The Racialicious Entertainment Roundup: Nov. 10-22
By Arturo R. García, Joseph Lamour, and Kendra James
You might notice a slight title change this week as we change the format of the weekly roundup ever so slightly. Instead of just television, we’ll expanding into the broader definition of entertainment–music, movies, theatre, and TV. Because sometimes you just need a place to devote a paragraph or two to Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Or maybe that’s just Kendra.)
Psy, Hammer Style: At some point you had to wonder not only when the “Gangnam Style” craze would be put to bed, but whether Psy himself, who accidentally horsey-stepped his way into YouTube history, would get the last word on his meme like Rick Astley did three Thanksgiving Day Parades ago. And then this happened at the American Music Awards last Sunday:
Even if Psy ends up relegated to the dustbins of history alongside like Ricky Martin — who, let’s not forget, was also supposed to usher in a wave of International Pop yet hasn’t had a platinum album on the U.S. charts in more than a decade — it was a nice moment to see him get his due and to see him being able to keep up with the likes of MC Hammer. (As far as we could tell, anyway; ABC seemingly thought it was more compelling to watch us people reacting to two people of color headlining the event than to watch the actual performance they were enjoying.)
Of course, it wasn’t such a good moment for the Great Unwashed of Twitter, who got verklempt at his mere presence while presumably not having a problem with Canadian-born Justin Bieber winning a bunch of awards.
Now, as to what happens next for both Psy and K-Pop…when is Rain’s military service up again?–AG
Bones: In last week’s episode of Bones, intern Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat) relays an interesting speech about separating 9/11 from the Muslim religion as a whole.–JL
The Mindy Project: Had a pretty funny exchange where Mindy gets annoyed with a stunning girl, Geeta (played by Richa Shulka) that a previous beau, Dennis (played by Ed Helms), is now dating:
Geeta: If you don’t mind me asking, are you Indian?
Mindy: Yeah, big time.
Geeta:. Love to see other brown girls.
Mindy: Not that hard, there are literally billions of us.
Thank you Mindy, for reminding America of that fact.
The same dress appeared this week on “The Mindy Project” (top) and “Gossip Girl” (bottom).
P.S.: Is there only one stylist in Hollywood? Mindy and Ivy wear the same Rebecca Taylor Sequined Dress. Who wore it better, mmm?–JL
SNL: I’m told that comedian Katt Williams was involved in some kind of dust up at a comedy club last week? That’s too bad–and the past three years haven’t been particularly good to Mr. Williams. But, as with many things, there is at least a comedic silver lining:
Like Williams’ comedy specials (am I the only one who voluntarily watched The Pimp Chronicles: I, Pimpadelic, American Hustle and It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’? Yes? Okay), the novelty of the sketch wears after the first half. That said, attention should be paid to the flawlessness of Jay Pharoah’s impression. When you have two men on cast handling the impersonations of every Black pop culture reference in the world, it would be impressive if they succeeded only 50% of the time. Yet, Pharoah (along with Keenan Thompson) manage to stay funny week after week.–KJ
The Vampire Diaries: Okay, so far this season we’ve left one of the most poorly used tropes–The Civil War–behind. Unfortunately, that hasn’t helped Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham). We’ve talked about her precarious situation on TVD before, so here’s a quick update on where she stands now:
Page 1 of 3 | Next page