Perhaps I'm the right sort of age for this - mid forties - but I found this pretty funny and of course Sandra Oh is always compelling to watch.
What I find hard to get my head around is that while the subject matter and in fact what the characters are often talking about is race, gender and inequality, the characterization does not live up to those ideals. The characterization of white men, women and people of color are very tired and old. The female chair is always scrambling and in a panic perpetuating the idea that women are less capable in leadership positions, the sole black teacher has no backstory and exists only in relation to the other characters. There is a very typical white male role - 'brilliant washed up professor' who behaves without responsibility but it's excused because he's 1. Brilliant and 2. Sad. So bored of that narrative. The only decent representation is Joan for being a badass but still relies on the old trope that older woman doesn't feel appealing so says what's on her mind because she's nothing to lose.
If you're going to make a series that talks explicitly about issues of gender, race and inequality then your work need to be above what you're critiquing. Otherwise you're not hitting the nail on the head so much as missing the mark entirely. Which is a shame because you can see they're trying.
Perhaps more diversity in the leadership roles and less from the types of people who brought us the death of Khaleesi.
What I find hard to get my head around is that while the subject matter and in fact what the characters are often talking about is race, gender and inequality, the characterization does not live up to those ideals. The characterization of white men, women and people of color are very tired and old. The female chair is always scrambling and in a panic perpetuating the idea that women are less capable in leadership positions, the sole black teacher has no backstory and exists only in relation to the other characters. There is a very typical white male role - 'brilliant washed up professor' who behaves without responsibility but it's excused because he's 1. Brilliant and 2. Sad. So bored of that narrative. The only decent representation is Joan for being a badass but still relies on the old trope that older woman doesn't feel appealing so says what's on her mind because she's nothing to lose.
If you're going to make a series that talks explicitly about issues of gender, race and inequality then your work need to be above what you're critiquing. Otherwise you're not hitting the nail on the head so much as missing the mark entirely. Which is a shame because you can see they're trying.
Perhaps more diversity in the leadership roles and less from the types of people who brought us the death of Khaleesi.