English 1102: Television and Feminism

Somehow all pop culture seems to get a wave of unintentional mainstream which destroys the integrity and their original “voice”. This especially happens with a lot of underground music artists when they get signed to various labels. Their idea is that mainstream music is equivalent to sells, so the sound has to change to fit societal norms. Television has a similar paradigm shift in the originality of the content, specifically the show I have been studying this semester- Orange is the New Black.

The Beginning of the New Wave

Season four writers did an incredible job creatively showing social issues that were happening worldwide even with the limited cast that they had. This season was home to fighting for social justice, gender rights, the road of self discovery, and much more. Watch the season four recap below:

Season 4 Recap

However as the show progressed it seems that this season was in fact “too” raw. The show takes a dramatic turn and includes way less relevant social issues. Still being a prison show, there is your everyday drama of killing, stealing, and smuggling but in the later seasons it doesn’t feel like the girls are actually fighting for something. Everything turns into a mess.

The shift was mainly in the direction and the take home message that the show intended to give it’s audience. Here’s season five’s trailer: Season 5 Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix. Based on the trailer you’d think that this would be a season of substance like the previous. However the rawness is toned done by 1000%. While in season four we had things like a underlying religion war between two inmates of same race, season five showcases how limited the minds of inmates can really be (making guards embarrass themselves in a talent show). Season five was a season of revenge, four was a season of purpose and fight.

The most recent season, season six strayed even farther away from the take home message, however ended on a more serious note which confused the entire season. In my opinion the worst season of them all, this was home to a rivalry based on colors of khakis because of a rivalry between two sisters which were having a rivalry about something that didn’t even happen to them! Stupid…I know. The creators seemed to be trying to work with what they had since almost half of the beloved cast wasn’t even included in any of the episodes however what they did do was devalue the impact of the show. The season barely included content and substance that was relevant to the world today until the last five minutes of the last episode. Take a look here OITNB SEASON 6 ENDING.

Pop culture takes a major hit to the fans that have been there since the beginning when they move towards mainstream production. Unfortunately it reaches a wider audience but distracts the overall goal of whatever media it was when it started.

The Women Behind “Grace and Frankie”

By Rafael Barrientos

For this blog I have decided to take a different approach. Rather than focus on the show, I am going to focus on three women who work on the show: Marta Kauffman, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda.

Marta Kauffman is the co-creator and an executive producer of the show. Kauffman was born and 1956, and started her career in TV in 1987. In the show running business she has held the job of writer, co-creator, creator, and Executive Producer. Certainly the most notable show she has worked on is the famous 1990’s sitcom “Friends”. In this show Kauffman was the co-creator, the writer for some episodes, and the executive producers for several seasons. She even participated as an extra in several episodes. Kauffman is a very important women in the world of television.

Marta Kauffman

Lily Tomlin acts in the show as Frankie, one of the main characters. Lily Tomlin started her career as a stand-up comedian and an off-broadway actress. Her role in “Grace and Frankie” has been so successful that she has gotten four consecutive Emmy nominations for her role. Furthermore, Tomlin has won an Emmy award, a Tony award, and even a Grammy award. Tomlin was also the voice of Mrs. Frizzle in the “Magical School Bus”. Thus, Tomlin has been a female front runner in many fields of the show business.

Lily Tomlin

Jane Fonda plays the role of Grace in the series. Jane Fonda started her career as a broadway actress in 1960. She has appeared in many movies and tv shows since. Furthermore, she is known as fashion model, a fitness guru, and even a political activist. Through her career, she has won multiple Golden Globes, Academy Awards, and distinct lifetime achievement awards.

Jane Fonda

These three women are great examples of what women are capable of achieving, even at an older age.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000404/bio

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005499/bio

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0442035/bio

Into the Darkness

By Yasamin Khorashahi

I’ve talked about both writing and cinematography in Search Party before, but I want to take a moment to explore how those two concepts portray character development in the show, particularly Dory’s character. Our first interaction with Dory is silly and bright. She’s standing on a street corner in New York, contemplating the missing person poster tacked to the nearby telephone pole: Chantal Witherbottom. Obviously there’s something about her that Dory is interested in, since she gets distracted enough to step in dog poop as she is contemplating the poster. That scene is funny, too; an upset pedestrian calls Dory out for it, complaining that she’ll make the “whole MTA smell like shit” if she wears them on the train. This moment is jarring yet humorous, and it anchors the viewer back into reality.

The poor girl has no idea what she’s in for.

Here’s the thing about that scene, though: it’s sinister. We don’t know who Chantal is, except for the short clip of people yelling out her name in the woods at the very beginning of the series. We don’t understand that Chantal, beautiful-crazy-stupid-Chantal, is going to ruin Dory’s life. We don’t know yet that Dory is going to meet Keith, kill Keith, and ultimately have to pay the price for his death. We’re safe, unassuming, just like the way the opening scene plays out. The disheveled way Dory is dressed, the safety in broad daylight, the humorous remark of the pedestrian all lead us to believe that everything is going to be okay.

Spoiler alert: everything is Not Okay And Very Bad. The final scene of the show is in complete juxtaposition to the opener. Dory’s all dolled up: red cocktail dress, sleek and professional hair, powerful red lip. She’s grown up, matured, seen some real messed up stuff. The thing is, though, she’s still unassuming. She doesn’t expect what is about to hit her. There’s irony in the scene. It’s supposed to be triumphant, she’s supposed to be up on stage with a winning political candidate, part of a new team that actually got it right for once. What goes around comes around though, and upon her arrest, Dory is instantly transformed. She’s vulnerable, defeated, restrained. The lighting of the scene is ominous. Even the music is scary. It sets up Dory for the next season: what will happen? She’s lost all her friends, so how is she going to get out of it this time? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Look at how dark the last time we see Dory is compared to the first

Chillin out, Relaxin all cool: FotB

By James Peavy

Fresh off the Boat is a show about assimilation, about the ‘American Dream’ and everything in between. The first episode of season 2 helps to frame a story of a family that has had a small slice of the ‘American Dream’, and used it to become middle class, and enjoy one of the sweetest bittersweet tastes of that very lifestyle… vacation.

Usually I find it hard to relate to the challenges depicted in Fresh off the Boat, but when the Huangs go on vacation, I felt a real connection. Coming from the middle class myself, I understand what it was like to live well enough, but not well enough to truly experience the ability to get whatever and, just like the Huangs, vacation was the only experience in which I and so many others could feel like kings.

This ability to connect with viewers, even if those very same viewers don’t share similar life experiences is a key factor in any good sitcom, this is usually done through the environment and characters, familiar faces (many of which are not people of color) provided a viewer-base with a superficial bond with the characters.

A picture into the classic sitcom cast, diversity NOT being a requirement.

The ability for more modern sitcoms to relate with viewers while not providing a superficial connection due to color and origin is a special trait. This brings me back to Fresh off the Boat, a show about an Asian family integrating into the American middle class, and its ability to make themselves as American as any of their viewers, while still maintaining their identity (while being a little under-the-radar).

While i’m not saying that shows such as The Brady Bunch are bad, I actually think they are quite good, I am saying that they were clearly taking the safe route. I have talked before about the commonality between all American sitcoms, even poking at Fresh off the Boat for their safe lighting and design choices, but I would like to take the time to thank the modern sitcom.

Thank you for expanding our cast identity, backgrounds, colors and genders, America as a cultural, TV-watching, unit could always do with at least a little diversity filled vacation.

Rap or Race – Which Unites More?

By Sanjot Singh

In Episode 8 of Season 1, Eddie is excited to meet Phillip Goldstein, another Asian-American, in hopes of bonding over their potential similarities. However, it turns out their similarities are very slim but much of the school staff forces them to be together because they assume the two boys would get along based on their physical similarities. The episode is trying to argue that even if certain people share a race, they still have many other characteristics that make them unique. The show continues to emphasize this theme by presenting Phillip as the “stereotypical” Asian kid who is sophisticated and plays the cello. Eddie, on the other hand, is the complete opposite with his affection for rap music.

Soon after they meet, Phillip and Eddie realize that they do not have much in common and this results in them not being very fond of each other.

Though it seems like the two boys could never get along, that changes after Phillip lies to help Eddie go to the Beastie Boys concert. Even though, Eddie is not like the typical Asian child, a consistent theme within the show, him and Phillip are still willing to have each others’ back due to their similar circumstances. The show is simultaneously arguing that even though race is not a defining factor, it can still be a unifying characteristic within a community. However, after Phillip ditches Eddie, Eddie has to reevaluate what he is looking for in a friend. Like Jason Howard mentioned in his blog post, the show continues to revolve around the idea that “Eddie is not entirely Asian, and not entirely American, but has pieces of his identity within both cultures” which leads Eddie to form a bond with an African kid over music. Ending the episode like this argued that even though race is a common unifying factor, it is not the only.

Has Piper Changed?

By Justin Lau

From the first episode of Orange is the New Black to the last season one episode of Orange is the New Black “Fool Me Once”, it is observable that Piper has changed mentally and demeanor-wise throughout this first season. I mainly explored the episode “Fool Me Once”, and noted various personalities that Piper tackles on and her responses to everyday prison events. The most notable difference is her change in tone and voice. In this episode, Piper speaks with a monotone and plain tone and has no emotion when she speaks. Compared to the first episode, Piper had constant emotion when speaking, and was not afraid to let out what she was feeling. As a result of the beatdown of prison life has her emotions toned down, making her seem depressed and more suppressed as a human being. Her reaction to new events in the prison has her bottling up her emotions more and more and having outbursts of anger at times in the episode. An example is seen when Alex confronted Piper about Piper ignoring her and one time in the kitchen when they were alone, Piper pushes Alex multiple times, screams in her face, and unleashes her anger when a few moments before that, she was simply lumber and ignorant of Alex’s actions.

In the first few episodes, after being scared deeply by the prison life, Piper hid in a corner and rarely wanted to socialize with anyone because of the fear of doing something or someone wrong. However, as she started to acclimate throughout the episodes and stepped out of her limits, Piper was not afraid to step up to take leadership roles and confront any inmates, as after going through so much trauma daily, there became virtually nothing that would faze her anymore. In a way, although Piper became stronger as a person and more will-powered. However, it is questionable regarding the amount of PTSD Piper will suffer when she gets out of prison, as it seems like with her personality shifting, her presence seems to decrease with each additional trauma.

Piper Chapman, the main character of the show.

Cinemat(Broad)ography and Dir(City)ection

By William Marchant

In Review Topic 3

Broad City is a really well shot show. Paying attention to the cinematography has especially enlightened me to the variance of shots and mise en scene particular to the show. The camera can be shaky in one scene and pan in the next. I most recently watched season 4 episode 1 of the series, and the show’s visual direction is often non-distracting but sometimes an aide to its humor. In the episode Ilana and Abbi are meeting each other for the first time, and the show explores their lives without each other and how much better they are in that same immediate day in an alternate scenario where they spend the day together. Over the top dvd movie menu esque transitions convey which reality is being displayed as it switches between each repeatedly until they eventually run into each other, no longer needing the transition to differentiate between realities. It definitely helped me keep track of what was going on as the characters wear the same clothes the entire time and the plot is only held together through these transitions.

In other episodes of Broad City, different areas of New York will have different lighting to give one a more gross, uncomfortable feeling when a man bothers them on the street compared to better lighting when they later stumble into a wealthy neighborhood. The use of lighting to convey meaning and emotion is an interesting tool. Broad City generally seems to use it as a tool to physically display the character’s anxiety. In one episode the power goes off in Abbi’s building, and her not being able to flush the toilet is heightened through the dark surroundings and shadows in the following scenes. A mundane inconvenience is better allowed to be thought of as more by the viewer because of how the show visually treats and accompanies the situation.

See the source image

Here is an interesting use of lighting from behind Abbi to highlight the revelation that she becomes a singer in an old bar when she blacks out.

Heritage and Tradition in Fresh Off the Boat – An Analysis of How the Huang Family Maintains their Asian Identity While Assimilating into White Florida Culture

By Jason Howard

Fresh Off the Boat struggles with a great many issues that Asians have had to face, and continue to face today. While the perceived benefits of assimilating into White culture are displayed extensively throughout the show (social acceptance, business success, and less judgement received from white neighbors) the Huangs have to constantly battle within themselves to determine their identity in a rapidly globalizing world today. This struggle is especially highlighted in the episode, “So Chineez,” in which Jessica observes just how far their family has changed to fit in with their whitewashed surroundings as she finally becomes close with her neighbors and Louis considers joining a country club. The conflict of this episode revolves around the Huang family’s appreciation of the American culture that they have assimilated into, including both the luxury and the leisure of life in the middle class, against Jessica’s desire to reconnect with the Chinese culture that has defined both her and Louis’s work ethics. As Louis begins to enjoy his visits to the country club both for its luxury and for its business opportunity, he and other family members begin to resist Jessica’s push to maintain Chinese culture because the life that they have fallen into in Orlando has become one that they are both comfortable and accepted in.

Jessica attempts to reconnect with her culture by donning some traditional Chinese garb.

Throughout this episode Jessica comes to the realization that it is nearly impossible to live in a white suburb without assimilating into their culture and discovers a certain middle ground in which one can both assimilate into a culture while respecting and understanding one’s historical roots. This establishes a key concept throughout the show of the Asian-American intersectionality in which Eddie is not entirely Asian, and not entirely American, but has pieces of his identity within both cultures. What Eddie tries to convey in his memoir that this show is based off of is that this is what separates Asian Americans from Asians and Americans.

Is Everyone Gay or Just Lonely?

By Lauren Garrett

Sexuality and love are two things that permeate every aspect of Orange is the New Black, and they are portrayed in often conflicting yet also related ways. For many characters, feeling alone in prison leads them to seek physical intimacy without a romantic attachment yet while continuing to hold on to outside feelings; this makes their sexuality, often convoluted on its own, both something they seek for the physical connection to others as well as a point of its own identity, even when it interferes with romantic feelings.

The best example of this is in Piper herself. Once Alex, her former girlfriend who got Piper sent to prison in the first place, arrives at Litchfield, the two begin a sexual relationship that hints at potential romantic feelings but never directly are mentioned. However, Piper’s attempts to also cling on to her feelings for her fiancé create a point of contention between all three, and Piper eventually loses both of them for her lack of commitment to either. As Piper’s family struggles to deal with this new turn – just as they struggled to deal with Piper having dated a woman in the first place – they try to put a label on her, asking questions like, “Are you a lesbian now? Were you straight when you got engaged to Larry?” Piper eventually tells her best friend that you cannot be “either straight or gay” and that there is a spectrum, leading viewers to infer that Piper knows her sexuality is something that defines her, although she is not sure how to define it.

Other examples of sexuality as an identity yet using it for comfort are clear in many other characters. Morello, a prisoner who is obsessed with a man that has filed a restraining order against her, has an ongoing same-sex physical relationship for much of the first season but eventually ends it because she “wants to be loyal to Christopher”, leaving viewers to assume that she is heteroromantic but questioning sexually.

Morello and Nicky

Daya begins a physical relationship with Bennett, a prison guard, initially to be able to ask for things from him, and eventually she experiences conflicting feelings of romantic interest and desire for her situation to go away. Although her sexuality is less obviously convoluted, her use of it and then subsequent questioning of why she chose to use it falls clearly into a similar category. Countless other prison hookups, especially amongst friends, are depicted as “experimental”, hinting that they are being done simply because they can and because the prisoners are missing their traditional intimacy. And, most glaringly, Sophia’s wife remains with her former husband after she transitions to female, despite the fact that she is heterosexual, out of a desire for comfort and support. In this way, viewers of OITNB can see clearly that the fluid, often unlabellable sexualities of the prisoners stem mainly from loneliness and a desire to be connected with someone, even at the expense of outside, “more real” connections.

Moving forward: Goodbye Coach -Topic 6

By Anika Islam

Not every person we like gets to stay in our lives. Often, we have to leave behind a majority of our friends, family members, and acquaintances. The episode of New Girl titled “Clean Break”, really explores this concept. This episode focuses on the idea of leaving people behind, and whether you should try to take things that remind you of them.

One of the main characters and roommates, Coach, is moving away with his girlfriend May.

Coach and May

Coach explains to Jess that whenever he moves, he “makes a clean break”, and does not like to get sentimental. The episode starts off with Coach only wanting to take the essentials with him and leaving everything else behind. Coach then convinces the rest of his roommates to do the same thing and get rid of unnecessary things in their lives and clean up their rooms. Nick, who is basically a hoarder, is unable to and claims that everything he owns has significance. I really like this episode because it contrasts the different ways people deal with moving. Coach tries to be completely apathetic and only wants to pack essential items, whereas Nick hoards everything including candy wrappers.

I can really relate with Nick since I like to keep mementos from every milestone in my life and have a really hard time throwing away sentimental things.

Later, Coach who is adamant about leaving all memories behind, argues with Winston- another roommate- about what he should and shouldn’t pack. Winston insists that Couch keep a frying pan they bought when they were really drunk because it symbolizes their friendship and pancakes. However, Coach refuses to take it with him. But before Coach leaves, he accidentally hits his suitcase, and it is revealed that Coach took memories of his friends with him and that he wasn’t truly able to just pack the essentials.

When Coach leaves, a song played in the background, that solidifies this as one of my favorite episodes. The lyrics of the song goes “a year from now we’ll all be gone. All our friends will move away. And they’re going to better places. But our friends will be gone away”. This line from the song really impacts me because of all the people in life I left behind to be where I am right now.

This episode really resonates with me because I have moved so many times in my life. I have this desire to keep every friend I ever had in my life, however, that is just not realistic. At the end of the day, the people in your life change and evolve and most the people you love can’t stay by your side forever. You have to move on and meet new people, as hard as that may be.

The message of this episode

Kimmy Schmidt: Why it all Works

By Lukas Hessler

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

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

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