Race & Ethnicity On TV

[Drogo]

On TV.

Race and ethnicity ON TV.

[MissyPoo]

23 hours ago, phoenics said:

Agreed - I am still irritated that no one has done one of these royal movies though where a black woman (or even an outed biracial black woman) is the main character.  There is one that exists, but the black biracial woman is white passing and her black side is never mentioned ever, so that doesn't count.

Someone finally woke up because this movie is coming out this season:

[Trini]

2 hours ago, SimoneS said:

Never give the CW or CBS the benefit of the doubt when it comes to diversity. Black Lightning was originally developed for FOX. The CW only picked it up after FOX decided not to. Other than Black Lightning, Iris on The Flash is really the only Black actor in a major comic role on a DCTV show and that is because Geoff Johns and DC insisted.  Look at the new Arrow spin off, not one Black woman among the three women leads. RME. 

Speaking of The Flash, for those who don't keep up with the show, Eric Wallace, the new showrunner for season six, is Black (but he has been with the show since season four).

I have brought up here before that the lead was unique in that he is White with a Black family - but the show has never acknowledged it. Wallace has said he will acknowledge that fact, and we saw some of that in the season premiere that aired this past week, with a scene at a family cookout.

Other firsts: the first non-white "big bad", and Candice Patton getting to wear her hair naturally curly - after five seasons.

[phoenics]

On 10/11/2019 at 11:13 PM, In2You said:

What is a black biracial woman? If she's biracial she's not a black woman or a white woman.

It's my very short cut and sloppy way of saying that the person is black/white biracial, as one could be other kinds (asian/white, black/asian). 

It's a sloppy shorthand that I probably could change.  I think some use it to mean that it's a person who identifies as black but also biracial.  For example, Barack Obama identifies as black, but he is biracial.  The term I used is probably not the best to describe what I mean.

I know others mentioned the one drop rule - my phrasing was meant to NOT invoke that.

Edited October 14, 2019 by phoenics

[phoenics]

On 10/12/2019 at 7:33 PM, MissyPoo said:

Someone finally woke up because this movie is coming out this season:

Where is this airing?  Or is it straight to DVD?

[In2You]

16 hours ago, phoenics said:

Where is this airing?  Or is it straight to DVD?

Looks like something that would air on ION

[Raja]

6 minutes ago, In2You said:

Looks like something that would air on ION

Curious I thought Hallmark, they need "Christmas" in their titles almost year round now. Is there something special about ION?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

Curious I thought Hallmark, they need "Christmas" in their titles almost year round now. Is there something special about ION?

Hallmark develops most of their movies themselves. Hallmark or Lifetime might pick it up if one of their planned movies isn’t working out. More than likely it will end up on one of the channels that hasn’t announced their full holiday scheduling yet like ION. 

[MissyPoo]

3 hours ago, In2You said:

Looks like something that would air on ION

Yep, this. I'm guessing that's where it'll end up.

[Silver Raven]

The upcoming romcom Last Christmas, produced by Paul Feig and written by Emma Thompson, stars Amelia Clarke and Henry Golding.  It also co-stars Michelle Yeoh.

[piccadilly83]

On 10/11/2019 at 10:03 PM, Raja said:

On 10/11/2019 at 9:08 PM, In2You said:

Is a racist concept from slave days that needs to be let go of.

That is if you think there is something wrong with being black. Inclusive communities don't look at the alien DNA contributor first but the contributor that makes you part of their group. Thus Black Americans tend to count those with any known black heritage as fully black as the newest African immigrant from a nation with zero colonization.

Other groups like Filipinos are the same, a metizo is as fully Pinoy as a Filipino from an isolated province with no Spanish, American  or Japanese fathers in their history.

I agree with you Raja. Some of us already had this conversation on the To All the Boys I've Loved Before board in the Movies forum. 

To quote In2You:

On 4/22/2019 at 3:39 AM, In2You said:

[Jordan Fisher] has black ancestry the same way he has Asian ancestry but you would never label him Asian.The same way he has white ancestry but you would never call him white.  He's not the same as someone with two black parents. And in an interview for Black History Month he went on to talk about his mixedness. And don't come to me with that all African American's are mixed bs. 10 % due to slave rape does not equate to more than 50% other by choice.

(Emphasis mine)

I would just love to know how all of this would work on TV. Should TV execs only cast someone who looks like Jordan Peele as the son of a mixed race family because he is? What about an actress who looks like Lena Horne? She's the exact same color as Jordan Peele, but identified as black and I believe had two black parents.  According to you that would be impossible because as a black woman she could only have 10% European ancestry (from rape, no less.) Along those lines we also have Sinbad (two black parents) and Lenny Kravitz (one black, and one white parent), but Sinbad is much lighter skinned than Kravitz, and has the same texture hair. 

On 10/7/2019 at 3:00 AM, In2You said:

Theres a difference between light skinned black women with two black parents and a biracial woman with a whole white parent. These casting directors know the difference too.

Sometimes there is, sometimes there's not. I could go on with more examples. Malcolm Gladwell and Sinbad, Colin Powell vs. Keegan-Michael Key, Ava Duvernay and Melissa Harris-Perry, Yara Shahidi and Essence Atkins. The issue when we're addressing colorism, or featurism really should be the features, not the supposed ad-mixtures of the actors because as many mixed-race kids will tell you they don't all come out looking the same. I have many mixed friends who talk about how strangers will identify their siblings and theirselves as difference races based on one coming out a little lighter or with kinkier hair or with a narrower nose or whatever. 

FWIW, prior to this last decade I have felt that American media has had a way bigger issue featuring black women with nappy hair than featuring darker skinned black women. I mean, look at those old episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  Hillary had very kinky hair, but I would not call it nappy.  Also, none of the women Will dated had nappy hair, even though some, such as Naomi Campbell, were darker to dark-skinned. Also Will's other female cousin, Ashley, would have been considered medium-dark where I'm from, but that hair was definitely not nappy. This goes for a lot of black actresses in television. Camille Winbush, Maia Campbell, Gabrielle Union, Rozand "Chilli" Thomas, Ananda Lewis, etc. I would say only in the past ten years have black women really been allowed to have nappy hair and still get cast as the ingenue, and even then it's still rare.  Really, Hollywood's having a 3b-4a moment right now: Tracee Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, Michelle Hurd. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more 4b/4c, especially on darker skinned actresses.  It seems like if you have one, they won't let you have the other.

[Drogo]

[Trini]

13 hours ago, piccadilly83 said:

FWIW, prior to this last decade I have felt that American media has had a way bigger issue featuring black women with nappy hair than featuring darker skinned black women. I mean, look at those old episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  Hillary had very kinky hair, but I would not call it nappy.  Also, none of the women Will dated had nappy hair, even though some, such as Naomi Campbell, were darker to dark-skinned. Also Will's other female cousin, Ashley, would have been considered medium-dark where I'm from, but that hair was definitely not nappy. This goes for a lot of black actresses in television. Camille Winbush, Maia Campbell, Gabrielle Union, Rozand "Chilli" Thomas, Ananda Lewis, etc. I would say only in the past ten years have black women really been allowed to have nappy hair and still get cast as the ingenue, and even then it's still rare.  Really, Hollywood's having a 3b-4a moment right now: Tracee Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, Michelle Hurd. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more 4b/4c, especially on darker skinned actresses.  It seems like if you have one, they won't let you have the other.

Speaking of Black hair representation, a recent quote from Shonda Rhimes:

Quote

As a creator, Rhimes has certainly contributed to that “realness” of a black woman’s hair. Whether it was the epic moment Viola Davis’s Annalise Keating took off her wig before bed on How To Get Away With Murder, or the unforgettable hostage photo of Kerry Washington’s natural ‘do when Olivia Pope was kidnapped on Scandal. As someone who is referred to as Dove’s Chief Storyteller, I wanted to ask Rhimes when she saw herself on television, particularly when it came to hair.

“Vanessa Huxtable was not always perfectly pressed,” Rhimes recalled, referring to The Cosby Show sibling portrayed by Tempestt Bledsoe. “It was not always well-done; sometimes it’s sticking out a little bit, [and] it felt real. And then you had the sisters who had much more perfect [hair]—Rudy had her little braids. But Vanessa felt like me.”

“That was exciting to see—watching television, that image was good—to see somebody who you related to, who looked like you,” Rhimes continued. “Over time, there have been a few of those images for girls. I don’t think that there were a ton. Now, I think that there are more. I don’t know that they’re teenage girls, but I see a lot of women who are like that. I think there are some shows coming out where you’re starting to see young women who definitely are more representative. And that’s exciting, too.”

I also think Denise (Lisa Bonet) was fairly revolutionary; if I'm not mistaken, I think she's the first regular character on TV that had dreadlocks.

[xaxat]

Law and Order's S. Epatha Merkerson on why she wore a wig for her character, Van Buren, instead of her own natural hairstyle.

I think she's right about Van Buren because that mirrors the experience of my mother. She didn't go natural until she was well up the management chain. 

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, xaxat said:

Law and Order's S. Epatha Merkerson on why she wore a wig for her character, Van Buren, instead of her own natural hairstyle.

I think she's right about Van Buren because that mirrors the experience of my mother. She didn't go natural until she was well up the management chain. 

I don’t know if it was the writing or her performance but I really do think it made sense based on Van Buren’s backstory of having been undercover and than basically doing everything she could possibly do to be the perfect candidate to become a Lt  that would later involve a sub story of her suing the department in a racial discrimination suit (I believe she lost) when she didn’t get a promotion that should have been her. I remember that there were articles about how few black women were in positions in real life that the hair was probably the least controversial thing about it. 
 

[piccadilly83]

You know what's interesting about Shonda Rhimes, her show is one of the only two shows I remember being thankful for the second I saw a black woman's hair. When I saw Dr. Miranda Bailey's hair in the first episode of the first season of Grey's Anatomy it was like a breath of fresh air. It's not even natural and yet I was SO fricking excited because it looked like real permed hair. I'll try to explain what I mean better. Usually black women on TV who have their hair permed either have tracks put in to bump it up, or wear their in a super sleek super pixie style (a la Halle Berry). Chandra Wilson's hair in the first season of Grey's Anatomy was neither of those. It looked the way I saw real Black women wear their hair every day. I didn't grow up knowing a lot of people who could flawlessly put in hundreds of dollars of tracks, and most girls I knew didn't have a pixie style, so when they permed their hair it was often worn in a short to mid length bob and it was thin with a dull sheen. When I visited Grey's Anatomy a few years later it looked like they modified Chandra Wilson's hair by giving her tracks, which disappointed me. The only other character I noticed whose hair looked realistically permed to me was Danesha Turrell on Thea, played by Brandy Norwood pre-braids. I mean, that's how desperate I was to see black women with real hair on TV, I got excited at just seeing realistic perms.

All of this is not to say that the hair types of someone like Audra McDonald, Renee Goldsberry, or Meghan Markle are fake. They appear to naturally have thick, long, and healthy hair that take well to heat; it's just that I wish we saw more black women whose hair didn't have to look that in order to be considered pretty or eligible for ingenue rolls. I'm not even going to mention how television treats the Halle Berry, Tatyana Ali, Christina Milian's of the world.

5 hours ago, xaxat said:

Law and Order's S. Epatha Merkerson on why she wore a wig for her character, Van Buren, instead of her own natural hairstyle.

I totally agree with S. Epatha Merkerson on her choice to wear her hair the way she did for Van Buren. It showed a lot of awareness about her character and the climate of law enforcement agencies. 

[phoenics]

So... I just caught up with Raising Dion. I only watched the pilot to give it a fair chance.

And... I have some issues.

First - 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 then - 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.  Or saying "Macs and Cheese".  Some Spelman sista would have set her straight on that with the quickness if she came in freshman year with that.

*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 "Da House" and she was at Georgia 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 to me.

I probably would've been okay had she not been wearing Spelman paraphernalia.

[ursula]

3 hours ago, phoenics said:

So... I just caught up with Raising Dion. I only watched the pilot to give it a fair chance.

You should give it a full chance. It ended up being surprisingly satisfying.

3 hours ago, phoenics said:

I probably would've been okay had she not been wearing Spelman paraphernalia.

It's just basic research and sloppiness, and it's annoying in this case because there is supposed to be some POC clout behind the camera - with MBJ, at least.

ETA: I stand corrected.

Edited October 16, 2019 by ursula

[DearEvette]

33 minutes ago, ursula said:

It's just basic research and sloppiness, and it's annoying in this case because there is supposed to be some POC clout behind the camera - with MBJ, at least.

The director of the episode is a black guy who went to Morehouse. 

The original writer of the Raising Dion comic & creator of the original short the main Netflix is an Asian guy.

[phoenics]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

The director of the episode is a black guy who went to Morehouse. 

The original writer of the Raising Dion comic & creator of the original short the main Netflix is an Asian guy.

They cleared it up in the second episode - it was as I predicted in my post.  She went to Spelman, but did not graduate.  I'm almost laughing at how well I predicted that she couldn't have finished, lol.  I'm giving the show a chance, but I still think the weakest link is the lead actress (though she's getting better).  The show overall is great.  I'm on episode 5 and I started today just after 1pm.

[phoenics]

I just had a thought about casting and diversity and colorism in tv (though it could apply to movies too).

For one of my favorite shows, I remember they mentioned that when they were casting the lead female role (they'd cast the lead male first even though the lead female had the overall lead role) that when they put her in a chem test with the male lead - they just knew it was her.  That was Shiri Appleby on Roswell.  The same kind of thing happened with Candice Patton on The Flash.

So... I know chemistry is subjective but part of it probably relies upon a mutual attraction somewhere - even on a subconscious level.

So if a male actor (like MBJ for example) has a ... predilection for a certain phenotype... wouldn't it impact who he has chemistry with?  And thus who gets cast?

I keep thinking about all of those research studies done at OkayCupid where black women are sought out the least... and we know colorism impacts how black women's attractiveness is perceived... 

I guess I'm just feeling a bit hopeless wondering whether we will ever be able to eradicate colorism in casting.

[phoenics]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

The director of the episode is a black guy who went to Morehouse. 

The original writer of the Raising Dion comic & creator of the original short the main Netflix is an Asian guy.

The showrunner is a white woman.  I do think some of the touches we saw regarding Spelman were from the director.  And in episode 2 they gave more details (pretty much exactly what I predicted).

[In2You]

On 10/12/2019 at 7:33 PM, MissyPoo said:

Someone finally woke up because this movie is coming out this season:

In Canada it's airing on Superchannel. Here's the plot from the Superchannel website

Jessica is a struggling chef living in a trendy borough in New York. Her restaurant just hasn't received the kind of attention that it takes to survive, especially with Christmas on the way. Prince Jack is from a small European country and arrives in New York to plan his family's annual Christmas charity dinner. After firing the cantankerous chef, he finds himself lost in the big city and wanders into none other than Jessica's restaurant. He immediately falls in love with Jessica's cooking and comes up with a brilliant plan: why doesn't she cater his Christmas gala? As romance blossoms, so do the obstacles. His parents, a would-be girlfriend and a pushy socialite (and ex-girlfriend) from Jack's home country all stand in the way. But love is a powerful force. And as the day of the big event arrives, she decides she doesn't care what anyone else says. She's going to make the best dinner the annual Christmas gala has ever seen! And, in the process, she might just land herself the best Christmas present of all, her very own Prince!

[DearEvette]

9 minutes ago, phoenics said:

So if a male actor (like MBJ for example) has a ... predilection for a certain phenotype... wouldn't it impact who he has chemistry with?  And thus who gets cast?

I keep thinking about all of those research studies done at OkayCupid where black women are sought out the least... and we know colorism impacts how black women's attractiveness is perceived... 

I guess I'm just feeling a bit hopeless wondering whether we will ever be able to eradicate colorism in casting.

The only thing that is going to eradicate colorism in casting is activism and content creators who are aware of the issue.  I immediately think of Mara Brock Akil and the casting of Black Lightning.  Or Ava Duvernay and how she approaches her craft of lighting darker skin and casting darker skinned actresses in her work. 

There was a great episode of Survivor's Remorse where Teyonah Parris' character was responsible for casting a commercial  -- or maybe it was a music video -- and she specifically wanted a darker skinned actress (someone who looked like her) to have the part because she was so used to seeing light skinned actresses in the parts and wanted to give the opportunity to a darker skinned actress.  That is what I mean when I say content creators who are aware of the issue and who makes sure the decisions go beyond just diversity and dives into another layer of representation.

Obviously it can also be a difficult subject to parse because sometimes the lighter skinned actress can legitimately have given the best read or be the best fit for the part.  But we won't know that for sure til the playing field is a bit more level.

[phoenics]

4 hours ago, In2You said:

In Canada it's airing on Superchannel. Here's the plot from the Superchannel website

Jessica is a struggling chef living in a trendy borough in New York. Her restaurant just hasn't received the kind of attention that it takes to survive, especially with Christmas on the way. Prince Jack is from a small European country and arrives in New York to plan his family's annual Christmas charity dinner. After firing the cantankerous chef, he finds himself lost in the big city and wanders into none other than Jessica's restaurant. He immediately falls in love with Jessica's cooking and comes up with a brilliant plan: why doesn't she cater his Christmas gala? As romance blossoms, so do the obstacles. His parents, a would-be girlfriend and a pushy socialite (and ex-girlfriend) from Jack's home country all stand in the way. But love is a powerful force. And as the day of the big event arrives, she decides she doesn't care what anyone else says. She's going to make the best dinner the annual Christmas gala has ever seen! And, in the process, she might just land herself the best Christmas present of all, her very own Prince!

I'm totally watching this cheesy formulaic royal story lol.

[Drogo]

Keep your comments to race and ethnicity as they relate to TELEVISION SHOWS.  Since the thread has been going off-topic often recently, an orange reminder will appear every time you reply in this topic.  Posts that violate the topic rules will be removed and warnings issued. 

A topic has been created in the non-TV forums to discuss these issues with no TV-context:

[MissyPoo]

On 10/16/2019 at 3:50 PM, In2You said:

In Canada it's airing on Superchannel. Here's the plot from the Superchannel website

Jessica is a struggling chef living in a trendy borough in New York. Her restaurant just hasn't received the kind of attention that it takes to survive, especially with Christmas on the way. Prince Jack is from a small European country and arrives in New York to plan his family's annual Christmas charity dinner. After firing the cantankerous chef, he finds himself lost in the big city and wanders into none other than Jessica's restaurant. He immediately falls in love with Jessica's cooking and comes up with a brilliant plan: why doesn't she cater his Christmas gala? As romance blossoms, so do the obstacles. His parents, a would-be girlfriend and a pushy socialite (and ex-girlfriend) from Jack's home country all stand in the way. But love is a powerful force. And as the day of the big event arrives, she decides she doesn't care what anyone else says. She's going to make the best dinner the annual Christmas gala has ever seen! And, in the process, she might just land herself the best Christmas present of all, her very own Prince!

On 10/16/2019 at 8:27 PM, phoenics said:

I'm totally watching this cheesy formulaic royal story lol.

Yesss.... Same!

And I just noticed something interesting. I went to the IMDB for the actress because she looked low key familiar and noticed she was in Black Lightning as Chenoa! She looks totally different! I'm super behind on my BL viewing (need to finish season 1 and start 2) so I don't know if she is still on the show or not.

[Sparger Springs]

On 10/16/2019 at 7:04 PM, DearEvette said:

The only thing that is going to eradicate colorism in casting is activism and content creators who are aware of the issue.  I immediately think of Mara Brock Akil and the casting of Black Lightning.  Or Ava Duvernay and how she approaches her craft of lighting darker skin and casting darker skinned actresses in her work. 

There was a great episode of Survivor's Remorse where Teyonah Parris' character was responsible for casting a commercial  -- or maybe it was a music video -- and she specifically wanted a darker skinned actress (someone who looked like her) to have the part because she was so used to seeing light skinned actresses in the parts and wanted to give the opportunity to a darker skinned actress.  That is what I mean when I say content creators who are aware of the issue and who makes sure the decisions go beyond just diversity and dives into another layer of representation.

Obviously it can also be a difficult subject to parse because sometimes the lighter skinned actress can legitimately have given the best read or be the best fit for the part.  But we won't know that for sure til the playing field is a bit more level.

I haven't seen many movies or shows when the lead was a light skinned black women and thought she was obviously the best for the role. Most are interchangeable.  The lead in Dion is a mediocre actress.  I see Zoe Kravitz is going be Catwoman. Anybody impressed by Zoe Kravitz acting skills, her biggest marketable skill is looking liker her mama. There is an avalanche of biracial British actresses pretending to be Americans. Most of them aren't that good.  

[In2You]

On 10/18/2019 at 3:36 PM, MissyPoo said:

Yesss.... Same!

And I just noticed something interesting. I went to the IMDB for the actress because she looked low key familiar and noticed she was in Black Lightning as Chenoa! She looks totally different! I'm super behind on my BL viewing (need to finish season 1 and start 2) so I don't know if she is still on the show or not.

I actually recognized her right away from Black Lightning and got excited because I was hoping to see her in something else. She only appears early in season 1 of BL

[Raja]

1 hour ago, UNOSEZ said:

I really liked talia.. So I was scared seeing another black woman cast and thinking it was a "walking dead esque" replacement... But I was pleasantly surprised... I like that she was a bit antagonistic it makes sense for her character's history.. I also like the dynamic between grey and her.. Again because it makes sense... Watching those kids shoot at the homeless lady had my blood boiling... I liked the Tim and Rachel story.. With Chen being the super involved best friend... My only gripe.. And its one I've voiced elsewhere is the show pairing off every WOC with a white guy... Chen with Nolan.. Russo with Nolan.. Lopez with the Lawyer.. Now the new T.O with the always solid Enver G.  And Chen' s friend with Tim.. I'm all for the swirl ( that's how i came in to existence)  but geesh.. I mean maybe Chen meets a nice Indian or Latino or Asian guy.. I get Tim and Nolan are the only single hetero guys... But still.. Anywhoo another good episode 

From The Rookie

Has the 2019 TV season presented any new relationship between a black woman and black man? I do think the networks are now in a racial arms race. And the subject of race only comes up on Bob  💘 Abishola.

[DearEvette]

1 hour ago, Raja said:

Has the 2019 TV season presented any new relationship between a black woman and black man?

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is AJ and Mina from The Resident.

Also I think Spencer and Layla from All American are completely coupled up this season.

[UNOSEZ]

3 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is AJ and Mina from The Resident.

Also I think Spencer and Layla from All American are completely coupled up this season.

And of those two All American is explicitly marketed as a minority ( in this case American black show)  same as Black lightning... With Khalid and Jen.. And anissa + whatever pretty skirt passes that old hounds way.. Lol..  So its mainly just AJ and Mina.. Do the casting directors think folks will check out seeing black folks happy together?  The CW by far is the worst offender 

[possibilities]

What do folks think of "All Rise"?

[Raja]

1 minute ago, possibilities said:

What do folks think of "All Rise"?

There it is the black judge and FBI agent. Two other couples are interracial and a third are same sex 

[UNOSEZ]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

What do folks think of "All Rise"?

I've liked it so far.. Simone and Wilson really sell the platonic oppo sex besties well... Its had some topical moments.. But also light ones.. Plus  Marg helgenberger gets to have fun in the costume dept and look great and ahead reminds me of my grandmother so I'm good with jt

[paulvdb]

19 hours ago, Raja said:

Has the 2019 TV season presented any new relationship between a black woman and black man?

On the new CBS series the Unicorn the main character's best friends are two couples. One couple is a black man and black woman. Off the top of my head that's the only example on a new show in the 2019/2020 season that I watch.

The other examples I can think of are all couples that were already together in the 2018/2019 tv season, for example several on All American and Black Lightning.

[possibilities]

Zoey on grown-ish has been involved with two Black males. That's a teen show, fwiw, and not new this season.

The Neighborhood has Calvin and Tina.

[UNOSEZ]

7 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Zoey on grown-ish has been involved with two Black males. That's a teen show, fwiw, and not new this season.

The Neighborhood has Calvin and Tina

True... But to nitpicky back to a previous post I made.. Both of those shows explicitly speak on race.. Grownish is marketed directly to and as a minority show... And the neighborhood is all about the culture and racial class of the primaries.. But still those are some more examples 

[DearEvette]

Sitcoms have always done better than dramas with pairing black love interests.  Some of that is traditionally sitcoms have been more available to black actors.

Not new but the only ones I can think of on tv right now are, of course, Beth and Randall from This is Us and Rome and Regina from A Million Little Things.

The only one others I can think of recently  are shows that have been cancelled, Lethal Weapon (Murtaugh and his wife) and the very short lived The Village (Lorraine Toussaint and Frankie Faison) and one more reason why I am so sad that Pitch got cancelled was because Evelyn and Bing were such a freakin' awesome couple.

[PepSinger]

Bailey and Warren on Grey’s Anatomy/Station 19

[UNOSEZ]

It def seems like casting for adults isnt as much of a problem as teen and young adults... Simone Missick and Todd Williams on All rise are another example

[Silver Raven]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:32 PM, Drogo said:

On TV.

Race and ethnicity ON TV.

Where is the version for movies?  I can't find it any more.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Where is the version for movies?  I can't find it any more.

There is but the movie version now covers a wider variety of topics. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Guest

[xaxat]

I just binged watch the hell out of HBO's Succession and loved it. It's a story about a billionaire media mogul (think Rupert Murdoch) and the politics of his family as they angle to replace him after his retirement.

Normally I wouldn't be too into a show about billionaires. Typically they features a bunch of Type A, cunning white men who have "earned" their money. Not Succession, it's a dark comedy portrayal of white privileged at its highest levels.

It shows that, if you have enough money (which skews white) it doesn't matter how stupid, how drug addicted, how much of a criminal you are the system won't let you fail. It also does a great job of showing how they take it for granted.

You keep wanting them to get their comeuppance, but the show makes it clear that the difference between success and "failure" for these people is the difference between having billions of dollars and tens of millions.

[DearEvette]

2 minutes ago, xaxat said:

It shows that, if you have enough money (which skews white) it doesn't matter how stupid, how drug addicted, how much of a criminal you are the system won't let you fail. It also does a great job of showing how they take it for granted.

Dear White People did a version of this with Gabe who, because of his (supposedly) .00065% Native American blood he checked off 'Native American' on the box of a scholarship application.  When he won one of the grant (during a ceremony where they made a point to say all the winners were POC, HA!) he was so guilt stricken about his lie he tried to give it back, claiming he lied to get it.  But at every turn everyone made it difficult for him to try to own up to it.  His lie was enabled and he was basically forced to keep the scholarship.

[Raja]

4 hours ago, UNOSEZ said:

It def seems like casting for adults isnt as much of a problem as teen and young adults... Simone Missick and Todd Williams on All rise are another example

Which brings me back full circle to all the "people of color" being in a "swirl" relationship without comment from anybody this season on The Rookie. There The Watch Commander Sergeant Grey and his wife are both black, but she is rarely seen. On All Rise while the judge's husband may have had a bigger role than Sergeant Grey's wife watchers who commented on early episodes were wondering if the judge was going to be the lesbian as was leaked 'a judge" would be on the show before her husband showed up.  And we certainly see more of her relationship with her BFF former office mate as Deputy DA's who went to school and served together than we see of her with her husband.

[Lugal]

21 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Sitcoms have always done better than dramas with pairing black love interests.  Some of that is traditionally sitcoms have been more available to black actors.

I remember I read an article on integration on TV a decade ago where they mentioned dramas were more likely to have interracial relationships because it can provide dramatic situations, whereas that was something sitcoms did not want to deal with.

[DearEvette]

15 hours ago, Raja said:

Which brings me back full circle to all the "people of color" being in a "swirl" relationship without comment from anybody this season on The Rookie. There The Watch Commander Sergeant Grey and his wife are both black, but she is rarely seen. On All Rise while the judge's husband may have had a bigger role than Sergeant Grey's wife watchers who commented on early episodes were wondering if the judge was going to be the lesbian as was leaked 'a judge" would be on the show before her husband showed up.  And we certainly see more of her relationship with her BFF former office mate as Deputy DA's who went to school and served together than we see of her with her husband.

The Rookie is interesting in that the romantic/personal life stuff that it chooses to include is wildly uneven.  Nathan Filion as star gets the lion's share of it.  I think he has gone through three? maybe?  love interests?  Whenever I read about the show casting another actress of a certain age on the show, I immediately think they are trying again to hook the character up. Again.  Nobody else has gotten much of a real love life.  The one black rookie is gay and he had a nice subplot toward the end of last season where he met a nice, black male nurse.  But they didn't get a ton of screen time.  I suspect if stuff hadn't gone down the way it did with Afton Williams, they would have gotten Talia together with the one black detective (the actor who supposedly harassed her on set). 

Once they broke up Nolan (Filion) and Lucy, she hasn't had another romance since.  The only other character who gets a lot of personal life facetime on the show is  Tim, who had a junkie wife but she was included because she was also a plot mover.   I understand he also has a new romance this season (haven't seen it myself) with a black woman, actually.

We got one episode that showed Grey's wife and his daughter.  But that is it.

Meanwhile All Rise is a CBS show that feels like an ABC show but has a lot of CBS show tendencies.  By that I mean, it is an ABC show without any real personal stuff.  it is almost all procedural/work related.  Very few scenes have taken place outside of the courtroom so far.  If this were an ABC show several somebodies would have had sex by now.

Edited October 23, 2019 by DearEvette

[xaxat]

The Washington Post just published a list of The 20 defining comedy sketches of the past 20 years.

What I find interesting is how many of the sketches are about the experience of African Americans. SNL's Black Jeopardy and multiple Key and Peele and Chappelle show sketches. 

(It's a totally subjective list and not worth spending too much time arguing about. But for Chappelle, I would have replaced one of their picks with Black Bush.)

[Guest]

On 10/13/2019 at 5:42 PM, phoenics said:

Where is this airing?  Or is it straight to DVD?

Ion announced their Christmas schedule today and it’s airing on December 1st. 

On 10/14/2019 at 10:06 AM, In2You said:

Looks like something that would air on ION

You called it.