The Daily Show Crosses An Intersection

image via http://www.hawtaction.com...unfortunately I couldn't find one with the whole cast!

(Sorry about the title.)

This essay started out as a way to explain why The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was breaking my heart. However, thanks to recent events, it…evolved.

It happened one day when I was shifting through the archives on The Daily Show website and their page on Wikipedia; on a whim, I began trying to find the Daily Show correspondents who were women of color.

Well guess what?

They’ve never had one!

The Horror of Whitewashing

image via http://www.artisticconnection.net...found by Googling "whitewashing"

This is somewhat of a sequel to the post before. I was already planning on writing about this, but I realized that last week’s post was the perfect segue for this one. Except while last week I stopped with the accusations of Orientalism within Prince of Persia, today I want to write about the casting of a white man as the Prince of Persia. What is their explanation for this? From the Los Angeles Times:

Asked point blank by the Times of London, “Isn’t Gyllenhaal a bit pale to play a Persian?” Bruckheimer delivered this history lecture. “Persians were very light skinned,” he said. “The Turks kind of changed everything. But back in the 6th century, a lot of them were blond and blue-eyed.”

What? Wait. Okay. Let me think about this.

What?

How I Learned to Stop Decrying the Problematic and Not Really Care About Prince of Persia Anymore

image via the New York Times

Prince of Persia opens today, and I was so much in conflict over it.

It’s called Prince of Persia and all the characters are played by white people! Except the comic relief and villian (based on Ebert’s review)! They’re using history like fantasy! What’s with the British accents! Why is everything so aggressively flesh-colored (all fleshes, but still)!

Not to mention my brain kept going off on Orientalism.

Then I told myself to shut up and think about this. First, this is a fantasy. Second, it’s based on a video game. Third, it’s a summer movie blockbuster made to make MONEY.

So to organize my thoughts, I mapped them out. And now I have, for you, the seven stages of “How I Learned to Stop Decrying the Problematic and Not Really Care About Prince of Persia Anymore.”:

Oh, Glee!

In tonight’s episode of Glee, Kurt and Finn end up sharing a room when Finn and his mom move into the Hummel home. Kurt has a serious crush on Finn, and Finn notices, and addresses it in a certain scene. The whole situation is bad–Kurt has a crush on Finn, Finn feels uncomfortable with the new situation and the fact that he has to share a room with someone who has a crush on him, Kurt denies this when Finn calls him out on it.

But then it goes from bad to horrible when Finn looks around the room and begins using “faggy” to describe the decor Kurt picked for their room. And that’s where Kurt’s father comes in (quote under cut):

Oh, Glee

image via http://www.zap2it.com

When I first saw the pilot of Glee (bought off iTunes for FREE), I was entranced. I loved the idea and I loved the weird tone and I loved the diversity of the characters and I just LOVED IT.

As usual whenever I watch shows, I watched certain names appear over and over again on the screen, and made note that Ryan Murphy had not only created this show, but had directed and written the pilot as well. That’s what made me realize I wanted to work in entertainment, specifically in television production. I realized that I had been invested in shows in an intense manner that no one around me did: I knew actors’ names, producers, their production companies, and a million other details and bits of information not everyone feels the need to know.

Sci-Fi-Di: Science Fiction Diversity

image via http://btousey.wordpress.com/

In my first post I wrote about the way that Castle exhibited a type of “post-racial” verse, where the time is the present but problems with race and gender had been alleviated to allow for a funner, more subtly optimistic show.

In this post I want to go a little into the concept of Diverse Universes: in which science fiction entertainment media has a diverse ensemble that presents their reality as one where science reigns to the point of crossing racial lines. This concept has been around for a long time. I admit I have only seen the first couple episodes of Star Trek (more on that in later posts, I promise), but the cast was extremely varied for that time, and it’s one of the reasons it is so well known and loved.

Entertainment Weekly

I don’t have much time this Sunday, but I briefly wanted to talk about my favorite website and magazine for media news, Entertainment Weekly.

I started reading EW when I was in middle school and basically barred from television and just did not watch that many movies (I still don’t, except on Netflix)–instead I devoured books. In eighth grade I actually won recognition for having taken out the highest amount of books from our school library in my graduating class (217)–which is especially nerdy since I had only been at that school for two years.

EW introduced me to new media and new ways of looking at new media. I read articles on the problematic depictions within reality shows, the writing of television shows, the production of movies, and the way that people watched and loved media. The articles they have currently range from NBC’s new schedule to reasons why Beyonce should play Wonder Woman.

Formerly a print media, EW has also adapted to changing technologies by adding blogs, twitter, and special coverage within the site. While I think that their recapping system needs a bit of work (in terms of the organization of television recaps; the recaps themselves are awesome), I love how much information can be found on the site and especially how fast it is. The recap of one of the most important episodes of Bones this season, “The Parts in the Sum of the Whole,” (5×16), was up that night.

The best part of EW is how much they care about media. And since this blog is called “Why TV Matters,” it’s no wonder that it serves as a main inspiration and influence.

Saturday Sweetness: Interviewing Friends

Just a quick post this Saturday! I wanted to post the video that made me finally realize I should really have a blog already. It’s an interview Jon Stewart did on the May 12th episode of The Daily Show with Michael Patrick King, the writer and director of Sex and the City 2. I love it when people interview their friends–it’s always a fun interview and we also learn about the interviewer as well as the interviewee. This interview was especially sweet because King tells the story about when he came out to Jon.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Michael Patrick King
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

(Please let the embedding work! If not, there should at least be a link for you!)

White Man’s Blunder

image via Wikipedia

So, I watched The Office last night with my brother as his arm was getting re-aligned (it’s a long story) and I realized something about Michael Scott. Well, first, I have lost a lot of the sympathy I had for him in past seasons. And second, he has privilege oozing out of his face.

I’ve watched the Office since season three, having seen the first two via the Internet and getting them as presents (TV on DVD is the best thing ever). It’s been on for six seasons, and it’s definitely changed a lot since then–but the one thing that hasn’t is that Michael Scott is still really clueless, totally awkward, and very offensive. It’s the last one that interests me the most, actually.

Meta-Optimism

image via http://www.impawards.com

I just recently started watching Castle. And by recently, I mean maybe three months ago. Castle is a New York City based crime procedural on ABC starring Stana Katic as Detective Beckett and Nathan Fillian as author Rick Castle. As the introduction to the show states, thanks to Castle’s friendship with the mayor, he follows and aids Beckett in her homicide investigations. (He even has a bulletproof vest with the word “writer” on it!)

It’s obvious that this show leans closer to the comedy side of drama. While it contains a fare amount of dramatic tension through the weekly murder mysteries and the mystery of Beckett’s mother’s murder, the real life of the show is in the character interactions and how they investigate crimes…and in its pop culture.