Skip to main content

Racial Negotiation in the TV Show Being Human

Spoilers ahead...maybe.

I watched the first two episodes of Being Human.

In a story very similar to the Will Smith version of I, Robot, a detective is investigating a crime organization that took out his partner and other law enforcement of the LAPD while at the same time battling his dislike of his mandated partner android.

A sphere says to a cuboid, "Don't look now."
Out of Line 1-1
Familiarity aside, I'd like to focus on the juggling of characterization that seems to be going on here (though I may be wrong in my conclusions). Detective Kennex doesn't like androids. He doesn't trust them and doesn't want to work with them. They show his dislike when he returns to the force after a stint of rehabilitation. His superior informs him that he has to have a partner who is an android (and here we learn that he might have learned his prejudice from his father?). They don't get along, the android gets invasive, and Kennex shoves him out of a moving car.

Okay, so he gets a new partner android--Dorian--that's one of the older model not used any more because of their overemotional tendencies. Dorian's played by a black actor, though of course, an android wouldn't have a race or ethnicity. I think the writers, however, were aware of the implications of the white detective having a prejudice against what is, for all intents and purposes, is a black man. This is particularly dicey when Kennex uses a 'slur' against his partner--'synthetic.'

Sphere says, "A rectangular prism..."
Out of Line 1-2
So how do the writers show us that this prejudice is specifically against androids and not against black people? Well, one they make his first android partner a 'Caucasian' model so that when the detective disposes of him, we see that he definitely has problems with all robots, not specific ones.

Second, they make his girlfriend a woman of ambiguous ethnicity (though she looks black). So this pushes him over the edge from just tolerating other ethnicities to having absolutely no problems with race.

So why did they make the black woman a villain? Why go through all that trouble
Sphere: "They should all be drug out and burned."
Out of Line 1-3
of letting us know that Kennex isn't a racist while at the same time making the black woman behind all the bad things that has happened in his life? On top of this, there's the issue of another detective on the force that Kennex is interested in. She's not black...

On the other hand, the second episode has android sex companions...and Kennex does not seem averse to them (a prominently shown one has the appearance of being of black descent). I guess that means it's only in the law enforcement role that he has a problem with androids.

Sphere: "Thanks for being my friend, cuboid."
Out of Line 1-4
Yet this is mainly on the surface. I have no idea what the ex-girlfriend's true role will be in the show. She might not even be the villain; it just appears like this as of the first episode (the story had nothing to do with the Syndicate in the second episode, though I also noticed that Kennex's description of his ideal woman left out eye color). Shoudl I get into the whole 'crazy' black guy paired with the anal-retentive white guy? Maybe not. I just thought that how writers chose to deal with race nowadays was interesting and complicated...and sometimes convoluted.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sacramento Comic Con Talk: Black Panther, Star Trek

I'm attending the Comic Con tour at Sacramento. It's all very nerdy and kind of over the top to me. Josh is having fun, though, so I guess it's worth it. I went to the film festival that showcases local filmmakers and their films. They had a special panel by a professor and two of her students from Sac State. The professor discussed Star Trek and its multi-racial characters since she, the professor, was biracial. One of the students analyzed the recent Black Panther (2011) animated series from the standpoint of how inferior black males are usually portrayed in media. The other student looked at the first two Alien movies and how they blended gender, 'queer' gender roles. Of course, the first two talks were much more interesting to me than the latter. Yet it got me to thinking. In the Black Panther series, they gave a new history for a subset of blacks. One that didn't involve poverty or slavery or oppression. On the other hand, in the Star Trek series, black...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Kevin Hart Train

For the moment it seems that Mr. Hart is very hot. He has proven that he can carry a movie. More importantly, he can sell a movie outside the 'urban' community (how does urban translate to blacks? Do rural blacks not count somehow?). Yes, Mr. Hart is on the rise. He's taken advantage of that momentum and positioned himself most favorably and profitably in upcoming high-profile comedies. He's even doing a movie next year with Josh Gad that sounds much like Hitch -- a Will Smith vehicle. Hart's strategy is clearly to be as broad and commercial as possible, which I think will work...if he paces himself. I'm just seeing a lot of him these days. On top of that, in every movie he's playing the same kind of character. That brash, screechy tomfoolery cowardly sort. When he plays a more subtle character, I notice that those movies don't do so well. That's a not so good thing in Hart's favor. Slowing down and choosing roles more carefully--ones that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Caesar Chavez Trailer

My first impressions for the Caesar Chavez trailer... There was no Spanish--I guess to not scare away the Americans. No strong narrative either. The trailer is kind of unfocused. Trying to tell two different kinds of stories--biography and civil rights drama. I'd pick the civil rights drama for the first trailer. That's compelling and makes us ask questions about the man behind the revolution. Lastly, did any of the women speak? An odd message there.
Post a Comment
Read more