So what if you are satisfied with being a slightly-above-average-but-anonymous person enjoying the VIP box in the Olympics and somebody slips you a magic elixir that, at will, turns you into a gold medalist, with all perks and stature afforded that? How does that affect your psychology, especially if you are an over-educated, professional woman in a sexist society? This Ally McBeal homage is getting closer and closer to that idea with each passing episode. I’m still waiting for the old/new Daredevil to show up, and, unlike my current dragon-show obsessions, most of the episodes are shallow and completely forgettable–yes, even for a sitcom! But the thematic query, now reaching the center of it, is interesting.
Director Ron Howard excels at this kind of dramatic story about brave-but-not-reckless leadership. He strains to prevent a White Savior narrative, and I think he succeeds.
Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 328 pp., $27.95.
West uses his mastery of the histories of Black Chicago and Ebony/Jet well here, significantly building on and adding to his previous work on the topic. An author explains an author in a wonderful intellectual history that sticks to very exciting facts: Lerone Bennett rises in a rising time, gaining knowledge and experience and pointing them toward what he would call in print the Black Revolution. He transforms himself from journalist to historian, from moderate, Kappa Morehouse Man to Pan-Africanist revolutionary. Absolutely necessary for those who want to understand 20th-century Black press history and, perhaps more importantly, how one “Black-famous” author’s Black history texts–all the outgrowth of one national Black magazine, a 20th-century legend once on every Black American coffee table–were significant weapons in the Black struggle before African-Americans had full access to local and national broadcasting and now international streaming.
My only other Fantastic Four. I am in mourning for this show’s demise already. I miss arguing with it, laughing with it, being simultaneously flabbergasted and confused by it. We shall not know its like again.
As folks who follow me on social media can see by now, I spend a *ridiculous* amount of time each week watching #JohnCampea, #GraceRandolph, #ScreenCrush, #NewRockStars and others to get my TV/movie superhero news fix. Because of this act of kindness, I will no longer feel guilty about the two hours I spend with Campea almost every damn weekday! #TJCS #TheJohnCampeaShow
Lana(finding out that Clark is Superman and talking about how he took his sweet time coming back to Smallville after he abandoned her to find his way to the cape): Did you ever love me?
Clark: Oh, Lana, of course I did.
Lana: (PAUSE) Just not enough.
I was determined to hate this show when it premiered and initially I was successful. A Superman TV narrative without Metropolis, The Daily Planet, etc.? A re-tread of Smallville? Superman with a brother? No. This ain’t the Thor movies.
But almost two full seasons in and after me pretty much memorizing Season 1, it’s clear this is the best Superman TV show ever. And that’s not easy, since there’s 70 years’ worth of truth-justice-American-way-TV to evaluate (including the very-good, just canceled homage show Naomi). The message of this well-written, well-photographed show–if you don’t take care of your family, every part of it, and do the hard work of sustaining that care every day, your family and you will fall apart–is clearly articulated by its expert use of nearly 100 years of Superman lore.
Lana will heal because she’s not jealous of Lois; she has her own beautiful and loving family to fix. And that’s the point of this show. Everyone’s busy keeping their family foundation solid. It be hard.
The best compliment I can give this show is that the only Marvel TV shows I ever put on loop are Disney+’s WandaVision followed by Daredevil. So for the CW’s Superman and Lois, a proud and strong DC product, to join that ranking is fantastic.
Drums in the Global Village 