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Burn Notice 5.02 Bloodlines
Okay, now that was a Burn Notice episode. That was a real return to form. The writing in that episode was solid on everyone, the actors did great by their line delivery (particularly Jeffrey Donovan and Sharon Gless, I mean, damn), and though I had some idea it was going to be a Michael-Maddie episode from the title, I had no idea how much of a Michael-Maddie episode. Nor how heartwrenching of one. Damn. I have to commend this ep for actually making Michael do things that are repulsive to him and disturbing to watch -- it's hard to accomplish on a show like BN where breaking his moral code usually involves, like, "having to work for someone evil," but it's hard to get really broken up over that. This, on the other hand... wow, it really went there.
Which is why it was all the more glaring that Burn Notice has some recurring problematic flaws of genre and bigoted tropes -- they were the extra 20% that the episode was missing, and it was really uncomfortable to see them play out. I would say especially in this episode these were 1. general handling of Fiona in the storyline and 2. general handling of characters of color and especially foreign characters, in this case Japanese. Take up the white man's burden, Westen crew!
I'll tackle point 1 first, as it's a bit more minor and insidious in this ep than the other one. Fi's writing is pretty solid in this ep, as is everyone's, and she gets to be both a hilarious troll and kind of a sexy shoeless god of war; watching her handle the CIA job is definitely funny and her whole cover to scare the crap out of the lech professor is kind of amazing. Putting aside things like "how come 'honeytrap training' is standard not just for a spy but for an IRA mercenary just because she's a chick," though -- all the serious emotional stuff is happening in the other side of the storyline. Like, away from Fi. Seriously, I'm starting to notice that every time Michael needs an emotional bolster in a scene, especially a quietly familiar one, it is nearly always either his mom or Sam: not Fi. In fact, I am kind of starting to think that the promotional materials' attempt to bill Fiona right below Michael is kind of a lie when Sam practically always gets to be Bestie and Lancer and Right-Hand Man except when it is a Fiona Romantic Drama Storyline where it's emphasized that she's important because she's the Girlfriend. It's not going to work if Michael and Fiona never get to be friends and teammates because it's more important to the writers that Michael and Sam get to be bros. The snowglobe scenes were really cute, but didn't really fix that.
Point 2... man. How do you say "Japan isn't exactly a likely provider of trafficked sex slaves, in fact rich countries like Japan and South Korea and the United States buy slaves from places like Southeast Asia and South Asia and Eastern Europe?" How do you say that when you know that all vaguely slanty-eyed people probably look about the same to the Burn Notice writers, save that Japan's got Godzilla and bigger cities? How do you say that well-trained operatives like Michael and friends (save maybe Sam, who is, well, Sam) should have the slightest idea how to pronounce the word "Yakuza"? Was this episode written in 1975?
The thing is, this was a Mighty Whitey Rescues Victimized Minorities From Evil Minorities. Unsurprisingly, it specifically featured Victimized Asian Women and Evil Asian Men -- the narrative that white men have to save Asian women from Asian men is not really new, and it can also go screw, honestly. Actually, the Yakuza hostage was kind of sympathetic and charismatic in a hardcore way; I feel if he were a white man he'd get added to the litany of reluctant-friend Burn Notice bad boys they always seem to accrue. Instead he seemed to bond with Maddie, but then she had to demonstrate that she didn't really bond with a scumbag like him, which was uncomfortable and painful to watch -- I found it really hard not to sympathize with him over the course of the episode, Yakuza or no Yakuza. The fact is, there are precious few heroic or even sympathetic portrayals of Asian men in media that isn't about martial arts: we're a goddamn go-to for Hollywood's villainy, being both fey and foreign and brainy stereotypically, and you know all those things spell evil. Real white American men punch stuff. Even our stereotypical virtues are held against us: the Yakuza gangster's hardcore loyalty is portrayed as irrational/terrifying, not tough and honorable, compared to Western gangsters. It's a shit deal, is what it is. I refuse to cut BN any slack for reminding the world that white men will never have anything to do with Asian men except to laugh at them or defeat them.
In other words: I am done with Yellow Peril bullshit in Hollywood, and I'm especially done with it when it's used so Mighty Whitey can rescue submissive Asian women from the clutches of cold-hearted Asian men. Well, Ming the Merciless weighing in over here, and I say this trope can take itself outside for a rousing game of hide and go fuck itself. Stay classy, San Diego.
Oh! So, other TV news. Other USA Network news, actually. So this new showSluts Suits just came on last week, same day as BN, airing after BN. We were thinking it looked massively derivative and unappealing, like a lawyer-show amalgam of White Collar and Psych and "generic USA buddy cop show with an unconventional genius working for The Man to get things done," but it turns out Sluts Suits is actually pretty charming. For one, I can't stop reading it as "Sluts," so actually we just call it Sluts now. But mostly, Mike Ross the child prodigy character is utterly adorable, played by a precious NPH-ish kid, and sort of hard to not root for -- like, the show so far does a good job with the Roald Dahl-ish sense of "unwinnable situations with all odds stacked against you" and also what a horrible job lawyering is. He's less of a would-be-Caffrey and more of a talented but desperate and naive kid, intelligent and way out of his league.
Also, the show is basically a lawyer-themed yaoi manga. I mean yaoi manga specifically, not generic slashbait, as it is exactly about a wide-eyed idealistic youngster thrown together with a rich, cynical, douchey, domineering older man who treats him badly and won't acknowledge attachment until some other rich, cynical, douchey, domineering older man threatens his claim. I'm not even kidding. I am pretty sure White Collar has been straighter than this thing so far. I dunno if Sluts is going to be any good, but they definitely could have marketed it more honestly. Like "Okane ga Nai, but legal!"
Which is why it was all the more glaring that Burn Notice has some recurring problematic flaws of genre and bigoted tropes -- they were the extra 20% that the episode was missing, and it was really uncomfortable to see them play out. I would say especially in this episode these were 1. general handling of Fiona in the storyline and 2. general handling of characters of color and especially foreign characters, in this case Japanese. Take up the white man's burden, Westen crew!
I'll tackle point 1 first, as it's a bit more minor and insidious in this ep than the other one. Fi's writing is pretty solid in this ep, as is everyone's, and she gets to be both a hilarious troll and kind of a sexy shoeless god of war; watching her handle the CIA job is definitely funny and her whole cover to scare the crap out of the lech professor is kind of amazing. Putting aside things like "how come 'honeytrap training' is standard not just for a spy but for an IRA mercenary just because she's a chick," though -- all the serious emotional stuff is happening in the other side of the storyline. Like, away from Fi. Seriously, I'm starting to notice that every time Michael needs an emotional bolster in a scene, especially a quietly familiar one, it is nearly always either his mom or Sam: not Fi. In fact, I am kind of starting to think that the promotional materials' attempt to bill Fiona right below Michael is kind of a lie when Sam practically always gets to be Bestie and Lancer and Right-Hand Man except when it is a Fiona Romantic Drama Storyline where it's emphasized that she's important because she's the Girlfriend. It's not going to work if Michael and Fiona never get to be friends and teammates because it's more important to the writers that Michael and Sam get to be bros. The snowglobe scenes were really cute, but didn't really fix that.
Point 2... man. How do you say "Japan isn't exactly a likely provider of trafficked sex slaves, in fact rich countries like Japan and South Korea and the United States buy slaves from places like Southeast Asia and South Asia and Eastern Europe?" How do you say that when you know that all vaguely slanty-eyed people probably look about the same to the Burn Notice writers, save that Japan's got Godzilla and bigger cities? How do you say that well-trained operatives like Michael and friends (save maybe Sam, who is, well, Sam) should have the slightest idea how to pronounce the word "Yakuza"? Was this episode written in 1975?
The thing is, this was a Mighty Whitey Rescues Victimized Minorities From Evil Minorities. Unsurprisingly, it specifically featured Victimized Asian Women and Evil Asian Men -- the narrative that white men have to save Asian women from Asian men is not really new, and it can also go screw, honestly. Actually, the Yakuza hostage was kind of sympathetic and charismatic in a hardcore way; I feel if he were a white man he'd get added to the litany of reluctant-friend Burn Notice bad boys they always seem to accrue. Instead he seemed to bond with Maddie, but then she had to demonstrate that she didn't really bond with a scumbag like him, which was uncomfortable and painful to watch -- I found it really hard not to sympathize with him over the course of the episode, Yakuza or no Yakuza. The fact is, there are precious few heroic or even sympathetic portrayals of Asian men in media that isn't about martial arts: we're a goddamn go-to for Hollywood's villainy, being both fey and foreign and brainy stereotypically, and you know all those things spell evil. Real white American men punch stuff. Even our stereotypical virtues are held against us: the Yakuza gangster's hardcore loyalty is portrayed as irrational/terrifying, not tough and honorable, compared to Western gangsters. It's a shit deal, is what it is. I refuse to cut BN any slack for reminding the world that white men will never have anything to do with Asian men except to laugh at them or defeat them.
In other words: I am done with Yellow Peril bullshit in Hollywood, and I'm especially done with it when it's used so Mighty Whitey can rescue submissive Asian women from the clutches of cold-hearted Asian men. Well, Ming the Merciless weighing in over here, and I say this trope can take itself outside for a rousing game of hide and go fuck itself. Stay classy, San Diego.
Oh! So, other TV news. Other USA Network news, actually. So this new show
Also, the show is basically a lawyer-themed yaoi manga. I mean yaoi manga specifically, not generic slashbait, as it is exactly about a wide-eyed idealistic youngster thrown together with a rich, cynical, douchey, domineering older man who treats him badly and won't acknowledge attachment until some other rich, cynical, douchey, domineering older man threatens his claim. I'm not even kidding. I am pretty sure White Collar has been straighter than this thing so far. I dunno if Sluts is going to be any good, but they definitely could have marketed it more honestly. Like "Okane ga Nai, but legal!"