This is one of those exchanges that folks will swear never happened, but I assure you that it did. Sometimes fatherhood ain’t so bad.
Well, I hope y’all enjoyed the final Black History Month, ’cause, let’s just be realistic here… Sure, it might come back one day, but it will probably be accompanied by White History Month, so your uncle in the Ray-Bans is finally gonna get his wish. Anyway, I stopped celebrating, like, 2 weeks ago. World got too crazy. I was like that kid who cashes in his Chuck E. Cheese tickets before the party’s over, so he’s just sitting by himself at a table, playing with a pink dinosaur eraser and a salt shaker. I hear we’re supposed to be boycotting stuff today, so good luck with that, seeing as how there are only a few American companies, that each have a bajillion subsidiaries. I get the sentiment, but you can’t boycott in this day and age. And one day isn’t a “boycott”. It’s a “fast”. If you return to spending tomorrow, you’ll probably more than make up for that company’s losses from today. I’m no community organizer, but I don’t think this is “the look”. Oh, well. We’re here to talk about pop culture, so let’s get to it!
Last week, my buddy Mike and I went to see The Monkey. After seeing the trailer, I had texted him with “DAY ONE!”, so I had to make good on that declaration. I think I assumed it would be weird, but I don’t think I knew how weird. I guess I should have known when I saw it was produced by NEON. Whereas A24 has already sort of built up its reputation for weird, NEON seems like it’s trying to outweird A24. It’s the Pepsi to A24’s Coke. It’s the Wario to A24’s Mario. You get it. Anyway, I went in expecting a movie about a murderous toy monkey, but instead I got a macabre farce that was almost “Beetlejucian” in its depiction of death. It’s got gore, but it’s got more kitsch and wackiness than you would expect.
Sure, it’s a film about a murderous toy monkey that seems to plague one particular family, but its message is basically “Everyone’s gotta go sometime.” This is driven home by the randomness of The Monkey’s murders. You can’t use him as a weapon, directed at any particular target. It seems the only rule is he can’t kill the person who turns his key. Otherwise, anyone else is fair game, and really at The Monkey’s discretion. So, it becomes this exploration of the randomness and senselessness, yet inevitability, of death. Sure, you might die in your sleep, or get eaten from the inside by killer hornets, but in the end you’re still dead. All roads lead to death, so try not to worry about it, but be sure to LIVE. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I left with a lot of questions, plus the film committed the great sin where the best line in the trailer is NOT in the movie itself!
I took a sick day on Monday, not realizing that it was the day of the premiere of the new CBS daytime soap, Beyond The Gates. Now, I’ve had stints with “my stories” in the past, having watched both Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless. The problem with the format is it moves at a glacial pace, so you might be able to watch someone get murdered during the summer, you go back to school, and by winter break, they still haven’t solved the murder, but that 3 year old character is now 13 for some reason. If I want that kind of nonsense, I’ll just stick to comics!
Anyway, the draw of this particular soap is that it’s network TV’s first predominantly black soap opera in roughly 35 years. Set in an upscale suburb outside DC, the series follows the goings on of the prominent Dupree family. The matriarch, Anita, was a famous singer, and she wears the pants in the family. Meanwhile, the patriarch is Vernon, who seems like he might be a minister, but he just sort of sits back and lets Anita have the spotlight. He’s one of the reasons I was interested in the show, as he’s played by Clifton Davis, of Amen fame. Yup, the Reverend Doctor Reuben Gregory himself! Ya know, during Amen‘s run, he was an actual pastor in southern California. Talk about “method acting”! Anyway, they have a couple of daughters, one of whom is Nicole, played by Playboy Playmate of the Month June 1997, Daphnée Duplaix. So, here’s where things get messy: When the series starts, the other Dupree daughter, Dani, has just gotten divorced from her husband Bill – Bill, who had an affair with the best friend of his and Dani’s daughter, Naomi. So, Bill left Dani for his daughter’s best friend. As you can imagine, the Duprees do NOT like Bill. So, imagine their surprise and disgust when they discover Bill and his child bride are moving into the same gated community where the Duprees run shit. The episode ends with a confrontation at the country club, with Dani delivering a classic soap opera slap to her ex-husband’s new woman.
Ya know what was a big problem for me, and it’s one of those things that should be seen as a positive? The “Black Don’t Crack” adage is in full effect here, as every character looks to be about 32 years old. ALL OF THEM. Sure, you can tell Mr. & Mrs. Dupree are the elders, but everyone else looked the exact same age, whether they were Dupree kids or grandkids. One guy had lunch with Mr. Dupree, calling him “granddad”, and I swear I thought it was his son. Meanwhile, that guy looked the same age as the woman playing his mom. I know soaps have to have “beautiful” people, but we’ve gotta have some sort of variation here!
I see what it’s trying to do, but I don’t think it’s gonna work. It’s sort of amazing the difference six months can make. When this thing got the greenlight, America thought it was preparing for the first woman president, who also identified as black, and the folks who voted her in would clamor for this thing. WRONG! Representation matters, but I’m not sure how many folks can relate to what’s being depicted in this show. Some might ask “Can they relate to Days or Y&R?” In a way, yes. For one thing, the residents of Salem aren’t “rich”. They’re “comfortable”. Meanwhile, the folks on Beyond The Gates aren’t just “rich”, but rather “wealthy”. There is a difference. Wealth brings influence, power. Rich is just spending power. The music industry is filled with “rich” black folks, but not a ton of “wealthy” black folks. Generally, there aren’t a ton of wealthy black folks. That’s why folks used to joke about The Black Illuminati, which always included Oprah and Cosby, because it was pretty easy to boil down who the wealthiest, most powerful ones were. A lot of it is about perception. Hell, they took down Cosby “because he was trying to buy NBC!” Whether true or not, Byron Allen is an actual billionaire and can’t land a major network, yet folks actually believe Cosby had the means and resources to make a play for an institution like the National Broadcasting Company. Rappers and athletes are rich, but we also expect them to eventually squander their money. Wealth is when you have diversified income streams and investments. Rich is possibly fleeting, while wealth can be generational, if played right. Societal factors have kept blacks from wealth, so this show is selling more of a fantasy than some might think.
Also, I’m like “Where is this place?” I know that it’s trying to drum up memories of what Prince Georges County, Maryland used to be, but it ain’t that anymore. In the 90s, my friends would boast how “PG County has the highest population of affluent blacks in the country.” There were tony neighborhoods, like Mitchellville, that folks raved over. I’ve got cousins who live over there. But it ain’t that anymore. If anything, the ones who could afford it moved to Potomac, which is an area everyone knows now, thanks in part to The Real Housewives franchise. Anyway, all that’s to say that I don’t really think anyone wants this show right now, at this moment in time. I got bored pretty quickly, as I realized I just didn’t feel like watching Rich People Drama. Ya know how we used to get upset about things and remind ourselves that we were concerned about “First World Problems”? This is that, but multiplied. I’m watching daytime CBS so I can maybe not stumble across the news, and all it’s doing is making me realize all the opportunity and potential a lot of us have lost in a VERY short amount of time, and continue to lose as I type this. Timing is important, and I’m sorry to say that this show is about 6 months too late to really build a foundation.
Will Around The Web
Adam and I are back with a new episode of Remember That Show?, this time discussing the thinly-veiled 80s toy commercial know as C.O.P.S. I had some commentary to add to this experience, which you’ll find here.
Links I Loved
- Comic retailer Mike Sterling wonders if it’s even possible for Marvel movies to be profitable at this point. They’re costing Disney more and more to make, meaning they have to make roughly half a billion dollars to be considered “successful”. We just throw that amount around like it’s not an ungodly number, which Disney expects these movies to singlehandedly earn three times per calendar year.
- I discovered Sale O Saurus has a great podcast called 6 Figures, 2 Vehicles, and a Playset. Their latest episode explores an imaginary toy line based on the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
Run The Numbers
Here’s where my reading totals stand at the end of this week:
This week, I read of bunch of Al Ewing’s Immortal Marvel output, including Vol 1 of The Immortal Hulk, as well as the first 10 issues of The Immortal Thor. I’m more intrigued by Thor than Hulk, but I still don’t really care about the story. I’m drawn in more by the characters. I also read TVA #1 which is a weird sort of beast that Marvel doesn’t do well. Ya see, it’s a 616 comic series that’s trying to bring in MCU elements. So, for all intents and purposes, it’s the comic adventures of the same Time Variance Authority from the Loki series. The events from that series are referenced, just like in Deadpool & Wolverine, yet it’s a comic universe property. In fact, it’s basically a multiversal team book, that spins out of the current Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider series. So, it already comes with prerequisite reading. This is gonna get messy, seeing as how the MCU isn’t a direct adaptation of the comic 616 universe. Marvel tried this before, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which didn’t work since the TV interpretations of some characters, like “Daisy”, didn’t match what we’d seen in the comics. It was fine the characters that had been created for the show, but the comics had already done an ass backwards introduction of Coulson as Nick Fury Jr’s partner “Cheese”, and it all fell apart from there. Finally, I read a Dark Horse TPB called Beyond The Pale, which blended racial politics with the occult, against a Vietnam War backdrop. It’s an interesting idea that felt rushed. There was a lot of missed potential in that one.
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- Even children’s shows aren’t immune to the need for juicing the ratings, as it was announced yesterday that Peppa Pig‘s Mommy Pig is pregnant and due in June.
- Marvel Television Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum announced that the Okoye-focused Black Panther Disney+ spinoff is no longer in development. Meanwhile, Jon Bernthal will return as The Punisher in his own Special Presentation.
- Seemingly the one former cast member of The Office without a podcast and/or book deal, it was reported that Oscar Nunez would reprise his role on Peacock’s upcoming follow-up “set in the universe of The Office“.
- Speaking of streaming, The Sticky was canceled on Prime Video after one season.
- John Lithgow has reportedly accepted the role of Dumbledore in Max’s “Please Save Our Company!” Harry Potter series.
- We’re leaving Black History Month with 2 fewer black news personalities, as Joy Reid was fired from MSNBC, while Lester Holt announced he would be stepping down as the anchor of NBC Nightly News after a 10-year run.
- Zendaya will play Shrek and Fiona’s daughter in Shrek 5. Let me guess the plot: She grew up in a loving ogre family, only to realize she could have been conventionally hot, and then she tries to become hot at great risk, only to realize the same lesson as the original Shrek, that true beauty is on the inside? Why don’t I work in Hollywood yet?
- I never realized that Lynne Marie Stewart, who played Miss Yvonne on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was also Mrs. Kelly on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia! Sadly, she passed away earlier this week, at the age of 78.
- DC Studios co-president James Gunn is already reneging on earlier promises. You see, when casting voice actors for animated projects, he intended for those actors to portray the same characters when they cross over into live action. However, when discussing the Clayface film in development, Gunn said that the character would not be played by Alan Tudyk – who voices him on both Harley Quinn and Creature Commandos.
- Speaking of Gunn’s DC Studios projects, we got a first look at what’s either the Max Lanterns series or NCIS: Arizona.
We’ve already talked about Paradise around here. However, in case you missed that installment, Paradise is Hulu’s breakout hit, from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. Reteaming with that series’ Sterling K. Brown, Fogelman sets out to tell the simple story of a murder mystery in a small town. Only, in this case, the murder victim was the President of the United States, and the “town” is actually a domed bunker protecting 25,000 survivors of a cataclysmic event. Since the president is played by James Marsden, I’ve taken to calling him “President Cyclops”. For six weeks, we’ve been seeing time jumps all over the place: What happened back in DC, what happened in the early days under the dome, and the present day. Luckily, there haven’t been any flash forwards yet! What we never got, however, was a linear story about the last day of society. Until this week.
I read a bunch of interviews when the show launched, where Fogelman said most questions would be answered by the end of episode 7, while all questions would be answered by the 8th and final episode. So, going into this week, I knew that it was time. Even with that warning, I wasn’t prepared. I say this without hyperbole: That was the most intense hour of television I’ve ever watched. It was a thrilling episode with not an ounce of fat. I was anxious for all 58 minutes of that show. In the past, I’ve said that the series is tropes on tropes on tropes, but that’s not what matters. What really sells it is the character work. You believe Brown is the man for the job. You kinda wanna to find out where actress Julianne Nicholson (who plays villain “Sinatra”) lives, just to leave dog poop on her porch. Hell, I would vote for James Marsden TOMORROW. Everyone here does a Hell of a job, and this episode was no exception. Don’t even have the ceremony, and just send Brown and Marsden their Emmys now!
I’m not going to tell you what happened, as I really want you to check out the show. Plus, you’ve got a week to do so before the finale. It was just renewed for a second season, which is great to hear, seeing as how Fogelman reportedly has a 3-season plan. I think a lot of what made the episode impactful is you can see how the events would play out in reality. All of the ingredients are there. If/when that does happen, however, we don’t have a Brown, and we sure as Hell don’t have a Marsden. So, for all our sakes, let’s hope this fantasy never becomes a reality. Anyway, for reminding me of just how powerful a medium television can be, Hulu’s Paradise once again had the West Week Ever.
