Week 8




America's Next Top Model

I was recently watching America's Next Top Model, and it is very entertaining. I learned about the problems with it as well. The show doesn't help a model's career, it hinders it. Sometimes a model will branch out into other ventures, but most contestants on the show are not super models. I feel like going on a reality show relating to your career would make you seem unprofessional. Your clients or bosses shouldn't know about your personal life like that.

New Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie

Something about the movie felt awkward. The voice acting was good, the re-telling of the book was good, and they did it all in under an hour. However, the animation wasn't the best. It didn't look old or anything, it just looked stiff. It felt like the movie had too many pauses. Maybe they didn't use enough frames per second, or someting like that. They could have fixed that with playing more background music, probably. That way the animation would't feel as empty. My other problem with the movie is that it was unnecesary. We already have many movies from the same series. We already have a movie about the first book of the series, too. This was clearly a cash grab, and for that reason, I would've appreciated a little more effort.

LGBT Relationships on Screen

There have been a few cases where a cartoon will rush a gay relationship on screen. This is usually fine with the audience of the show, because they want gay representation on TV. The writers of the show usually make up for the rushed nature of the relationship by giving the couple a lot of chemistry. This chemistry makes people support the relationship, even though the chemistry is unearned. I think part of the reason shows rush queer relationships is because the fanbase of the show want it to happen right away. So, the writers may feel pressured to pump out the relationship right away. I think another reason is needing to keep it PG. People praised The Legend of Korra for having her be in a relationship with a girl. I, and a lot of fans, pointed out that they were extremeely subtle in the queer romance. But since TLOK is a show for children, the writers had to compromise with the netwok on what they showed. While gay representation is always nice, rushed relationships aren't the best type of representation. Quick romances are good for the queer fanbase, but not so much for the straight or homophobic audience. Gay relationships should be treated the same as straight ones. Unconvincing gay romances do nothing to positively represent them. If the aim is to represent gay people (and relationships) as equal to straight people, then treat them equally. Give me long, intense, flawed, convincing, and complicated gay romance. The show She-Ra has an example of this type of relationship. Catra and Adora get together, and they are a cute couple. But when Adora immedietly forgave Catra after she tried to kill her a hundred times, I was a little peeved. I could see a (mildly) homophobic person being turned off by the relationship because they still don't like Catra. If they took longer to develop their relationship and forgiveness, I feel like the (mildly) homophobc person would be more receptive to the relationship, because it's convincing. I think the show Steven Universe does a good job with gay representation. Happy holidays, everyone.