Ensemble TV casts still leave something to be desired

Looking down the recently released list of Emmy nominees, I noticed the popularity of ensemble casts in comedy series have increased in recent years. The tactic of having an entire village to raise some laughter is notably credited with the success of long-running animated hit The Simpsons where it is perhaps the most exaggerated.This year the approach is topping the Emmy charts with live-action comedy nominees Glee, 30 Rock and Modern Family. One reason I think that a mob cast does so well in today’s media mix is that there is someone for everyone. Large casts are able to reflect the diversity of the viewers. And while it’s all too common place to have characters of every shade, creed and orientation on the screen; I have to pause to ask whether this diversification has done anything to fight stereotypes, particularly when it comes to feminist ideals and counteracting standard gender roles. The three nominated shows I mention each fall short of truly breaking down tired clichés. I should say that I’m a fan of all three of them, but it’s worth pointing out that we still have a long way to go before mainstream media truly reflects a diverse population.

Let's start with a show that is rife with tired cultural memes – Glee is set in a high school and it takes the predictable: popular and slutty cheerleaders, jock, attractive bad boy, flamboyant gay student, female drama nerd and goth chick; and changes them just enough not to matter: one of the cheerleaders is pregnant and thus gets nicer by the end of season 1, the jock has a dead father which makes him a bit more sensitive, the drama nerd has two gay fathers which actually makes her even more of a drama queen and the goth chick is Asian (yay diversity!) But wait – there are more unpredictable and truly unique characters…we’ve got a cheerleader with down syndrome, a singer in a wheelchair, a husky black singer who specializes in soul and is sassy with her friends…oh wait, this is all starting to sound familiar again. Well, while it’s very heart-warming to see this diverse group getting along and paying nice for the sake of musical theater, more disturbing is that the underlying goal of just about every woman and man on the show is to impress the opposite sex. Perhaps that’s just high school – but when both teachers and students worry about their sex appeal regardless of whether they are getting plenty, strong and self-possessed or clinically neurotic – the theme of neediness and insecurity takes center stage.

The next show has tried very hard to breakdown barriers – Modern family takes themes same sex partnership and child-rearing, intergenerational, step-families and bi-racial marriage and puts it all on display. This show is a stepping stone for more progressive programming to come down the pipe. Its major flaw is that the values and storylines are so aggressively conservative. The two most nontraditional family units on the show make the most conservative pro-family choices almost as a way to over normalize their cultural uniqueness.

Last but not least is 30 Rock, and while I have to give kudos to the show’s balance of diverse values and back stories for a number of the fringe characters: wealthy Irish Catholic New Englander, poor Southern workaholic, adopted Canadian, only child of an alcoholic single mother, black man at an Ivy League – it’s not enough to overcome the show’s glaring anachronism. Liz Lemon is the worst kind of feminist – needy, insecure, unhappy with her body image and love, yet judgmental, preachy and at times even angry on the behavior of others, particularly when it comes to sexual or financial freedom.

Compared to 10 years ago, the mainstream media TV on today is pushing at some stereotypes but I think it’s important to remember that just because a group is represented on a show does not mean that they have been represented fairly.

Dissecting the video game

Author Tom Bissell (Extra Lives: Why video games matter) is on a mission to find depth in first-person shooter games beyond blood spatters, big guns and scenic mazes. His latest book argues for more developed storytelling in video games – for example testing the medium and using it to create literate and complex masterpieces.

I’m somewhere between the Ebert “videogame illiterate” and a legitimate gamer. The playing I do is merely social and often does not get me past the second level (Read: I’m terrible.) But where I am not a novice is in literary and media criticism…the idea that the video game channel may open up a new type of narrative style is fascinating to me. I spend the most time around video games watching them played – so I’m fairly familiar with the plotlines of the majors (Tony Hawk, Modern Warfare, Halo, Left4Dead) as seen from the observer’s point of view. But Bissell would say that I am seeing a game that is co-created by game player and game creator. In fact the consumer of the game, making the decisions and navigating the environment, has much more agency in the tale than in more traditional storytelling mediums: TV, movies, books, etc.

So perhaps the reason video games have become so popular (and recession-proof) in an Internet age is that they so mirrors what is also possible in Web 2.0 media --- collaboration, interaction and manipulation between the originator and the consumer. Will this style of consumer agency also shape the future of blog lit and other Web 2.0 interactions?

Michelle Obama's got two tickets to the gun show

Sometimes it's hard to believe how asinine the news media really is. Take the recent kerfuffle over Michelle Obama's affinity for sleeveless tops, which brandish her pythons, "Lady" and "Liberty" (those may not be their actual names).

Fortunately Kristen Schaal is there to guide us through these heady times:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The First First Lady Fashion Show

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Important Things With Demetri Martin

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Are there more important things to talk about? You bet. But there's also the danger of reducing a strong female public figure into a department store mannequin. Then again, the media was never good with issues of gender... or race, or economics, or well, you get the point.

If it scares it leads?

A recent CNN piece on gun sales rising since Obama's presidency sent a chill down my peace-loving spine. It also left me wondering where journalistic responsibility lies. It takes CNN 5 paragraphs of this article to get to the point that it is legislation fears that are motivating the surge --- due to the campy anecdotal lede assassination violence is all but directly alluded to. A slow story like that draws away from any substantive trend data (one case study does not a trend make). One has to question the motives of any copy editor that gave the piece a headline that doesn't mention policy.

In fact, many news outlets have chosen to cover assassination possibilities long before inauguration day, one of the more outrageous examples being the Metro this week. Following an election with the highest voter turnout and healthiest margin of support for the victor in the last 8 years, the most appropriate lede is the possibility of assassination. Can it be that the US is so focused on the racial issue that this is the only angle editors can assign? Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time low but the subject of riot or violence against him rarely came up during the past eight years.

Sadly, I believe speculative articles that prey on fear for readership detract from any real value-add potential that coverage of historic events have. The fourth estate often comes under criticism for being insensitive and manipulative of emotion and events. As subscription rates drop, print circulation is cut, editorial layoffs ensue and the cost of online advertising remains low --- it's a good time for the industry to look at it's coverage philosophy.

Yes, journalism needs to ask the difficult questions. But those difficult questions aren't always the most shocking or driven at sparking controversy. Now that we have a biracial president it would be nice if for once everything wasn't a black and white issue in print. In fact often the tough questions are the thoughtful, well-researched ones, that are unique to a particular outlet and not strewn across the top hits on Yahoo or Google news. I challenge 2009 journalists to take the unique position of not mongering only fear and doubt in these challenging times but instead providing relevant news and information.