A Mismash..of stuff

Currently being bombarded with a rash of freakish pop-up thumderstorms reminiscent of the tropics. Wales and I left the Adam Sandler flick You Don't Mess With the Zohan to be greeted by a downpour, we dashed into Barnes & Noble, went to the bathroom, dashed to Rite Aid, bought umbrellas then walked in soggy sandals to a Mexican Restaurant for nachos and magritas. I won't bore you with a long review of Zohan. Except for the following - it's too long, in desperate need of an editor, and filled with lame sex jokes that appeal to the puerile and/or adolescent male. Is it just me or are men in film comedies overly obsessed with their dicks? That said it does have flashes of political satire that are quite hilarious and almost worth the price of admission. It also does a great job of satirizing NYC developers and Donald Trump. But it is trying to be all things for all people - and succeeds in none of the above. The offensive sex/ethnic jokes are there and a bit over the top, the parody of action/superhero flicks is there, and so is the subtle political wit/satire. As a result it is a bit of a mess.

I've been entertaining myself by watching The Daily Show - at 8pm on Comedy Central. It used to be on at 11pm, but they changed it - at least in New York.
The show does a great job of satirizing politics and the media. It takes a bit of the sting off. Have realized that my favorite type of comedy is subtle satire and sardonic wit.

Read a really good article in Entertainment Weekly, of all places, about the lack of racial diversity in television, specifically the 2008 TV season. The article is entitled: "TV's Great Black Hope* - Meet Cleveland Brown the only minority character to anchor a new broadcast series in the 2008-2009 TV seasons - unfortunately he's a cartoon. Plus he's voiced by a white guy."

This article goes a step further than most internet blogs on the topic - it gives us statistics!!! Specifically a breakdown of race on network TV and how the numbers match up to the US population.

66.2% of the US population is White.
12.9% is black
15.2% is Hispanic/Latino
4.5% is Asian (odd I thought it was higher than that - maybe because I live in NY and 75% live here??)
1.0% American Indian/Alaska Native
0.2% Hawain/Pacific Islander

Not sure where they are putting Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Jewish. Actually Jewish is considered "white". Indian is considered Asian (sorry not black, Asian in census studies, although a lot of people put them in both). Middle Eastern? Probably Asian or Black?? Or maybe they don't count these guys at all? Maybe they just live in NYC??

Here's the network breakdown:

ABC
78.2 white
9.4 black
8.3 latino
3.1 asian
1.0 American Indian

CBS
79.3% white
9.0 Black
8.1 Latino
3.6 Asian
0% American Indian

NBC
71% White
11.8 Black
7.5 Latino/Hispanic
9.7% Asian
0% American Indian

Fox
77.7% White
12.5 Black
4.2 Latino/Hispanic
4.2 Asian
1.4 American Indian

The CW
67.4% White
26.9% Black
3.8% Latino
1.9% Asian
0 - American Indian

(By the way "American Indian" is the phrase the magazine uses NOT me!)

Here's a few outtakes from the article that I underlined or thought noteworthy:

1. "According to the NAACP report: "1 out of every 3 persons in the US is a minority."
"One could argue that a third of those working in Hollywood should be a minority. However...their presence is not accurately represented on-air and for the most part, their stories are secondary or non-existent. Behind the camera, the challenges facing minorities have been even greater and traditionally more difficult to overcome...It is unconsiconable and unacceptable that there is no new African-American sitcom or family drama for that matter, currently in the fall lineup on any of the major broadcast networks." Vicangelo Bullock, executive director of the NAACP's Hollywood bureau says plainly. "The trend is definitely going in the wrong direction."

2. The few minority showrunners agree that more work needs to be done, not just in hiring actors of color, but in hiring them for the right roles.

Shonda Rhimes of Grey's Anatomy states:" Do I want to see any more shows where someone has a sassy black friend? No, because I'm nobody's sassy black friend. I just want to see shows in which people get to be people and that look like the world we live in. The world is changing, and television will have to follow." True enough: It feels downright regressive to have to point out that minorities can be stars too, at a time when Will Smith continues to dominate box offices, Oprah is the most powerful woman on television and Barack Obama is running for the ultimate leading role...


3. There was a time when diversity seemed to come naturally to prime time. The social consicousness of the 70's spawned sitcoms like The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Sanford and Son; the 80's brought living-in-harmony comedy Different Strokes and the ultimate breakthrough TV family on The Cosby Show. But a long fallow period (dominated by Cheers, Seinfield, and Friends) followed until 1999, when the networks announced another particularly white fall line-up (The West Wing, Freaks and Geeks, Once and Again)- and minority groups revolted. Prompted by the then NAACP president Kweisi Mfume's remark that TV was a "virtual whitewash in programming", groups representing African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans banded together to push for a diversity-calling for sweeping boycotts if immediate progress wasn't made. In the end, it was: Minority actors were hastily added to shows (congratulations, Dule Hill, you now work for President Bartlett!), and the networks agreed to measures mean to foster diverse talent behind the scenes as well - most notably by hiring senior executives to monitor the situation.

It's a job that wins them varying receptions..."For me," states Til Death's executive producer, "the goal would be to tell interesting stories, I don't think it's good if you're like, 'Oh, let's just put on a black character so people will be quiet.'"

4. After nearly 10 years of working with diversity reps and outreach programs, the networks still primarily solve the problem by sprinking non-white actors into white-led shows - often as a comedic sidekick or in the guy-who-helps-the-main-guy-solve-a-crime roles.

Instead of pumping up their percentages with supporting characters, shouldn't the networks be presenting more minority "face of the show" leads?

5. Ugly Betty Producer, Silivio Hortas, states: " Would less people watch because we weren't telling the story of a white heroine? It doesn't really make a difference. It just has to be a really great story and a really great actress."

(By the way, Ugly Betty is near the top of the Neilsen ratings.)

Why not? Well for one thing, there have been no smash-hit series starring a predominatly minority cast since The Cosby Show - which pulled 63 million viewers at its peak...left the air in 1992.

6. Minority writers aren't exactly finding their phones ringing off the hook, resulting in a thinning talent pool of showrunners of color. "It was always easy for whites to run black shows or get jobs on black shows, but it was always tough for the reverse," Larry Wilmore (Daily Show correspondent) states. "Very few blacks get jobs on non-black shows. So with a lot of black shows going away, fewer and fewer black writers get opportunities, let alone the chance to be mentored and learn how to run and create shows. So there's fewer opportunities to get to that level where you get the trust of a network to be able to run a show."

Of course, perhaps it would be easier for minority writers and producers to gain the trust of a network if more network executives were minorities themselves.

"The first thing the diversity rep should do is fire the guy who hired him! You see that white guy sitting next to you? Fire him and hire a black guy! You see that white lady down at the end of the hall? Fire her and hire a Latino lady! That's how you do it. And since evering is failing anyway, you mean to tell me that a Latina lady, a Chinese guy or a Black guy can't fail too? If the networks are going down the tubes, why don't they go down the tubes with everybody? Spread the wealth!" states LeRoi, one of the diversity reps.

7. Of course it's about more than simply sprinkling additional minorities throughout shows - its about giving those characters meaningful story lines that blend in seamlessly with their surroundings. "I don't just want to see a black face or a Latino face or whatever," says Wilmore. "People need to have roles on these shows that are dynamic and not just place marks." Adds Brock Akil, "I think that's why Grey's Anatomy has been so successful. It's a very organic atmosphere and the interaction between the characters of different races is very relatable.

[For an example of the sprinkling solution see Joss Whedon's television series notably Buffy and Angel, Bones, the CSI dramas, and the West Wing. Although to give Whedon credit over both Bones and CSI - his black characters actually got backstories and full-fledged characterization and were not entirely there for token casting. Robin Wood actually got an arc, not a great one but it was there. And Zoe a complete role. Not to mention Gunn. Bones? The only black character on the series is the boss, and her role is barely there. Same deal with Dule Hill's aid on The West Wing one of the whitest tv shows on tv. Of the three mentioned Bones is the only one on air right now and it is a prime example of the problem stated above. I often wonder what the shows would be like if the lead had been black, Latino, Asian, or Native American. ]

8. That kind of color-blind casting (Grey's Anatomy NOT Bones) is something teen-focused networks seem to have down pat: Nary a show has passed through ABC Family or The N without an interracial coupling or a naturally integrated cast. Those networks exec's say it's a simple matter of economics, that their Gen-Y viewers accept- nay, expect and deman - such a reflection of their multicultural lives. "They're completely color-blind," ABC Family president Paul Lee says of the younter viewers. "We've done a lot of things wrong as a nation, but we've clearly done something right here. They embrace other cultures." [That statement gives me hope. Apparently my generation is better at parenting than I thought.]

That said, 8 of 10 regulars on 90210 (the new one) are white."

The full article is in June 20th edition of EW. And is worth checking out. A lot of people scoff at affirmative action, but I wonder how you would feel if you couldn't get a job or position because you didn't fit what the guy in power wanted.

Weeds and BSG: The Satire and the Tragedy

On the television front...finished watching the fourth season of BSG (the second half is going to be shown next year apparently). And, The third Season of Weeds - courtesy of netflix, on DVD. Both series are in a way allegories for what is happening now. One is a satire about our consumptive and somewhat self-asborped society, the other a tragic morality play about war and the consequences of an on-going war between two righteous factions, hell-bent on destroying each other in order to survive.

Both series got better as they went along in these seasons, which as I explained to Wales tonight, tends to be the case with most serialized televisions shows. They start out sort of weak, gradually build, and are pretty good towards the end. Or they do the opposite start out strong, then peeter out. Weeds and BSG started weak and got stronger.

Weeds for those who've never seen it, is a wicked satire about a wealthy upper-middle class surburbian family in Southern California. It centers around an anti-hero, named Nancy Botwan who basically deals weed or pot to provide for her family after her husband dies. The fact she does not choose another more honorable and far less dangerous route is part of the point of the series. It's about how people sell their souls in order to have the pretty house, the pretty tv, the great yard, in an enclave with houses that all look exactly alike.
The theme song by Pete Seeger, entitled Little Houses and song by various artists throughout the series - says it all. "Little Houses, little houses on the hillside, made of ticky tacky, that all look just the same, and the people in the houses, grow up and go to University and come out all just the same, made of ticky tacky, and become doctors and lawyers and business executives and they all look just the same..." (lyrics aren't exact because I suck at remembering lyrics and am too damn lazy to google them at the moment.)

If you like satire, which I do, it's quite clever in places. It did go a bit over the top in the third season. I think the writers got bored of the surburban theme, which may explain why they ditch it for the fourth season. [The fourth season, I'm told, takes place in Tijuana and deals with the Mexican drug trafficking.)

BattleStar Galatica - as I sort of stated above- the last four episodes were a heck of a lot better than the first five. It is a bleak series though, not a lot of humor in it unless you count Baltar. If you haven't been watching it, it is a series about a band of humans fleeing cylons (advanced robots that were created by humans ages ago and revolted). It's a more advanced and far cleverer version of Terminator, where the bad guys are a little more complicated and not quite as one-dimensional. In fact in BSG, you're not quite sure who the good guys and bad guys are half of the time.

Unlike Weeds, BSG is a bleak story, about the demise of the human race or how we are doomed to destroy ourselves and do it over and over again. It's an anti-war tale, with glimmers of hope that are quickly dashed. I think that this is the story Ron Moore wanted to tell in DS9 but couldn't because Gene Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be a positive utopian sci-fi, different than all the others out there. Babylon 5 got to get much darker than Ds9 did. (I did not see all of the DS9 episodes, so it is possible I missed the dark period. Wasn't a huge fan of DS9, the characters never grabbed me as much as the ones on B5 for some reason, I don't know why. Speaking of Ds9, the actress who played the number two role on Ds9, Kira, was a guest star on BSG this season, she plays a woman dying of cancer. Took me the longest time to place her, but finally did.) Most sci-fi tends to be on the bleak side. Doctor Who and Star Trek are the exceptions. And even Doctor Who gets pretty bleak at times. Sci-Fi television writers may be a lot of things but optimists aren't among them.

( cut for major spoilers: A Shakespearan Tragedy in 4 Acts.. )