I think the problem with the show is that it is named Sherlock. You have so many preconceived expectations based on your fetish for 'Icons'. If his name were John Smith, I think you would enjoy it twice as much. It's a piece of solid acting, witty banter and simple time wasting. With an occasional exception, the mysteries are simply framing devices. It's really in a genre that is about a weird guy expressed through his relationships. If you thought the first season mysteries were obvious, wait till you get to The Hounds of Baskerville. You practically want to scream the solution at the screen, like a Dhara the Explorer episode. Calling the second episode racist is a bit of an overstatement. They are Chinese people in a Chinese circus, a bit generic maybe, but vaguely true to it's source material and era, I guess. It's not the best episode in the season, but it's not like they race rickshaws either, and when you only have 6 episodes, writing off individual episodes as sub-par seems a bit excessively discriminating, even to the snob. It's just tv. There's bad episodes of every show, I've never heard anyone say "avoid episode 6 of season 2 of The Sopranos." (which was no more racist in it's ethnic depictions than Sherlock.) If you are still looking, Black Mirror is recent and as hyped as Sherlock. Although it is always odd to me what comes over and what doesn't. Everyone knows of the laugh-tracked IT Crowd yet no one has heard of Thick of It? Sherlock is going around but Deadset didn't? Not to digress. Peep Black Mirror when you're done with Sherlock. It's an hour and it's really fun.
Nah! You misconstrue-- my interest in narratives is doubled if it falls into the mythic art. By which I mean the retelling & reimagining that smooths a story like an ocean smooths a rock. Your Hercules, your Arthur, your Superman, your...well, Sherlock. I have way more invested in acknowledged archetypes. If this was called "John Smith..." well, isn't that Dexter? A show I have little interest in? Yeah. Also, avoid all The Sopranos if you ask me, tres boring. (& uh, the parity between white people who are Italian & Chinese immigrants is...not a winning comparison in the "lets play hierarchies of oppression!" game)
I don't see how Sherlock is Dexter. Sopranos is definitely boring. And Battlestar is the easiest example of just racism on tv. I don't see a major difference between the sort of racism that portrays Chinese people as circus performers very different than a show that portrays Italians as mobsters. The racism is simply choosing to portray a section of the population that does exist, but also reflects a stereotypical image. If you are saying Italians are and white and white people can't cry racism, even in loose metaphors, I would respond that being Chinese doesn't seem like a particularly oppressed minority either. Bearing in mind that my frame of reference is that I have spent the last decade living in a city that has more asians than any other ethnic group. If the argument then gets geographic, do we have to take into account the portrayal of the Chinese in context of English culture, where it's intended audience is? And doesn't that start to get a bit stretched when the original offense is merely portraying Chinese people as working in a circus in part of a story that is based on a text from another era that also had a different set of moires ect? I find it simpler to take into account that everyone involved in the show seems rather smart and savvy and try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If there is any argument for racism, Moriarty is the candidate. I had an Irish girl break down his context recently and it was pretty interesting.
The major difference, my friend, is that ideological weight isn't the most important measure of racism-- but rather, actual real world context. Like-- when an Irish person brings up "Irish Need Not Apply"...it is usually as a way to excuse the actual real world racism that someone else is currently experiencing. Like-- I'm not saying that "drunken mick" & "joisey mobsta" archetypes aren't racist--- sure!-- but to honestly compare them to, I dunno, orientalism? Which actually thrives in America these days? Yeah, the difference isn't a pretty academic qualitative one; it is an organic one, based on actual context. To use an extreme example, it is why "mick" is a quaint out of date slur, but I won't type "the n-word." Because of real world context.
If you are still looking, Black Mirror is recent and as hyped as Sherlock. Although it is always odd to me what comes over and what doesn't. Everyone knows of the laugh-tracked IT Crowd yet no one has heard of Thick of It? Sherlock is going around but Deadset didn't?
Not to digress. Peep Black Mirror when you're done with Sherlock. It's an hour and it's really fun.
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If the argument then gets geographic, do we have to take into account the portrayal of the Chinese in context of English culture, where it's intended audience is? And doesn't that start to get a bit stretched when the original offense is merely portraying Chinese people as working in a circus in part of a story that is based on a text from another era that also had a different set of moires ect?
I find it simpler to take into account that everyone involved in the show seems rather smart and savvy and try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If there is any argument for racism, Moriarty is the candidate. I had an Irish girl break down his context recently and it was pretty interesting.
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