Roseanne Reviews R

This is a set of reviews of Roseanne episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I will focus only on the political aspects and will mention what percent of lines spoken by non-family members are spoken by people of color.

“Good Girls, Bad Girls” episode 10, season 5. Wikipedia summary is: “Molly has an extra ticket for a rock concert in a neighboring town, and Roseanne reluctantly allows Darlene to go. When Darlene arrives home in a cab at 4:00 a.m., Roseanne initially doubts her explanation that Molly ditched her to smoke pot in a stranger's van.”

Out of about 30 lines by non-family members, none are spoken by people of color.

“It’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays” Episode 12, Season 5. Wikipedia summary is: “A snowstorm forces the Conners to be far-flung on Christmas Eve: Roseanne, Jackie, Bev, and Nana Mary are stuck at the Lunchbox; Dan, DJ, Nancy and Nancy's Girlfriend Maria (Morgan Fairchild) are trapped at the Conner house; and Darlene is stranded at David's, witnessing his abusive home life.”

Dan mis-interprets something the gay couple the family is friends with and thinks that they said something too sexual for the ears of his young son. I think there’s a problem with even good allies having an exxagerated sense of how sexual LGBTQ+ people are and I’m sure that if it had been a heterosexual couple, Dan wouldn’t have objected to what they said in front of his son.

“Crime and Punishment” and “War and Peace” Episodes 13 and 14. Wikipedia summaries are: “The Connors are called to DJ's school to discuss the "obscene" reading material he brought to class. Dan and Roseanne are shocked to learn it is one of Darlene and David's comic books. Later, Darlene accidentally walks in on Jackie in D.J.'s bathroom, finding her covered with bruises. Roseanne presses Jackie for an explanation and learns that Fisher assaulted her. Dan beats up Fisher and lands in jail. Ed Begley, Jr. appears in this episode. Brice Beckham (Mr. Belvedere) appears.” And “As Roseanne takes Jackie to the hospital, and Darlene bails Dan out of jail, the news of Dan hitting Fisher quickly spreads through town. Meanwhile, Fisher begs Jackie to come back. Roseanne is shocked to hear this was not the first time Fisher hit Jackie, but learns that Jackie is strong enough to make her own decisions.”

This two-parter is about Jackie being physically abused by her boyfriend. I don’t have much to add except that that’s horrible.

In “Crime and Punishment” there were 40-50 lines by non-family members and about 10% were by people of color.

In "War and Peace" there are 20-30 lines by non-family members and 20% are by people of color.

“Lanford Daze” Episode 15, Season 5. Wikipedia summary is: “Vegetarian Darlene vandalizes the Lunch Box as a protest against eating animals. To punish Darlene, Roseanne forces her to sell loose-meat sandwiches at the diner's Lanford Days festival concession stand.”

Out of about 20-25 lines by non-family members about 10% are by people of color.

Motherfuckin' Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (My Thoughts on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit)

("Fin" is played by Ice-T)

I love TV shows, although only about 40% of what I watch is from the last two decades. My top six favorite shows are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, The Big Bang Theory, Supergirl, Roseanne, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. There’s a more complete list of shows I like under the “Movies” part of my profile. This is going to be about Law and Order: SVU.

I’m going to assume you are at least sort of familiar with the show, and if you’re not, you can read that wikipedia page.

I have seen every episode (with one exception where I couldn’t fix the disc and Netflix sent another disc that also had the same problem) up to season 18 and in about a month I’ll be done with season 19. I have 6 seasons on DVD in my collection, most of which I got at thrift stores.

Besides the obvious (it’s opposition to sex crimes and child abuse/kidnapping and sexism and misogyny) which is pretty awesome, there’s a lot of other things I like about L&W: SVU.

1) It’s incredibly anti-racist. Not 100% because it is, of course, a little soft on cops. But in general there's a lot of anti-racism. On average, in any episode, something like 25% of the main and recurring characters have been people of color. Of course the population of NYC is much more diverse, but we are talking about the NYPD and I think that 25% is probably a reflection of how diverse the NYPD is, or an appropriately mild exaggeration of how diverse it is. My memory of specific examples is a little fuzzy, but there are a lot of times when the anti-racism gets a little sharper than that.

There is one episode involving a hispanic SVU detective who might qualify as a person of color in a bad fatal  shooting that I think the show could have dealt with more critically- I remember thinking that it was too pro-cop. But there is another episode on almost the same topic that is, overall, much better. Some white non-SVU cops, while helping SVU, fire about 15-30 bullets into an unarmed black man. The (main character) Assistant DA who works with SVU insists on prosecuting the cops and I think the last we hear about that is that he gets an indictment from the Grand Jury. The head of SVU disagrees with him but they don’t have a heated argument and there is no falling out and for about 2 seasons after that episode that character is still the Assistant DA for SVU, and I think it would be totally unrealistic if all the SVU members agreed with the Assistant DA. Unfortunately it DOES end on a fairly racist note. There’s a notice about the fatal shooting of a cop, which is kind of a lame ending for what otherwise is a very good episode. I mean, it’s even worse than saying “All Lives Matter” in response to the statement “Black Lives Matter.” It’s responding with “Police Lives Matter.”

As I mention below, Ice-T has played a main character since season 2 and there are now 21 seasons.

I think that the % of defendants that are people of color is probably a lot less than the % of NYC’s population that is people of color, and I’m almost certain it’s not more.

2) It’s incredibly anti-homophobic. Other than the idea that the Assistant DA in seasons 15-19 is gay (there is a lot of speculation but it’s apparently all wrong and he's actually straight (but played by a bi-sexual man)), I can only think of two examples. First, when an off-duty cop witnesses a sex-related crime (while on a date with another man) and notifies SVU, SVU offers to keep his name out of it to avoid outing him to the “brass” of NYPD. Also, the son of the character played by Ice-T is gay.

3) It’s incredibly anti-transphobic. In one episode, for example, a woman transitioning from being male kills her boyfriend when he sees a penis. I can’t remember exactly what SVU does, but I don’t think they prosecute her or they go easy on her or something. I DO remember the Assistant DA saying that in that situation, when a man learns his girlfriend has a penis or used to be male, he simply kills her. In general it highlights violence against transgender people.

4) It’s pro-immigrant. For example, there’s a two-parter about a witness who is gay and an undocumented immigrant from Syria who will be killed if he is deported. SVU tries to keep ICE from deporting him but fail. It’s as damning of our immigration policy as an innocent person being executed would be damning of the death penalty.

5) There are miscellaneous other liberal-progressive elements like OCCASIONAL negative portrayals of the military or corporations.

6) Since the second season there’s been a character, detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, played by Ice-T. In the near future I’ll do a post about why I greatly admire Ice-T, but his long-time presence on this show is one reason I like him and his presence on the show is one reason I like the show so much.

7) They infrequently go after other cops.


One thing that I would largely put in the very small negative column is the five or so cross-over episodes with the TV show “Chicago PD.” The main thing is that the senior officer on that show is comfortable with things that at least come close to torture. But it’s not as damning of the creative people behind the show L&O: SVU as you might think because in one of those episodes, the head of SVU criticizes that officer for that, although she focuses exclusively on the impact it’ll have on getting a conviction. It’d be better if she was more principled about it, but A) I think she figured the pragmatic appeal would work better, and B) if I’m wrong about that and she’s not principled about it, that’s disappointing but realistic, and C) it’s better than nothing.

I’ll soon start going through these episodes for the second time and doing “reviews” on this blog of the ones that have something that politically goes beyond the liberal feminism and basic anti-racist stuff that’s dominates the political dimension of the show (when I say “dominates” I mean there are minority tendencies, some progressive and some moderate). (You could say that I'll focus exclusively on highlighting the issues raised that are NOT sex crimes, because of course they have material about that, but they also have stuff about, for example, homophobia or marijuana or homelessness or abortion)

(Mariska Hargitay, who has been on the show since day one (and whose character has been head of SVU for about 6 seasons) and has been a director and producer on L&O: SVU since 2014, founded the Joyful Heart Foundation)

Law and Order

I also watch the original, homicide-focused show. It is overall less liberal-progressive (I think the cops and Assistant DAs are a little more flexible ethically than their SVU counterparts are as far as how they figure out who to arrest and/or get convictions). In an average episode I think that about 25% of the main or recurring characters are women, which isn’t too good considering that of the six main characters, only three are cops. But in an average episode, about 25% are people of color, which isn’t too bad considering that it should be either a reflection of reality or a little more diverse than reality, in my opinion (it’s about the NYPD and the Manhattan DA’s office) (I think that the % of defendants that are people of color is probably a lot less than the % of NYC’s population that is people of color, and I’m almost certain it’s not more). There are some progressive elements here and there, some anti-racism, some anti-homophobia, some stuff where a corporation is the bad guy, etc. (they infrequently go after other cops). At some point in about 2-10 years at the rate I’m going I’ll do the same sort of reviews I mentioned above.


Corporations on both shows

From what I remember, the last thing these shows do is criticize capitalism or express more than infrequent support for labor, but the episodes about corporate people are better than the old TV show Cops which focused exclusively on poor people. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more likely to feature rich criminals than other cop shows, although I wouldn’t know for sure because outside the L&O franchise, I’ve probably watched a total of 30 episodes of cop shows since I became an adult and a socialist (at 18) (I’m 44).

(I should offer my very brief, non-philosophical definition of “liberal.” It’s someone to the left of Bill Clinton and to the right of Senator Elizabeth Warren. More details are here) 

 

(UPDATE 3/18/21 About 1-3 times each episode the detectives and/or prosecutors engage in behavior aimed at determining guilt and/or getting a conviction that I think is somewhere between questionable and bad (but that's only about 10-20% of what they do to charge a suspect and convict them in court; the rest of what they do I am fine with). There’s something else, maybe once a season on average, where they do something else bad (i.e. in one Law and Order episode of the last season to involve the character Assistant DA Ben Stone, Stone says something uncharacteristically racist). Going back to the first sentence, I have mixed feelings about a lot of the tactics I’m referring to and I am almost certain that explaining why I sort of support them or why I almost totally oppose them, etc. would just clutter those posts and people would be less likely to read them. If you’re thinking that I don’t expose this aspect of the two shows because of some kind of white/middle-class/cis-gendered-male/straight/Christian privilege, you’re wrong and I have a bit of evidence. In one episode of SVU when a suspect is brought to the station for questioning he requests not a lawyer, but that his therapist be present and SVU says no. In recent decades I have gotten tons of therapy and have occasionally asked my therapist for a little more help than they usually give and if I were being questioned at a police station I would probably want my therapist present, although I doubt I would actually request it. With these two shows I have a policy I almost never break- I don’t criticize them)

 

ALL THE POSTS WITH THESE REVIEWS CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING ON THE "L&OSVU" LABEL AND THE "LAW & ORDER" LABEL

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews S

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.


I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Crossfire” See this for a plot summary.

In general a non-political episode, but there’s some tiny elements of politics.

First, there’s one reference to domestic violence, but the good statement is eroded by the idea that a good sex life is a legitimate reason for someone to stay in an abusive relationship. It might seem less offensive to many considering that the victim is male and the attacker is female, but that doesn’t make it okay.

The issue of Bajor applying to join the Federation and some resistance among Bajorans to that is raised. I think I’ve briefly discussed this before. I believe that the Federation is a good thing and should be expanded and would be helpful for Bajor as they get back on their feet after the Cardassian occupation.

I give it two stars out of five.


“Return to Grace” See this for a plot summary.

A very non-political episode. There’s some discussion of bigotry- about how a half-Cardassian, half-Bajoran woman is unwelcome in both societies.

Overall a good episode, I give it three stars out of five.


“Sons of Mogh” See this for a plot summary.

This episode is largely non-political but includes one reference to the limits of multi-culturalism. Although there might be some exceptions on either side of this, customs which violate a nation’s laws should not be tolerated- there might be some customs which violate laws and should be respected anyway (the laws should be modified), and some customs which should be banned with new laws. One good example I can think of is female circumcision. I haven’t read about it in a long time, but I believe that it is wrong and should be banned.

I give it two stars out of five.


“Bar Association” See this for a plot summary.

A very political episode and one of the most progressive ST episodes made. It’s explicitly pro-union. There’s also reason to believe that the Federation and Starfleet are pro-union, as Sisko orders Odo to not interfere with the strikers and pressures Quark to negotiate with them. We also learn more about how raw Ferengi capitalism is.

The Ferengi Commerce Authority, which arrives to help Quark break the strike, is apparently able and willing to go very far. They threaten the strikers with fines against their relatives and the seizing of their financial accounts and also with death. They also openly use physical intimidation of the strikers with notorious Nausicaans and beat up someone the strike leader cares about and seem on the verge of killing the strike leader when the strike is resolved.

On the other hand, the Ferengi staff indicate that they still have a lot of respect for capitalism, talking about how they want to BECOME the exploiters and how they want to increase their profits (it wasn’t a reference to profit sharing). But that’s because they’re Ferengi.

Overall it’s very pro-labor. As usual whatever is considered “normal” for Ferengis is portrayed negatively and as in conflict with the Federation. The strikers seem to get a lot of popular support from the station’s population.

I give it four stars out of five.