Wow, A-Team. Just, wow.
Sep. 29th, 2010 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perpetual_motionI'm officially on A-Team season 2, and in fact just watched the season opener. Here's what happens:
The team gets hired to help a woman make a claim on her father's diamond mine. Which is in South Africa. When she gives them the name of the place where they are to meet in South Africa, Hannibal can't pronounce the name of the town, but B.A. can. When they get to the meeting place, Hannibal tells B.A. to wait outside while he, Face, and Murdock go inside to conference with the woman.
Let me make a list so you can look on with this face: o.O
--We're in South Africa in the 1980s. Meaning Apartheid was still alive and well.
--Diamond mines in South Africa have been known as being blood diamonds, and seeing as the thrust of the episode is the woman needing to get the mine claimed before the local thugs took it over, I'd say her mine counts.
--Hannibal can't pronounce the name of the African town where the team is to meet the client. But B.A. can do it automatically. Because, of course, if you're black, you can pronounce ALL those weird African names.
--Further worsening the case on this is the fact that once they reach the location, there's a title card telling you where the team is. I can't remember the name of the town, but it is incredibly phonetic. Seriously. And it looked similar to "Zimbabwe," which Hannibal didn't even get close to.
--B.A. is told by Hannibal to wait outside the location to keep an eye out for bad guys, and while this makes sense, given that B.A. is the team bruiser (and driver, and fixt-it man), we're still in South Africa in the 1980s, when blacks were disallowed from entering places as deemed by the white assholes in charge.
Are you making this face: o.O
Because I was totally making that face. What's really interesting to me, though, is while I was making that face, I wasn't angry. Because it's the A-Team. This is the show that had Hannibal dressed as a black waiter. A complete lack of regard for any of the political issues in South Africa at the time of the show's airing it's an anger offense. It's just another chance for me to be amazed at what another 25 years has done to promote a more sensitive use of time and place.
So, go A-Team, you wacky, inappropriate show. You and UNCLE should get together and compare notes. They once did an episode based in India where the female character of the week was a lovely Indian woman and all the Indian men were played by white actors in brown make-up. Brown make-up so shiny, it reflected the studio lights.
The team gets hired to help a woman make a claim on her father's diamond mine. Which is in South Africa. When she gives them the name of the place where they are to meet in South Africa, Hannibal can't pronounce the name of the town, but B.A. can. When they get to the meeting place, Hannibal tells B.A. to wait outside while he, Face, and Murdock go inside to conference with the woman.
Let me make a list so you can look on with this face: o.O
--We're in South Africa in the 1980s. Meaning Apartheid was still alive and well.
--Diamond mines in South Africa have been known as being blood diamonds, and seeing as the thrust of the episode is the woman needing to get the mine claimed before the local thugs took it over, I'd say her mine counts.
--Hannibal can't pronounce the name of the African town where the team is to meet the client. But B.A. can do it automatically. Because, of course, if you're black, you can pronounce ALL those weird African names.
--Further worsening the case on this is the fact that once they reach the location, there's a title card telling you where the team is. I can't remember the name of the town, but it is incredibly phonetic. Seriously. And it looked similar to "Zimbabwe," which Hannibal didn't even get close to.
--B.A. is told by Hannibal to wait outside the location to keep an eye out for bad guys, and while this makes sense, given that B.A. is the team bruiser (and driver, and fixt-it man), we're still in South Africa in the 1980s, when blacks were disallowed from entering places as deemed by the white assholes in charge.
Are you making this face: o.O
Because I was totally making that face. What's really interesting to me, though, is while I was making that face, I wasn't angry. Because it's the A-Team. This is the show that had Hannibal dressed as a black waiter. A complete lack of regard for any of the political issues in South Africa at the time of the show's airing it's an anger offense. It's just another chance for me to be amazed at what another 25 years has done to promote a more sensitive use of time and place.
So, go A-Team, you wacky, inappropriate show. You and UNCLE should get together and compare notes. They once did an episode based in India where the female character of the week was a lovely Indian woman and all the Indian men were played by white actors in brown make-up. Brown make-up so shiny, it reflected the studio lights.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2010-09-30 02:41 am (UTC)Nowadays, the shows are so heavily researched (CSI, House, any cop show it seems) that the wonder of a fake/imaginary exotic place has been replaced by so many facts about the places that they could almost be travel guides, or encyclopedia articles that are updated every ten minutes. Yay for accurate information in the blink of an eye, but at the same time, I kind of watch UNCLE and A-Team and miss the fact that my brainless entertainment really used to have imaginary places where this crap could actually happen.
And the colorface instances! I mean, damn, that can be painful to watch. Especially when it's Illya doing it. I mean, wow.
no subject
on 2010-09-30 07:12 am (UTC)And I can live with most of it, understanding what the culture was like back then. But colorface? Yeah, that one's always gonna make me go: "Oh, no WAY."
no subject
on 2010-09-30 04:20 am (UTC)... The only nod to apartheid in that episode seemed to be the fact that BA waited outside until he was needed to break down the frigid door.
no subject
on 2010-09-30 07:13 am (UTC)