User blog:WENth100/Equal Shades of Grey

So recently, a new Marvel show named "Cloak and Dagger" just aired. It's unique in a way that it's about two superheros confronting the harsh reality instaed of just fightning the villian of the week. I'm no major fan of superhero shows so I haven't watched it yet. But judging from what I've heard, the show will "Tackle American Social Issues".

That automatically raises a red flag in my mind. It's not wrong to do political or social commentry in TV shows, when done right like in GTA V or in The Legends of Korra it produces excellent results. But normally they screw up very badly. And judging from how screwed up the American society and the entertainment industry is these days. The chances of screwing up is about as high as a Zenvo ST1's chance of spinning out in a corner under race mode.

Having just read this blog post, I already found two problems. And here I'll explain why:

'''DISCLAIMER: FURTHER REMINDER, I HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS SHOW YET, AND THE BLOG POST'S DESCRIPTION MAY NOT BE ACCURATE. SO MY CRITICISM MAY NOT BE CORRECT.'''

Black Lives Matter
Honestly, I have no idea why we are having this argument, and I really have no idea why we ever had this BLM argument in the first place ! This is no longer the 1970s, cops are no longer allowed to set their dogs on some black teen just because he's protesting. Martin Luther King Jr's mission is completed. I think here we all agree that black lives do matter, but what I believe is ALL LIVES MATTER, and that includes both Black lives and Blue lives.

In the pilot of the show, it takes on "police brutality". It shows the black protagonist, Tyrone Johnson, watches his older brother Billy shot by white police officer Detective Conners. And ever since then, Tyrone is hellbent on getting vengence on Connors.

The problem? I simply CANNOT put officer Conners on the moral lowground in this situation. First of all, the show wants to present this trigger happy and paranoid cop as the bad guy despite the fact that HE'S ONLY DOING HIS JOB. Billy may be unarmed, but that doesn't mean he's innocent, because he's holding a STOLEN OBJECT, even worse is that he's brandishing it in front of a cop, a move that is both foolish and reckless. Also, while it's just a car radio, how can you be sure that Conners can tell what the object is? Did he see a random piece of electronics, or did he see a homemade piece of explosive?! Is this show suggesting that Conners sholud not look after or defend himself? That he is just a droid or a "skinjob" whose life doesn't matter?

Joe Pokaski said: "I think we’re in an era where the police are looking at people differently."

Let me ask you, Pokaski, is that the cops' fault?

I simply cannot root for Tyrone, who's supposed to be our hero. He's trying to get revenge on a cop for someting caused by his own irresponsibility and recklessness. He's an anti-hero for sure, but he doesn't have the moral highground anymore than Carl Johnson has. I found it easier to root for CJ because A: he's my character in the story and B: those he fights are just as (if not more) evil as he is. Even if Conners shot his brother, even if everyone else is being a racist bigot towards him, Tyrone doesn't have Justice on his side.

Sexual Assault
Another badly done piece of commentry. WHY? Because I found both characters to be morally wrong. The man tried to sexually assault Tandy which is not only morally wrong but also ILLEGAL, but the reason he did that is because Tandy STOLE FROM HIM and he decided to take things to his own hands. Seriously, Tandy is supposed to be our hero, the show is trying to paint her as a victim and a survivor. But all I see from her is a thief who started this whole mess. If that idiot ball wasn't blinded with rage and simply called the police on Tandy, there'll be literally no defense on her side. Forced or not, SHE JUST COMMITED A CRIME. How hard will it be to just make a man a pervert who decided to stalk Tandy just because he thinks that she's easy picking?

And then there's Pokaski's commentry: "I wish this show was on five years ago. It’s great to see a woman as a superhero."

Oh, FOR F#$%'S SAKE!!! Is this Black Panther all over again?! Why is everyone pretending that super heroines didn't exist a few years before? They existed 5 years ago, they existed in the previous century! Do series like Xena, Charmed, Sarah Conner Chronicles etc mean nothing to you?!

Further Notes
There's also one thing I want to mention briefly, which is Racism, I will not criticize the show for tackling racism because, well, it still exists today. I have a Bangladeshi friend and when he was working at Fido, there's a douche at the office who constantly calls him "brown s***". These days people still casually throw around insults based on nothing but willful ignorance and stereotypes. The only thing I want to see is both sides of the story gettig covered. The "white being racist to black/asians/arabs" thing has been done TOO MANY TIMES to be counted, or even exaggerated like we're still in the 70s. It's time to unveiled the ugly truth that everyone can experience racism. That white people has been getting as much flak as black people do these days.