The Sarah Jane Adventures, series 4: Lost in Time

[ed_rex]

Where have all the white men gone?

This week's episodes of my favourite children's adventure program might have been the best of the year so far. More interestingly, to me at least, is just how far outside of the standard adventure paradigm The Sarah Jane Adventures has ventured, without any great on-screen fuss or muss.

Somehow, a program about

Comments

[sabotabby]

Yep, I loved this one too. (Really, I could have watched an entire show of just Clyde taking on the Nazis with nothing more than a scathing tongue, a sharp wit, and an iPhone.)

I was explaining to my mum a few weeks ago just why I was so addicted to this kid's show. And yeah, a part of it is that we don't see a lot of older women or people of colour in major roles on TV. Another is that, while there's some formula-I mean, you can't do a new time travel story-the very non-formulaic characters in well-written formulas makes for me being quite often on the edge of my seat. (Because Clyde, of course, can't just grab the gun and pop a cap in some Nazis, much as it would be cathartic.)

Wasn't that a Playstation?

[ed_rex]

Actually, you probably know your tech better than I do.

Anyway ...

All else being equal, I think I'd be just as addicted if the characters were standard-issue whiteys; after all, that'd just be par for the course, wouldn't it?

So the fact that they're not is essentially just a bonus pleasure for me, since I'm sure there's somebody out there who's pissed because Rani and Clyde are very integrated "people of colour" (have I mentioned how much I loathe that term?), rather than exemplars of the disenfranchised.

But that would be a very different show indeed, wouldn't it?

Meanwhile, I think I've joined the group that saw the use of the word, "negro" in this children's program a pretty courageous little moment.
I'm probably just reiterating what I said in my post,
Leaving aside the non-standard casting, I'd actually say that it's a very formulaic program - the difference being that's its so bloody well-written (when it's on its game, which, over four series now, is more often than not) that