Review Topic 6 – Page 4 – English 1102: Television and Feminism

Category: Review Topic 6 (Page 4 of 5)

Kimmy Schmidt: Why it all Works

On November 12, 2018

Kimmy Schmidt is a fictional plot about one girl who was kidnapped by a reverend when she was only 13 years of age, kept in a underground bunker for 15 years convinced that there was no life above her and that everything she previously knew and loved had perished in an apocalypse. She then is found and rescued by the U.S. government at the age of 28 and must live without any source of viable income in the cutthroat city of New York, where she is constantly deceived by others who try to con her money or make her do sexual favors. All the while she must remain a strong witness and figure in convicting her cynical kidnapper. This is a very dark plot that could be the plot to a high intensity, multi season drama series, but this is the polar opposite of dark and dramatic.. I may not even be too bold to claim that Kimmy Schmidt: Unbreakable may be the funniest thing I have ever watched. But how does a show with such a dark premise create such a comedic tone… well I’ll tell you.

The most prominent aspect of the comedy within the show is the delivery of lines. This show has many different comedic aspects within it but the one portion that really makes the audience hurl over from laughter is the deadpan delivery of nonsensical dialogue. For those unaware, deadpan is a mechanism of comedy in which one person says or does something funny during a scene and no character on screen laughs or reacts at all to the action, acting like it is completely normal. This contributes because this series thrives off of nonsense even in the most intense moments of the show, and when witty, nonsense is spewed back and forth between characters of the show in very intense moments, you just can’t help but laugh as an audience member.

Quote from Kimmy Schmidt

Another aspect that contributes to the comedic tone of the show is the pop culture references and the very modern material that is portrayed. Kimmy was born in the mid 1980s as previously stated, so naturally there are many 90s pop culture references as well as the current day references that often times are completely nonsensical because Kimmy was only a child during the 90s and still technically has the cultural awareness of a child as she has just been released from a barren bunker separated from the outside world. This allows for Kimmy (and less often her supporting characters) to make inappropriate, and often nonsensical but comical, comments that are also hilariously delivered through deadpan dialogue about pop culture.

Though there are many factors that contribute to the comedy within the very intense plot line of the series meshing well, I firmly believe that the deadpan delivery of dialogue and the frequent culture references are key to the comedy that has allowed Kimmy Schmidt.

Peace out Blog Posts.

We Can All Relate to The Bold Type

By Evelyn Pike

On November 12, 2018

In Review Topic 6

It is hard to believe that a show centered around the lives of three women would be so popular, but as The Bold Type gets ready to air its third season, we can all see that people must really love it! I started watching the show when it first came on television, much earlier than the start of these blog posts. I loved the show before, and I love it now! Just like every other viewer, I was drawn in by the drama and stayed for the storyline. I felt as though I could relate to each of the characters, even when the problems were issues that I had never faced personally, the show made it where I could sympathize, and with a fictional character nonetheless. I think that is the mastery behind the intrigue of The Bold Type. The writers tell a story and present an issue that maybe not every person has faced, but that is portrayed in a scope that allows the audience to draw similarities.

For instance, in the first season, Sutton is faced with a difficult decision of having to choose between her love life and her work and in the end, she chooses her work. The work environment she is in judges her capabilities on who she is dating rather than her actual talent. She should not have to pick between the two, but she has to in order to keep the respect of the people around her.

There are probably not that many people who watch the show that have a story exactly like Sutton’s, but there are a lot of women who are constantly fighting to gain the respect of others simply because they are female. It is a sad truth that though society has come far, there is still judgment and that may never go away completely. Yet, shows like The Bold Type allows women to relate and to know they are not the only ones and people come back to that kind of show. We are all different, but we all deserve the knowledge that life is challenging for all of us and though those challenges are not the same we can still find support, whether in friends, family, or in tv shows like The Bold Type.

Sutton from The Bold Type

It really is all about Jess

By Kathleen Stelzel

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

For my last blog post I have chosen to write about season 5, episode 3. In this episode Jess has just left for a jury duty position. This episode is interestingly structured because it shows how everyone relys so heavily on Jess. Jess, although may seem extra and annoying to everyone at times seems to be the one thing that was able to keep the loft together.

It starts with the tension rising between Nick and Cece. Since Jess was not able to be at the loft she tried to delay either of them confronting each other, as she had a plan to solve it once she got back. Of course, this only lasted so long as Nick eventually broke and expressed his anger towards Cece. Because Schmidt was so in love with Cece he couldn’t see all the issues she was causing and therefore just continued to make the situation worse between Cece and Nick. In addition to this, Winston, while attempting to hang a poster that nobody wanted up, accidentally smashed a hammer though the wall. He of course only felt comfortable telling Jess that he messed up, and because Jess wasn’t there he instead decided to hide it and try to solve the problem himself. And because of this by the end of the episode the wall fell completely off.

Finally, by the end of the episode Jess came back, to inform everyone that she wouldn’t be able to return for another month. The loft of course was in pieces, both literally and emotionally. Although everything seemed to be a mess, at same time everyone was still trying to come together to solve their problems without Jess. But the only way that they were able to come to all these solutions were by the short phones calls they all made to Jess during the day. So, hearing that Jess wasn’t going to be back for a month and that she wasn’t going to be able to contact anyone freaked them out. In the next few episodes we see how hard it is for everyone to adjust to this change, but eventually they start to find way to survive on their own.

Some of Jess’s advice that she wasn’t able to give here.

Careers in Jessica Jones

By Matthew Ramberger

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

This is my final blog post for this class. At first, I didn’t know what to write about, but then I remembered the topic of my info graphic project, the portrayal of career women on television. So today I will be doing just that, analyzing the careers of women on Jessica Jones and comparing them to men.

The main character, Jessica, is a private investigator as her main job. She investigates and finds information that her clients want, and she is pretty good at it. Trish Walker, Jessica’s best friend, is a famous celebrity who was on many TV shows as a child and now has a talk show. Hogarth is a very good lawyer and owns an establishment that wins almost every case. Hogarth’s ex works in the medical field as a doctor. Already, Jessica Jones looks to be doing great things for feminism and television. Not only do they have female leads, but they help further the movement by taking women out of their original representation and moving them more equal to men.

The men on Jessica Jones have very standard jobs. We have Malcolm, an ex druggy who lives in a rundown apartment next to Jessica. There is Luke Cage, who owns a small bar in the city. Kilgrave is the main villain who can control people with his voice. Will Simpson is a cop with a military background. The men on this show have typical jobs with nothing too out of the ordinary.

Jessica Jones Cast

Looking at the careers of both men and women on Jessica Jones, women seem to have better and higher paying careers than men. Typically on TV shows, women rarely have high paying jobs or work in important fields, but Jessica Jones is littered with them. This helps show how much Jessica Jones is doing for feminism. They are furthering women on television and making them more accurate with real life. This is very important. In the past, a women was lucky to even have a job on television, much less be working in a STEM field. Jessica Jones shows how far TV has come, and how much more there is to come for television.

Can Grey’s Anatomy change a doctor’s moral code?

By Caroline Turner

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

In season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy, one of the main plot lines is Izzie’s affair with a patient, Danny, awaiting a heart transplant. Danny, however, is near the bottom of the transplant list. This, compounded with the fact that a heart viable for transplant is not easily come by, means that Danny will, or will not for a long time, receive a heart.

Izzie and Danny together before he dies of a stroke.

Izzie decides to take matters into her own hands and cuts a cord in his heart, pushing him to the top of the list. This (incredibly illegal) plan does work, and he does get a new heart, but Danny has a stroke soon after and dies.Izzie is inevitably found out and then suspended for a short time.

The main issue arises from the punishment, or lack of punishment, that Izzie receives. In a real-world situation, Izzie would have been fired and probably not allowed into an OR again, or at least not for many years.

I completely understand that the point of Grey’s Anatomy is not to be extremely accurate or to be a medical ethics handbook. Despite the show being a drama and not meant to be taken seriously, this does not belay the point that TV has a great influence on the ideology and knowledge base of its viewers. Could medical drama shows actually affect the actions of real medical students and personnel?

In fact, there has been research done on whether or not medical dramas can affect how medical students/professionals treat their careers. According to an Australian study, viewers of shows such as Grey’s Anatomy have a perception of separation between doctors and their work. While this does not conclusively prove that medical dramas would cause a medical professional to treat their job with less care or to ignore the codes of conduct, it does provide context and a solid reason to look further into the effects.

In my opinion, someone who is smart enough and determined enough to pursue a career in healthcare shouldn’t be influenced by a show with a fake hospital and fake drama and fake doctors. Maybe a child or a very impressionable individual would change their views on ethical questions by watching a TV show, but Grey’s Anatomy, in particular, is geared towards adults who should already be set in their view. Hopefully no one watched season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy, and then decided to cut the heart strings of their fiancé…

Weaver, R., Wilson, I., & Langendyk, V. (2014). Medical professionalism on television: Student perceptions and pedagogical implications. Health, 18(6), 597-612. doi:10.1177/1363459314524804

Murphy Brown, Off Screen

By Maya Krajeck

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Last night I was procrastinating and catching up on the recent episodes of Saturday Night Live (indubitably not as good as the old seasons, sorry Pete Davidson). The episode with Jonah Hill came on and his monologue was his induction into the five timers club. Among the the notable figures in the club was the one and only Candice Bergen. Watching this 1980s boundary pushing feminist queen on my TV outside of her Murphy Brown role inspired me to base this blog post on the impact and outside life of Candice Bergen and her show Murphy Brown.

As we read in Stealing The Show, Murphy Brown was on TV in an era where people still tuned in to watch episodes as they were premiered because the era of streaming and Netflix had yet to begin. An iconic moment occurred after Candice Bergen’s single character gave birth and became a single mother (an episode which 70 million people watched) and Vice President Dan Quayle cited her as a poor role model who was “mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.” Murphy Brown impacted American society, and during a time where “family values” were trying to fight the success LGBT and abortion rights groups had won in the previous years. (Now that these rights have come under fire again with the current U.S leaders Mike Pence and Trump, Candice Bergen has returned to her role).

The political climate in the 1980s to modern day continue to be shockingly similar. According to Time’s magazine, A day after the Murphy Brown reboot was announced Republican Senate candidate Courtland Sykes proclaimed that “I don’t want [my daughters] to grow up into career-obsessed banshees who forego home life and children and the happiness of family to become nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she-devils.” Before, a comment life this would clearly be about Murphy Brown, however modern day TV has bless us with a plethora of stereotype defying women that this statement can refer to anyone.

Murphy Brown received 8 Emmy nominations and won 5. The shows 11 seasons were so impactful that Candice Bergen was even offered a job as a journalist on 60 minutes. The show had such an impact when it was originally on, it will be interesting to see what the new seasons bring.

Murphy Brown reboot

Fresh off the Boat!!!

By Jay Patel

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Since this is the final blog post of this class, I am going to discuss the greatness of the show Fresh off the Boat as my free choice! Fresh of the Boat is a great show that would be relatable to many viewers, especially ones that are first generation Americans. Even those who are not first generation Americans will find this show hilarious. This show provides a very unique story with a very unique family. This show is actually the first show to star an Asian family in many decades. This is related to our topic of feminism and television because it took too long for American television to start having main roles as women. In addition, this show was written by a woman. It is amazing to see the content she has produced in such a new category while taking the risk of staring an Asian family as it had not been done in so many years. This show has been a great success and a monumental milestone for television. Something I personally enjoy about this show is that it gives a nice break from other shows that rely on suspense and drama. This show does not have any cliff hangers and is very enjoyable to watch just to relax and have a good time. There is not a need to be super focused and drawn in to enjoy the show. In addition, it is a good show to watch as the episodes are only 20 minutes and because there are not any cliff hangers, you do not have to worry about wasting too much time binge watching the show. This show does a great job in incorporating the aspects of a tv show that makes it complete: writing, cinematography and direction, theme, and gender.

When you promise your friends something but don’t have the means of completing the promise

Eddie Huang’s take on his memoir turned sit-com ‘Fresh Off the Boat’

By N

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Fresh Off the Boat is the first Asian American sit-com, to air on American prime-time television, in 20 years; it is based off of Eddie Huang’s memoir “Fresh Off the Boat.” Despite this Eddie Huang is quite the critic of the show saying, “I’m happy people of color are able to see a reflection of themselves through #FreshOffTheBoat on @ABCNetwork but I don’t recognize it.” and “I had to say something because I stood by the pilot. After that it got so far from the truth that I don’t recognize my own life.” Eddie has criticized the show for taking the easy route and twisting his story into something unrecognizable. “This show isn’t about me, nor is it about Asian America. The network won’t take that gamble right now.” Fresh Off the Boat was meant to be a truly Asian-American story based on Eddie’s story; instead the route the producers decided to take completely diverge from that of Eddie’s story. Many Asian-American are still able to connect to the sit-com, but not in the way that Eddie had hope they would.

Over time Eddie has come to accept the sit-com as a gateway to more shows starring Asian-Americans. “”I don’t watch it, but I’m proud of what it does.” While Fresh Off the Boat diverge from his memoir, Eddie still understands the importance of having a TV show with Asian-Americans as its main cast. He has many acknowledgements to the fact that now with Fresh Off the Boat success that it has proven that diverse stories about Asian-Americans can be successful which could lead to better shows for the Asian minority in the future. “But for all the bullshit I heard at studios about universal stories and the cultural pus it perpetuates, I felt some truth in it.… It takes a lot of chutzpah to launch a network comedy with a pilot addressing the word “chink”, yet it works because it’s the safest bet the studio could have made.”

While over time Eddie Huang has seen the benefit of having an Asian-American show on prime-time, it is still hard to see something he’s written turned into something that he is unable to recognize.

Eddie Huang Critics Fresh Off the Boat for diverging from the source.

Eddie Huang in real life is a clothing designer, restaurateur, TV host and author.

How Jess matches up to other Female Leads

By Navya Katragadda

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 6

While watching New Girl, I have thought heavily about other shows that have prevalent female leads. These shows include The Mindy Project, How to Get Away with Murder, Gossip Girl etc. This made me delve deeper into how different Jess is from the usual female lead. Usual female leads are characterized as very dominant and powerful characters in relation to the other characters in the show. But in this show, Jess is a female character who has a lot of personalities but is not an overwhelming and overly powerful character in comparison to the heavy male presence that this show has.

Jess being weird per usual

For example, when comparing Jess to a character like Annalease Keating, even though these two shoes are from different genres, Jess is much more light. But also, there is evidence that the type of character that the New Girl writers created for Jess is not as original as it seems. This is in reference to characters such as Mindy from the Mindy project. Mindy is characterized as someone who is quirky and weird in the best way. Her humor is the best part of her. Jess is somewhat the same way as the people grow to love her and appreciate her for who she is. Besides this, Jess is a unique character. She is very comfortable being weird and awkward, which is something that is usually looked down on for women. New Girl tries to fight against the stereotypes of women where Jess is completely different from Cece, who is the typical pretty girl we would see in television. As the characters grow to love Jess, especially paying attention to the men in the show, we can see that Jess is beautiful in her own way and in her own personality along with her quirks. This is what I love most about watching this show.

Giving Up is Silent Rebellion

By Emily Sheng

On November 10, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Hypocrisy and Sacrifice in The Handmaid’s Tale

We all justify the worst of actions, the worst of lies, to ourselves to convince ourselves that it’s okay. What “it’s” is differs, and in The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s everything- from the horrendous government to the definition of love. Contradictions create instability and it creates little holes that tear the structure of Gilead down.

Gilead is so full of contradictions but its establishment was scarily simple. The Commanders claim that God wanted it this way, that they were following the word of Him. When Aunt Lydia says to June, “Blessed are the meek,” June remembers the ending of the scripture, “… and blessed are those who suffer for the cause of righteousness.” June’s words convey the manipulation of scripture by the government and earns her a cattle prod to the face. The people who run Gilead twist and select pieces of the Bible that will help them justify their actions and maintain their power.

In addition to systematic hypocrisy, no individual character is perfect either. The characters in the show go against their own values to defend the values of the republic. Commander Waterford, a high-ranking leader of Gilead, continues to manipulate June through little favors and emotionally tears his wife down slowly.

Although Fred practices acts of hypocrisy for his own enjoyment, he still fully believes in Gilead. However, two of the most dynamic characters in The Handmaid’s Tale are two women who slowly realize the messed-up nature of the society they live in. Serena and Eden come from a place of full faith but as time passes, they both change as they know the system is broken but are too afraid to act on it. Until they do.

Eden, a young girl, fell in love with the idea of love and tried to chase it, despite her devotion to the republic. She, and the man she ran off with, are drowned. She sacrifices her own life as a punishment for disobeying Gilead, but she did not stray from her love of God nor her true love. The death of a devout young girl sparks realization in many of the Wives as they understand the unforgiving and religiously backward nature of Gilead.

Serena can’t seem to make up her mind. Sometimes, she helps June but sometimes she’s June’s worst nightmare. However, she makes a final sacrifice to protect “her” child. After trying to civilly propose an amendment to the council, she loses a finger for reading and realizes she can’t put her baby through this world, and thus, gives her baby to June to escape with. She redeems herself, but her future seems bleaker than ever.

Even after so much struggle, the people of Gilead still live in a shadow of hypocrisy and everyone, even the strongest, break.

Latin: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” A motif through the whole show, June scribbles it a final time before her escape.

The Boat Stops Here – Handling Racism in “Fresh off the Boat”

By Arvin Poddar

On November 10, 2018

In Review Topic 6

“Fresh off the Boat” is one of the only running shows on TV to feature an Asian family as its lead cast of characters. However, the plights of the children shown (first generation immigrants) are not entirely unique to those of Asian descent. I quickly realized how many plot points were shared between episodes of “Fresh off the Boat” and “One Day at a Time,” a show about the life of a working-class Cuban family. There were two storylines that I particularly noticed: when Eddie and Alex both wanted to buy new shoes for school but were denied the chance by their mother, and more importantly when both Eddie and Alex beat up kids who called them racial slurs. The fact that two shows decided to address this problem shows that it is a serious issue that needs addressing, especially at a time where hate crimes are on the rise. So for my free entry blog, I wanted to take a look at how “Fresh off the Boat” handles the issue of responding to racism addresses.

In the aforementioned episode (in fact, the very first episode of the show), Eddie punches a classmate who called him a slur. To Eddie’s surprise, we see his family defend him against his punishment from the school. In contrast, Alex is chastised by his mother for fighting his classmate, emphasizing the idea of “by fighting back, they win.” So, which show was right? Defend yourself, or come back with words? Unfortunately, this debate isn’t entirely wrapped up in “Fresh off the Boat.” Writers generally stayed away from the addressing of direct racism in future episodes, except for some minor cases where characters would assume something about the Huangs based on stereotypes.

Eddie’s parents defending him against his principle.

However, another commonality between these two episodes was a direct response to the overall racism: both kids wanted to suppress their culture as a result. Alex wanted his family to stop singing their support for him in Spanish; Eddie wanted to only eat American food at lunch. Luckily, both episodes end on triumphant notes, with both characters choosing not to hide their roots, but to embrace them. This is important: the shows do not force the viewer to hear that you should respond to racism with love. However, they make two important points on handling racism: first, the self-suppression of culture is never an appropriate response to racist comments. Second, it is always important to stand up against the racist (even though throwing punches is not necessarily the best means of doing so). I found this very first episode of Fresh off the Boat to be very moving, which is why I decided to return to it for my last blog entry. The shows both tackle racism in different ways, but they do have one thing in common: they show that no matter what, racism cannot be allowed to win.

What Now? Thinking About the End of WestWorld

By Michael Zimmerman Lemus

On November 10, 2018

In Review Topic 6

*Spoilers Ahead*

Now that I have completed season 1 of WestWorld, it is appropriate to take a step back and reflect on the meaning of it all. I feel as though I have been alluding to this throughout these blog posts, but it’s time to finally address the elephant in the room: AI. This clear theme is clearly the main topic they want their audience to grapple in, and it’s time for me to finally do so now.

I feel as though the show attempts to discuss three conflicts with AI: Their rights, their place in this world, and their humanity. It leads us to ask ourselves, seeing how technology is completely reshaping humanity, whether or not this is the path we want to continue taking. Soon, we will grapple even more with these questions, and WestWorld shows us what happens as we reach that point in human conflict.

Most of the robots and artificial intelligence in WW are clueless; they go about their “lives” being completely programmable and controllable by the humans, feeling absolutely nothing. However, a few droid characters have become increasingly self aware: Dolores, Maeve, and Bernard. These characters at first, confused by their onset of “feelings”, still passively respond to human control. However (especially in the case of Maeve), as they come to the realization that the humans are not actually “Gods”, they begin to question their roles and revolt against human control. They feel as though they have been entrapped by the lives they live, constantly being raped, abused, and manipulated by human control. But do they really “feel” these agonies the same way humans do?

Another question arises here: If these droids are capable of “feeling” these agonies, is it torture to leave them in their roles at WestWorld? While the purpose of their existence is already morally questionable, are they capable of knowing what it feels like to lose someone like a human does? Do they know what it feels like to be distressed, anxious, or saddened beyond how their code tells them how to “feel”? It’s also important to know that a lot of the reason why these droids specifically begin to become aware is because the humans put them in this position. Bernard was programmed to be intellectually superior to the other droids, and to be more humanlike (as only Dr. Ford knows he isn’t human). Maeve was made more intelligent by the butchers. So does this really give them the “rights” to these feelings?

By the end Dr. Ford pushes these considerations into the regular people. As he begins the droid revolution by inserting new lines of code into the robots so they can act more “humanlike”, the robots are now free to kill the humans. What Dr. Ford personally believes, we don’t know. He could’ve been doing it for park thrills, or to start a real revolution. Regardless, humanity will now have to decide the place of these robots, and soon, so will we in the real world.

Dr. Ford’s final salute, as if wishing the humans good luck in the new world he has created.

The Most Imperfect Romantic Comedy

By Katherine Roberts

On November 7, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Something that really resonated with me within our discussion of Jane the Virgin was the idea of the romantic comedy and how it defines the show, creates and alienates an audience, and sets the entire tone of the show. This applies strongly to The Mindy Project where the entire show is centered around Mindy’s search for love and (in her eyes) the perfect life. In the season two finale, “Mindy and Danny”, she finally gets her true love in, as the title suggests, the form of Danny. In true comedic fashion their journey towards each other was hilarious, complete with montages of Mindy crawling up stairs and Danny getting hit by a taxi. And in true romantic fashion, Mindy gets her happily ever after, on top of the Empire State building à la every classic New York romantic movie, even if she is too exhausted from climbing the stairs to stand. She has the perfect partner, great friends, and a wonderful job. Mindy has it all.

Mindy and Danny having their romantic moment on top of the Empire State Building.

This is the cornerstone of the rom-com genre: through trials and tribulations on a journey of self-discovery, it generally (but, as we learned in Jane the Virgin, not always) ends with the women “having it all”. This idealistic idea includes the women being a perfect mother, wife, worker, friend, daughter, and a host of other roles. And while it’s the goal for some, it rarely works without a hitch in real life. This is where The Mindy Project comes in: it’s the imperfect rom-com. Mindy’s an unlikely hero, and even during her perfect ending Danny quips about her becoming a stay-at-home mother, even through her job and her professional ambitions are vital to her sense of self. The show does something unlikely in demonstrating that the heavily anticipated relationship is not perfect, or anywhere relatively close to it. For most stereotypical rom-com heroines, once they find their partner, they abandon their job to focus on working in the home. And it is a completely respectable choice; however, it is not the choice for Mindy.

That what I love about the show: for better or for worse, it demonstrates an unapologetic amount of honesty and candor. As a subset of the rom-com genre, it’s more representative, shows more relationship failures, and genuinely doesn’t shy away from the issues surrounding the modern romance. Mindy is not your classic heroine, in more ways than one, and she doesn’t try to become something that she isn’t. This show flipped the entire genre and its subsequent expectations on their head and completely revamped them. Real life is not like the romance movies and getting more shows with more accurate representations and expectations is vital. The Mindy Project does just that.

Diversity on Screen

By Elizabeth Glass

On November 6, 2018

In Review Topic 6

When I was trying to figure out what to write about for this blog post, I honestly was stumped. I have a hard time looking past the surface entertainment of a television show and seeing the deeper topics and ideas that these expose audiences to. So it got me thinking about what makes Supergirl so important? Is it because it’s a part of the comic book world and has a huge fan base. Is it the feminist plot lines, and how it shows the strength and talent that can be found in many types of women? Maybe, but the main thing that stuck out to me was what the show is doing for the LGBTQ community.

Alex Danvers played by Chyler Leigh

In the middle of season two, Alex Danvers came out as lesbian which was a huge deal for many fans of the show. Normally, audiences don’t see these kinds of stories in comic book and superhero television because of the traditional target audience of these types of shows, but this show has really been helping to bring both gender and sexual diversity to mainstream television. Because of it, Supergirl has had a very positive impact, and Alex’s story of acceptance and growth has resonated with so many viewers. Actress Chyler Leigh who portrays Alex has even shared some of the many responses that she has had because of this. “Fans in their thirties and forties have told her that watching her helped them ‘put the pieces of the puzzle together,’ to the extent that Alex’s dialogue has given them a model of what to say and expect in their own coming out.” What’s even more amazing is that Leigh is using her platform to not only bring diversity to the television screen, but also to help build a community and support system around the fans of this character.

In addition to this, it was announced earlier this year that Supergirl would introduce its first ever transgender character to the show in the upcoming fourth season. This comes at a time when transgender actors and actresses are not really receiving as much recognition as they deserve, and they are having to fight to get acting jobs. Because of shows like Supergirl, we have started to see much more gender and sexual diversity on screen. It will only continue to get better as they keep on creating that space and supporting the actors and actresses as they work towards creating a more diverse and accepting television landscape.

Works Cited

https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a43186/supergirl-sanvers-lgbtq-fandom/

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/22/supergirl-is-about-to-introduce-its-first-ever-transgender-character/

Looking at the Soundtrack that gives Jessica Jones its Life

By Philippe Lamarche

On November 6, 2018

In Review Topic 6

I’m now at episode 12 of season 1 of Jessica Jones, but I’ve wanted to talk about the show’s sound design since the early episodes. Sound has always been important to me as a viewer of both television and movies. In fact, one thing my favorite movies have in common with each other is that I loved their soundtracks (Interstellar (2014), Arrival (2016), and Dunkirk (2017)). However, that’s neither here nor there. All that’s to say is that as I started watching Jessica Jones and paid close attention to the details, I found that the soundtrack was very unique. Like many TV shows, the music is used sparingly, mostly to add tension and emotion. Even then, I thought the way it was used complemented the writing very well. In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned how Jessica Jones frequently chooses to use silence over monologuing and conversation to develop the characters and the plot. In these moments of silence, the music is what drives our understanding of the situation. Without music, it would be very difficult to gauge the feelings of Jessica in one of her many pensive scenes. Most often, we hear a slow, soft, jazzy melody that is reminiscent of the sound of bustling New York. To me, this melody symbolizes her loneliness as the world around her is seemingly so full of energy. This melody is recurrent throughout the show, typically present as Jessica people-watches or drinks in her apartment.

While I think the jazzy melody is the most important item from the soundtrack as a whole, the next most important is Kilgrave’s theme. This track plays whenever something mysterious is afoot, usually signaling the work of the main antagonist. It’s great at building tension and foreshadowing, which contrasts the jazzy melody mentioned earlier. The two combined result in an interchange between pensive and suspenseful moods that mirror Jessica’s internal and external conflicts. The complexity of Jessica and her struggles is one of the things that keep me coming back for more, and the music’s role in developing her complexity is undeniable.

The youtube video above is a great example of the soft music that is so good at setting the mood. Listen for yourself!

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Category: Review Topic 6 (Page 4 of 5)

Kimmy Schmidt: Why it all Works

We Can All Relate to The Bold Type

It really is all about Jess

Careers in Jessica Jones

Can Grey’s Anatomy change a doctor’s moral code?

Murphy Brown, Off Screen

Fresh off the Boat!!!

Eddie Huang’s take on his memoir turned sit-com ‘Fresh Off the Boat’

How Jess matches up to other Female Leads

Giving Up is Silent Rebellion

The Boat Stops Here – Handling Racism in “Fresh off the Boat”

What Now? Thinking About the End of WestWorld

The Most Imperfect Romantic Comedy

Diversity on Screen

Looking at the Soundtrack that gives Jessica Jones its Life

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