Black Girls' Night Out: Michael Burnham (#STDISC)

*Some Spoilers*

I'm trying to like this show, I really am...but the only way I see that happening is if I stop thinking of it as a Star Trek show.  I recently went on a Deep Space Nine and Voyager kick and watching those episodes confirmed what I felt before: Star Trek: Discovery doesn't feel like "Star Trek".  I remain convinced that once Bryan Fuller was removed, it kept the Star  Trek brand because CBS needed a way to get Americans to pay for their substandard streaming (with the exception of Canada, everyone else is watching this on Netflix...where it belongs).

On its own, Discovery is a decent science fiction show.  We've got a Black shero who was orphaned young and raised by an alien species.  She's blamed for triggering a war humans really don't want with a yet another alien species, and when her prison transport is hijacked, she finds herself in the clutches of a really weird and shady captain who won't really tell her anything about his "mission."

Black Girls' Night Out: Keating & Pratt (#HTGAWM)

*Some Spoilers*

So we're kicking off Season 4 of How to Get Away with Murder.  Two episodes have aired so far.  The writing feels tighter, the pacing less bracing, and I'm genuinely looking forward to what this season will bring.  While the loss of Wes Gibbins (Alfred Enoch) is still felt, I hate to admit that killing off his character may very well be an improvement.

Annalise has finally found a wig I can't complain about, actress Viola Davis continues to age like a fine wine, and she's more comfortable than ever in this role.  I like that Annalise is in mandated therapy and not drinking anymore; sober Annalise has a new depth, a new gravity, as though Davis has found a new aspect of the Annalise persona to explore.

In the season premiere, we're treated to the glorious presence of Dame Cecily Tyson as Annalise's mother, Ophelia Harkness, and her scenes stay heart-wrenching as she portrays an old woman descending into dementia.  I wish Annalise's sister Celestine (Gwendolyn Mulamba) would get more material to work with because she's the least memorable woman in her family thus far, and it's a shame.

In the second episode, Annalise takes on the case of one of her former cellmates, a 60-year-old ex-junkie, ex-prostitute who never had a chance, because back in 1968 when she was trafficked at the tender age of 13, the system treated her like a villain instead of a victim.  Her life understandably went downhill from there.  In therapy, Annalise realizes that she does identify with this woman, even though their lives appear to have gone in different directions.  Both were sexually abused as children, but Annalise had a loving mother and teachers who encouraged her.  What Annalise neglects to add however, is that she's emotionally broken, unable to sustain healthy relationships, she's an alcoholic, and - as Ophelia so aptly points out - people keep dying around her.

Apparently #Crazyhead isn't getting a second season

So back in November, 2016, creator Howard Overman hinted at "strong plans" for season 2.  Now we're finding out Crazyhead won't even be renewed.

Lots of people have asked & no, #Crazyhead is no more. Good to know @BuzzFeed (& so many of u lot) know a gem eh?! 😝(Chewing Gum here too) https://t.co/iGOq1WDbgB

— Susan Wokoma (@susan_wokoma) July 17, 2017

This news is beyond irritating.

See Also

Black Girls' Night Out: Raquel

"Still Star-Crossed" Deserves Better

Lashana Lynch as Lady Rosaline Capulet

That's right.  I said it.

Shondaland's newest family member raised cynical eyebrows when its premise was first revealed: what the story of Romeo and Juliet...hadn't ended with Romeo and Juliet?

Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of Shakespeare.  I'm the daughter of an English professor, and before I hit my teens, my father presented me with a giant book containing his complete works.  Macbeth was my favorite play to read as a child (I also liked Julius Caesar), but I do recall wondering what happened to the Capulets and Montagues after their kids died.  So I'm not surprised author Melissa Taub decided to put pen to paper and made it happen.

Thus, the problem is not the premise of the show.  The problem is the handling of said premise.

Hey Yo America, How About We #BringBackOURGirls?

Remember back in 2014 when the world was clownin' Nigeria because 300 girls were abducted, and the whole country spent years NOT able to get them back?

Meanwhile, in these disunited states of ours, the number of missing Black girls and women is somewhere to the tune of 64,000...at last count.  We're telling other countries to "bring back our girls", but ain't shit being done for our other girls who were chillin' right here a minute ago.  I mean, America likes to act as though we don't have the problems those other countries have, but we do.  We really do.

Did you even know?

According to the FBI, African American girls under the age of 18 represent 61% of the girls arrested for juvenile prostitution - nationwide. African American girls represent more than 40% of all girls trafficked in the United States, according to data provided by Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficked Incidents. However, African Americans as a race only represent 14% of the total United States population. These numbers do not represent the many girls arrested for sex trafficking related offenses, which includes the school to prison pipeline (truancy, allegations of disrupting the public schools, fighting and battery, runaways, theft, burglary, and gang related activities). (Source)

It's time to revive the campaign and this time, let's focus on what's going on right here in our own backyard, shall we?

Recommended

Black and Missing, But Not Forgotten
Institute of the Black World

Dear Netflix: Please Keep Misty Knight Away From Irish Fist

Simone Missick as Detective Misty Knight

I...I don't really know what else to add.

Like, after 2-3 attempts to make myself watch Irish Fist, all I can say is that I can't stomach the thought of Misty Knight going anywhere near all of that.  And while we're all sick to death of the tired and creepy White Savior/Asian woman trope, I gotta say...Colleen Wing? *fist bumps* Thanks for taking this one for the team,sis.

ETA: So a sista on one of my pages was concerned by this headline, since Danny Rand and Misty Knight are married in the comics. And after all the white-washing and lackluster writing and all-round fuckery sistas experience with mainstream media, her concern was understandable. That being said, keeping Misty miles away from Mr. Irish Fist is a revision I can happily cosign.  Cuz we didn't get Danny Rand this time around.  We got Danny Bland.  And Danny Bland not only fucked up his own show, but just kicked the whole entire Marvel-Netflix alliance in the balls.

So sistas, what we not finna do here is be so thirsty for mainstream representation that we will allow a perfectly fabulous Black female character to be summoned to the rescue.  That is not a compliment.  I can already see it now; Misty Knight is like the Michelle Obama of Marvel, and they will not hesitate to use her to come clean up this mess and salvage what's left of Iron First's viability.  No, ma'am.

When nerds of color everywhere were actively campaigning for an Asian American Iron First (which would've made a lot more sense seeing as we live in the 21st Century and all), the Marvel-Netflix alliance showed their whole ass by casually ignoring us.  They instead proceeded to present us with yet another White Savior flop in a long string of White Savior flops.  And just like with Sleepy Hollow, the one (potential) saving grace of Iron Fist is a Black woman, and we're expected to be grateful and excited that she's slated to be the central love interest on a unanimously panned shit show.  No, ma'am.

This is not November 9th, 2016, and we will not pretend like we didn't try to tell y'all.  Eurocentricism once again created a flop, so the Eurocentrists at Marvel and Netflix need to just take this L.

Black Girls' Night Out: Bonnie Bennett

And I was just beginning to like these two....

***Some Spoilers***

Okay, so TVD finally ended last night and...I'm not sure what to say here.

On the one hand, after all the death, blood, and overall self-indulgence, it ends on a positive note.  Everyone's storyline is resolved, and some actors returned for the big good-bye.  They even brought back Kai only to trap him in a new prison world from which there's (supposedly) no escape.

On the other hand...the writers killed Enzo, which served absolutely no purpose other than to break even my heart, and then they had the gall to make the Bennett witches save Mystic Falls...again.

I mean, they trotted out all the fallen witches from that bloodline, all the way back to Ayana herself, to help Bonnie save Mystic Falls...again.  After which we're shown Bonnie embracing life and heading out to see the world, starting with Africa (and no, they didn't bother to list which country).

Caroline is seen creating a school for superhuman kids and it's subtly implied that that's a whole other story.  But now that Kat Graham's got her freedom papers, she's not coming back to this hot mess of a 'verse where only the White girls were worthy of long, passionate relationships which lasted more than one season, and where the only Black girl (and her relatives) were routinely summoned like servants to clean someone else's mess.  Even death didn't release Bennetts from servitude!

After years of petitions, articles, and rants from fans, TVD's Powers That Be have listened to no one, learned nothing, and earned a final verdict of Absolutely Fucking Failed from me.  But then again...we kinda saw that one coming.

That being said, seeing all those Bennett witches together in one scene displaying some next-level Black Girl Magic makes me insist that we need a spin-off (and reboot) which squarely focuses on them, and this time is run by a Black woman and a team of (mostly) Black female writers.

I even recommend they call it "Benedictus"; it's the origin of the Bennett name.