Race & Ethnicity On TV

[aradia22]

Quote

She's specifically asking about shows that star women of color, not token "diversity".  

It's hard to quantify. What is starring? Most TV shows now feature at least one or two token BIPOC characters. But I wouldn't say that Jameela Jamil is the star of The Good Place. In marketing and screentime, that's pretty clearly Kristen Bell and/or Ted Danson. So, for the sake of argument, I will knock out any show like that. So no Harlots or Brooklyn 99, 911, Good Girls, This Is Us, Perfect Harmony, etc. 

Of shows that are not made by hulu, there's Living Single, Superstore, Empire, Star, Doc McStuffins, Queen Sugar, the ABC shows (Black-ish, Mixed-ish, Grown-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, How to Get Away with Murder), etc.

Of the shows that appear when I search Hulu Originals... pen15, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Mindy Project, East Los High, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, etc.

I will say that even with the most generous parameters, she does have a point about women of color in their original programming and most of their movie selection. There are BIPOC shows/movies. But hulu generally seems to program fiction and nonfiction with more BIPOC male leads and white female leads than BIPOC female leads.

[phoenics]

On 8/11/2020 at 10:31 PM, aradia22 said:

It's hard to quantify. What is starring? Most TV shows now feature at least one or two token BIPOC characters. But I wouldn't say that Jameela Jamil is the star of The Good Place. In marketing and screentime, that's pretty clearly Kristen Bell and/or Ted Danson. So, for the sake of argument, I will knock out any show like that. So no Harlots or Brooklyn 99, 911, Good Girls, This Is Us, Perfect Harmony, etc. 

Of shows that are not made by hulu, there's Living Single, Superstore, Empire, Star, Doc McStuffins, Queen Sugar, the ABC shows (Black-ish, Mixed-ish, Grown-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, How to Get Away with Murder), etc.

Of the shows that appear when I search Hulu Originals... pen15, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Mindy Project, East Los High, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, etc.

I will say that even with the most generous parameters, she does have a point about women of color in their original programming and most of their movie selection. There are BIPOC shows/movies. But hulu generally seems to program fiction and nonfiction with more BIPOC male leads and white female leads than BIPOC female leads.

Yes, I think she's specifically speaking about original shows that star women of color in a LEADING role.  Like if the actress got nominated for an Oscar or Emmy, it would be "Best Actress in a Leading Role" and not "Best Actress in a Supporting Role".

And on that, Hulu is down on the list.

Frankly, Hulu having content that has already been made that features leads of color isn't a replacement for them creating new shows that do.

[Irlandesa]

17 minutes ago, phoenics said:

Frankly, Hulu having content that has already been made that features leads of color isn't a replacement for them creating new shows that do.

I agree.  I don't think they should get credit for the shows they picked up from NBC, FOX, ABC...etc. that have leads of color. 

Plus, it was a really good show.

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I agree.  I don't think they should get credit for the shows they picked up from NBC, FOX, ABC...etc. that have leads of color. 

Plus, it was a really good show.

I agree. All the streamers can only be judged in this aspect on their originals. Even High Fidelity was developed for Disney+ and only ended up on Hulu when Disney decided it was a better fit there. Hulu is in such a weird place with the ownership changes. Once Disney takes complete ownership I expect it to change a lot and be more like the teen and adult version of Disney+. 

[aradia22]

Quote

Frankly, Hulu having content that has already been made that features leads of color isn't a replacement for them creating new shows that do.

Quote

I don't think they should get credit for the shows they picked up from NBC, FOX, ABC...etc. that have leads of color. 

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All the streamers can only be judged in this aspect on their originals. 

Personally, I disagree with this. Until informed otherwise, I feel like Hulu has a lot less money to work with than the other streaming services. So to me, it's significant that they invested at least some of that in buying/holding onto the rights to shows with BIPOC leads and female BIPOC leads. I think Hulu has the exclusive rights to some of the shows I named (at least for free vs. purchasing them individually through Amazon or iTunes). 

I think they can definitely be called out for not doing more with their original content but I do give them credit for their overall programming. Amazon has a ton of money to throw around and I'd argue they're worse than Hulu. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? The Boys? Mozart in the Jungle? Transparent? The Apple TV shows don't seem much better but I don't have the service to verify. But from what I can tell, they're mostly throwing money at white movie stars to sell their shows. Netflix is kind of all over the place (which I guess is the business model) and HBO seems to be doing the best or is at least the loudest. 

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I feel like Hulu has a lot less money to work with than the other streaming services.

From what I understand, Hulu started as a partnership between the broadcast networks as a streaming competitor to Netflix.  As it was owned by multiple networks, the content they owned was moved to Hulu.  So it's not really an investment in the way Netflix intentionally goes after content.

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

From what I understand, Hulu started as a partnership between the broadcast networks as a streaming competitor to Netflix.  As it was owned by multiple networks, the content they owned was moved to Hulu.  So it's not really an investment in the way Netflix intentionally goes after content.

 

That’s true. It was started by Fox, Disney, NBC(Comcast) and Warner to stream network programming and appeal to cord cutters. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t play well together and eventually realized they could make more money with their own streaming services.

Hulu is supposed to lose a lot of content over the next few years as deals end and now only Comcast and Disney are owners. Comcast has agreed to sell their minority stake to Disney in the next few years. It was reported last summer that Disney is increasing Hulu’s budget so it will be interesting to see how the handle diversity going forward. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Guest

[aradia22]

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So it's not really an investment in the way Netflix intentionally goes after content.

In that case, I think you definitely have to count the overall programming and, in my mind, given the limited selection of overall shows/movies, they're not doing too bad. Again, there's a level of selection bias because the website is difficult to navigate but I associate Hulu with Empire and Claws and the ABC shows and If Beale Street Could Talk and Sorry to Bother You and The Mindy Project. Plus a bunch of movies with white female leads that no one wanted to watch in theaters (e.g. Melancholia, Mary Shelley, Vita & Virginia, Colossal, Booksmart), all the shows from FX, the 80's back catalog, etc. Also, for some reason they have every Swan Princess sequel ever made.

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It was reported last summer that Disney is increasing Hulu’s budget so it will be interesting to see how the handle diversity going forward. 

I'm interested to see how this will play out. I imagine Disney wants to pour most of their money into Disney+. But we've seen a bunch of things go to Hulu because they don't fit the Disney brand. Will Hulu get enough money from Disney to become a competitive streaming service where Disney has more family-friendly content and Hulu has more adult content or will it stay a lesser player because Disney doesn't want the competition (even if it's the fake kind of competition because everything is owned by the same corporation)?

I do think it's significant that once Hulu originals moved away from the nonsense no one wanted (The Path, Casual, 11.22.63) they just programmed stuff with white female leads instead of white male leads. So we got Handmaid's Tale, Shrill, Holly Hobbie, Dollface, Reprisal, and The Great.

[ursula]

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I associate Hulu with Empire and Claws and the ABC shows and If Beale Street Could Talk and Sorry to Bother You and The Mindy Project

Hulu gets no credit for network content it's obligated to provide.

Their predominantly white led original content is the evidence of how much (or rather how little) Hulu prioritizes diversity.

[phoenics]

7 hours ago, aradia22 said:

In that case, I think you definitely have to count the overall programming and, in my mind, given the limited selection of overall shows/movies, they're not doing too bad.

I mean, to each his or her own, but they could be doing much better.  I can't count programming that other networks initially took the risk of creating, producing and airing when it was centered on PoC and the audiences that those shows garnered long before Hulu existed or acquired the content.  The risk wasn't on Hulu to pick up shows it already knew had a following.  And a lot of that content is because of Disney's acquisition of Fox and other content.  It's not because Hulu was being particularly progressive.

When Hulu DID have the opportunity to be progressive, we got the overwhelmingly non-diverse centered state of affairs with originals that Zoe pointed out.

[DearEvette]

7 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I do think it's significant that once Hulu originals moved away from the nonsense no one wanted (The Path, Casual, 11.22.63) they just programmed stuff with white female leads instead of white male leads. So we got Handmaid's Tale, Shrill, Holly Hobbie, Dollface, Reprisal, and The Great.

And The Act.  OMG... The Act!  You could not turn on Hulu without seeing that photo of the bald girl with those 80's era glasses.  It is even worse when you have a huge hi-def screen.  That girl's head was like the size of planet.  It was relentless their advertising of that show.  I finally had to go onto the website (the only way you could do it) and tell it to remove it from my suggestions.  My husband got such a kick out of my outrage. Every time the splash screen came on.  That girl's ginormous head was looming at me.

Meanwhile when Hulu does have content with POC leads, like Four Weddings and a Funeral or High Fidelity, I never got anywhere near the saturation awareness of those shows that I got for  The Damned Act.  I actually had to search them out myself. 

Honestly, I think the only streamer that has worse POC led original content than Hulu is Amazon Prime originals.  I remember they had an ongoing promotion touting their women-led shows, like rah-rah girl power!  They had Hanna, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Homecoming, and Good Girls Revolt.  And it was all white women.  Sigh.

[aradia22]

Quote

When Hulu DID have the opportunity to be progressive, we got the overwhelmingly non-diverse centered state of affairs with originals that Zoe pointed out.

YMMV but to me she didn't point out anything. That's my problem. I do admit to sometimes being biased against actors leading these conversations especially when it's just one snarky comment because I do think a lot of times it's about their egos more than anything else. 

Quote

Meanwhile when Hulu does have content with POC leads, like Four Weddings and a Funeral or High Fidelity, I never got anywhere near the saturation awareness of those shows that I got for  The Damned Act.  I actually had to search them out myself. 

I've already said this but it's a weird platform to navigate. And I'm totally cancelling at the end of the month. I actually got Four Weddings and a Funeral, High Fidelity, and The Beauty and The Baker on my home page all the time. But it is almost impossible to find the good movies unless you sit there and comb through page after page. Considering that they have a much more limited library, it should not be so difficult to find the things you want to watch (and thus tell the algorithm that you want more of a certain kind of show or representation).

[phoenics]

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

YMMV but to me she didn't point out anything. That's my problem. I do admit to sometimes being biased against actors leading these conversations especially when it's just one snarky comment because I do think a lot of times it's about their egos more than anything else. 

 

Zoe is still a black actress - and we still live in a time where shows literally screw over their black and black biracial leads and actors/actresses - Nicole Beharie's experience on Sleepy Hollow to name just one.  And of course it's partially ego - Hulu barely advertised her show - not to mention the others that had WoC leads - but the white-led shows were tossed in our faces constantly.  As a black woman I hate that kind of thing because it unfairly stacks the deck against PoC content and continually centers whiteness as though that's automatically better.

It's exhausting.

It's hard to separate Zoe's anger at the lack of diversity on Hulu from ego (which could also be anger at not getting the same treatment her white counterparts got) when we can see the evidence of the lack of diverse shows and the lack of proper promotion for diverse shows over others.

Now her comment makes me wonder if she had a similar experience to Nicole Beharie behind the scenes.  We've seen quite a few black actresses come out and talk about how rough it is for them BTS of these shows - even when they're the leads.  

Edited August 16, 2020 by phoenics

[PepSinger]

On 8/15/2020 at 7:23 PM, DearEvette said:

And The Act.  OMG... The Act!  You could not turn on Hulu without seeing that photo of the bald girl with those 80's era glasses.  It is even worse when you have a huge hi-def screen.  That girl's head was like the size of planet.  It was relentless their advertising of that show.  I finally had to go onto the website (the only way you could do it) and tell it to remove it from my suggestions.  My husband got such a kick out of my outrage. Every time the splash screen came on.  That girl's ginormous head was looming at me.

This is one of the funniest things I've read in a while, so thank you.

Yeah, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to give Zoe the benefit of a doubt. I have Hulu+ with Live TV. The only show that's coming to mind other than High Fidelity is Little Fires Everywhere with a Black female actor as the lead. Hulu just doesn't have a great track record with Black women led shows, and I stand by that. I don't give them credit for streaming diverse shows since they are capable of producing their own content as @ursula mentioned, especially since they are obligated to stream those shows due to previous agreements. It's 2020; Hulu needs to do better. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by PepSinger

[DearEvette]

Lovecraft Country debuted on HBO on Sunday and it is doing for the term 'Sundown towns' what The Watchmen did for 'Tulsa Massacre'.  It is educating people on something that is part of our American history that had never been formally taught in schools and not many people outside of these places had heard about.  It is opening dialogue.

Outside of that, the first ep is very well done, beautifully shot, very high production values with an incredible authentically nostalgic look feel, and it is wonderfully acted.  Also just a good old fashioned tense episode.  Jurnee Smollett, imo, was a stand out.

[Guest]

Most of All Rise’s writing staff has quit after dealing with the racist show runner. 

 

[phoenics]

20 hours ago, Dani said:

Most of All Rise’s writing staff has quit after dealing with the racist show runner. 

 

This is doubly upsetting because this show has a black female lead.  I wonder what stories she has to tell about the BTS.  I hope they don't cancel the show - but I hate that the showrunner is still there.  He should be fired and they need a better one.  Mo Ryan on twitter has an amazing thread on this.

[Silver Raven]

Transplant has an Arabic lead playing an Arabic character.  Of course, it's Canadian.

 

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, phoenics said:

This is doubly upsetting because this show has a black female lead.  I wonder what stories she has to tell about the BTS.  I hope they don't cancel the show - but I hate that the showrunner is still there.  He should be fired and they need a better one.  Mo Ryan on twitter has an amazing thread on this.

Yep, show with a Black female lead run by a white guy who appears to have racist and sexist tendencies. Sounds about right. GRRRRR

[DearEvette]

Oh man, I read the Mo Ryan twitter thread -- expecting to see what I would see because I had already read the Rachel Palmer thread earlier in the day.

What I did not expect was to get sidetracked by a tweet of Shernold Edwards (who was a writer for S3 Sleepy Hollow) that Mo Ryan links to.  Nicole Beharie already spoke a little bit this year about how bad the experience BTS had gotten for her. But Shernold links to a podcast where she talks a little bit about her experience with SH and amongst other things says "It was a deeply troubled show" when she joined and  " the singular most unpleasant experience I've ever had."

Also this tweet speaks to a more insidious sort of gaslighting toward Nicole than I'd heard before. Edwards goes on to say in a subsequent tweet that it was a "toxic and heartbreaking experience" and she had a ton of stories.

Geez.  Can you even imagine?

Edited August 22, 2020 by DearEvette

[AgentRXS]

7 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Oh man, I read the Mo Ryan twitter thread -- expecting to see what I would see because I had already read the Rachel Palmer thread earlier in the day.

What I did not expect was to get sidetracked by a tweet of Shernold Edwards (who was a writer for S3 Sleepy Hollow) that Mo Ryan links to.  Nicole Beharie already spoke a little bit this year about how bad the experience BTS had gotten for her. But Shernold links to a podcast where she talks a little bit about her experience with SH and amongst other things says "It was a deeply troubled show" when she joined and  " the singular most unpleasant experience I've ever had."

Also this tweet speaks to a more insidious sort of gaslighting toward Nicole than I'd heard before. Edwards goes on to say in a subsequent tweet that it was a "toxic and heartbreaking experience" and she had a ton of stories.

She goes on to say it was a 'toxic and heartbreaking experience"

She also links to podcast where she talks a little bit about the experience

What I wouldn't give to have lunch with Nicole Beharie and Orlando Jones and get all the tea on the behind the scenes of  this show.  The total and complete dumpster fire it became never fails to fascinate me.

[phoenics]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Oh man, I read the Mo Ryan twitter thread -- expecting to see what I would see because I had already read the Rachel Palmer thread earlier in the day.

What I did not expect was to get sidetracked by a tweet of Shernold Edwards (who was a writer for S3 Sleepy Hollow) that Mo Ryan links to.  Nicole Beharie already spoke a little bit this year about how bad the experience BTS had gotten for her. But Shernold links to a podcast where she talks a little bit about her experience with SH and amongst other things says "It was a deeply troubled show" when she joined and  " the singular most unpleasant experience I've ever had."

Also this tweet speaks to a more insidious sort of gaslighting toward Nicole than I'd heard before. Edwards goes on to say in a subsequent tweet that it was a "toxic and heartbreaking experience" and she had a ton of stories.

Geez.  Can you even imagine?

Yeah - I was in that thread when it popped off and literally just watched as the tweets kept going... by the end I was apoplectic with rage. I thought I posted that thread here, but maybe I put it on the SH thread.  

What made me sad was that Shernold has pretty much had crappy experiences trying to write for tv because of racist white showrunners and producers.  That's awful.

What really frosts my cookies is that the showrunner from that show is STILL THERE and all of the PoC writers are gone! WTF I hate CBS.  The only good thing they've created lately is the Charmed reboot (especially s2 from a storyline perspective) , but honestly I doubt they have much to do with it really.

I get so tired as a black woman having to weigh stuff out before I get invested in a tv show, asking myself if the show is worth the investment (which means I believe it will treat the black and black women characters the right way - especially if a black woman character is the lead character). 

How nice must it be to just be able to enjoy a tv show without having to form defense squads for the black women characters. I can't relate.

 

 

[aradia22]

Quote

Most of All Rise’s writing staff has quit after dealing with the racist show runner. 

This was another one of those CBS procedurals that hires a bunch of theater actors that I hear about too late and then I feel like I don't want to try catching up because it feels impossible to A) track down the episodes/work the weird network specific websites and B) catch up on the huge number of episodes now that I'm used to UK and streaming shows with such a short number of episodes per season. Looks like I'm not going to be putting in the work now.

But yeah, not surprising but still hugely disappointing. Maybe he's too deeply part of creating the show to be fired as easily as another showrunner (idk, this NYT article is the most I've heard about All Rise besides the commercials) but it feels so much easier to get rid of him that lose a huge chunk of their writing staff. Also, quoted from the article...

Quote

another point of contention was that, in his view, Mr. Spottiswood seemed more interested in having him appear at public events than in giving him duties that matched his job title, executive producer.

“It became clear to me, when I left the show, that I was only there because I’m the brown guy,” Mr. Nayar said in an interview. “Greg hired me to be his brown guy.”

Quote

The Warner Bros. human resources department reviewed the show’s workplace between last August and November after complaints from staff members about Mr. Spottiswood’s leadership, the studio confirmed. After the inquiries, Warner Bros. kept him in place and provided him with a corporate coach, a Black woman, to advise him.

“As soon as we became aware of concerns in the ‘All Rise’ writers’ room, we took steps to conduct a review of the work environment,” Warner Bros. said in a statement. “While the studio identified areas for improvement, the findings did not reveal conduct that would warrant removing series creator Greg Spottiswood from the executive producer role.”

Quote

Mr. Nayar wrote a scene in which the bailiff, played by J. Alex Brinson, and the lead character, played by Ms. Missick, discuss racist policing. Mr. Spottiswood killed the scene, arguing that such harassment was so common that it would not merit a discussion between two Black co-workers, Mr. Nayar said. 

Quote

“He makes race palatable for a CBS audience and the CBS brass, because he doesn’t know anything about it,” she said. “So there is this strange tone of nothing being said, but the visual representation is there. It’s safe, and it’s empty. All the reality is absent.”

OOF. Again, not surprisingly, seems totally accurate, but OOF.

[aradia22]

Maybe it's just a bad trailer but is looks like the American Amazon Prime version of this show is centering the white and/or male characters more than the original UK version.

Doesn't seem like my kind of show. I've grown to really dislike this frat bro/edgy version of magical realism/surrealism. But maybe if I resubscribe to hulu I'll check it out at some point just for Sasheer. Though like, please someone just give Sasheer her own show.

 

[Mabinogia]

9 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Quote from article ARADIA22 posted "Mr. Spottiswood killed the scene, arguing that such harassment was so common that it would not merit a discussion between two Black co-workers, Mr. Nayar said."

That might be one of the most disgusting things I've read in a while. So, by Spottiswood's mindset, we shouldn't complain about terrible crimes if they are happening constantly? So basically, just sit there quietly and let the rich white men do what they want. ASSHOLE!!!!!!

I get, these privileged white folks (of which I one, white woman here) don't understand how deeply and relentlessly racism affects those who aren't white. I really wish that for even just a week people like Spottiswood could experience the relentless oppression of racism, of people crossing the street when they see you coming, the fear you might end up in jail, or worse because you ran a red light or went a couple miles of the speed limit, or you might get beaten and/or shot because you were walking in the "wrong neighborhood". Sorry Dickwood, but this shit happens, and yes, people are going to talk about it and SHOULD talk about it. 

Racisim is still a huge problem in this world and I think everyone should be talking about it constantly until that changes. Shine a god damned spotlight on that shit until it shrivels up and dies! I wish we'd gotten to see that scene because I bet it would have been insightful, so long as Dickwood wasn't writing it. 

[DearEvette]

22 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Mr. Nayar wrote a scene in which the bailiff, played by J. Alex Brinson, and the lead character, played by Ms. Missick, discuss racist policing. Mr. Spottiswood killed the scene, arguing that such harassment was so common that it would not merit a discussion between two Black co-workers, Mr. Nayar said.

Yeah, I saw this sentence and barked out a laugh at the sheer effrontery. Like, a white Canadian dude would absolutely 100% be the arbiter of the conversations two black Americans would have with each other?  The arrogance of not even considering that people belonging to one in-group would have conversations between each other that they would never have with or in the presence of a member of an out-group.  And in this case it is coupled with the sheer patronizing attitude of a person in charge of a room of brown people and dismissing their perspectives.  How very Matt Damon of him.

[biakbiak]

Twitter calls out the huge similarities between NIck JR.’s new show “Made By Maddie” and the Oscar winning short Hair Love. The creator of Made by Maddie is white and Matthew A. Cherry the creator of Hair Love is black and has signed a deal to turn Hair Love into a tv show. When I first saw the screenshots without reading the tweet, I thought it was from the Hair Love tv show. 

[Trini]

Shots fired?

 

 

[topanga]

6 minutes ago, Trini said:

Shots fired?

So I don’t want to watch this show  — I completely agree with people on the Twitter thread who wonder why so many stories about black girls have to be about pain and trauma, rather than just about them living. But then there’s a part of me that doesn’t want a show featuring a brown-skinned actress to fail because that would reinforce the false narrative that no one wants to watch their stories. 

[Trini]

But in CBS-trying-to-do-better news: 'Cop Drama ‘The Bay’ With Chinese-American Leads In Works At CBS From Larry Teng & Yalun Tu'

Quote

CBS has put in development The Bay, a one-hour police drama from director-producer Larry Teng (Nancy Drew); writer-producer Yalun Tu (Wu Assassins); and CBS Television Studios.

The Bay, described as The Good Wife meets NYPD Blue, is written by Tu from a story co-written by Tu and Teng. It centers on two newly partnered Chinese-American detectives who strive to overcome their gender, generational and cultural differences as they work to bring justice to their dynamic and ever-changing San Francisco community. The show revolves around their new partnership and examines the existing model of law enforcement along with the people they serve.

Tu executive produces with Teng, who is set to direct. CBS TV Studios is the studio.

 

[Silver Raven]

Awkwafina to star in a new Amazon action comedy as an assassin who is hired to kill her former high school bully.

https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-picks-up-awkwafina-and-karen-gillan-action-comedy-shelly/

 

[phoenics]

5 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Awkwafina to star in a new Amazon action comedy as an assassin who is hired to kill her former high school bully.

https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-picks-up-awkwafina-and-karen-gillan-action-comedy-shelly/

 

Which voice is she using?  Her stereotypical and racist "fake black hip hop star" voice or her "I've made it now and turn off my fake voice" voice?

[xaxat]

This is really annoying me. ESPN is broadcasting the US Open (tennis). One of the top female competitors is Naomi Osaka, who has a Haitian father and a Japanese mother. Her hair is naturally curly and that's the way she always wears it on the court (and it is gorgeous). Yet, when they show profile photos of the players, ESPN chose a runway/glamour photo of her with straight hair. 

Hmmm. . . . 

ETA, A lot of the other profile pictures look like they are taken on/near the court. With players wearing visors, athletic shirts etc. 

 

Edited September 4, 2020 by xaxat

[SweetSable]

21 minutes ago, xaxat said:

This is really annoying me. ESPN is broadcasting the US Open (tennis). One of the top female competitors is Naomi Osaka, who has a Haitian father and a Japanese mother. Her hair is naturally curly and that's the way she always wears it on the court (and it is gorgeous). Yet, when they show profile photos of the players, ESPN chose a runway/glamour photo of her with straight hair. 

Hmmm. . . . 

ETA, A lot of the other profile pictures look like they are taken on/near the court. With players wearing visors, athletic shirts etc. 

 

Do you know if the players/their management-PR team provide the profile photos?  Or if ESPN can use any photos they want?  Not disagreeing with you that it's annoying, but am curious how they determine what photos to use.

 

 

[xaxat]

30 minutes ago, SweetSable said:

Do you know if the players/their management-PR team provide the profile photos?  Or if ESPN can use any photos they want?  Not disagreeing with you that it's annoying, but am curious how they determine what photos to use.

It's possible that her people provided the photo, but if you look at her official site, I don't think it's probable. She looks very comfortable with her natural hair. And that is the only thing she wears on the court.

[Fukui San]

The good news is that Netflix is adapting the massive Chinese sci-fi epic triology by Cixin Liu The Three Body Problem. Short synopsis: A low level scientist in China makes first contact with another planet. It does not go well for team human. It spans from Mao's China to the end of time in an increasingly grand scale, and a great many of the human characters will be Chinese.

The bad/mixed news: The Game of Thrones guys are doing it.

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/9/1/21417294/three-body-problem-netflix-benioff-weiss

My outlook: Skeptical AF

[xaxat]

2 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

The bad/mixed news: The Game of Thrones guys are doing it.

On the good news side, maybe that means their "the South won/tied the Civil War" project is dead?

[Irlandesa]

18 minutes ago, xaxat said:

On the good news side, maybe that means their "the South won/tied the Civil War" project is dead?

That was an HBO approved project so I am pretty sure I read that it died the minute they jumped to Netflix. 

[DearEvette]

On 9/3/2020 at 1:31 AM, topanga said:

So I don’t want to watch this show  — I completely agree with people on the Twitter thread who wonder why so many stories about black girls have to be about pain and trauma, rather than just about them living. But then there’s a part of me that doesn’t want a show featuring a brown-skinned actress to fail because that would reinforce the false narrative that no one wants to watch their stories. 

This is where I am at.  Since social media & news keeps us all apprised all the time of all the bad stuff, fictional tv should be err a little more on the side of escapism.  Let us sit for a minute and enjoy someone with a super power, or a nice coming of age story that looks at the fun, angst, and universal experiences of being a teenager.  Or give us a sweet rom-com.  Something... just not another shwo where someone gets shot, profiled, is poor, broke and hungry etc. etc.  Geez.

[Guest]

Nickelodeon is removing Made By Maddie from their schedule. It’s interesting that the Chicago-Sun Times says the production company gave them evidence that Made by Maddie was in development before Hair Love was on Kickstarter. Too bad they didn’t (or couldn’t) publish it because that would answer a lot of questions. 

Edited September 5, 2020 by Guest

[DearEvette]

1 hour ago, Dani said:

Nickelodeon is removing Made By Maddie from their schedule. It’s interesting that the Chicago-Sun Times says the production company gave them evidence that Made by Maddie was in development before Hair Love was on Kickstarter. Too bad they didn’t (or couldn’t) publish it because that would answer a lot of questions. 

I do wonder about that.  I mean why remove it if it pre-date the Matthew Cherry short?  But then that begs the question, while it may have been in development prior to Hair Love, that does not preclude the fact that what finally made it to the screen may have been overtly influenced by the higher profile show.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, DearEvette said:

I do wonder about that.  I mean why remove it if it pre-date the Matthew Cherry short?  But then that begs the question, while it may have been in development prior to Hair Love, that does not preclude the fact that what finally made it to the screen may have been overtly influenced by the higher profile show.

My guess is that they are facing legal issues. I’d be very curious to see if the old sketches resemble the final project. 

It does baffle me that no one a Nickelodeon noticed the similarities and made changes. They are so similar right down to the headband color and cat that seems strange anyone would so blatantly copy a Oscar winning short. The whole thing is just odd.  

[biakbiak]

54 minutes ago, Dani said:

They are so similar right down to the headband color and cat that seems strange anyone would so blatantly copy a Oscar winning short. The whole thing is just odd.  

Though the father in Hair Love was hotter! Yes, I am aware he is a cartoon character.

[Trini]

22 hours ago, Dani said:

My guess is that they are facing legal issues. I’d be very curious to see if the old sketches resemble the final project. 

That, but I'm also thinking it's possible that they may go back and change the designs so that it's not so similar to Hair Love. That would be kinda expensive, though.

[phoenics]

On 9/5/2020 at 10:09 PM, Trini said:

That, but I'm also thinking it's possible that they may go back and change the designs so that it's not so similar to Hair Love. That would be kinda expensive, though.

It would be the right thing to do - the similarities are SO glaring it's impossible for me to believe the designs weren't copied in some way, even if it was subconsciously.  I mean - they even have the SAME cat.

Something is up - and I'm guessing Matthew Cherry sued.  He was pretty unhappy about it on twitter.

Also in other news - another British Actor puts his foot in his mouth after accepting both an Obama and a Malcolm X role and Wendell Pierce of all people called him out for it.

I read the whole article - Kingsley's comments were disappointing.  I'm glad Wendell called him out.  This tweet right here was absolute FIRE:

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by phoenics

[xaxat]

I am not opposed to individuals from the African diaspora playing characters from a country they are not from. But when you are from Great Britain, being cast as iconic African American historical figures and question  an AA's knowledge of the diaspora

Quote

 "Look, no disrespect to Americans, but America is the center of its own universe--culturally. It's understandable that Samuel L. Jackson doesn't have a clue what it's like growing up as a man in inner-city London; he probably thinks we're all sitting around drinking tea with the Queen, and it's not the truth."

Then fuck you. Go play roles in your own country. I hope both of your movies bomb at the box office. And at this point, even though it would be awful casting, I would rather see Sam Jackson as Obama than you.

Edited September 7, 2020 by xaxat

[Neurochick]

9 hours ago, xaxat said:

I am not opposed to individuals from the African diaspora playing characters from a country they are not from. But when you are from Great Britain, being cast as iconic African American historical figures and question  an AA's knowledge of the diaspora

The only reason Black British actors are often cast is because they're cheaper.  

[AgentRXS]

And then he goes on to insult James Baldwin's experience also. Both of those men deserve better than this guy playing them. I am huge a Malcolm X fan and will usually watch anything involving him, but yeah. Count me out on this.

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, Neurochick said:

The only reason Black British actors are often cast is because they're cheaper.  

But wouldn't a relatively newcomer black ADOS actor be pretty cheap as well?  Unless they are going non-union and paying the actor way under SAG-AFTRA rates, they can't be much cheaper than a newly minted actor or someone who is C-list.

It may be partly true, but I am inclined to agree with Wendell Pierce that the perception is that British actors are better trained.  And this isn't just limited to black casting, but it looms much larger since black casting is such a skinny sliver of the overall casting pie.  I am convinced the only reason Downton Abbey was so overpraised was because it was a British period piece. Because the storytelling and writing were pure soap opera and Michelle Dockery (who puzzlingly got nominated for an Emmy every freaking year) was a freaking block of wood.

[Enigma X]

11 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

But wouldn't a relatively newcomer black ADOS actor be pretty cheap as well?  Unless they are going non-union and paying the actor way under SAG-AFTRA rates, they can't be much cheaper than a newly minted actor or someone who is C-list.

It may be partly true, but I am inclined to agree with Wendell Pierce that the perception is that British actors are better trained.  And this isn't just limited to black casting, but it looms much larger since black casting is such a skinny sliver of the overall casting pie.  I am convinced the only reason Downton Abbey was so overpraised was because it was a British period piece. Because the storytelling and writing were pure soap opera and Michelle Dockery (who puzzlingly got nominated for an Emmy every freaking year) was a freaking block of wood.

I love me some (certain) British TV, but I have said about 2 to 3 years ago in the the TV UO forum that many people think that just because a TV show is from Britain it is automatically better than every American show ever made. They seem to forget that Britain gave us the original Big Brother (for example) and lots of other not-so-great TV. 

I think both places produce great actors, TV, and films and equally think they both produce mediocre to shit actors, TV, and films. Some people won't admit the latter.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Enigma X