I’m not here to say why Sandra Oh, the first woman of Asian descent nominated for an Emmy as a leading actress in a drama, should have won and that she was robbed. I’m not here to pit her against the other women in the category, and I’m not here to come for Claire Foy. Actually, I love The Crown, and I love Foy in it. Congrats, Claire and thanks for the Sandra shout-out.
I didn’t know two years ago I’d be itching for new Doctor Who content. I’d quit the show after season 7 and many people’s impressions of 8 left me wanting, so I dropped it from my very full TV schedule. It always going to be one of my favorite shows, even if I took a break every now and then, but with the announcement of Pearl Mackie as Bill and her glorious fro, I jumped back into the TARDIS and haven’t left since.
Continue reading “13 Thoughts I Had After the ‘Doctor Who’ SDCC Panel”
I came to Doctor Who in 2013, after my cousin Robyn came to my house to commandeer the television for the 50th anniversary of the show. I had only vaguely heard of Who at the time and was wary about delving in deeper because I was sure I would get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of episodes there were. However, after sitting with my cousin to watch “The Day of the Doctor” — and with her assurance that I could start with New Who and not wade all the way back through episodes from the ‘60s — I decided to take the leap into time and space.
There is no doubt that representation in media has grown significantly in the past couple years if not the past year alone. We had Black Panther in early 2018 where almost everyone was a person of color (I’m comfortable saying 90% including extras) and Crazy Rich Asians coming out in August 2018. Though we have yet to see how many people of color are in Crazy Rich Asians, I can assume it will be significant judging by the trailer.
While I am excited about this shift in movies, I am a TV girl. Thankfully we are also seeing growth in television with shows like Black Lightning and One Day at a Time. We’re slowly creating a collection of shows that will allow us to choose more carefully what we consume instead of being stuck with the same shows representing for everybody (not sure how many times I’ve watched Merlin).
So when I saw the previews for Killing Eve, I thought heck yeah. An Asian lead, majority female cast, a black female character, everything was there to make this a show with good representation. And then we met Eve’s husband who is white. And her former boss BIll (who’s married to an Asian woman) is white. And the love interest for Elena is a white man. And Villanelle’s handler is white. That’s when I realized that every significant man in the show was white and the only men of color we’ve met so far were basically perverts and both of them were Chinese. One of the men was into BDSM (which does not make one a pervert but is often shown in that light) and the other wouldn’t take Eve’s No for what it was and instead demanded she go on a date with him if she wanted to learn any information.
Warning: Spoilers up to Episode 4
Continue reading “‘Killing Eve’ and the Centering of Whiteness”
Originally posted at CAAMedia
When it’s all said and done, 2016 may go down as the year Hollywood finally recognized Asian Americans. At least that’s what actor Osric Chau hopes. The Canadian-born actor — best known to fans as Kevin Tran on The CW’s Supernatural and now as one of the stars of BBC America’s newest hit, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency — recently returned from Lisbon, Portugal where he was speaking on diversity in media as a part of Web Summit, one of the largest tech-focused conferences in the world.
In an environment dominated by innovation and technology, Chau realized society at large had to take on similar thinking. “We’re surrounded by thousands of companies that are really pushing our society forward and we have to do the same thing with tolerance,” Chau said. “It’s not just about ‘tolerating’ one another anymore; it’s about accepting people, making diversity a normal thing.”
Continue reading “Thirsty for Representation: Osric Chau on TV and Diversity”
Originally published at Geeks Out
This month marks the three year anniversary of the series finale of the BBC’s Merlin. By no means is it an all-time favorite show and more than a few formulaic eps I could’ve done without. But the show had its charms and when it brought it’s A-game, the show delivered moments that were nothing short of magic. See what I did there?
All the same, I find myself plagued with all the feels. So much so that it’s forced me to break out into song.
In honor of #BlackSpeculativeFictionMonth
[Scene: Attending a party where friends are discussing their favorite Doktah.]
Partygoer 1: I love the Classic Who’s. Tom Baker is my guy.
Partygoer 2: Eccleston, through and through.
Partygoer 3: Tennant. The only 10 I see.
Partygoer 4: My Doctor was Eleven. Denny, who is your favorite Doctor
Denny: stops typing on iPhone Huh?
Partygoer 4: Who’s your favorite Doctor?
Denny: Oh that’s easy. Dr. Martha Jones, followed closely by 10.
Resumes typing on iPhone and departs while others stand in confusion.
Two of this year’s big Emmy stories split the difference between our PoCness and our nerdiness. You’ve probably heard about the Game of Thrones’ record-breaking wins, and it helps that Viola Davis’ historic win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama is a NOC favorite due to her upcoming role in the DC Cinematic Universe.
Continue reading “In a Typically Weak Year for Nerdy Emmy Noms, NOCs Still Garner Big Wins”
In this week’s video, I talk about internal/external conflict and decision-making conflict vs. kill-all-the-bad-guys conflict using the BBC America science-fiction series Orphan Black and the Disney/Pixar film Brave as examples. Continue reading On Conflict in Brave and Orphan Black
On Saturday, at 11:50 Pacific Time, the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who, “The Day of the Doctor,” premiered in homes and movie theaters worldwide via simulcast. The Nerds of Color held a live-tweet during the entire 75-minute episode, dishing with other Twitter Whovians about the War Doctor, the charm and cheek battle between Ten vs. Eleven, all the surprise twists, the winningest quotes, and of course… the surprise guest star appearing near the end of the episode.
Here are some highlights (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT):
Here we go! Wow, old school theme song! ooooWEEEEooooo #TheDayOfTheDoctor #DoctorWho50th #NOCtorWho
— The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) November 23, 2013
Continue reading “Live-Tweets from Doctor Who‘s 50th Anniversary Special”
“The Night of the Doctor,” secret webisode by Steven Moffat
The mini-episode starts chaotically, with a brown-haired British girl at the helm of a crashing spaceship. It takes us a couple seconds to realize that it is not Clara, the current companion to the Eleventh Doctor. Her name is Cass, and she is very brave and snarky even in the face of certain death, which makes her prime companion material. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
A flash! Then a very familiar face appears on board.
At this point, all of Who-fandom raised their fists into the air, growling “MOFFAT! I love you, you sneaky bastard!” This webisode was a complete surprise, you see, and now we are getting the feeling that this is a direct prequel to the 50th Anniversary episode premiering in 9 days.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Doctor Who: Which Who? That Who!”
If you have ever eaten fish sticks and custard or felt the urge to stroke a blue police box and call it “Sexy,” you probably have November 23 circled in TARDIS blue on your calendar. That is the worldwide premiere date for “The Day of the Doctor,” a special episode of Doctor Who meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the epic British sci-fi drama.
