English 1102: Television and Feminism

Episode 6 from season 1 of Fresh Off The Boat is called “Fajita Man” and revolves around the theme of hard work. There are multiple different arguments this episode makes about hard work but the most prominent is that first generation children have to work twice as hard for the same reward, a video game. This is consistent with the theme of the the show in general, the challenges of immigrant families in America. When Eddie asks his parents for money for the new game, they do not just give it to him for free like the other children’s parents, and instead they make Eddie start working at the family restaurant in order to instill a good work ethic in him. This reminds me a lot about my children, similar to Eddies’ parents my parents also made me work at the family business. And just like Eddie I too despised having to work and envied the other kids that would get “free hand outs”, but eventually I too realized the true satisfaction of hard work.

Another argument the episode makes about hard work is regarding how it is instilled. Eddies’ farther grows to realize that he does not have to be harsh on Eddie like his father was on him. It is true that that approach did result in Eddie’s father a hard worker, but it wasn’t till he talked to his mother that he realized that approach significantly deteriated his relationship with his father. So in order to perserve his relation with Eddie, Eddie’s farther attempts to use a more amicable approach. The show argues that it is possible for parents to teach their children good skills without burning bridges. Overall, the episode is very consistent with the theme of the show in general, overcoming adversity as a family.

Eddie’s mom is also consistently exemplifying a strong work ethic by juggling her career and job as a mother

The Value of Hard Work in Fresh Off the Boat

By Jason Howard

On October 13, 2018

In Review Topic 4

In the show Fresh Off the Boat, Eddie’s parents had always expected him to work hard, and when Eddie starts yearning for some extra spending money, his parents expect no less of him than to work for his cash. Eddie gets put to work as “Fajita Man” in the Cattleman’s Ranch restaurant to capitalize on the Fajita craze of the 1990’s and soon learns that his father expects no less work from him than from any other employees at the restaurant.

Eddie working hard as Fajita Man to make some extra money at Cattleman’s Ranch.

After starting to work Eddie soon realizes that the role of Fajita Man is the worst job possible in the restaurant due to its repetitive and demeaning nature. Louis Huang continues to explain that it is his duty to make sure that Eddie works hard for his money because Louis remembers that his father made him work hard for his money to build a strong work ethic within himself.

Ultimately Eddie begins to get discouraged at work because he drops food and breaks plates and has a hard time focusing on the job at hand, which causes Eddie to stop showing up to work, much to the dismay of his father. His father lends Eddie some money so that he can buy the legendary video game, Shaq Fu, because he wants to have a better relationship with Eddie than he had with his father. Eddie returns to work because he realizes that he should work to earn the things he wants in life.

Eddie works to buy the video game “Shaq Fu” which has become known as one of the worst video games of all time.

The episode reinforces the theme that hard work is needed to earn what you need in life throughout the episode but also reminds the audience that occasionally gentleness is needed in relationships. While Eddie ultimately came to realize that hard work makes him feel more fulfilled, Louis realized that occasionally he needed to show affection to his son in order to help Eddie grow as a person and not just a worker.

“Freedom”

By Emily Sheng

On October 13, 2018

In the world of The Handmaid’s Tale, everything’s changed. We see the oppression, the lack of freedom, the seemingly hopeless world. However, the people running the new society have a different viewpoint. Aunt Lydia claims that beforehand, the girls had “freedom-to” and now they have “freedom-from” unpleasantness.

The theme of freedom is explored thoroughly in The Handmaid’s Tale. Aunt Lydia’s words are true to some extent, but the new Handmaids have neither freedom-to nor freedom-from. Most of the Commanders, Wives, and Aunts have kept a bit of their morals from “before,” but justify their actions by creating lies that seem positive to convince themselves that this is utilitarian.

Serena’s, the wife, character has been developed more in the recent episodes. Similar to Petra in Jane the Virgin, the viewer begins to understand the character’s motivations and reasons for acting the way they do. Before the cultural shift, Serena was a powerful woman- a powerful woman who supported the ambitions of her husband and his fellow officials- and had to watch as her own power was stripped away. Not only did she lose her power, she lost love and her freedom. Although the life of a Wife is not as despairing as that of a Handmaid, they are also prisoners: always forced to watch, but not allowed to participate. I’m not only talking about the Ceremony, but Serena, a woman used to playing a big role in her life, watches as the men and Handmaid decide the path of her own life. She smokes, even though she isn’t allowed to, to gain a sense of control back into her own life especially since she has to rely on another quite rebellious woman to give her fulfillment of her own biological destiny.

In S2 E6, Serena’s past journey is revealed a little bit more and her humanity is revealed with it.

The Handmaid’s with their red capes and white wings, are to be distrusted in the society. The officials convince themselves that they must punish the Handmaids because they are distrustful, but actually, the Handmaid’s are distrustful of the government because all their rights have been stripped away from them. June claims that Gilead is afraid of them escaping, both from Gilead and from life. The society needs them to continue the human race, but also do not respect them. For them, it’s easier to torture a few Handmaids to scare the others than to try to please all of them. Aunt Lydia’s comment that they have freedom-from violence and the unpleasantness of the world is frankly untrue. They outlawed rape, but renamed it to the Ceremony. They outlawed murder, but gave the government permission to do it.

We’ve all heard that saying about how it’s better to die fighting for freedom than to live as a prisoner. But the women in The Handmaid’s Tale live as prisoners, and getting a death sentence is just hard to achieve as freedom.

Reflections of an addict

By Cindy Wang

In Review Topic 6

At the end of every show binge, I like to look back and reflect on my consumer experience as a whole. When I started Wynonna Earp, I expected to be entertained with the supernatural wild west genre mixture and Canadian wilderness backdrop. After binging the entire show, its safe to say that the show is so much more. For starters, it is so refreshing to watch a show, and something as stereotypically masculine as demon hunting, that sets a perfect and realistic standard of gender representation on television. Never have I ever watched a show where not only was there one strong female protagonist, half the cast was made up of wonderful female characters, each with their own abilities and unique personalities.

Unlike many shows that involve cowboy hats or supernatural entities, the writers of Wynonna Earp also do a great job of keeping the storyline interesting. Although the main characters remain the same throughout the seasons, some characters do leave and other interesting ones are introduced in a way that fits with the storyline. For example, season one was focused more on introducing the town of Purgatory and explaining the backstory of Wynonna and her family and why they were cursed to eliminate demons. However, when the second season rolled around, the focus shifted to a centralized story about the awakening of a century old demon and how the town was changing as a result. Because the general genre often has problems engaging viewers, I am definitely impressed by how well Wynonna Earp kept my attention.

Finally, I really loved the combination of actors, storylines, and humor that the show provided. Each of the characters were well played and had important roles in influencing the storyline. Each storyline was engaging, but everything is always tied to a bigger picture issue. The show may have been about killing demons, but the writers sure knew how to add some dry humor and crack the audience up.

Wynonna before making a tough decision

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience watching Wynonna Earp, and I could not be more excited for the next season to be up on Netflix!

Nothing to See Here – Cinematography in Fresh off the Boat

By Arvin Poddar

After watching many episodes of “Fresh off the Boat,” it’s still hard to decide if there any elements of its cinematography that distinguish it from its counterparts. For the most part, the show follows similar shoot patterns as other ABC comedy shows (except for “Modern Family,” which mostly uses shaky shots to simulate a reality show). Conversations are shot with quick cuts between the talking characters, and with most of the show being conversations, we rarely see any continuous shots. For a show that is so unique, it’s a shame that its editing is essentially a carbon copy of its channel-mates.

The use of color, however, is a bit more interesting. Most of the show is filmed in well-diffused daylight. The walls are always a pastel color, and this combination of color and light create a constant “warm” feel to the scenes. This mundane warmth could be representative of their new, cookie-cutter life in the American suburbs. It could also represent their new comfortable lifestyle thanks to the restaurant’s success. Another interesting color scheme difference in the show is not quite related to cinematography but is still interesting enough to be noted: clothing. Throughout the show, the white women in the neighborhood are always shown wearing brightly colored clothing with very unique patterns, a trademark of the early 1990s. In contrast, we see that Jessica almost always wears plain, light-colored clothes. This is likely a note of the cultural difference between the two parties; a direct symbol of the Huang family’s conservative values. It also shows that in spite of how well the Huangs have immersed themselves in their surroundings, they still remain different and not entirely a part of the community yet. This is especially apparent in S2E2 (my current episode), during which the neighborhood women (Honey included) make several more appearances alongside the Huangs than a typical episode.

Note how Jessica stands out from her neighbors. A clear example of color scheme differences used in the show.

I am far from a cinematography expert, so it’s safe to say that I am missing something, but as far I can see, “Fresh off the Boat” does not attempt to be unique in terms of cinematography. I believe the show-makers are aware that a majority of their audiences take cinematography for granted (myself included), so they focus more on the uniqueness of the plot. While it’s a little disappointing that the show does not innovate in this aspect, it doesn’t take away from it as a whole. “Fresh off the Boat” makes it place with unique writing and casting, not with camerawork.

It Can’t Always be Black or White – or Can It?

By Yasamin Khorashahi

In Review Topic 5

Search Party has a pretty limited gender spread. Of the entire credited series cast so far, there are 69 men and 77 women. There is only a single actor on the show that does not identify as cis-gendered male or female. That actor is Jason Greene, who identifies as genderfluid. The character they play on the show is ambiguous in gender, but is only present in a single episode. Other than Greene’s character, however, the rest of the gender spread on the show is fairly black and white, varying only between cis-gendered male or female.

The show divides the agency of males and females relatively equally. All the characters on the show are relatively bad people. They’re self-interested and misled. Our lead, Dory Sief, is so absorbed in her fixation with Chantal that she recklessly bulldozes through her friends’ lives and drags them down the rabbit-hole with her. In fact, out of the four main cast members, the only one who seems to have unselfish intentions is Portia, but her decisions are still influenced by a deep rooted desire to feel important. The main cast is evenly split between male and female (as long as we consider Julian, Keith, and Chantal as satellite characters), so agency in the show is also split fairly evenly. Additionally, many of the supporting characters also make decisions that influence the progression of the show. Some notable endeavors are the controversial articles that Julian publishes or Lorraine’s suicide.

Race, unlike gender in the show, is represented relatively well. The show does take place in New York City, after all. Of the five main cast members, two of them are explicitly not Caucasian: Dory is Iraqi-American and Julian is African American. Other characters in the show are also non-white, including Agnes Cho, Lorraine De Coss, and Keith’s ex-wife Deb. An interesting observation to make is that most of the notable minority characters also tend to be female.

The majority of the women on the show are presented as heterosexual. The one exception is the woman Dory meets with to discuss a job offer, who is so completely upset with her wife leaving her that it scares Dory away. There are far more gay men present in the show, however, particularly because Elliot himself is gay. Through love interests for Elliot, the show introduces several gay characters, particularly Elliot’s on-and-off boyfriend Marc.

Only Elliot can manage to look this fresh in rehab.

Mental illness is explored more deeply than disability in Search Party, as there aren’t really any characters that are explicitly physically disabled. On the other hand, several of the characters on the show experience varying mental illnesses. Lorraine is the greatest example of this, as it can be inferred she may be schizophrenic. Additionally, Elliot is a “self diagnosed narcissist” and compulsive liar. He has a psychotic break following his involvement in Keith’s murder, and admits himself to a rehabilitation clinic.

Pregnancy – a call to empowerment

By Cindy Wang

In Review Topic 4

Whiskey Lullaby, the sixth episode of the second season of Wynonna Earp, is a complex and messy affair. The little town of Purgatory, where all the demon revenant affairs have been occurring for more than a century, has been put under a sleeping spell for a very long time, enough time for our pregnant protagonist Wynonna to start showing. This is the result of the Widows’ magic, as they are trying to buy enough time to find and reopen a portal that Wynonna closed. As Wynonna Earp is more of a lighthearted, story telling, demon butt kicking show as opposed to one with an obvious social commentary, the argument of the episode is not immediately eminent. After a bit of pondering, I honestly feel like the show is arguing that strong women exist and being petty is sad in this episode. Wynonna just discovers that she is pregnant, and with the time that is stolen she is forced to fight a sorcerer and two witch wives while strongly showing (and the actress was actually really pregnant with her own baby while filming!). Later in the episode, one of the possible fathers of Wynonna’s child shoots and kills the sorcerer, who while is a demon, is also a harmless old man. He does that out of rage against Wynonna, and the writers show him as a heartless and jealous mess to convey the idea that it would be dumb to do petty things.

Nun reporting the murder of a priest at the hands of the widows.

Although the show is, once again, not a social commentary as much as it is a fantasy show about fighting demons, the underlying theme is undeniably a charge for feminism. With a female show writer, female lead actress, and a diverse cast, Wynonna Earp is one of the most empowering shows for gender equality on air right now. By adding a pregnancy storyline, the show once again tackles the scenarios that haven’t been represented on television before because of the lack of female fighter protagonists. With this, it is clear that Wynonna Earp is calling for society to embrace females as heroes.

Are socially conscious shows more gender-inclusive? In Portlandia’s case, yes.

By Adam Lederer

In Review Topic 5

Playing with gender is a common theme in IFC’s hit show, Portlandia

The very nature of Portlandia leads it to be more experimental with gender relations and representation on the show. Being set in a progressive town like Portland, Oregon, the show is bound to reference gender frequently, and it does just that. One prominent example of gender being referened repeatedly is through the show’s recurring feminist bookstore bit, where Armisen and Brownstein play two women selling third-wave feminist literature. Through dialogue in these scenes, gender issues are referenced a lot. Furthermore, the fact that Armisen, a biological male, is dressed as a female sheds light on the trans community. Brownstein also dresses as a man multiple times over the course of the show.

As such, not only male and female are represented, but so are many other gender identities in certain bits. The transgender community also has decent representation in the show, as mentioned above. However, the majority of the scenes take place with exclusively cisgender men and women. From the episodes I watched, it does not appear that men or women received notably more screen time; most of the screen time is consumed by the two main actors (Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein) and the characters they happen to portray in a given scene.

The show does a good job of giving each gender agency and power. Sure, there are some scenes in which a given character seems irrelevant or powerless, but on the net it evens out. Male characters are oftentimes portrayed in a manner uncommon in mass media today: as sensitive beings with a desire to from non-superficial relationships. Armisen even gets his nails painted in certain scenes, highlighting gender performativity in such scenes. Women are also portrayed as less indecisive and more powerful on the show, but more work could still be done on this. The show does have a decent minority population, but these characters are often supplemental and temporary (as are about all characters on the show to be fair). Since Armisen an Brownstein are the main characters in each sketch, they take up most of the time as white people.

Overall, the show does a good job of representing a wide range of genders and highlighting the problems with a simple male-female dichotomy. Men and women are considered to be essentially equal, and the show does a good job of putting forth a model for shows going forward on how to approach these issues.

Success as defined by your gender in #FOTB

By Amanda McAuley

In Review Topic 5

From the opening scene of episode 4, it was obvious that the show would continue to stick to traditional and exaggerated gender roles that have played out in the prior episodes. The characters’ success is determined differently by their gender.

Let me set up the scene… extended family members (including an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, and a grandma) are visiting the Huang family from D.C. Within the family, it is a constant competition to be more successful than the others.

For Jessica and her sister, the battle is over looks, shopping deals, and mother’s love. These are the ways that the show gives them their value. The reasons for this might be because the show is suppose to be a throwback to the 90s, so they are overemphasizing the progress that has been made in the past two decades. Also, the roles might be cultural. The sisters are battling to be their mother’s favorite and not chasing after careers, which means that cultural loyalty remains at home for the women. While it is amusing to watch the sisters battle over perms, breast size, and discounted prices, the gender roles in the family are restrictive and limiting. The women seems to add nothing to the family except housekeeping and eye-candy…

Jessica and her sister Connie battle over their mother’s favoritism (w/ Jessica rocking the “success perm”)

For the men of the family, Louis and his brother in law (and ex-boss), their success is determined by their career, cars, and technology. The male characters are expected to have it all; the car, the computer, the successful company, etc. BUT, this is so restrictive, even for a comedy show. It is just another example of a place where female are not shown as succeeding in the workplace and where men are forced to be the sole provider and suporter. This scene makes men look like they have to be superheros and have it all, when realistically they don’t. This family gender role could also be tied to culture of the Huang family, so the roles speak more to the cultural expectations from this time period.

It is super easy to box genders up and make the characters easy to understand. For FOTB, the focus is on comedy and fast-paced plot, not intricate characters. In every show, something is sacrificed in production and through the family reunion scene, it is obvious that Fresh off the Boat doesn’t waste time having dynamic characters that redefine family gender roles.

Writing about Writing

By William Marchant

In Review Topic 2

The writing in Broad City is always very strong and funny. Particularly, in season 3, episode 7, the writing simultaneously explores two directions for a night ending that are completely different as Abbi and Ilana leave the club without each other. Abbi goes through an epic and eventful night that she is not proud of. Meanwhile, Illana sleeps with Blake Griffin and has a night that is more comical as Griffin is shown to be the perfect person. The writing is impressive as the viewer feels for Abbi who was robbed and laughs as Griffin and Ilana interact in over the top ways. Few shows have writing that can elicit more than one emotion effectively. The Ilana and Griffin storyline seems to have come straight from a Female writer’s fantasy. There interactions begin with both bringing up that they need to stretch before physical exercises which they both decide is getting undressed. Griffin undresses, censored to the audience, and Ilana laughs for a very tense time as Griffin crosses his arm. Later revealed to the audience that Griffin is too big, the two get creative with yoga and other clearly non-sexual activities til both climax. Their pillow talk includes Griffin talking about how women’s basketball is better than men’s and saying that women make everything better. As good as the scene is, an individual writing that amuses me more.
As always the show makes multiple callbacks near the end of the episode, similar to the function of a callback in stand-up comedy, it reminds you of how smart the writers are. As impressive as they are funny, it reminds you all the places the episode took you and that you accepted that two regular people went on a ridiculous journey often spanning large areas of New York.
The writers articulate the purest forms of comedy in their writing for Hannibal Buress as Lincoln, a dentist with a mind that scopes and works like no other. There is not a scene he is in that does not bring me to laughter.

See the source image

Here is Blake Griffin swaddling Ilana Glaser because his member is too big for traditional goings on.

Shoot to kill (demons)

By Cindy Wang

Wynonna Earp is by no means a cinematically impressive show – never have I ever watched it and actively thought that the shots were stunning or greatly transitioned. However, through looking carefully, it should be noted that it is presented much better than people give it credit for, allowing the viewer to watch the show with some level of satisfaction.

The show is shot mainly in short to medium length takes, alternating between close ups of character dialogues, sometimes with all characters involved in one shot and other times switching singular face shots between the characters in the conversation, and long distance shots, which can involved a shot of the characters with their dialogue as a voiceover (those typically are very short) or nature focused shots of the Calgary wilderness. And of course, as an action/supernatural/western show, Wynonna Earp includes its fair share of impressive strut shots, with demons blowing up or nature themed scenery in the background. By including a variation of shots, Wynonna Earp is able to really present their genre as a supernatural western, with the fancy fighting and disgusting demons, as well as give the viewers in depth perspectives on the relationships between the characters outside of the action.

No one thinks of happy, bright colors when they think of demon hunting, and the cinematographers of Wynonna Earp agree. Most of the lighting throughout the show comes in dark, blue – yellow – gray hues as opposed white or pink. The writers are great at manipulating or associating colors with individual characters. For example, Waverly Earp, the bubbly sweet younger sister of Wynonna, tends to be in vivid colors while Doc, the gun slinging immortal, tends to be in dark, underworld themed apparel. This use of color greatly adds to the ambiance of the show and often times sets the occasion for the viewers.

Action shot after killing a demon

The episode I am referencing for this blog post, Season 2 Episode 1: Steel Bars and Stone Walls, is not statistically different in cinematography or direction than any other episode. No one is at fault for this, but rather, Wynonna Earp does its best to conform to its genre, and I commend it for that.

The Writing of Julius Pepperwood – Zombie Detective

By Kathleen Stelzel

In Review Topic 2

This week I watched Season 2, episode 14 of New Girl. This episode (“Pepperwood”) was written by Nick Adam. He has also written episodes of Men at Work, Bojack Horseman, and People of Earth, which are all shows that are somewhat like New Girl in their comedic styles. The dialogue in this episode is structured to keep constant conversations between the characters. There is not a voice over on the show unlike some others, so there isn’t a narrator to fill in the gaps. There is not a narrator in New Girl because the show is very relaxed and doesn’t need heavy direction. Shows usually use voice overs to inform the audience about the plot or more about the characters and what they’re thinking. Those additions are not needed here because New Girl is obvious on the motives and situations of the characters.

Silence is not really used in this New Girl episode. When there is silence, it is usually to set up an interaction between two or more of the characters. Since this episode was very comedic there was no need for silence to create build-up or tension. This episode was very dialogue heavy. Especially since this episode created a high amount of tension between everyone in the loft while trying to discover their “pogo’s”.

What’s your pogo?

One main issue seen in comedies is that the dialog can seem to be forced or awkward when jokes don’t fit but are still added. In contrast, the writing of New Girl and especially this episode, seems very natural. New Girl creates their humor through the interactions between the characters. This makes the show very easy to watch and very entertaining. I always like watching this show because it helps me relax and just de-stress. I can’t wait to binge even more of this show this semester!

Close your mouth. Close your eyes. His mom, I mean lover, is there!!

Kimmy Learns to Put the Past in the Past!

By Nikhil Reddy