So there wasn't much feminist-y news that I wanted to talk about... so I'm going to do a couple more reviews.
First off... I think it's awesome that there are so many female driven comedies now. 2 debuted just this week: Powerless on NBC and the darker comedy The Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix.
Powerless
Let's start off with Powerless because I think that's kind of important. I'm going to do a review about the episode itself on my Scribbles About Life blog sometime soon... and I think I'll even do a tie in on my beauty blog too because I loved the makeup Vanessa Hudgens had on in the episode... but moving on.
Anyway, I thought they did a really good job showing women in charge. The super hero at the beginning of the show was a woman, there were lots of women working at Wayne on inventions, and the Vanessa Hudgens character, Emily, was hired as the boss. I think that's pretty cool because when I was growing up women weren't really in super hero movies. There were some supporting roles like Batgirl and some villains like Catwoman and Poison Ivy... but this shows woman taking charge in a more positive way.
It's also really good because even though they got the very beautiful Vanessa Hudgens as the lead, they didn't sexualize her at all. I remember when I was in High School there was a Facebook game that the guy I liked invited me to play and you got to create your own superhero... but the costumes of the men were super buff and muscly and the women were all super skinny with giant boobs... and it just kind of made me feel uncomfortable that THAT Is how they showed the characters in the game. This show didn't do that. It showed men and women that are more realistic working at Wayne. It wasn't all super beautiful people... the men and women weren't all super buff and muscly looking or anything... I thought that was a good way to show the world of this show because...as I said, I didn't have that growing up.
And I don't know if this show is going to be entirely family friendly... but I would say the pilot was fine. Idk how many kids will really like it because it wasn't all super hero stuff... but I think I would have liked it as a kid.
The Santa Clarita Diet
Now for something definitely not family friendly! The new Netflix show, The Santa Clarita diet! Full review of this on Scribbles About Life for Wednesday... but this kind of showed female empowerment in a very different way. Drew Barrymore's character Shelia becomes a zombie... and she eats people... but she becomes more of a confident and powerful person.
I kind of thought this show was going in a different direction at the start of the season: Spoilers- I thought her husband was the one that tried to kill her because in the beginning when she dies, he hugs her with a smile on his face and seems kind of sadly shocked that she is still alive. I think maybe these themes will show up again further on in the show because they still didn't explain how exactly she died and her husband Joel talks about "bashing her brains in" if he has to kill her... so even though based on Joel's storyline this season it seems kind of unlikely... it would make enough sense to me if that happened.
There definitely seemed to be a lot of themes of repression in the first few episodes... It shows women in an anti-hero kind of way doing very bad and gross things... and that's good. Again... they don't show many zombie comedies like this.
They did sort of play it like it was a little bit cute and quirky that Sheila was a zombie which they might not have done with a man... but it's still a different portrayal of women than every other show.
It also showed the importance of being a wife and mother, particularly under stressful times and through terrible diseases. She really tries to make things normal for her daughter... and she embraces it when she knows it never will be normal for their family and still tries to get her daughter to do the right thing.
So... this is a weird one, but still kind of weirdly empowering? And it shows men and women as equals, and equality is very important!
Crazy Ex Girlfriend Finale
So this show was always kind of about mental health issues... but this episode this episode where I thought it was most blatant.
And in a Facebook live after the show creator Rachel Bloom said that she wanted the show to be a deconstructed Romantic Comedy. A lot of movies show men trying to "get the girl" by moving across the country and doing crazy things... but in reality there are issues attached to that. So... it's an interesting take on the reality of the situation, I guess?
It was interesting, and there's definitely a different dynamic and theme to the show every year... they actually pitched the whole series when they first pitched the show... so they have the upcoming seasons planned. Season 3 sounds like it will definitely be a very very dark tone.
Now connecting this to the issue of feminism and why it's important: It shows how society views someone like Rebecca " The Crazy Ex Girlfriend!" It's a lithe dehumanizing... but then the series itself shows her as a human. There also aren't many rom coms where the girl goes through extraordinary lengths to get the guy... but this one she does... and it shows her as a crazy person.
This season showed female friendships and all sorts of different complicated relationships... so that's something I like about this season too.
Alright... so that's just what I think about these 3 shows... It's always good to see female driven comedies that aren't just one-sided. Compared to the 2000s... where there weren't all that many... and then Fox had the show Stacked with Pamela Anderson? Or when ABC did that show called Men at work where men had to dress as women to get a job? I think We've come a long way from those shows.
Byeee!
-Shannon
First off... I think it's awesome that there are so many female driven comedies now. 2 debuted just this week: Powerless on NBC and the darker comedy The Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix.
Powerless
Let's start off with Powerless because I think that's kind of important. I'm going to do a review about the episode itself on my Scribbles About Life blog sometime soon... and I think I'll even do a tie in on my beauty blog too because I loved the makeup Vanessa Hudgens had on in the episode... but moving on.
Anyway, I thought they did a really good job showing women in charge. The super hero at the beginning of the show was a woman, there were lots of women working at Wayne on inventions, and the Vanessa Hudgens character, Emily, was hired as the boss. I think that's pretty cool because when I was growing up women weren't really in super hero movies. There were some supporting roles like Batgirl and some villains like Catwoman and Poison Ivy... but this shows woman taking charge in a more positive way.
It's also really good because even though they got the very beautiful Vanessa Hudgens as the lead, they didn't sexualize her at all. I remember when I was in High School there was a Facebook game that the guy I liked invited me to play and you got to create your own superhero... but the costumes of the men were super buff and muscly and the women were all super skinny with giant boobs... and it just kind of made me feel uncomfortable that THAT Is how they showed the characters in the game. This show didn't do that. It showed men and women that are more realistic working at Wayne. It wasn't all super beautiful people... the men and women weren't all super buff and muscly looking or anything... I thought that was a good way to show the world of this show because...as I said, I didn't have that growing up.
And I don't know if this show is going to be entirely family friendly... but I would say the pilot was fine. Idk how many kids will really like it because it wasn't all super hero stuff... but I think I would have liked it as a kid.
The Santa Clarita Diet
Now for something definitely not family friendly! The new Netflix show, The Santa Clarita diet! Full review of this on Scribbles About Life for Wednesday... but this kind of showed female empowerment in a very different way. Drew Barrymore's character Shelia becomes a zombie... and she eats people... but she becomes more of a confident and powerful person.
I kind of thought this show was going in a different direction at the start of the season: Spoilers- I thought her husband was the one that tried to kill her because in the beginning when she dies, he hugs her with a smile on his face and seems kind of sadly shocked that she is still alive. I think maybe these themes will show up again further on in the show because they still didn't explain how exactly she died and her husband Joel talks about "bashing her brains in" if he has to kill her... so even though based on Joel's storyline this season it seems kind of unlikely... it would make enough sense to me if that happened.
There definitely seemed to be a lot of themes of repression in the first few episodes... It shows women in an anti-hero kind of way doing very bad and gross things... and that's good. Again... they don't show many zombie comedies like this.
They did sort of play it like it was a little bit cute and quirky that Sheila was a zombie which they might not have done with a man... but it's still a different portrayal of women than every other show.
It also showed the importance of being a wife and mother, particularly under stressful times and through terrible diseases. She really tries to make things normal for her daughter... and she embraces it when she knows it never will be normal for their family and still tries to get her daughter to do the right thing.
So... this is a weird one, but still kind of weirdly empowering? And it shows men and women as equals, and equality is very important!
Crazy Ex Girlfriend Finale
So this show was always kind of about mental health issues... but this episode this episode where I thought it was most blatant.
And in a Facebook live after the show creator Rachel Bloom said that she wanted the show to be a deconstructed Romantic Comedy. A lot of movies show men trying to "get the girl" by moving across the country and doing crazy things... but in reality there are issues attached to that. So... it's an interesting take on the reality of the situation, I guess?
It was interesting, and there's definitely a different dynamic and theme to the show every year... they actually pitched the whole series when they first pitched the show... so they have the upcoming seasons planned. Season 3 sounds like it will definitely be a very very dark tone.
Now connecting this to the issue of feminism and why it's important: It shows how society views someone like Rebecca " The Crazy Ex Girlfriend!" It's a lithe dehumanizing... but then the series itself shows her as a human. There also aren't many rom coms where the girl goes through extraordinary lengths to get the guy... but this one she does... and it shows her as a crazy person.
This season showed female friendships and all sorts of different complicated relationships... so that's something I like about this season too.
Alright... so that's just what I think about these 3 shows... It's always good to see female driven comedies that aren't just one-sided. Compared to the 2000s... where there weren't all that many... and then Fox had the show Stacked with Pamela Anderson? Or when ABC did that show called Men at work where men had to dress as women to get a job? I think We've come a long way from those shows.
Byeee!
-Shannon
Comments
Post a Comment