I just finished watching the new season of 'You,' which was refreshingly free of trans and non-binary characters or tacked on trans/non-binary storylines. I understand there was a TIM cast in season 1, but he must have been a pretty minor character, as I don't remember him. So a big NAITCA (No-Awkwardly-Inserted-Trans-Character Award) to 'You' Season 4.
Anyone else have a nominee?
Call the Midwife! Diverse in every other way that feels natural, but I'm sure someone somewhere is in a snit that they've had 12 seasons and not ONE "seahorse dad!"
I much prefer obvious TIMs that don’t pass at all and have trans-specific storylines, rather than a TIM in a woman’s role and we’re all just supposed to pretend that this is a regular normal woman playing a regular normal woman character.
The worst is when they’re cast as characters that are undeniably women (could not be a TiM in the context of the show). The two examples that come to mind are Laverne Cox playing a woman who really exists in Finding Anna, and the TiM in The Mayfair Witches who is a witch and, therefore, a woman, and she participates in all of these rituals and stuff that only the women in this matriarchal family can participate in.
I mean, that would at least make sense. "Trans people" exist and you don't have to change your worldview or suspend disbelief to accept one existing in the show. But when they put a TIM in for a woman, and expect you to just play along, it's like they break the 4th wall to demand you accept trans ideology before you can properly enjoy the show.
To be immersed in any moving picture, you need the “willing suspension of disbelief” and TIMs crap all over that with their hideous uncanny valley faces.
It's a shame, generally speaking, imho, when producers shoehorn diversity in "unnaturally". Instead of just giving them their own shows in their own contexts with their own relevant narratives, they rehash old narratives we have heard for eons for the 50th time and piss everyone off. And miss an opportunity. How about fresh narratives set in places we don't hear from often enough and with more diverse characters who are played as (nontraditional) authors organically wrote them ... :/
It’s so weird when they put in diversity as tokens, instead of just natural, equally valid characters.
Like the hip black side kick friend that makes “You go girl!” type commentary. How insulting.
Yes! It also drives me crazy in historical series, where a black actor is cast in a role probably written for a white person and the writers just pretend racism didn't exist. This seems to be the zeitgeist--the idea that if we pretend racism doesn't exist, it won't. Just like if we pretend there have always been trans people like we have them now, it will be true.
My favorite awkward trans character showed up in NBC's "Clarice", which I am sure is long cancelled. There was a trans woMAN on screen, a huge, hulking character in a skirt and sweater, who said something like, "It's difficult having to hide who you really are" , as if the behemoth in a wig had a chance of passing (he was a "transbian" in a relationship with a woman , of course /rollseyes). The instant those words were out of his mouth, both my husband and I burst into startled laughter : The dichotomy between how he looked and "hide who you really are" was just too ridiculous.
I thought the TIM in the Queen's Gambit was there to give it a horror movie feel. I spent the first two episodes waiting for the jump scare.
That's the one I thought of... He was so incongruous as a teacher in a Catholic orphanage for girls, circa 1950's.
"It's difficult having to hide who you really are"
Uhh...was the TiM admitting he was really a man?
I haven't been able to watch all of the episodes yet (have seen a large majority, though), but so far both the original British and American versions of "Ghosts" have been refreshingly free of gender nonsense. And sooooo funny, I love them!
The only plotline that could be considered woke was the lesbian wedding in the UK version, but I think it was handled very well despite the humorous tone of the show. No TIMs afaik.
Afaik, "From" has no trans characters/actors. The diversity in the show is natural and well done imo. I'm really enjoying it, but i'm super aware a lot of people find the pacing too slow lol!
The Midnight Club. It's about a bunch of teenagers diagnosed with terminal cancer, spending their last weeks or months at a somewhat mysterious hospice in the countryside and telling each other ghost and horror stories every night. There is a gay character, and the cast is pretty diverse, but it doesn't feel forced and actually makes a lot of sense, since the kids come from all over the country and from different backgrounds. Oh, and it is set in the 1990s :D
This. The difference is whether the diversity is shoved in with an agenda or whether it is organic to the character and story. Readers and viewers can always feel the difference. The agenda, propaganda and artistic insincerity is what gets under people’s skin.
And thanks, I think I’m going to check out the Midnight Club now. :)
Exactly :) If it feels natural, it is well done and suits the story line, as it does in this case. Other TV shows seem to be more in-your-face, like the one about Anne Boleyn. I refuse to watch that one simply because I think they miscast the main character. The actress might be doing a good job - I haven't yet seen her in anything, at least not that I remember -, but Anne Boleyn simply wasn't black. I don't get the reasoning behind the casting.
I haven’t watched the new Anne Boleyn show for the same reasons. One of the really sad things is that there were people of different races in Tudor and Elizabethan England. I would watch a show teaching me more about their lives in a hot minute. This is like casting Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman.
Except that there'd be an uproar if a white actress was chosen to play a black woman. It seems casting decisions like the one made for Anne Boleyn only work in one direction and never the other way around. What it boils down to is that casting decisions, for me, need to be logical and make a character believeable. I know I won't enjoy that Anne Boleyn show simply because they chose an actress who doesn't even look remotely like the historical figure.
To be fair, that holds true for other historical figures, too. I can't watch the Stauffenberg movie starring Tom Cruise for the same reasons - he doesn't fit the description at all. Same with Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. I don't expect actors and actresses to be exact twins of the historical figures they portray, but they should at least be somewhat recognizable.
The Midnight Club. It's about a bunch of teenagers diagnosed with terminal cancer, spending their last weeks or months at a somewhat mysterious hospice in the countryside and telling each other ghost and horror stories every night. There is a gay character, and the cast is pretty diverse, but it doesn't feel forced and actually makes a lot of sense, since the kids come from all over the country and from different backgrounds. Oh, and it is set in the 1990s :D
Yellowjackets
Succession
This was going to be my contribution lol