There’s always a formula when it comes to romantic comedy sitcoms — boy meets girl. Girl isn’t interested in boy. Boy is determined to win her heart and succeeds. Hilarity ensues. The formula does work, but it does become tiring when there’s no substance behind it. Having the hot-wife-bland-husband-with-annoying-in-laws can only take you so far on television nowadays.
Continue reading “‘Bob Hearts Abishola’ Finds Common Ground Through Love”
For this episode of Southern Fried Asian, Keith talks to his friend, the New York Times-bestselling author Jamie Ford, and learning about his southern roots in Arkansas. Consider this Southern-adjacent Fried Asian.
I once heard the great political philosopher and activist Angela Davis argue that Americans are so obsessed with race as an identifying feature that when we meet racially ambiguous people, we are anxious until we know on which side of the color line they fall. Upon hearing this, I was relieved by the articulation of something I had suspected was at the heart of my experience. It was like experiencing great art, that rush of adrenaline that comes with recognizing what we’ve known all along presented as fantastically new.
Continue reading “The ‘Heights’ of Anxiety and the Color Line: Racial Ambiguity in a Culture of Absolutes”
This weekend marks 20 years since the release of the epic action film, Romeo Must Die. Starring Jet Li and the late Aaliyah, the two star in this modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet as their mob leader fathers rival it out in an increasingly violent mob war in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Continue reading “The Kiss(es) That Should Have Happened in ‘Romeo Must Die’”
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 Just Add Color
The last time I wrote about Into the Badlands on this site, I was… distressed. Veil died in the Season 2 finale, after being tortured for basically the entire season.
Continue reading “Three Reasons Why I’m Giving ‘Into the Badlands’ Another Shot”
Originally posted at Just Add Color
Into the Badlands is coming into its second season March 19, and even though we’re psyched about the level of action and and suspense, we’re also focused on the family aspect of the show, which is worrying about how Sunny’s going to get back to his family, Veil and their newborn baby.
Continue reading “Fans Sound Off on Into the Badlands Couple Sunny and Veil”
Originally posted at COLOR
Hip hop hooray, Richonne (Rick and Michonne) is now officially canon in The Walking Dead! And, as luck would have it, such a development has happened in one of the most hallowed of months, Black History Month.
This didn’t go unnoticed by many on Twitter:
Continue reading “Three Reasons Why #Richonne is a Black History Month Gift”
