kaleidopop-1 Reviews

Vida (2018–2020)

Don't get the bad reviews, this show is legit

[10/10 · 20 May 2018]

So I totally don't get the bad reviews at all. It's a drama that explores human nature, identity, and culture. Not a mindbending plot, but fresh perspectives that are timely and very much needed to demonstrate the range of American life today.

This show moves us well past Ugly Betty's America Ferrera and a second generation Latina making it in the world of NYC's fashion journalism scene. This also moves us past Modern Family's Sofia Vergara and the quintessential American blended family...

On the one hand, this show fully explores intersectionality. Every protagonist is a female, and a second and third generation Latina in Los Angeles. The show also engages with class, immigration woes, and gentrification by female protagonists in a way I haven't seen before. The show also explores sexuality from the female gaze. The characters shatter the stereotypes about what it means to be Latino/a in the US today.

On the one hand, this is totally an anti-Girls/post-SATC show. And at the same time, this is exactly the sort of thing that demonstrates the multitude of structural realities present in American life that Ta-Nehisi Coates critiques in "Between the World and Me".

Identity is complicated, and reconciling multiple cultural pasts and presents is an ongoing process! The women of Vida are bad ass and finding their own way.

Black Crows (2017)

Understanding ISIS from the Arabic lenses

[9/10 · 19 May 2018]

I am only on the first episode, but these are my first impressions:

Glad to see MBC TV make it to Netflix. Good TV told from the Arabic lenses, and deals with sensitive topics such as loss, gender, class, and cultural values. The show provides unabashed realism of the vast gray areas between a secular Islam and fanatic fundamentalism, writ large.

What I like is to see a series that goes beyond typical West VS East, cosmopolitan VS terrorist values, good guys VS bad guys plots associated with today's, pretty much universal, "Other": ISIS.

Also, the show tackles gender and terrorism in a very 2018 way, meaning that the women here are self-aware and possess a sense of personal power and purpose.

Finally, while the dialogue is good, the acting and filmography are so expressive, the vignettes are interrelated, yet tightly constructed, and the suspense is so palpable that the linguistic barrier is quite negligible. Very little cognitive dissonance. In comparison, I don't think a Bollywood series could do this or has done this. Definitely has a Netflix or Amazon series production feel. Overall, very good TV, glad I found it!