Yet another example of Hollywood’s practice of “let’s take the name and do something almost totally unrelated to it.” Just tiresome at this point.
This is She Hulk all over again. I guarantee they’ll blame the “toxic male fans” for their horrible writing.
See, I'm kinda with you in that I'm not sure I care to watch Mindy Kaling be herself any more than most of these vanity projects (bruce willis/ howie mandel, louis anderson, roseanne...). A little tepid from reviews suggesting the other characters are reductive stereotypes. If it fails, it'll be because of that. OTOH, it is creating the intersectionality that "visibility" requires to progress. Also, She Hulk is fuckin' hilarious.
If you hate She-Hulk, you're dead inside and should let the rats eat your giblets. Or you're FF, in which case, throw some hyenas in there.
years ago a much wiser person told me "Real men eat whatever is good for us, and take being a man with a grain of salt". A lot of guys could watch that show and with a bit of self reflection at least figure out how to be less cringe.
Same with the comic. I mean, that cover where Shulkie is being told she has to jump rope in the buff to get the readership up? Some guys were going "hurr! green bouncy boobies!!" and everyone else was with Shulkie going "no! what the fuck is wrong with you?!" and the former are just pissed the TV show is being less subtle about it.
It's not cringe. The only way it would make anyone cringe is if they see themselves in the things the show says are cringe. Does FF stand for "Fearless Friend"? Prince Adam is looking for you if so.
funny thing is that I do see the worst of myself (along with every other hetero dude on the planet) in those obvious send up, blatantly one dimensional characters. The message to the guys watching is simple
Oh, I have to agree here. She-Hulk was really funny and did a great job summoning the spirit of the Byrne era of the comic. One of Marvel's better TV series efforts.
More at the link. Wow. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...ad-its-spawned-psyop-conspiracy-theories/amp/
Meanwhile, Huffpo has an article full of folk complaining about Kaling perpetuating the "brown folk have low self-esteem and want to be white" angle. Seems everyone hates it, but the stuff coming from the rich white guy side is a tad less positive.
Yeah, I'm not seeing the review that's like "thou art my liberal goddess, Velma!! I worship thee, Velma!! I woooorshiiip theeee!!!! ". I know righties want that review to exist so fucking bad. Well, they'll just make one up. Santos style.
I hate that, this idea that Mindy or any other prominent minority has to be some sort of cultural ambassador to white people world. If that's something they're interested in doing, fine. But a lot of people are insecure about their bodies, and a lot of people are attracted to a certain type of partner, and Mindy shouldn't have to censor those ideas just because there aren't that many prominent Indian women in Hollywood.
Fuck'em. They're free to make their own shows and present the sorts of female Indian characters they want to see on television. That's what Mindy had to do.
Indeed, a lot of the frustration stems from the fact that there are way too few oppoturnities given to others Asian women. We had the same growing pains as a black community back in the 80s and 90s in our media and the Gen Z queer kids are having these same squabbles now. There's a reason Beckett Mariner is unironically my favorite non-Vulcan character in all of Star Trek as a millennial black woman who was one generation removed from segregation, and who got told that my behavior as a five year old was gonna get my brother labelled by the time he got to school.
That's the thing, though. Nichelle Nichols was wasted as Uhura in many ways. She was far more talented than the opportunities that role provided, yet if it wasn't for her in that role, the number of opportunities for people like her would have been much, much smaller later on. Race and gender issues aside, the shit her character did in the opening moments of "The Mindy Project" were such that I didn't want to see any more. House was a horrific misanthrope of a character yet within a few seconds of him being introduced as a character, we saw instances where he was a compassionate person who was so emotionally damaged that he had to hide much of it. Mindy's character? We're not seeing her overcoming her failures to help another person. Heck, we're not even given reasons why her ex might have found her charming in the past. You remember Rick and the Butter Bot? Now strip that scene down to just Rick and the Butter Bot. Does it have the same impact? No. Because the other elements and the subject make it clear that Rick's being a jerk. Would you watch the rest of the series based on Rick's comments to the Butter Bot if you didn't know anything about the other characters? Probably not. That was the first five minutes of The Mindy Project.
This show does leave a bit to be desired, but I'm not giving this criticism any oxygen. It's Scooby-fucking-Doo. It's a weekly show and it's not meant to address any of the things these people are criticizing it for. Does every brown girl have to be a fucking picture perfect role model to be depicted? Give it some room to breathe and let's see what it becomes.
