The Racialicious TV Upfronts Roundup
None of that matters in Scandal’s DC though, where Washington’s Olivia Pope’s race has so far been a non-issue. Given her affair with the sitting (white) president it could very well have been an issue tackled by Shonda Rhimes (and still might be– the show is only six episodes in). Some reviewers question the fact that it hasn’t been mentioned, but it is ‘refreshing’ to be introduced to a leading black character in the modern world through the lense of their personality, profession, and actions rather than their race–you know, the way every other character on television is viewed. Furthermore, it’s proof for certain people that writing a character of color doesn’t need necessarily need to be any more complicated than writing a white one.
Scandal might not be the deepest or best written show on television right now, but it’s an entertaining distraction and certainly deserves more than seven episodes. Besides, after cancelling my other guilty pleasure, GCBs, ABC owes me one. - KJ
Michael Ealy (l) and Warren Kole. Courtesy: thedeadbolt.com
Common Law: He’s a bro. He’s a bro. Together, Michael Ealy and Warren Kole play the best brotectives this USA offering has to … uh, offer. But it’s totally not bro-mo, y’know?
Give USA credit, at least, for striking when the iron’s hot: the series debuted not long after Ealy’s turn in Think Like A Man, and it continues the network’s surprisingly (relatively) race-positive casting for its assembly-line of quirky procedurals: Law joins Legal Affairs, Psych, and the dearly-departed Monk as shows featuring PoCs in the lead (with the sad caveat, of course, that their characters aren’t always defined as PoCs.)
The show’s dynamics are right out of the Lethal Weapon playbook, with some of Sherlock’s gay-panic jokes mixed in for extra “quirk.” See, the hook is, Ealy and Kole are longtime partners who–wait for it–get sent to couples therapy, where everybody assumes they’re totes not straight, even though Ealy’s character is known for (ahem) Thinking Like (Steve Harvey’s Idea Of) A Man around the department . The pilot rides this joke nearly the whole way through until their therapist (Sonya Walger) finally breaks things up by telling Kole, “You’re like brothers.”
One more frustrating inconsistency: this is a show based in Los Angeles without a Latino/a character in sight. At the same time, Ealy’s character is revealed to have grown up in a foster home with a Samoan family–and his foster brother, of course, runs a chop-shop. Oy. - AG
Courtesy: spidermanreviews.com
Young Justice & Ultimate Spider-Man: On the fandom tip…don’t look now, but both DC and Marvel’s animated divisions should get some credit this season for not only presenting superheroes and villains of color, but doing so in meaningful ways.
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