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sundries
I've also seen a bit of discussion about the presentation of race in the series (notably, an early sequence showing a white band in black-face). Yes, it's historically accurate. But, that doesn't make it unreasonable for people to talk about how it makes them uncomfortable or whether or not showing this moment is necessary to the construction of the show. It's not appropriate to dismiss that conversation, even if you ultimately disagree with the conclusions any particular person involved in it reaches.
I really, really did not know what to do with "Number 5". Is this Angel does Tarrantino? How much of this is as things happen in a supernatural reality and how much of this is as heightened (un)reality narrative bias? Is this racist? Should Whedon ever be allowed near anything that pretends to be about South American or Latin American or Hispanic cultures? Ever? Because I remember "Inca Mummy Girl" and so do you. On the other hand, it had such a small, gentle, touching ending, and I do like the idea that everyone, even the dude you think it just a punchline has an important, meaningful story and deserves your respect.
The Wesley's robot dad episode has its own set of problems. Namely, robot ninjas raining from the sky. Ninjas are a crappy shortcut in terms of narrative and racial presentation (faceless Asian horde, seriously?). On the other hand, the performances knock this out of the park -- we see the awkward Wesley we remember from Buffy, we see a man who is both too ruthless (Wes, just because you have nothing left to live for and would happily give up your life for the greater good, doesn't mean everyone else is on that page) and too generous (for fuck's sake, TELL FRED) to be happy, and, ultimately, we see a man who doesn't know quite what to think about his own childhood. Was his father merely cruel (not that words don't do a lot of damage) or as was referenced in an episode way back (Patty had to remind me) actually physically abusive? What makes Wesley the worse man? the desire to connect with his father or the desire to kill him? None of this works without Alexis Denisof being able to run rings around a simple script (again, ninjas? must we?).
This is also an episode that speaks, again, to so much of early Torchwood -- Wesley and Angel touching base after a night of professional disasters. Wesley, worrying about how their fearless, remote, miserable leader is doing, more than being worried about his own pain related to robot
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But, 6th grade (a couple months after the above incident) was when I was allowed to start taking the bus home by myself. In 8th grade I was allowed to take the bus to school, but I was, under no circumstances, allowed to take the subway to school. Until the following year. (I started taking the subway on the weekends, though. Often I would take the bus anyway because I knew the routes better.)
I felt very restricted in my freedom as a tween and teen, but mostly out of comparison with my older brother. The problem there was that he had lots of friends in nearby neighborhoods, I did not. So where my brother's friends were a short walk or bus ride away, my friends pretty much required the subway, or at least two buses. So it was a weird combo of accessibility and supply. I'm sure there was also some sexism involved, as it's a lot easier to worry about a 5' tall teenage girl than it is to worry about a 6'2 teenage boy.
I was, however, allowed to go to Boston the summer before my senior year of high school. I was accepted at the Berklee College of Music songwriting and guitar sessions, a week a piece. There was no supervision to speak of, and I definitely got up to shenanigans that my parents wouldn't have appreciated, but probably expected. My mother's sole request of me was, "Don't ever go to someone's house." Which, honestly, is pretty good advice for any seventeen-year-old going to another city.
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