One sisterly project has been watching or re-watching classic television on DVDs so there are no parts missing. I use "classic" to mean that we like it, but they have mostly been from the '70s and '80s.
We just started Daria, which is more recent. Before that we finished seasons 1-5 of Designing Women. (The last two seasons of that series are not classic.)
Before that we finished Barney Miller. I have been wanting to write about it, but I wanted to finish a certain book first, and things just happen.
I really love the show, with a deep affection for most of the cast. I have to consider that such a positive portrayal of the police is fictional, but even in the context of the show, graft and racism and harassment are common not just in other cities but also in other precincts.
You can observe a deliberate effort to do good and create empathy. That is not just with a multi-racial cast but also with a wide variety of people passing through the precinct, as both crime victims and criminals, most of whom are at least somewhat sympathetic.
You can easily tell that the creative team was up on the current psychology and influenced by that.
That is where some of the weaknesses come in.
The creators were in contact with gay advocacy groups at the time, and worked with them to improve their portrayals. This led to some memorable gay characters, but there was also this attempt to work out why they were gay.
This was true to the time. About ten years later, I still remember the sister-in-law of a young gay man telling us how he had 7 of the 8 traits that led to homosexuality, including a domineering mother.
That's not how it works, but that definitely would have been the prevailing theory at the time, along with icebox mothers and smothering mothers.
It is worth noting that the great gay characters they showed were all white men. Diversity beyond that was harder to come by.
That still put them ahead of other shows at the time, but there were other ways in which they really could have used some conversations with women to improve those portrayals.
As it was, none of their attempts to introduce women officers worked well (Battista was the best, and may that was because being short and Puerto Rican gave her something besides being "the girl"), wife-beating was a not uncommon punch line, and they completely missed the point on marital rape.
That was probably also very much in line with the prevailing thoughts of the time, including if you spoke to psychiatrists; the psychiatrists they spoke to were almost certainly white men.
There are things that grate.
Of course, sometimes the issue is that you are going for a laugh, and you seek it where it isn't funny.
This is where Dietrich becomes my least favorite character. Supposed to be an incredibly intelligent and informed person, he still will often say things that are completely inappropriate, simply for their comedic value. That turned out to be something racist at Yemana surprisingly often. They often made effective jokes about Nick being assumed to be Chinese when he was Japanese-American, but too often if it was coming from Dietrich it was something reducing Nick to his Asian-ness.
Nick was so much more than that.
Dietrich was the worst part of "The Harris Incident", which covers some important ground, and still has some solid humor.
His jokes too often ended up being cheap.
I don't intend for this to reflect badly on the actor, Steve Landesberg; it was the material he was given. It's fitting, really; Dietrich is good at annoying that Harris and this one.
This post is not just to say that the show was not perfect and that I know it was not perfect. It is worth noting that the weaknesses came from not listening enough to the marginalized, even when there was sympathy and intent to do good. This is a common problem. Even with more understanding of how racism is part of a structure, and not just a personal feeling, we often don't do enough to work through that.
I also wanted to go over the show in general before focusing on one specific episode that has a subtle but important point, and was also very funny.
Next Friday!
Related posts:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/06/7-television-shows-to-get-to-know-me.html
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