Step Aside Nuclear Family

I've always found it difficult to watch shows such as "The Brady Bunch", "Leave it to Beaver", and "The Andy Griffith Show". While many viewers consider these to be good and wholesome entertainment, I personally found these shows as very unrealistic and closed minded. It was hard for me to accept the family dynamics of these shows, because these “nuclear families” excluded or simply ignored so many different types of family structures. Non-whites, impoverished, single parent families or homosexual families went unacknowledged in these shows. Women were only portrayed as dutiful wives and mothers, while the men were shown as strict but wise fathers. The children were often ornery and misbehaving but at the end of the episode were magically taught a valuable lesson.  The only problem with this is that the shows were only directed toward a specific audience, one who shared experiences and values with this nuclear family. This target audience was sometimes only a small portion of the population. Now, especially in the media, there is a new movement to expose different kinds of families. Shows such as the New Normal, bring to light other perspectives. The New Normal focuses on a couple, David and Bryan, who are trying to raise a family. Since the couple is homosexual, these two men depend on a surrogate, Goldie, who is a single mother, to carry their child. This fluid and modern family would never have been recognized in a show like "The Brady Bunch”. This is quite a shame, because there are some really touching and insightful moments that expose the hatred directed to homosexual couples, and demonstrates that sometimes the people that have the most love are the families that step away from the traditional familial structure. Being homosexual and a single parents did not stop this unconventional family from feeling a strong bond for each other. These characters may be from a fictional television show, but I feel that they can teach a great deal of lessons to real families.

Jungle Fever

There are no words to describe last night’s episode of Survivor. Out of all the years of Survivor, I don't think there has ever been a contestant who completely broke down in such a way that Brandon Hantz did. I really hate to say it, but from the clips I saw, I honestly believed that Brandon had some very serious psychological issues during his second time on the show. Of course, I realize that the clips shown on Survivor are edited in order to cast a contestant in a certain light. And since I was not on location with Brandon, I do not have the full details and knowledge of his actions. However, I have a feeling that he suffered a full meltdown on the show. Whether it was because of the elements, lack of sleep or food, frustrations with the other contestants (mainly Phillip), mental instability, or a combination of all five, I cannot say why Brandon behaved in this manner. I personally would not be able to handle a personality like Phillip, so I can understand Brandon's frustrations with this man. However, the way in which he conducted himself, especially in regards to the other contestants, was inexcusable. I would have physically knocked him to the ground when he tried to destroy the limited supply of food. This behavior makes me wonder if there needs to be more efficient psychological background checks when picking contestants for the show. I almost feel sorry for Brandon, because his meltdown will now be displayed in front of millions of people. I feel that he should not have been allowed on the show in the first place. I really hope that after he was voted off the show, he was given some form of help. I do have to say that I was very impressed with how the host of Survivor Jeff Probst handled Brandon. Without aggressively pulling Brandon out of the show, he de-escalated his behavior by talking with Brandon and even giving him a massage to try to calm him down. Probst showed that he was a host that could handle a very unexpected and potentially violent situation. I really hate to say such negative things about an individual, but I really was blown away by Brandon's actions and I sincerely hope he can get some type of help. Or, if the show somehow misrepresented him, that he can find a way to speak the truth about his situation.





Year of the Animation

It just occurred to me that 2012 had some really great animated movies, at least in my opinion. The four main movies that touched my heart and jump started my imagination were Hotel Transylvania, Rise of the Guardians, Wreck It Ralph, and of course, Brave. Hotel Transylvania put a very humorous and cute spin on the fictional characters that have served as the villains of so many scary stories. I adored this movie because I think it made its audience view so called monsters in a new perspective and made us question whether humans can actually be considered the bad guys. Rise of the Guardians brought back the wonderment we had as children, although some of us never truly lost this. Rise of the Guardians reminded us why we loved Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy, Sandman, and Jack Frost. It was really interesting to see these characters cast into the role of guardians for children, even though it makes sense since most of us owe our best childhood memories to these characters. Wreck It Ralph provided a clever and humorous interpretation of how arcade game characters feel. I was truly fascinated by the unique ideas that were integrated into the world of the three arcade games. The candy rush land had such humorous and inventive concepts such as the donut police officer named Dunkin, the hot Coca Cola lake and the Mentos stalactites, or the quick sand made of Nesquik drink mix. Brave, as I have said before in my post "Brave New World" was a wonderful new take on the classic Disney princess. Merida was a princess which more modern women and girls can appreciate, and was a perfect movie to show that happy endings can exist without a romantic relationship. This is becoming a very relevant topic since many women are concentrating on their careers and education instead of pursuing marriage and motherhood. This year also looks promising with animation films such as The Croods, which stars one of my favorite actresses, Emma Stone.

 

 

The Chimes at Midnight

I finished watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and realized that there were some very important messages demonstrated by some of the residences of the hotel. Graham Dashwood proved that if we live with regret and shame, we are only sentencing ourselves to a life of misery. Once we can let go of these prisons, then we will truly be free and at peace. Muriel Donnelly is an example of how when we lose our usefulness, we are cast out by society and the ones we love. Therefore, we hide within ourselves, never wanting to have interaction with others for fear we will become obsolete to them. Jean Ainslie demonstrated that when we become so blinded by our insecurities and fears, we lose sight of the beauty and wonder that so often surrounds us. Evelyn Greenslade was a woman who discovered that even in our later years we can discover our true path, even if our previous steps have been taken at somebody else’s side. Douglas Ainslie's attempts to remain loyal and kind were useless when they caused him to be unhappy. Lastly, Sonny Kapoor felt that his happiness depended on how others viewed him, but his unrealistic expectations resulted in his misery. It is impossible to please everyone, but if we are happy within our own soul, then most likely we will give happiness to everyone else. This movie demonstrated that even though society pushes elderly individuals to the side they are often the ones with the most wisdom. I was also excited that there may have been a vague and unintentional connection to Doctor Who. Penelope Wilton who played Jean Ainslie also played Harriet Jones in Doctor Who. In the movie Penelope Wilton's character repeatedly said that she was going to turning left, which coincidently was the title of a Doctor Who episode. Coincidence, I think not.   

Metal to Metal, Spark to Spark

To show you how much of a geek I am, I watched Robot Combat League on SyFy tonight, which sadly is not the geekiest fact. I am so used to watching futurist science fiction shows that I thought the "effects" on this show were not well done. I've become so spoiled with watching computer generated effects that I'm expecting that fluidity in the robots that were fighting on Robot Combat League. In fairness, it really is amazing how advanced those robots were, considering that electronics have recently popped up in the last hundred years or so. I was really amazed that through engineering, the human fighters were able to maneuver such large machinery. I can definitely see the future potential, not only for fighting, but for a wide range of uses. Already robots are starting to be used for medicine and weapons. Electronic devices can serve as prosthetics, and be controlled by mere neural signals, like thoughts. This will give so many people a second chance after losing their limbs. Exoskeletons machines have the ability to advance the strength of human beings while still keeping their speed and agility. These exoskeletons have the potential to restore movement to paralyzed patients or those who have diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s. I knew someone with Lou Gehrig’s disease and it’s a horrible disease to witness and an even more horrendous disease to experience. I hope that humanity can find a cure for this disease, but allowing victims to be able to walk again would be a great miracle too. There is so much potential for robots and I am really curious as to what robotic advances we will see in the next few decades. The only drawback is we must be careful we don't have a scenario like the Terminator. Hey it may be a movie, but the concept is all too possible. Told you I was a geek!

 

The Secret Life of Zombies

After watching the trailer for World War Z, I was intrigued as to what the movie was about. The trailer revealed enough about the movie to interest me, but did not give too much away about the plot. When I found out that the movie was based on a novel, I jumped on the chance to find out more about the movie. I'm only about twenty pages into reading the novel, but it proved to be a very interesting book. The book is written like a combination between a history textbook, an interview, and a narrative. The angle that Max Brooks takes in writing the novel is very unique. He seemed to examine how drug cartels and human smugglers would handle the zombie apocalypse and how it would affect their crime. He also examined the different ways in how the rich and poor of third world countries, especially those in Asia, would handle their infections. The poor of these countries believed their relatives’ inflictions to be supernatural, but still protected their family members. The rich spent an absurd amount of money fleeing to other countries to find a cure, and when the situation called for it, would abandon their own family members. I feel that Brooks did such a good job of exploring an aspect of life that is not commonly looked at in American zombie culture. No longer are we sympathizing with the middle to upper class American victims, but we find sympathy for the poor Chinese peasant. Or we come to realize that crime could still remain and flourish in a world overrun by zombies. I can't wait to read more of his interesting angles on such an over done genre.

 

Weight of the Crown

As you can probably tell, I'm really passionate about the show Once Upon A Time, especially the character Regina. Despite her very nasty habit of ripping people's hearts from their chest, I like her character. Regina is a very misguided character who is the product of being raised by her very manipulative and twisted mother Cora. Tonight's episode "The Queen is Dead" proves this. Cora orchestrated the death of Snow White's mother and Regina's rescue of Snow White. What makes me so upset is that Regina is blinded to her mother's evil intentions toward everyone, including Regina herself and Henry.  I really don't like how the writers of Once Upon A Time, at the beginning of the second season, attempted to show Regina's potential to become a good person but destroyed that chance by having her character blindly follow her mother, even though she had suspicions of her mother’s intentions when they were reunited. With Cora framing her daughter for the murder of Dr. Hopper and then using Regina’s need for maternal love, Regina has not been given a decent chance to prove her worth. I’ve noticed throughout the history of the show the common theme that female rulers are unable to hold their position of power. Snow White's mother lost her position of power when she was murdered by Cora. Regina only gained power when her heart was corrupted by evil and she was only queen because her mother manipulated Regina's life in order to gain power. Snow White was not able to rule because her evil stepmother prevented her reign. So far, there hasn't been an example of a queen who has gained power without succumbing to evil or being murdered by evil individuals. I almost feel like the show is trying to imply that women cannot rule because they are either two vulnerable to evil's temptation or they are too weak to protect themselves from evil people.