Dollhouse 1x01

[oyceter]

Dear Joss,

While it's nice that you have an Actual Asian Person (TM) in your cast, it would be even better if you would stop using things like Asian teapots, hotels, clothes, and geisha (who seem to, like all the others, act as scenery in your world) while populating the surroundings with all white people.

No love,
Another Actual Asian Person (TM)

Spoilers

I will probably keep watching for now, because despite the extremely sketchy premise, the amnesia and the doll bits are right up my manga kink alley.

On the other hand, WOW sketchy racial politics! We have Latino victim/businessmen, threatened by a Latino gang, disembodied Asian artifacts set in a world of white people, and even more white people with all the power and control! And another white person investigating. (see ETA)

And a single black man, who though I like so far as a character, have almost zero faith in his development.

I know I read as very cynical and angry. I love Buffy, but I feel that with each continuing product, Joss gets more and more problematic, like he spent all his feminist cred on Buffy (hello, Angel) and then basically just stopped thinking about anything past what floats his own boat, id-wise. It's lucky for us that some of it involves women with guns, but at this point, I'd like a little less crazy brunette and a little more of something else.

Also, the writing in Dollhouse wasn't so great—clunky As-You-Know-Bob's, not much humor or wit, and characters who I feel I've seen in many other Joss shows before (hello Warren! hello damaged brunette out to get her abuser! hello Lilah! hello Wolfram & Hart! hello police guy who vaguely looks like Nathan Fillion!).

ETA: Wait, FBI guy is Helo? Wow, I am out of it fannishly. OK, another plus for a POC actor, and I am crossing my fingers that they are not doing the "multiracial person coded as white" and actually write the agent as POC.

ETA2: And apparently the Spanish is not so much with the grammatical! Why am I not surprised?

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, yes! The neon pagoda! How could I miss the neon pagoda! ::facepalm::

Although I admit I was too busy being horrified by Echo's just-below-the-hairline minidress to notice the Mandarin collars and such.

My sense is that all the Engagements are going to be plot fodder for a while, but I understand your frustration about the father being taken out of the way so the white people could get their heroic on. Not to mention the guy on the phone's accent. Jeez.

[oyceter]

The Mandarin collars I think were on the uniforms of some of the Dollhouse staff? Most of the costuming in the neon pagoda was teeny party clothes (and yes to the horror of the minidress!).

I.. yeah. I mean, I get that there is going to be a lot of Monster of the Week with the Engagements, but that is why it would be nice if some more of the regulars were POC. Sigh. (Not angry with you; angry with the casting.)

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I don't know how he identifies, but the actor playing the cop obsessed with proving that Dollhouse exists, Tamoh Penniket, is partly of First Nations ancestry (his mother is a member of the White Horse Nation).

[oyceter]

I just realized that after reading other comments and feel dumb! I am very much hoping that the show writes his character as POC.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I am very much hoping that the show writes his character as POC.

It would be nice, yes. I'm not sure, but I think that the First Nations/American Indian perspective is not explored as often in US media as it is in Canadian media (not that what we do here is necessarily adequate, or always well-done). So to have the perspective of an urban First Nations person (who doesn't "look the part") would really be interesting.

Not that I believe Whedon is going to do it.

I mean, I liked Buffy, and Angel, and Firefly and Serenity despite many manifest problems, but... he's never been very good with race issues.

[oyceter]

Yeah... That is mostly my take. Like, I am very glad a First Nations actor is getting more screen time and getting paid and etc! But I am also wary by the media's general tendency to take mixed-race actors who can pass as white and proceeding to erase their identity (not a judgment about the actors themselves, given the sucktastic atmosphere in film and TV for POC actors, and I think they are stuck between a rock and a hard place).

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

But I am also wary by the media's general tendency to take mixed-race actors who can pass as white and proceeding to erase their identity

Yes. This is a problem.

Heck, even with an actor who can pass as white and who can reasonably be assumed to be highly assimilated, you can still toss in something in the way the character is presented that tells us that the character is aware of being mixed-race, even if that character is passing. Which adds a level of consciousness of race issues to the character.

[oyceter]

Yes, exactly! As opposed to what they normally do, which is give the character an all-white family. Sigh.

[cofax7]

I would be very very surprised if they did so.

[oyceter]

Yeeaaaaah. Me too. I am grumpy because there is the cred of casting a POC actor without actually having to deal with the POC-ness, but I also do not want to assume the character is white and reinforce the white as default thing. But I am also totally cynical and think that the character is meant to be read as white by the show's audience.

[cofax7]

I will bet you lunch at Chez Panisse that they will never ever reference his First Nations identity in this show.

I am that cynical.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

I will bet you lunch at Chez Panisse that they will never ever reference his First Nations identity in this show.

I agree.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Judging from the ratings, they could be planning on centering the entire fourth episode on his First Nations identity (I wouldn't bet on that, mind you) and we'd never see it.

[oyceter]

Oh, I am too. I mean, I have wishes, but pretty much zero faith in Joss' racial politics, and even less given how most mixed-race actors' roles are written on TV.

[em-h.livejournal.com]

I would bet a large amount of money that Penikett's character will be written white. I hope otherwise -- a potentially rounded and complex First Nations character who is not a Wise Shaman, how fantastic would that be -- but it's a very, very thin hope.

[oyceter]

I... yeah. I am pretty much betting so too.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That is awesome, and I'm pleased, especially since I sort of like him.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't think you were angry with me.

I said elsewhere that I think that Joss believes in feminism and self-identifies as a feminist without being willing to see or address his male privilege most of the time. Sadly, I don't think that he's gone even THAT far, with respect to race.