S01.E01: How Do You Raise a Superhero?

[ohjoy]

Quote

Widowed mom Nicole struggles to raise her only child Dion, not knowing the second-grader possesses powers beyond anyone's comprehension.

Release date: October 4, 2019

[tennisgurl]

I like this show, and I am really interested to see where  it goes. Its a unique look at the superhero origin story, like if Superman was told from Martha Kents point of view.

[phoenics]

So let me be clear - I love this comic.  

But I'm not sold on the Netflix rendering of it.  Mostly in the casting.  I watched the pilot just now and found some parts compelling but others were a bit off.

First - the actress who plays his mom?  No - not sold on her at all.  I was already irritated that they changed to a much lighter skinned actress from the one in the pitch video the comic creators put together - but there are some issues I have with how the mom is portrayed.

I don't know if the actress is from the US - some word choices of hers (which didn't sound like the script) were odd.  When she told Dion it was time for "Macs and Cheese" I was like - WTAF?  That's a slip that should've required a reshoot - UNLESS it was on purpose and they are going to explain it.

Also - I just don't find the way they've characterized her to be credible.  She just doesn't work for me right now - I found the other black women who were on it to have more presence.  Sorry.

Lastly - the show is set in Atlanta.  Which means Spelman College is a thing.  The mom was wearing an Abby sweatshirt.  As in Abby Hall (a dorm on Spelman's Campus).  I don't expect folks who didn't go to Spelman to recognize that shirt or what it means - but she's wearing that shirt and yet there is NO OTHER Spelman paraphernalia anywhere?  So. Weird.  No way would she just be wearing that shirt if she didn't go to Spelman - we don't donate our clothes or nalia.  EVER. 

And lastly - that house!  I know we're supposed to think she's struggling super hard to woman up and be a good mom and it's hard to do that when you're a single mom (especially one who lost her husband tragically), but if she went to Spelman (unless she didn't graduate), this level of "falling apart" and "out of controlness" just doesn't track for me the same way.

Even the dialogue they used when Dion did what he did - did you or did you not go to THEE Spelman College?  NO WAY she'd be talking to her son like he's her buddy.

*sighs*  Maybe it's her mom's shirt.

I did feel her despair at times - I just thought the show made her "too" much of a mess.  I also feel like the show has a bunch of white writers who aren't paying attention to the details.  See the inauthentic parts above.  Nicole feels less like a woman who went to the number one HBCU in the country than a woman who went to the local state university.  I would've believed it better if she'd had on a Morehouse sweatshirt - because then I could headcanon that her husband went to the House and she was at Tech or something.

This is my issue with white showrunners who are trusted with black characters - they never come off as authentically as they could. It makes the casting of this actress (instead of a darker skinned black actress) even more suspect.

[Neurochick]

On 10/16/2019 at 2:30 PM, phoenics said:

It makes the casting of this actress (instead of a darker skinned black actress) even more suspect.

I see what you are saying in a way, but I am getting tired of people feeling that a light skinned black person is somehow less black.  Last I checked Plessy v. Ferguson still hasn't been overturned, which means that even if you're 1/64 black, guess what, you're black.  When I saw the actress I thought, "I know someone's going to be complaining that she's too light," or something like that.  

[ursula]

2 hours ago, Neurochick said:

I see what you are saying in a way, but I am getting tired of people feeling that a light skinned black person is somehow less black.  Last I checked Plessy v. Ferguson still hasn't been overturned, which means that even if you're 1/64 black, guess what, you're black.  When I saw the actress I thought, "I know someone's going to be complaining that she's too light," or something like that.  

Colorism is the other side of the coin that is racism. People aren't saying that light-skinned people are "less black". They're saying that the preference of using light-skinned people to persistently represent (positive)* Blackness is a form of racism. There's a reason why Zendaya, herself light-skinned, said that she was Hollywood's acceptable form of a Black girl. 

In this case, where the previous iterations of Nicole was a dark-skinned woman, and now we have light-skinned Alicia with 3C hair, people are going to complain. Especially as no one can argue here that she was a Viola-Davis-level actress. 

*They usually have no problems using darker-skinned people to portray the less savoury stereotypes of Blackness. 

Edited October 21, 2019 by ursula

[Neurochick]

2 hours ago, ursula said:

In this case, where the previous iterations of Nicole was a dark-skinned woman, and now we have light-skinned Alicia with 3C hair, people are going to complain. Especially as no one can argue here that she was a Viola-Davis-level actress. 

Yes, because clearly light skinned actors can't act, and clearly light skinned people never are victims of racism, good to know.

[phoenics]

32 minutes ago, Neurochick said:

Yes, because clearly light skinned actors can't act, and clearly light skinned people never are victims of racism, good to know.

😕

That's not what we meant at all.  Of course all black people face racism (Meghan Markle has probably never felt this black in her whole life, lol, poor thing).  That r umbrella catches all of us in its net.

But we still have a colorism problem in hollywood.  When CP was cast for The Flash I remember being SO excited.  And then my dark skinned sister (she's several shades darker than me - think Viola, while I'm closer to Thandie Newton) said that the casting was nice but didn't really move the needle for black women like her.  

And ... she was right.

I found myself looking at all of the "progress" we'd made with black women actresses as love interests and being front and center and many of them are biracial or light skinned.  That's not necessarily bad - except it does still leave out darker skinned women.  And when the "face" of black women are always the very light skinned black women and biracial women then it does make really darker skinned black women feel left out and not part of the story.

So, seeing this impact on my sister - I've started paying better attention around me and trying to stand up for darker-skinned representation when I can.

It doesn't mean lighter skinned black people aren't talented or don't experience racism, but it doesn't mean they don't have some privilege either.

Alicia grew on me - but I'd be lying if I said another black actress could've played her as well or better - or that the whole "flaky black woman" is always typecast as light-skinned.

I could go layers deep with that.

[Anela]

I don't read comics, but I do watch some of the netflix versions of them, and I liked this, once it got going.