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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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Date: 2010-09-20 09:54 pm (UTC)Second, I have to note that I'm kind of peeved at the Free Range Kids gal being treated as a statistical expert. I'd rather have the article quote someone she got her numbers from, you know?
Third, one thing that's changed as far as I can tell in terms of the subjective nature of risk assessment is neighborhoods. My parents knew their neighbors, more or less, even when they were transient student rentals. My parents now live about ten blocks away from where I grew up, but they don't seem to know their neighbors as well.
I'm not particularly qualified to say much more, because I grew up in dense college-town suburbia and now live and parent in an urban setting, so it's hard for me to tell what's changed across-the-board in terms of community organization (both spatial and interpersonal) and what hasn't.
I'd feel uncomfortable letting my kids run around my neighborhood without supervision not because of kidnapping fears, but because of traffic--the same reason, more or less, that I have indoor cats. Our yard has a water feature that can't be fenced off, so no running around the back yard unsupervised either. We don't have a front yard. So we go on a lot of walks and we drive or take public transit to parks a lot.
There has definitely been a change in parenting expectations, too. You're expected to have a much higher level of engagement, especially with younger children, than I remember being true during my childhood. This is the aspect that I find most creepily intrusive. Independent play, and lots of it, was crucial to me. I was definitely not neglected by my mother sitting by a tree reading her book while I ran around.
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Date: 2010-09-21 02:49 am (UTC)Also - you're absolutely right on the neighborhoods thing too. As I grew and my 'free range' area increased, I now realize that I personally knew at least one person on every block that got added, whom I would not hesitate to ring their doorbell if I needed help of whatever kind - bathroom, bandaid, bullying kids, anything. That was almost certainly a factor for my parents.