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Round-Up: Premiere Week (19/9 - 25/9)

Now that (tv) premiere week is over and done, how about a list of the positive, negative, and neutral?

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• NBC Comedies were all up their game. Community, The Office, Parks and Recreation.
• Old Comedies that are not quite mine yet. I am starting Raising Hope this season, before watching the first season (I'll be starting it this week!), and if the premiere is any indication, I am going to love this show. It's a little quirky and a lot of heart, which are two of my favorite things in a comedy!
• Up All Night! (Is this cheating since it's another NBC comedy?) I didn't totally buy into the pilot, but that second episode hit the nail! (I'm still not sold on Nick Cannon's character, but I probably will be by the end of the week.) Everything about this show is golden, especially the relationships between all the characters. Ava and the baby are great, and shows a less-dramatic side of Ava, which is necessary to become invested in such a high-octane character.
• Pan Am. Full disclosure: I was going through tweets while watching this, so only three-quarters paying attention, but I really enjoyed it. Especially the little we saw of Christina Ricci's character. All the ladies are lovely, to be honest, even if they're driving the idea of an independent woman too hard considering their job is glamorized beyond. I might have issues with romanticized nostalgia, but I still enjoyed the escape.

(-)

• Notably both of Whitney Cummings shows. Whitney's constant stream of defensive rebukes against elitist critics and people who complain about their laughing audience is making me root for the show even less. If they believe in their product, they should let the show talk for itself instead of blaming outside actors for... what? I'm not sure because the show pulled in decent ratings. Posts like this and this only make the show sound bitter. And I really wanted to like 2 Broke Girls. A lot. But I don't. It's full of off-color jokes that hinge on the stereotypes of ethnicity of the characters, and not in a smart, knowing way. It's too busy (do we need to follow Max to both of her jobs so soon?), and we still don't have a vision for who the characters are.
• The positive for this, is that shows, especially comedies, need time to develop their voice. I'm probably giving 2 Broke Girls through the season to pick up their game. I'll sit out Whitney and hope for better reviews.

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• My Sci Fi. Fringe! I loved a lot of things about this premiere, but I didn't feel like it was a very strong opener. Maybe I'm a little too confused as to what universe we're currently residing and how Peter still fits into it. I understand that Olivia still feels him, since she has a hole in her life that she mentioned several times (maybe a few times too many), and Walter's life is obviously still very much influenced by both losses of his son (death as a child, and then the weird Peter-doesn't-exist-anymore twist). I have high hopes that my questions will be answered (even if that leads to more questions, because that what this show does - and then drop questions too often, but I deal).
• Glee. This leans positive. I liked the premiere. The Hummelberry (Kurt/Rachel) would border on gimmicky if they continue to reward this relationship the same amount of airtime all season, but for this one episode it was fine. (There were a couple moments of over-acting, and are we supposed to believe they would feel threatened by a bunch of background tappers? The lead, Glee Project's, Lindsay Pearce, probably, but the background dancers?) I think this episode sets up the season nicely. The presence of the new writers definitely helps the chaos. My dislike for Blaine to move to McKinely (what is the point, from a character perspective? The way the writers treat him is ridiculously Mary Stu-like) is canceled out by the adorable Finchel. (My favorite dinosaur/Jew pairing.) Really, this was just a set-up episode. Solid performances, and did its job.
• The New Girl. I watched this early thanks to the iTunes free download. Even so, I'd seen all the promos, and watching the pilot just felt like a rehash of the jokes. It was fine, good. I can't really remember what I thought. I liked it well enough, I think.

I still haven't seen my Sunday dramas (The Good Wife, Pam Am, and Boardwalk Empire), but after I catch up I will insert it in one of these categories.

Feminism isn't a dirty word.

"In terms of the word feminist, a radical proposal seems in order: It's time to stop fighting over it and retire it as the historical artifact it seems to have become, because whichever side of the definition-debate you're on, it's unlikely your mind will be changed. How abouot we call someone who's a believer in equal rights and respect for personal choice something like a feminine-ista. Kinda like fashionista! A feminine-ista believes that women can work and/or stay at home and rise kids and/or run for president - i.e., make her life as full and gratifying as she can in any way she chooses, all while delighting in her "femininity". Lacy bra wearers unite! -Elle (Sept. 2011) Editor's Letter

As much as I enjoy a good lace bra or floral pattern, I don't expect all women to see the world the same way. It's great that feminine figures and aesthetics have joined the feminist creed in post-feminist ideology, but that does not capture every woman's goals. It's a disturbing trend that as the right goes further right, the perceived middle goes too. They've taken scientific theories and turned them into opinions, helped along by American journalism's propensity to fairness (equal time for two sides, but every story has more than two perspectives). Given science's goal of progress, theories do change (flat Earth, etc.), however they are closer to fact than opinion on the opinion-fact spectrum. What's the point of taking away the word "feminism"? Instead of changing the word, it would be more productive to the cause of equality to change the perception of the word.

You can identify as feminine and be a feminist. You can be masculine, gender-neutral, wear high heels or live in sneakers. The outside of a feminist shouldn't matter. It's the fight for gender equality, and the ability to create yourself as you see fit, whether born man or woman or something else.

As long as there's a sizable population that feels women need to be protected, there is a reason to have feminist counterpoints. Anderson Cooper retweeted a message the other day about the irresponsibility of sending women journalists into dangerous war zones (Libya), in which he replied, "men too?" (or something to that effect - I would link it, but I can't find it). People who think women are just as capable, but shouldn't be placed in danger like a man place us back. There can sometimes be a fine line between generally being polite, and being paternal.

Other reads: Feminists aren't sexist

Looking back by The Man

There's a book released this summer entitled Retromania by music critic Simon Reynolds. I haven't read the book, but I've read reviews. Apparently, we're going through a bit of a nostalgic walk to pop culture past for new material, which is not a new phenomenon, but with the ease in collecting past influences, we've somehow lost the ability for originality. This post isn't really about that, or music, but it did get me thinking about, what I'm going to call, neo period pieces/shows.

The Mad Mens of the television world. Next season we have Playboy and Pam AM to look forward to. I do watch Mad Men and I watched Boardwalk Empire this week. I love both, and I'm planning to watch Pan AM (not sure about Playboy - it's in the realm of possibility). I also watched Downton Abbey pilot this week too, and excited to start The Hour sometime soon (both are British shows). I've never been a huge fan of period books, film, or shows. I never swooned over Mr. Darcy, or appreciated the outdated gender roles.

One troubling aspect that is often ignored with period pieces is casting and the lack of complex roles for minorities. (Not to say that contemporary shows do a great job, but there are different obstacles in writing for a diverse cast with the intricacies of humanity when the races were more segregated and Hollywood just wants to tell the tale of the good ole' white man. For more on minority representation in movies here's a post.) Or at least, it shows an even more hierarchical representation of race, if there are other races at all.

The excuse that it's just entertainment can only carry you for so long. Entertainment is a way of representing the world , and for the most part, it's the world inhabited by white men (usually good looking, usually heterosexual) with people of color and females as their supporting characters. This world isn't post-racial, it isn't post-gender, and it will never be perfect, but as they say, it can be perfected. Every new movie, every new story is another block in how we see ourselves, and how history will see us. By looking back so often, it excuses the responsibility to incorporating racial diversity into the story in meaningful ways. There's the black maid, or another subservient character. Mad Men is incredibly infuriating in this way because even though it takes place in the middle of the civil rights movement, they have decided to overlook this milestone in American history to tell the story of the misunderstood ennui of white middleclass at the time (both male and female). A prime critique of second-wave feminism is its focus on white women's problems and ignores both working class and minority struggles.

As an Asian American female, I can't say I see many images that look like me. I barely see any female characters in general that behave like me. (I suppose I could watch more foreign language films from Asia, but the Vietnamese entertainment business isn't very productive, and I don't relate to the Japanese or Korean image at all, plus I'm not surrounded by Asians in my real life. Just thoughts.) But thus far I haven't seen any Asian characters in these recent period pieces. It's probably more problematic for many British pieces since they have a longer history to look back on, much of which lacking any racial diversity with limited, or no, immigration.

Reviews: Pop Matters, The Atlantic, Salon

Clarification on 006.

The original thesis to that mess of a ramble was that there is an excess supply of performers and a shortage supply of other workers today. We hear "follow your dreams" and often times, dreams are linked to the entertainment business, are more connected to the aesthetics of life than the actual running of social and technical infrastructure.

I am a proponent of arts education, and I don't mean to say that the arts have no place in this world. Of course it does, but so does math, english, computer science, economics, finance, scientific research, even politics and government.

We become so enamored in all things arts (and the celebrity that sometimes comes with it) that we lose track of some of the more necessary jobs in the world. With the croppings of non-competitive reality shows and tabloid culture, I feel like entertainment for some is less about escapism and more about aspirations.

More likely, I'm just a cynical jealous person in front of a computer.

006. Entertainers rule the new frontier.

How has it been a month since I last posted? Time slips away when you're enjoying zero responsibility of being unemployed and living at home. (Though I have been working on job applications so that I can no longer be living at home and visiting friends in the vicinity.)

For the past few weeks I have been enamoured with show business, both in front, and behind, the scenes. I'm the type of person who becomes very interested and moves from topic to topic, though they come in political/current event, culture/entertainment, and sometimes fashion blocks. Right now I'm in an entertainment block, mostly television, so take that what you will.

I started this post as a second-part to my last post about meeting celebrities (but really, what does one say, even at an event specifically created for meeting said celebrity) because I find our (me included) fascination with the entertainment (and athletic for some) world takes from the productivity of the overall globe. You can say that productivity is a loaded term that only makes sense in a consumption-based mentality that is not natural or healthy, however there is more to the world than art and sports.

It's a pet peeve of mine that entertainment is the most promoted industry, and thus the most admired. Not to belittle the profession, but they are merely reflecting the hard work that the rest of the world endures and get all the credit.

The majority of us are anonymous beings, bringing whatever our skills are, to the world, one bit at a time (no pun intended, computer people). Mostly, the people outside our localities we see are actors, maybe musicians or athletes, and lately they've been reality television stars or the new royal couple. We see prodigies, and feel a sense of failure for the lack of accomplishment at such a young age. We're enticed by snippets of a life we've conjured up from half-truths of interviews and scenes.

I am part of the problem, but I do think we should aspire to value academic achievement in more than just words. I understand why our cumulative attention is focused on entertainment and athletics. Evolutionarily speaking, we aren't built for so much knowledge about people outside the community circle. Now the community is global, and the people we see on a regular basis, whether it be on television, film, or at the game, become part of our mental community. They become our heroes.

The topic has gotten away from me, which is what I get for sitting on this post for a month.

We know because of our culture's negative attitude toward nerds, our kids are discouraged from being bookish from an early age. We also know that there is a high drop out rate for college students in nerdy subjects such as science and math, which in turn affects how the country competes globally in fields such as medicine and engineering. So to me, there can be no innovation and job creation talks without talking about education.

They see the loudest applause is for the kids on the field. They know teachers are paid poorly and don't drive fancy cars. They know people plan Super Bowl parties but mock the National Spelling Bee.

Why I'm raising my son as nerd (CNN)

Links.

Michel Schur, Parks and Recreation executive producer, walks us through season 3.

I adore this show, and this four-part interview has only solidified by love. Mike talks about how he researches the political aspects of this half-hour comedy, remaining true to the characters instead of 'selling out' for ratings, and other breeds of politics and tv writing that makes me want to walk a day in his brain.

005. Celebrity sightings

Meeting celebrities is always so odd and uncomfortable. You're seeing these people you feel like you know but they don't know you and it's just weird, how awful is that feeling? Only me? It's these people you wish you were friends with, but they don't really care (as much as anyone says I love my fans it's a different meaning than when fans say I love [blank]) and the relationship between the two is just so juxtaposed it makes me uncomfortable. It's such a unusual dynamic, one I don't think evolution (yes, I believe in evolution) has caught up with, and I don't know how it would. We've out-paced what the natural environment is meant to achieve. On one hand, there's a person who believes they know this other person, but they don't. They watch a character, read rumors, and watch interviews, tricking themselves into knowing someone they probably don't. It's so bizarre and unnatural. (I am very much guilty of this habit from time to time.)

This probably says more about my socially awkward nature than my feelings about fan/celebrity interactions. What do I say? How do I say it? Should I ask for a picture? Autograph? Avoid eye contact? How often do you have to hear "I love [your show, your music, you, etc.] before it gets tiring? Wouldn't you just want some time to be a normal human being without having to talk about your job all the time to strangers and not be able to buy some groceries? I think I would rather have a nice conversation than a photo, but why would a stranger want to stop their life for a few minutes to speak to me about nothing because we haven't established any connections yet? It's all a very convoluted experiment, so I would probably just try to take a sneak picture, feel rude, and later regret not saying anything. That's not very gracious of me, but it's more natural than making eye contact and trying to be a normal conversationalist for me.

Celebrities, if you see this, please come up to me instead of me having to come up to you. It's like asking someone on a date, you don't want to be rejected or thought poorly of. Really, I just want a job that gives me an excuse to go up to them. I would make the awful kind of celebrity that would want to stay private and get ungraciously annoyed and rude at cameras and camera phones being in my face all the time.

Still, being recognized, just a few times, is on my bucket list. I have no control over this particular item, but it's there all the same. I never wanted to be famous (only rich), but now I feel like part of being famous is just having people want to be your friend or admire you in some fashion (I know that's not all, or even most, of it, but it's part) and it would be nice to have someone want to be your friend or to be admired.

Check out: "Fame connects Joan of Arc to Britney Spears" (NPR)

Edit: I find text-only posts to be slightly boring, but I don't want to post any pictures of me.

004. Love Letter to America

{photo from GOOD}

My politics may be progressive, but I love my often-flawed country. I think we too often cave to fear of the different, but that it's human nature, and as a country of immigrants, it's, unfortunately, easier to fall into traps of division. The inequality gap may be growing at an alarming rate, women may not make equal pay for equal work, homosexuals may not be able to serve honestly in our military or have marriage rights in most of the country, the poor may be unrepresented, the wealthy may own our elections, but my father was born into a poor farming family in Vietnam and my mom's family lost their store after the end of the war. Now I'm a graduate from a liberal arts college with ripe opportunities if I went searching. I can spend someone's month's salary on one coffee at an overpriced chain shop that has taken over the globe if I wanted. I can shout into the netherworld because of some magical electromagnetic something-or-other about whatever I wanted. I could say I hated this country and not fear repercussions (mostly).

I'm not disillusioned about our imperfections, but I love my country none-the-less.

Happy birthday, home and native land of mine.

003. Hobbies

I started this post before Coco tweeted this today, but I will take advantage of this coincidence.

Did people have more hobbies in earlier periods? Now, we have the conveniences of the internet to interact with other people, television to watch, we can even get our music without talking to a soul. Kids weren't sitting in front of the television or computer, so hobbies probably started younger. I played baseball, soccer, and did some ballet as a child, but nothing stuck (which I blame my parents, but I should take some of the blame - some advice parents, sometimes you just have to push through a stubborn phase and make your kids have a hobby). Now my hobbies include reading short and long form news articles, analyzing my favorite shows until it's dead and I don't want to think about them anymore, cutting out magazines and making collages, thrift shopping, listening to podcasts and music, following the craft of showrunning, and journaling/blogging. I also read books from time and time and watch movies. I don't 'game', though I'm not against it and I've been eyeing my sister's guitar in the living room, maybe I'll try to learn a few chords.

Keeping a record of all this is supposed to be motivate me to be more than words.

002. Remember to practice

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through." Ira Glass

Often, I feel like I'm disadvantaged because of my lack of experience and extracurricular. I've always been on the shy, introverted side of life, feeling more comfortable in my pajamas than in a cocktail dress (metaphorically, I love dressing up - maybe it would be more accurate to say I am more comfortable on my couch than in the club?). But I'm still young and still have changes, and I have good taste. Right?

This isn't about writing like I stated. It's about having a stream of conscious and continue to push to finding... something.

001. What I did on my summer vacation.

I think I want to write. I'm not particularly gifted with words and I never think it's good enough, which is why I barely update. I will start a post and then delete it because I feel like it's only partially fleshed out. I often stumble through conversations and come up with things I want to say at 3 o'clock in the morning trying to sleep instead of in the moment. These are things I hope other people go through, so I have a little hope.

I wrote my college essay about television as a form of storytelling, which might be a "duh" statement, but tv is often overlooked in media studies because of its start as merely long-form advertising. I prefer the television format over film because of length and ability for subtly. There's time to learn the characters and understand behavior, at least if done well.

One goal for the summer is to write a spec script. I have no idea how and it probably won't be good (or exist), but in case the career path I am eventually swept under doesn't fulfill my soul the way society tells me it's supposed to, I can try to be a tv writer. Also, I will try to write more in this little blog (but I want to change the name, again, because I have always been exceptionally fickle when it comes to user names - I changed my AOL name at least once every couple weeks as a child). I should 'practice' writing in public (regardless if anyone reads or not). I've been actively journaling since I was in fifth grade and went through a year or two of melodramatic poetry-writing in middle school as we all have, but my creativity has shrunk as my self-awareness (read: self-consciousness) has grown to insurmountable heights.

Inspiration for this post: Mindy Kaling quote (does anyone know the original source?), comedy showrunner rountable, Dan Harmon talks through season two of Community, WTF podcast, any number of process interviews floating around.

Edit: Have I mentioned my inconvenient habit of editing posts after I've published them? I do it often, even on Tumblr when no one will see the edited version because of the dashboard format, I will edit my commentary and tags constantly. Which is, I guess, to say I write/blog as a release for myself more than to be heard/read. But I wanted to clarify that I don't really know what I mean by "I want to write". I don't know what that entails for me, whether it be fiction, script, or journalism. I s'pose I just wanted to guide myself to vomit words more frequently because even though I don't feel quite proficient at it (even after four years of a liberal arts education), it does lift the weird little burdens my internal dialogue builds up.