Defaulting To Whiteness: Sci-fi Futures, ‘Girls,’ & The Trouble With Colorblind Thinking

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Media are reflections of the culture and society they represent and emerge from.  When one is alienated from certain media it likely stems from a lack of relatability on the part of the consumer in relation to the reflection in question.  In other words, the consumer doesn’t see themselves reflected in the product.  This is why, stereotypically, men don’t like daytime soap operas and romantic comedies, women don’t like sports and wrestling, and black people don’t like Seinfeld and the Winter Olympics (this black person actually loves Seinfeld as much as he hates the Winter Olympics, but we’re talking about stereotypes).  Continue reading

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 4, Episode 3: “Breaker of Chains” Reaction

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Let’s just get right into it. I always try not to read other pieces on Game of Thrones before finishing my own, but I couldn’t hide from the amount of stuff written about Jaime’s rape of Cersei. Before I begin in earnest, let me be very clear up front that I am not defending rape, the depiction of rape or the use of it as a narrative tool by media-arts producers. As for the latter, I reserve the right, as any viewer does, to question and deride whatsoever I please within any piece of work. I will not do so, however, for the sake of propriety, personal preference, or moral outrage. The works I find to be morally outrageous are those which are wantonly intellectually dishonest or somehow produced in bad faith; I do not find Game of Thrones the television series in particular or A Song of Ice In Fire in general to be such works. Continue reading

‘Sherlock,’ ‘Luther,’ ‘True Detective’ & The Golden Age of Television Crime Drama

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Surely we are in the midst of a Golden Age of the episodic crime drama. Between Sherlock, True Detective, Luther, Broadchurch, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Top of the Lake, and a plethora of enormously successful CBS procedurals that I admit I have never seen but people seem to enjoy (NCIS, Elementary, post-Petersen CSI). I have seen Criminal Minds several times (its a favorite of my parents) and have usually enjoyed it, but for a variety of reasons, traditional procedurals favored by the likes of CBS in particular and networks in general don’t really fit into my main argument, which I’ll present herein.  Continue reading

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 4, Episode 1: “Two Swords” Reaction

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As I sat alone in my apartment slowly applauding computer generated images of dragons I realized without embarrassment that I really am part of a specific class of people. The class I’m referring to is that class who believe that this particularly inspired combination of the mythical, carnal, gory, and political is the richest narrative universe in all of genre fiction. George R.R. Martin is the talent of a lifetime.  Continue reading