Interwebs & Parks & Rec & OUAT

[beccatoria]

Okay so the main reason to post this is to say that my interwebs is dead and I'm sneakily posting this from a public webzone. I will be around sporadically for the next few days but basically until the weekend I am not sure what's going on. It will depend on how crap the ISP's engineers are and when they decide to show up.

BEFORE my internet died, however, I saw both Parks & Rec which was utterly adorable even if I wish there was more stuff with Ann and Leslie being Friends, but that's okay because Ben punched a guy who deserved it and then kept APOLOGISING PROFUSELY until he got shut up with kissing which is basically everything anyone should ever want in a guy ever.

ALSO I watched Once Upon A Time, which was a frustrating experience, because for real I really like this show. I have a feeling I'm in the minority, but I honestly think some of the ways it's reinventing stuff is legit clever, and I like when they mashup the different fairytales in unexpected ways, like the Prince and the Pauper and Prince Charming. Or Hansel and Gretel and the Candy Witch's Cottage providing the poisoned apple. Or, IN THEORY, genies and the magic mirror, I had two epic problems with it, to be honest:

1) dude, racist much? (Usually a complaint levelled in a passive fashion because there Storybrooke is so overwhelmingly white, but this time, ouch. I'm not sure where the line between atmospheric and problematic lies, exactly, but I'm fairly sure it was a ways further back than this. Hopefully in the future Sydney will get a story where he gets to reassert his agency and break up with the Evil Queen and be something other than a stereotype, but we'll see. OY WHAT WAS THAT.)

2) dude, sexist much? (Not usually a complaint levelled at this show, but I felt really sorry for Regina because Snow's dad was a total jerkface! I mean, sure, murder is an overreaction, but acknowledging that he could never love her, forcing her to stay in the palace, and then getting furiously jealous when she sought emotional comfort elsewhere? BACK OFF, KING DUDE. See what I think they'll do is some sort of horrible retcon whereby the King married her because he was so selfless and he was keeping her psychotic self away from others or something. Possibly this will tie into Snow White being responsible for the Queen being unable to love (though clearly not unable to want to be loved). But honestly that just kind of makes it worse and horribly patronising and paternalistic. OY WHAT WAS THAT.)

So anyway, I will still be watching in two weeks and stuff, but I kinda had to get that off my chest. Damn you, show, why can't you write altruistic wishes still screwing you over and genies trapped in magic mirrors without this rampant oppression! *shakes fist*

Okay. I'm done.

And off to, like, go whittle wood or sing acappella music or whatever it was we did in the olden days before we had 24/7 internet connections. (Yes, yes I know, I could get a smartphone, but...no.)

Comments

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

OH GOD, THIS EPISODE BOTHERED ME SO MUCH! PAINFUL STUPIDITY! STUPID STUPIDITY! OTHER KINDS OF STUPIDITY!

*sighs*

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like Richard Schiff but what was that? I'm not sure if he was just clueless or a jerk. I mean she was cheating on him but not really? I dunno. It's hard to know since they paint Regina as a villain. But I felt for her at that dinner when he said Snow was the fairest. I mean maybe we don't know the whole story but that seemed really mean. Even if she didn't love the King he didn't have to be that way.

Why couldn't she leave the castle? Even before the 'affair'? There needed to be more explanation!

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely had issues with this one.

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I am blinded by feelings in my lady parts, but even though that was a weak episode I enjoyed it so much! I have respect for you as always for ranting about the isms. I am willing to allow them some generous reading, though, because they're working with the terrain of fairy tales -- a canon that's basically unadulterated racism and sexism. Generally, the show's approach is to take this up but portray fairy tale 'verse in a dark and thus critical light. Or so I like to think, at least. To wit:

1. RACISM. OK, obviously. The show has a problem in that Sydney is like the only character of color (if you don't count Lana Parilla or Mr. Gold being an evil Jew cum sparkly-skinned demon) and he's basically a flunky. That said, the genie backstory was so cracktastic that I kind of loved it! Where else would they go for a man of color in European fairy tales? I would prefer to interpret the genie's over-the-top persona and evident oppression as a critique of this trope, although it's fair to say that every viewer probably wouldn't get that. The issue with RL Sydney is more difficult to justify. I mean, he is the human version of a mirror, i.e. 2-dimensional, but they don't get a pass on that with the rest of the casting. He did at least seem to be in a parallel position to Graham? I like thinking of Regina having a town harem of people she controls through sex...

2. SEXISM. I disagree! Wasn't the show presenting King Toby's actions as horrific? They seemed to make a move with the character that they are deploying with respect to fairy tales in general: revealing the dark underbelly of something that on the surface is unremittingly wholesome and sweet. I thought his jealousy and control was supposed to read as completely unreasonable and unsympathetic -- a "twist" on how the character was initially portrayed.

As for the Queen -- well, there is clearly more to be revealed about why she was in that unhappy marriage and what transpired with Snow White afterwards. But I don't think it was implied that her evilness justified her imprisonment, and I HOPE they don't retcon it so that the King was somehow doing the world a favor.

pt 1

[metatxt.livejournal.com]

Yeahhhh this was not their best. The racist and sexist elements were clearly there, but I was more distracted by the reliable writing strengths that were unusually absent, rather than new fail!information. For example, WTF with Emma being so OOC??? I do not need my characters to always be insaneo smart, but it was supremely odd that she trusted Sydney to that degree with such little convincing. I also found it incredulous that Emma would steal the blueprints for the playground and believe it was a 2ND HOME, WHA?? I really relish the power struggle between Emma and Regina, and that Regina often does outsmart Emma, but I really felt like this one was entirely unearned. *IF* they had played up the Emma is preoccupied with Henry card, I might have believed she was less vigilant about making allies, but the playground plot was too far-fetched for any in-character Emma.

But back to the racism and sexism issues...

I feel like we were expected to sympathize with the Evil Queen breaking Genie's heart, but also feel as though Genie being trapped in the mirror was portrayed as a righteous comeuppance. THIS DISTURBED ME GREATLY.

Genie's stalker-wish-reaction to being played by the Evil Queen evokes the Myth of the Black Rapist to an unsettling degree. Genie will have her even though she said NO (and she said No in a nice way for her, "hey you can live!"). Up until this point, it seemed he was making foolish, immoral choices because he was blinded by devotion and desire. Writing in the stalker-reaction unfortunately recontextualizes these behaviors as undifferentiated from those of the King: their affections suddenly revealed to be a veneer for the underlying motivations of control and possession.

But I don't think the show actually wanted us to read their motivations of control as equally threatening or equally requiring intervention. First, Genie is the only character we've seen in Fairytale world not engage in questions of family. He has no people to miss him, side with him, or fight on his behalf. Of course, we already know how devastating the King's death will be to Snow White. When the King dies, three storylines with three separate emotional impacts are simultaneously in action: 1- Snow White's heartbreak, 2- the Evil Queen is being freed (but before she was corrupted? or apparently not?), and 3- Genie's betrayal of the King. And, to some degree, it doesn't matter how you actually feel about any of these storylines as an audience member, so much as the King's death is structured to incite vastly different complex feelings.

As the King dies, his last words are condemning Genie, saying "I shouldn't have made that wish" - You know, the one freeing you from *SLAVERY* WTF. I get that he's been betrayed, that Genie has gone off the rails, and this statement could have even functioned ok if the show had actually positioned it as a really BAD thing to think. But then - the show actually AGREES WITH THIS - goes on to show Genie as a dangerous, rapey, middle-eastern black guy, and then follows up by actually reimprisoning him as a direct result of his dangerous rapeyness.