Mixed Media Watch: Love Bites and Single Ladies Showcase Interracial Relationships
Is it more realistic to paint a world where interracial relationships don’t matter at all, or one where race is just one of many issues?
In most projects that make it to both the large and small screen race is either the largest issue for the couple being portrayed, or it isn’t mentioned at all. Two new shows spent the summer season exploring the tangled world of race and relationships: but where VH1′s Single Ladies chose a racially aware way to present interracial relationships, Love Bites chose intentional color blindness…which ultimately reverted into the usual predominantly white cast with the occasional PoC best friends (and one foray with Donald Faizon).
Love Bites pulled two million viewers last week as of the last recorded numbers – after a disappointing premiere Love Bites has limped along, able to be charming, but not much else. That’s a shame, since Cindy Chupack (the show creator, who dropped out as showrunner) was one of the talented main writers behind Sex and the City. And a lot of the cast has already moved on to other projects, so the project appears doomed.
Worst, all of the turmoil kind of undermined the originality of the idea – to have an anthology style show on love and relationships featuring a rotating cast of characters. I think, with proper execution, the idea could have come off well – quite a few of the bits were really funny. And, overall, the series managed to consistently insert the cute “awww” moments, which are normally the reason people trek to the multiplex to watch yet another romcom. But one of the things that noticeably declined as the show went on was the diversity of the cast and crew. The earlier shows had Faizon as a player being taught a lesson, and an interracial gay couple working through problems, Lindsay Price as a woman trying to balance her vibrator and her husband, along with some other random friends of color. As the show slowly came to revolve around one couple and their friends and family, the diversity also quietly left, with the occasional best friend appearance or one night stand of color.
On that last one, we have a cringe worthy moment involving race, where a guy named Tommy tells his one night stand Stephanie not to worry about her father’s heart attack because “blacks die of more heart attacks than Latinos.” He then takes a call from his friends who asked if he banged “a Latino.” Discussion ensues over whether “Latino” or “Latina” was the correct term. (Stephanie sits in the car, aghast at the whole exchange – later he tells her she took the fun out of “fiery Latina.”) Yet she’s the one who ends up apologizing and they end up together. So love conquers casual racism? The whole thing felt weird.
The show probably won’t continue, but it would be interesting to see who made the dialogue decisions on the interracial relationship pieces. The show slid from non acknowledgment to ham-fisted stereotype trading, without much rhyme or reason.
Meanwhile, Over on VH1, Single Ladies is holding down their Monday night block.
Showrunner Stacy A. Littlejohn talks about the creation of the show and where the inspiration for the show came from.
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