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I'm watching Hemlock Grove on Netflix. It's creepy and atmospheric with the occasional gore moment and one of the best werewolf transformations since An American Werewolf In London. Seriously, if I had to completely shed my skin and eyeballs every time I changed into a wolf I would consider a new line of work. Like the special effects, the production quality of the series scores well.
I'm 5 episodes in out of 13 and it seems like we have a couple of instances of the magical negro trope. I don't think I'm giving much away I talk about this as the first instance is in the first episode and the second instance is in the third but now is the time to turn back if you don't want any spoilers.
The first is in one of our young male protagonists, Peter, who happens to be half Romani, displays supernatural abilities. Many of the supporting characters refers to Peter and his mother as "filthy Gypsies", displaying their racist contempt. The show plays to several negative stereotypes of the Roma (grifters, theives, etc.) as well as playing to magical and occult fantasy portrayals.
The second instance may be Dr. Clementine Chasseu, a black woman appears to work for the Church on special assignment investigating strange occurrences. Our seer character, Francis, a crazy man in the mental hospital who has visions, tells her that "her wings are wet". We'll see where Dr. Chasseu goes from here but I'm being skeptically cynical about how she's going to be treated in the end.
Okay, this companion cube won't build itself. Back to work I go.
I'm 5 episodes in out of 13 and it seems like we have a couple of instances of the magical negro trope. I don't think I'm giving much away I talk about this as the first instance is in the first episode and the second instance is in the third but now is the time to turn back if you don't want any spoilers.
The first is in one of our young male protagonists, Peter, who happens to be half Romani, displays supernatural abilities. Many of the supporting characters refers to Peter and his mother as "filthy Gypsies", displaying their racist contempt. The show plays to several negative stereotypes of the Roma (grifters, theives, etc.) as well as playing to magical and occult fantasy portrayals.
The second instance may be Dr. Clementine Chasseu, a black woman appears to work for the Church on special assignment investigating strange occurrences. Our seer character, Francis, a crazy man in the mental hospital who has visions, tells her that "her wings are wet". We'll see where Dr. Chasseu goes from here but I'm being skeptically cynical about how she's going to be treated in the end.
Okay, this companion cube won't build itself. Back to work I go.
