year following a sexual-harassment investigation. Prior to his dismissal, Price had been ordered by Bezos to abandon the niche programming strategy that had led to critical and awards success with series such as “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle,” but yielded no broad cross-demographic hits along the lines of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

LITERALLY 25% OF THE REASON I SAID TV FOR LESBIAN AND BISEXUAL CHARACTERS IN 2017 WAS PRETTY GOOD WAS BECAUSE OF TIG AND DEVON

ONE MISSISSIPPI WAS ONE OF MY TOP THREE FAVE TV SHOWS OF 2017 AND I WATCHED LIKE 500 TV SHOWS IN 2017 B/C I WAS LIVING ALONE IN A WEIRD HOUSE IN A SEMI-RURAL AREA OF THE MIDWEST (B/C OF MY EX BLA BLA BLA) AND ANYHOW I ONLY HAD ONE FRIEND THERE

I WATCHED ONE MISSISSIPPI WITH MY ONE FRIEND EVEN THOUGH I’D ALREADY SEEN IT AND SHE LOVED IT

AMAZON I HATE YOU EVEN THOUGH WE RELY ON YOU FOR A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF OUR INCOME WE COULD NOT SURVIVE WITHOUT AND I’LL PROBABLY SHOP ON YOU TOMORROW

TIG AND DEVON YOU WERE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD

i love you

i love you

can someone make me some tig and devon gifs

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3266 articles for us.

70 Comments

  2. Instead they keep advertising for the fucking GRAND TOUR ugh ugh patriarchy is the WORST and always ruins good things

  8. If it’s Amazon Prime, a streaming service, why are you going to set your TV on fire? I feel that it’s innocent in this whole debacle.

  9. Oh dear. We only just started watching series 2 yesterday too.
    It’s good to have a reminder that we’re not allowed nice things anymore though. Keep us in line.

  11. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

    I LITERALLY BINGED BOTH SEASONS YESTERDAY AND HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS.

    I DON’T THINK I’VE SEEN SUCH GENUINE MAGNETISM THAN BETWEEN TIG AND STEPH (KATE) AND I WAS ACTIVELY SHIPPING BILL AND FELICIA AND I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO EXPLORE THE AMAZING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTS THAT I WAS JUST IMMERSED IN LIKE 36 HOURS AGO WHAT THE FUCK

    • I CARE ABOUT A HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP ON TELEVISION APPROXIMATELY ONCE EVERY JIMANDPAM BLUE MOON, BUT I CARED ABOUT BILL AND FELICIA SO MUCH AND STILL DO AND AM SAD THAT I CANNOT AND SHANNOT SEE THEIR LOVE BLOSSOM

  12. Well, I was struggling to discern what Riese’s feelings were about this situation from this very impartial post, so I put it through a “tone analyzer” which reckoned this post had the following tones:

    67% anger
    65% tentative

    So I think you could go farther here, also maybe it didn’t understand all-caps? Anyway, I feel we are still far from the robot takeover that we deserve, and I am also very sorry for your televisual loss.

  13. Devon was the light of my goddamn TV life. I am so fucking upset and mad and omg why can’t lesbians HAVE THINGS. FOR THE LOVE OF G-D.

    I’m not a big fan of rewatching TV but I’ve watched Ep 5 (A short history of weird girls) of I love Dick about 5 times. It’s my happy gay place.

    Oh my LORDE I’M SO ANGRY

    • WHEN DEVON IS LIKE “I REALIZED I DIDN’T WANNA BE THE WAIST I WANTED TO BE THE HAND” *UGLY SOBBING*

      (also when the curator(?) gets to fill the gallery with ALL THE WOMEN’S ART) god what a stellar episode of television.

  14. I ALL-CAPS AGREE. I genuinely loved One Mississippi. And I at least genuinely loved Devon enough to give I Love Dick a chance… what a bummer. Also, yes to more gifs of both Tig and Devon.

  16. What the hell, people! I’m imagining Tig visiting Cameron and Rhea to compare notes and all take pictures of their dog Murph in the sunlight.

  17. To me One Mississippi’s second season seen through any lens other than my deep Tig love was.. quite bad. Ending it there seems right. But I Love Dick was fucking amazing. It will continue to be amazing as a single season, but it would’ve been really cool to see what they would’ve done with a second.

    • I feel exactly the opposite way. I felt like I Love Dick was pretty bad but viewed through the lens of my deep love of Kathryn Hahn it was #legit. But still, why can’t we have nice things, you know?

  18. NOOO. NOOOOOO. I didn’t enjoy most of I Love Dick, aside from Devon’s character. But One Mississippi, while there’s problems with it, was one of my favorite shows. The idea of a butch/femme, two survivors, falling in love with each other in the South – be still my heart.

    Also Devon, leading the men & masc folks in a dance about loving themselves / every seen with Devon was mostly swoonworthy (I remember a friend sending me a photo of Roberta Colindrez as Devon and I had to start watching. Because my body had a visceral ‘oh my goddess.’ reaction).

    • THE DANCE AT THE END OF “I LOVE DICK” WAS SO INCREDIBLE IT’S ONE OF MY FAVE SCENES IN TV HISTORY

      EVEN THOUGH I HAD TO ENDURE A LOT OF HETEROSEXUAL SEX AND A LOT OF HETEROSEXUALITY IN GENERAL TO GET TO THAT PART THE JOURNEY WAS WORTH IT

  19. “THE ENTIRETY OF ONE SEASON OF ONE MISSISSIPPI IS SHORTER THAN ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’ AND A LOT LESS RACIST, ALSO IT HAD LIKE FOUR SETS AND MOSTLY UNKNOWN ACTORS” I’m laughing through my tears. This article spoke to me, deeply. I’m so sad/mad. :(

  20. WHAT. THE. EVER. LOVING. FUCK.

    I have been (TOTALLY UNSOLICITED) telling everyone I know that the second season of One Mississippi is the most perfect, beautiful thing.

    How do we do it? Seriously. How? How do queer women, and women in general, make things that are countercultural, magically great, and honest without being beholden to fucking horrifying men who “achieved” power by behaving in despicable ways?

  22. I’m so disappointed.

    My answer for “there’s a lesbian in this show!” has been for a while, “butch lesbian or get the fuck out” because I’m tired of lesbians always being femmed up so they aren’t ‘scary’ (I know many of y’all love supergirl but I will literally never forgive them for not making Maggie Sawyer the shining pinnacle of butch glory she was in the comics) Butch women NEVER get to see themselves, ANYWHERE, and as someone married to a butch women it makes me angry and sad.

  26. YES! to all this righteous anger but I’m hoping that some other network has the good sense to pick up this incredible, budget-friendly, critically acclaimed show.

  27. This is so disappointing! I think One Mississippi was, like, the only good thing in 2017. My heart is all caps right now.

  29. All of this reaction resonated with me on a deeply personal level. Only watched the first season of One Mississippi so far because of life constraints. I ASSUMED I WOULD BE ABLE TO CATCH UP BEFORE IT WAS CANCELLED. THERE WAS TIME. THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO HE SO MUCH TIME.

  30. One Mississippi was the best show on Amazon, hands down. It doesn’t matter if a show gets made that is universally critically-acclaimed and (bonus) not too expensive – when it’s made for us and/or by us, it’s “niche” and expendable. This is frustratingly sad and yet oh-so-predictable.

  31. this is the first article all in caps lock I have read that I totally justify the choice of spelling
    we have trump and global worming, I really needed Tig and Stephanie

    (and also Bill and Felicia. In all my gayness, I think that was actually my favorite couple of this amazing series).

  32. WELL I JUST READ THIS AND NOW I’M EVEN MORE PISSED THAN I ALREADY WAS

    NOW WE’LL NEVER GET TO SEE TIG AND STEPHANIE ACTUALLY GET TOGETHER

    AND I WILL VERY MUCH MISS THE VISUALS OF TINY TIG GOING TO WORK WITH HER BIG BACKPACK

  33. We all hoped digital streaming platforms would open up opportunities for niche programming marketed to queer audiences but I feel like this shows that promise is unfulfilled and prob over now :(((((

    • It’s not over yet! Amazon is moving against the trend — I am currently choosing to believe that this is an instance of losing a battle but not the war (please substitute with the less militaristic idiom of your choice that I can’t think of right now because I’m sick).

  36. This is awful as I do like the show I Love Dick. This also doesn’t bode too well for Jill as they already have to deal with the actions of ex star Jeffery and now this. Let’s not forget there aren’t many queer and non-binary people producing content like this. Hopefully, Devon takes her butch talents on another show. I’m told One Mississippi is produced by FX, so maybe FX or FXX network could pick it up since C.K isn’t on the network anymore. That way another lesbian can replace an awful dude.

  37. I literally just bit the bullet and signed up for Amazon Prime yesterday, 15% because I really want to see One Mississippi and 25% because my wife really wants to see it. Can’t cancel it in protest until we watch it (and apparently I Love Dick which I wouldn’t have expected?) but damn :(

    • I’m def not saying support Jeffrey Tambor, but maybe watch Transparent before you cancel. He’s a garbage dude, but that show… I’ve sobbed and guffawed watching it.

  38. I don’t pay attention to tv but Roberta Colindrez made my entire life better with her like 3.33 scenes in Fun Home and I did not know that she played a butch lesbian on TV but it seems CORRECT and GOOD and now I have to go watch this doomed show ugh.

    • Ahh Audrey I am in the literal exact same boat except that I also saw Colindrez when she was a part of the NY NeoFuturists and she made my entire life better then, too, and I too will have to watch this doomed show because I didn’t know she’d landed 8 episodes anywhere! P.S. any television execs reading this — please keep casting this actor! And know that if you stop making this “niche content” you will end up regretting it — audiences are sick of mainstream dreck and you’re moving against the trend, Amazon.

    • Roberta Colindrez once complemented me on my glasses when I was at the stage door for Fun Home and I don’t know how I’m still alive typing this comment.

  41. I read this first thing in the morning and cried “Nooooo!” One Mississippi and Devon were truly the best things on tv last year. So sad.

  42. I’m still mad about this because they canceled “One Mississippi” and “I Love Dick,” which had great portrayals of butch queer women and were told from a point of view we don’t usually see. “I Love Dick” is basically all about the female gaze, which we almost never see on TV.

    And what stings more is they renewed “The Tick,” where all of the characters are straight and the writers have proven from the first half they can’t write a well-rounded female character and that show costs $5 million PER EPISODE.

    ONE MISSISSIPPI AND I LOVE DICK PROBABLY DIDN’T COST $5 MILLION PER EPISODE.

  43. This post is the only thing that could’ve made me feel any better about this, I’m angry and upset but also can’t stop laughing. One Mississippi was beautiful and authentic and there was nothing else like it. UGH.

  44. On another note, does anyone feel like streaming services are perhaps going backwards in terms of diversity now (or at least are about to)? The likes of Netflix and Amazon initially were producing much more progressive television but in the last year or so there have been a lot of signs that things are going in another direction now (Netflix cancelling The Get Down and Sense8, stating they’re focusing more on audience numbers now, changing their ratings system so it’s based simply on whether you liked the show as opposed to *how much* you liked it – like/dislike as opposed to 5-star options – and it seems that a lot of the new shows they’re producing are less diverse than they used to be, and now all this with Amazon.)

    If this does turn out to be the case I can’t help but wonder exactly *why* there would be this shift again, when the previous shift to more diverse programming made a lot of sense and seemed so significant (I did my dissertation on this topic and now I feel like I was being way too positive in my conclusion…).

  46. If Amazon and peers made this content available to people in other countries who are willing to pay real dollars, many many dollars to access these programs then MAYBE THEY WOULDN’T HAVE TO BE CANCELLED. Do you hear me Amazon etcetera? HELLO! Am queer, have money, need entertainment relevant to my interests, live in Australia. It’s not rocket science.
    FFS. The Internet could be so much better than this.

  47. Well, so much for all of that fabulous Butch Representation™ I keep hearing so much about but never, ever encounter in real life. Ugh. What a trash fire.

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