Metal Reviews

Not to mention his redhead assistant his ridiculously cute.

You know exactly the point I'm trying to make and I do not need to link to Hottentot Venus to prove what I mean. It irks me though.

Umm never watched Chuck but Burn Notice is good. Formulaic but quality. The voiceovers are always interesting and the Bruce Campbell one-liners are always classic.

I'm not actually entirely sure I know what you mean. Their powers are derivatives of their personalities- Simon is socially ignored, ergo invisibility; Nathan is untouchable by what other people say, ergo immortality; Curtis holds huge regret about his drug mistake, ergo time rewind; Alisha is a promiscuous tease, ergo sex-craze thingy.

Blacks and especially black women have commonly be portrayed as hypersexual. It is a way of demeaning them as comparable to animals, i.e., fucking like rabbits or something akin to that. It's in contrast to the civilized modern man who is able to control his urges. Blacks are reduced to nothing but primal urges, lacking the capacity for self-control and hence reason. It's the common distinction between sentiment and reason, where reason holds primacy insofar as it is characteristic of white males. It's one thing to portray a person as sex-crazed but to elevate it as some kind of god-sent power is offensive especially when it is applied to a black female. It's as if they gave a Jew the super power of being able to collect or hoard money or an Irish guy being able to get into a drunken frenzy at a moment's notice.

Applying American social studies to a British program isn't entirely valid; the social role of blacks here is nothing like what it is in the US. That's why I didn't see your point before, I was completely unaware of that characterization of blacks, if it does exist in the US.

If it does exist in the US? As if I'm making this shit up? Maybe you're right but I really don't think there is as large of a disparity between racial depictions in Europe as in America. I could be really wrong but I just don't know to be honest.

This blog article leads me to think that Europe does have the same stereotype even if you want to claim ignorance: http://afroeurope.blogspot.com/2009/05/ ... exual.html Not to mention the fact that Sarah Baartman, who is referred to as Hottentot Venus when she was being paraded across England, was only 200 hundred years ago and racial stigmas really don't dissolve that fast under most circumstances. It's funny that you point out American social studies when I began with an example of something that happened in Britain. But you're now the expert on British culture since you've lived there for three months so I'll concede the point.

I'm not saying you're making stuff up, but I'm saying that you might be unnecessarily emphasizing a maybe not-as-relevant point of African American history. What is true, though, is that during the 15 years I've lived in Europe, I've never once heard the complaint that black people are over-sexualized.
The "power" given to Alicia in Misfits isn't a depiction of her as an over-sexualized black woman, but as a promiscuous lower-class girl. Not to mention that the plot completely alters the value of the power itself.
As far as the Anglo-American dichotomy, I think an important part of it is that while Britain is of course very class-oriented still, the class separation stems from your birthplace, where you grew up, what school you went to, which area of the city you lived in, etc; rather than just being black, which is enough to relegate you to an entire, massive social class in the US. I've never heard anyone speak of "African-British".

Just because there's this dehumanisation you speak of in certain cases does not mean that any depiction of black people enjoying sex is racist.

Just finished watching season 4 of Doctor Who. Wow! Great series! Maybe the best in the sci-fi department.

Watching Jamie Oliver's American Food Revolution on 4OD. They should've sent Gordon Ramsey instead, I don't think Oliver's got enough energy to be enough of a cunt.

Just finished season 2 of Misfits. So good.

And started watching Louie. Stand-up about privilege is so adorable in a theoretical way but it's really sad that people think it's a funny thing.

dunno, hope Misfits doesn't slip into a full-on "villain of the day" show... (just watched the first ep in season 2 myself).

Kinda but it's fine. It is what it is, that is, Heroes except worth watching.

The alien part on the xmas special had me dying laughing.

Louie is so funny.

Have you guys seen this 11 minute behind the scenes-thingy from A song of Ice and Fire?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYtinil ... r_embedded

NO I DON'T WANT TO DESTROY MY DREAM WORLD OF FANTASY KINGS DRAGONS AND WARRIORS

even though eddard is alec trevelyan from goldeneye and king robert is the dad from still standing

Been watching Twin Peaks with my gf. Totally incredible.

David Lynch is amazing

It is very good stuff...love the obsession with coffee. A good diner is one of the best attributes of American life.

That looks so freaking awesome. I am legitimately excited. Although maybe George R.R. Martin should spend less time making tv shows and more time writing the next fucking book.

Supernatural is so great. In the middle of Season 2 and I'm really enjoying it. The music references are great and I'm noticing album titles commonly named after Misfits tracks. I'm glad it lacks the cheesiness of Buffy which was fine in Buffy but the grimness to their supernatural dealings is the right way to go.