I agree, King is great. Deserves an Emmy nomination. But I can't give the rest
of the cast a pass for that. I'm not even arguing that the portrayal's
unrealistic. Maybe it represents a real-life precinct where most of the cops
are white and Latino, and the criminals mostly black and Latino. I just still
feel we need to have Brothers shown in a more varied light than this. I think
next week's show focuses on a black cop, so maybe he'll be more central to the
story?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelwyn" <ravena...@yahoo.com>
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 1:49:35 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: "Southland" on TNT
I find the series remarkably honest, straight forward and faithful to its
milieu - an anomaly for cop shows. All the things you mentioned are usually pet
peeves of mine but they don't bother me in this instance. I can't really
explain why except to say, for me, casting Regina KIng - and giving her so much
to do - gives everybody else a "ghetto pass."
When the cops do something as simple as unbuckling their seat belts before
exiting their cars to chase perpetrators - I don't remember ever seeing that in
a cop show before - this is part of the verisimilitude that makes this show a
pleasure for me to watch.
~rave!
--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com , Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@...> wrote:
>
> I'm really starting to have problems with this show. I like the cast, love
> Regina King's strong character. I even like the camera work, which has that
> "Cops" feel, but is done skillfully enough so that it doesn't irritate me.
> But my problem? The depiction of black people! I noticed this from the
> get-go, but other than the odd black cop with about 30 seconds of screen
> time, I see almost no positive black characters. The black women I've seen
> have all been victims: murdered drug users and prostitutes, pursued
> witnesses, aggrieved mothers ("Oh Lawd, Lawd! Not my baby!!")
> The men are aggressors: the gangbangers who war on the streets, rich drug
> dealers who are Grade A stereotypes, young street thugs who literally sell
> out their girlfriends to criminals looking for them, arrogant high school
> football players who make light of assaulting women ("We're one step away
> from the BCS. Ain't nobody gonna do nuthin' to me"). And there was the really
> cool one where the young black boys took turns throwing rocks at the body of
> a naked murdered woman (black of course) ,and then filmed their exploits for
> the Net.
>
> I know we gots our problems in LA. I guess this show focuses on an area of
> the city that's mostly black and Latino and crime ridden. And maybe it's
> realistic that the cops patrolling that area are mostly white, but this is
> really starting to wear on me. Yeah yeah, the whites aren't perfect: we've
> got the cops who are alcoholics, the cops in dysfunctional marriages, the
> cops who are overly aggressive and hiding possible homosexuality, the cops
> who have no life outside of the job. But they're all cops at least--at least
> trying to uphold the law, not break it. There are even a few Latino cops to
> offset the Latino criminals frequently shown. But in the main, Brothers and
> Sisters ain't looking so good, especially the Brothers.
>
> I really am not liking this disproportionate display, and if this is how the
> show is to continue, then canceled or not, I'd have reevaluate watching it
> regularly.
>
