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| Courtesy of ABC |
One of my old colleagues admonished, harassed and harangued me for not watching Revenge all last season. She told me it was "my kind of show" and she was totally correct. I just finished season one of the series and the first episode of season two in a serious Hulu/Netflix power marathon. Little confession to the ITYC Radio audience, I love soap operas, especially nighttime soaps. Revenge fits the bill perfectly with regard to containing the right combination of high drama, intrigue, and improbability (notice how no one ever walks in on Emily while she watches/listens to all that incriminating evidence out in the wide open of her window-filled living room?) required of a nighttime soap opera.
Revenge is also true to nighttime soap form in another way. Meager to stereotypical inclusion of people of color in its fictional world. While I cheered having Ashley Madekwe, CCH Pounder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Courtney B. Vance and now Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa on the show, that doesn't mean I haven't noticed the assorted maids and other "help" who just usually happened to be people of color. And let's not forget Big Ed. I had big problems with Big Ed. The show also stuck with the tradition of problematic portrayals of gay people with homicidal/bisexual Tyler (who also presented a troubling image of mental illness).
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| Ashley Madekwe, courtesy ABC |
All that leads me to believe that Ashley is, in fact, sleeping with Daddy Grayson. So now we have this woman of color being passed between father and son in the big house. It's all little too Tara/ante bellum for my taste. This woman of color, on the bottom of the power scale, in a tenuous position with two men who are more powerful than she, in the home where she is still clearly subservient in many respects. A little too ante bellum.
I'll be watching the rest of the season with my critical side-eye to see how this triangle plays out. Are you watching Revenge? What are your thoughts about the show?
