ABC recently announced that it would not be renewing its show Agent Carter for a third season, and I have to admit, when I found out the news, I wanted to cry.
Agent Peggy Carter, first introduced in the Marvel Universe during Captain America: The First Avenger, was strong, loyal, and intelligent. She represented many traits that are so rarely given to just one female character, especially to a female within the testosterone-dominated Marvel Universe.
Agent Carter could hold her own, first against the sexist U.S. Army men who routinely underestimated her and then again with the S.S.R. fellas who also severely misjudged her capabilities. This is a woman who was so fierce and so independent but who did not lose sight of her emotional intelligence and personality.
It is a rare thing, to find a well-rounded woman in fiction. So it comes as no surprise (still extremely painful though) to know that just as quickly as we found her, we lost her.
When the show was first announced, I firmly believed we were heading in the right direction in terms of better female representation in media. To have a primetime television show with a female protagonist was to finally make an inch towards more fleshed out female characters on films and TV. Within Agent Carter, we had the title character, her friend Angie Martinelli and the badass female antagonist, not to mention the other female minor characters.
However, despite the brilliance that was the first season of Agent Carter, it did not do as well as the network had hoped. Thus, there were rumors back then that they were going to cancel the show, which set off a massive online storm of fans rushing to save it. Whether the rumors were true or not, the show clearly had a large fanbase, predominantly composed of young women, who were willing to fight for its renewal.
Except this time, the news is not a rumor but an actual notice from the network itself, and it does not look like a fan-run petition is going to save it.
So goodbye, Agent Carter. Thank you for your kickass fighting skills, amazing wit, and full emotional depth. You were a rarity amongst fictional women, and you will be missed.