EPISODE 210 – SUPER FRIENDS

POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW

I kind of went berzerk this weekend. And kind of sort of in a pretty public way.

Netflix dropped the latest in its series of Marvel comics-related properties, “Iron Fist”, about a rich white kid in New York who gets wicked kung fu magic through a combination of bad luck (plane crash in the Himalayas, which are pretty much the Bermuda Triangle of Asia, WHY DOES ANYONE FLY THERE?), good luck (he’s rescued by Buddhist warrior monks from another dimension that only appears on our Earth once every fifteen years) and a lot of beatings (no, really; the monks are warrior monks and that’s apparently the only job for boys or orphans or something and the training is pretty awful).

The internets...did not love it. In fact, they had been pretty steady in their not loving of it ever since the casting on the project got announced. For a pretty good reason: it’s a story about the chosen master of martial arts, a guy trained in China, yet the actor chosen for the role is about as white as porcelain.

What, Netflix, was Asia busy?

But as you can see from that image, that casting is not accidental. The comic book character on whom Danny Rand/Iron Fist is based is equally white and blonde and blue-eyed.

Should that source material matter? That’s the real question, in a sense. Few in the 1970s would have known what cultural appropriation or whitewashing is, let alone considered it. (They were all pretty much white guys talking to white guys, after all.) But we know better today. And let’s be honest – how many shows with Asian leads have you been watching lately? (Or Latino? Or Pacific Islander? Or Native American?)

If you have the chance to improve that situation, why not do so?

Roy Thomas, the co-creator of the character of Iron Fist, was interviewed this week about all this. He really couldn’t appreciate the reaction. “He [Danny] wasn’t intended to stand for any race,” Thomas says, as though that answered people’s concerns.

It’s an interesting interview, deeply uncomfortable in some places – like when Thomas suggests Rand could have had “an Asian buddy” – yet not without its merits, either. In fact I’d say his point of view represents that of many today, and thankfully without a lot of the shrill and “Hey, SJW, suck it” that blooms throughout the Garden of Eden that is Onlinesylvania. Definitely worth a read, even if you disagree.

So anyway, for the last few weeks it’s been non-stop “Wait ‘til you see this show, because it is worse than everything” amongst critics. It’s funny how it happens that instead of mixed reviews, we occasionally get the “Hate This” DJ dance party, with every critic adding their own track for all of us to collectively whip and nae nae to on the show’s beheaded corpse.

While many critics referenced the whitewashing controversy, all insisted the real problem was the story, which they considered so boring as to be an act of masochism to put yourself through.

So of course I spent the weekend watching it. And also kind of sort of ranting about it on Twitter, maybe. Maybe even more than once...

And it’s not like Iron Fist is my favorite character (though there have been some absolutely fantastic iterations of the character in the last ten years). I just had this instinct the game had been rigged.

And you know, I am a contrarian, but I also found the show pretty good. In fact, if you pay attention to the Netflix super hero shows you know most of them kind of fall apart for a little bit around episode 8 or 9; “Iron Fist” is the first that doesn’t. It just keeps building momentum, with both steady plotting and some great twists (one of which is absolutely ridiculous in the very best way and the actor involved chews the scenery so wonderfully from that point on that he must have had to floss a long time after).

The show also seems to have a really good sense of when to add a new character, and how and to what extent to use them – again, stuff the other shows have tried, but not yet fully succeeded at. (Insert: rant about the introduction of Diamondback in “Luke Cage”, which could have derailed the whole series if not for the acting of everyone else.)

The success of “Iron Fist” is not exactly my point here, but I’ll also say this: I like to outline seasons of TV shows, so as to understand them better. And if I were ever going to teach students how to structure a season of show, I would use “Iron Fist”. It’s clear, and also satisfying.

Here is exactly my point here: I feel like we’re living in this moment where everything critical has been TURNED TO ELEVEN. Some of it I get – the idea that people flying from certain countries no longer are allowed to use anything larger than a cell phone on plane flights which might be a dozen hours or more is nuts; so is the fact that USC had a conference on Africa last week, and not a single representative from Africa was able to get a Visa; and let’s not get started on the health care bill.

But is shouting, mocking and generally not giving things a chance our preferred default now? Is everything now best articulated in a scorching tweet?

No one should be a Polyanna. If you think something’s terrible, so be it. But can we also still be fair? Can we find a way to be critical that’s not “A Clockwork Orange” with a hipper beat?

Because I’m embarrassing myself online here, people, and I need for that to stop.

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Speaking of embarrassing myself, I did something else this week that’s got me worried. Like, maybe it’s time for comic book rehab worried. This newsletter may actually be my first step. I definitely did feel powerless, after I went to the comic book store on Wednesday for my weekly fill, and found myself buying on purpose a comic book adaption of “The Flintstones.”

I don’t do “kids” comics – what the comic companies call “all ages”. I’m not a Brony, “Simpsons” comic books do nothing for me, nor Hanna Barbera or anything else like that.

I hadn’t even thought of or seen “The Flintstones”, otherwise known as “The Honeymooners” but with dinosaurs and more misogyny (You can be whatever you want, Wilma!), in decades. Like, a lot of decades.

But then I read this article about the comic, and how it’s gotten rave reviews from The Washington Post, Hollywood Reporter, Vox and a lot of other seeming reputable sources. Because, for some reason that I can’t even imagine, the creators decided to reimagine the world of “The Flintstones” realistically: Fred is a war veteran; other characters struggle with PTSD, the harshness of an economy that reduces everyone to their monetary worth, and whether there is a God. Existential dread apparently hangs over everything.

I know. It sounds ridiculous. But also – how could I pass that up? I don’t have issues, I’m doing my job – learning from stories.

I’ll let you know how it is. In the meantime, please stop looking at me like that.

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“Rogue One” is being released on DVD soon – in fact I think it’s streaming somewhere as of last night -- and wow has the internets been buzzy. There have been reports of what the original ending was going to be (hint: they all lived and raised babies and btw duh Rey is probably the child of Jyn and Kit Fisto anyway); other reports of even crazier alternate endings considered (three words, people: Carbon Freeze Bomb).

Director Garth Edwards also talked about how he could only direct the actor playing Darth Vader with the helmet off, because the idea of offering Darth Vader direction was just impossible (read: scary and life-threatening); how Vader’s end scene (which they call “the Walk of Death” and I call “Jesus OhMuh Wow”) wasn’t even imagined until just a few months before release; what it would feel like if the end of “Rogue One” and the start of “A New Hope” were spliced together (Hint: it works ridiculously well); how we’re getting close to the point where future Star Wars movies will not involve any of the characters from the original six films; and the very first shot ever of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

I’m not afraid to say that I love Mark Hamill right now even more than I did as a child.

Talk about an embarrassment of riches. And just to be clear: No, I do not have a Google alert for “Star Wars”, “Mark Hamill Please Hold Me” or “The Only Thing That’s Keeping Me Going Right Now”. Because it would take too long to go through all the posts that pop up, and if you’re really good the universe brings all the gifts to you anyway.

Why is it so many people are so eager to hear about the “Star Wars” alternate endings? I mean, yes, it’s true, the trailers for “Rogue One”, which everyone loved, are pretty much nothing but footage that didn’t end up in the film. So there’s that.

Part of me wants to psychologize it, too. Who doesn’t live with a lot of “what might have been”s? It’s nice to hear about someone else’s for a change.

Except I don’t think alternate endings are the same as some alternate version of ourselves who’s wandering around some other universe undoubtedly doing much better than we are. (Alternate universe fantasies are just the future-tense version of ancestry.com – everyone’s related to someone significant and/or awesome.)

Personally, I cannot stand evil twin/“alternate version of me” stories. I’m sorry, “Star Trek” fans, but the Mirror Universe Star Trek stories are the absolute worst.

Beardo Spock, you are ridiculous.

And the sudden appearance of Terminator-Lite Logan in “Logan” almost ruined the film for me. (To their credit, the writers seemed to anticipate the problem he would pose, and used him unusually sparingly.)

Maybe we like alternate endings because in some weird way hearing them is still somehow, even if it was eventually discarded, more of that thing that we love, “Star Wars”. (Seriously, check out that link on the carbon freeze bomb and tell me that’s not crazy awesome.)

I’ve been reading “Art of Star Wars” books lately, and they’re filled with things that never make the movies. The “Star Wars” story team actually has a fascinating (and as far as I can tell unique) approach to story; a team of artists are involved from the very beginning, before there’s even a fleshed out story. They draw landscapes, events and characters that could possibly figure in such a story, all as a means of brainstorming what cool things could possibly happen to who.

“Rogue One” director/Darth Vader-fearer Gareth Edwards actually took this process even further, asking the artists from the very beginning to craft images that could serve as the key visual moments of the whole film. Obviously story and character came, too, but I have to say I love the idea of building a film as a set of kick-ass, “wait ‘til they see this” visuals. When I’m a millionaire I plan on keeping a set of artists on retainer to draw cool possible events for my life, which I will then try to live out.

Maybe we like the alternate endings and might have beens for “Star Wars” because the world of “Star Wars” lends itself to that. Hot take on “Star Wars” vs. “Star Trek”: “Star Trek” creates a sense of breadth by offering alternate universe versions of its characters; “Star Wars” creates a sense of breadth by giving every moment the kind of worn texture and background activity that suggests there is tons more going on all around beyond what we’re seeing through the camera.

I could care less about alternate endings of “Star Trek” movies. The films are often entertaining -- they destroyed Vulcan, how could I not be entertained?

AGAIN! AGAIN!

But there’s never much sense of a “more world” or characters’ lives beyond the screen. When McCoy is not making wry asides while drinking he’s waiting for Kirk or Spock to show up so he can make wry asides while drinking. (What’s the deal with McCoy, anyway? Why doesn’t he have a life?)

Meanwhile when characters in “Star Wars” aren’t onscreen they’re doing stuff. Solo’s playing cards and/or running cons; Leia’s bossing people around; Rey’s dreaming of her parents and dealing with the jerks who pass by and try to steal bits of her AT-AT. We don’t see those scenes, but when we hear they were shot, of course we’re interested, because in the final cut or not, they’re part of the world.

I bet I’ve riled some “Trek” fans up. Just to come clean, I’ve seen all the shows (although a couple I could not finish). I watched “Next Generation” in college with friends every Friday night or Sunday night or whenever it was on. I think DS9 is pretty great. I just don’t find the characters or the worlds believable or satisfying as a whole. (Other than maybe McCoy; I would watch a whole show of him, if only just to learn his deal.)

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One last crazy thing from the week, about online passwords.

Last week on the ReplyAll podcast (which I have highly recommended here more than once), Gimlet Media co-creator Alex Blumberg came to the show to get some tech help. He’d had the weird experience of waking up one morning to find out that someone in Russia had used his Uber account. And when he inquired with Uber as to what happened, not only did they not know, but they no longer had any record of him ever having had an Uber account of his own.

It’s a great episode, funny and also disturbing. You can listen to it online here. And in the middle of it hosts PJ and Alex talk to this guy who has this website, “Have I been pwned?” where you can input any email address that you use to create accounts with different websites like Facebook, Tumblr, Walmart or whatever – and find out if those sites have ever been hacked (and therefore whether someone in Russia can now call a car on your Uber).

Just to be clear – the point isn’t whether your Gmail has been hacked. It’s whether some other place that you’ve used your Gmail address and some password that you use in a million different places to create user IDs has been hacked. That’s the genius of the Russian hacker today: they get your information from hacking one site, like Target, and then try using it everywhere else, because they know that most of us are going to use the same password over and over again.

The Reply All piece also references this article on password managers which create and store random passwords for you; I have to say, personally, I’m more than a little skeptical of giving passwords to some other site or app for storage, as what if they get hacked? And who are “they”, anyway? But there’s definitely a point to be made about switching things up, before everyone in Wisconsin is buying the flavor of the day using your Kopp’s Custard app.

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This week’s episode of “The Flash” crossed over with “Supergirl” for a musical (Get it? "Dynamic Duet"?). Some of it was really sweet. In fact, for those who remember “The Super Friends” cartoons fondly, I highly recommend this Flash/Supergirl duet, which is hilarious and also written by Rachel Bloom, who co-created the insanely amazing and disturbing “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” that I’ve written about.

(The show also ended with this incredible love song penned by the guys who did “La La Land”. And it’s funny, though it’s very clearly a man pouring out his heart to his girlfriend, for some reason I keep hearing it as a kind of a religious song, too, like a song we might sing to God as we’re struggling to keep our #!%! together; or maybe a song he would sing to us to encourage us.)

For those who like Damon Lindelof and/or “Leftovers” – first of all, I am with you, and we will definitely be talking about this sometime soon, because that show is incredible.

But also, Lindelof sent this letter to critics along with the first seven of the eight final episodes of the show (which debuts April 17th). Some of it’s kind of a propos of what we were talking about with “Iron Fist”, but it’s also just hilarious and has a fantastic gold star burn on “Mad Men” at the end.

Lastly, THIS IS HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND AND WE ALL NEED TO BE EXCITED ABOUT IT.

It's quite a race we’re running these days. Hard to know where the solid ground is.

But in the words of Barry Allen (aka The Flash) – “Can’t say how the days will unfold. Can’t change what the future may hold. But I want you in it. Every hour, every minute.”

Take it gently. We're in this together.