Inclusive Screen Weekly #20: I can't get enough of Abbott Elementary's goofy characters
Duolingo death marketing stunt | Apple TV's Severance marketing | Abbott Elementary Review and much more...
Happy Valentine's and Galentine’s Day, everyone! I was so excited to watch the new season of Yellowjackets this weekend, only to find out it comes out later here. If only all the million streamers had their s**t together and managed to release shows on a consistent schedule globally.
Apart from that, my weekend was great, and I finally finished watching For All Mankind. I almost rage-stopped the last episode when I thought they’d kill yet another main character, but they didn’t, so all is good.
5 interesting stories for the week
Duolingo's dead owl stunt started strong, but they need to stop dragging it to stick the landing! [Duolingo via Instagram]
I love Duolingo, and I love their unhinged marketing. I thought the “Duo is dead” stunt was fun and exciting when it started. Now they’re killing all their mascots and selling dead plushies in coffins. You know when you tell a really funny joke, and you want to surf the wave of laughter, but you take it too far? That’s how the Duolingo stunt feels right now. I hope they’ll have a really good payoff at the end. Forbes also has an interesting article on how most of the reactions to the stunt came from brands instead of real people.
Apple is finally trying to properly advertise one of their shows [Collider]
It looks like Apple is getting serious about creating buzz around the launch of Severance season 2. They started with an awesome in-person pop-up event in Grand Central Station in New York City, where they had the actors from the show work their innie jobs inside a glass box. Now, we’re seeing Lumon come to life with a website and a LinkedIn page. You can try microdata refining on the website. I seem terrible at it, so hopefully, my innie would be better.
It’s really expensive to keep safe as an online female creator [Passion Fruit]
The Twitch streamer Pokimane revealed that she spends at least 5 figures a month on security measures. It includes anything from ensuring her address didn’t leak online to fighting deepfakes. Taylor Lorenz from User Mag wrote a snippet in her latest newsletter, calling it “The Female Creator Safety Tax”.
Why are young men becoming more conservative? How do they see the world? [Esquire]
Esquire interviewed “twelve everyday guys from across America to get their candid opinions—on money, masculinity, Donald Trump—and find out what’s really on their minds.” Overall, they feel like society (and especially Democrats) has forgotten about them or is seeing them as the enemy. A few of the interviewees mentioned how the government cared more about catering to the small LGBT community than to bigger issues impacting them. I’m a queer woman, and the rise of hate against my community scares me deeply. I also think there is a real issue around how young men are portrayed and treated today that we need to solve if we don’t want them to become more and more resentful toward other minorities.
The US’ first car-free neighborhood sounds great [Dwell]
Most big European cities are known to be easy to navigate without a car. Hell, we’re even seeing car ownership decline because owning a car is expensive and doesn’t make sense. I honestly love that I can walk, bike, or take public transport to almost anywhere I need to go. That’s why I was super curious to read about the Culdesac Tempe car-free neighborhood in the US. I don’t know if the approach is scalable, but people who live there seem happy, so I’m hoping we see more similar projects.
What I’ve been watching
Abbott Elementary (Season 4)
My Rating: ★★★★★
Where to watch: ABC & Hulu (I think) | Here in Europe, it’s a mess
1 sentence synopsis: To combat a new golf course disrupting Abbott, the teachers resort to increasingly ridiculous schemes, from truffle heists to exploiting endangered bird rumors
A funny social media review:
I feel old…
Characters & Diverse Representation:
A quick note before I start: The show is only mid-season 4, so I might do another review when the second half has aired. I just couldn’t wait :)
I still remember the show’s creator, Quinta Brunson, from her Buzzfeed days. It’s been amazing to see her become a superstar creator, producer, writer, and actor on her own sitcom. In her words, Abbott is “a network sitcom, like, say, Friends. Except instead of being about a group of friends, it’s about a group of teachers; instead of being in New York, it’s in Philadelphia, and instead of not having Black people, it does.”
Black representation stays central to the show in season 4. The construction of a golf course in the neighborhood brings up themes of gentrification and serves as the main plot point of the half-season. What I love about Abbott is that it keeps the humor around race and diversity nuanced. For example, the golf course brings one white kid to the school at the beginning of the season. He could have quickly become the butt of many jokes. Instead, he blends into the cast of kids and is used as a clever way to land some bigger jokes, like the “charity case” class photo at the golf course where the owner hides white people in the back and brings in a 3-legged dog to force a showcase of “diversity”.
Every character has a fully fleshed, goofy personality and breaks at least a few stereotypes. Take Mr. Eddie, for example. He’s a slightly stuck-up black man who loves bland food, fancy acai smoothies, and gardening. The same goes for every character. They’re so much more than their gender, race, or sexual orientation, which is what makes the representation in this show so perfect. The characters from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia felt way too one-dimensional when blended with the Abbott cast in the cross-over episode. I haven’t watched It’s Always Sunny, so I can’t say if it was just bad writing for the episode. It just felt awkward.
Finally, the queer representation follows the same pattern of quality character writing with Jacob. We get a subtle reminder that he’s gay when the hot IT guy comes around to install computer software, but other than that, it’s a nontopic. There should be space for shows that make queer issues front and center, but subtle representation like this is just as important, in my opinion.
Rapid Fire Reviews
😅 [Just Started] The Pitt S1 (Max): It’s chaotic and stressful like The Bear, but I still love it. I like the format of 1 Episode = 1 Hour of the doctor’s shift
🥰 [Just Started] XO, Kitty S2 (Netflix): It’s a fun and lighthearted show with lots of queer characters.
👩⚕️ [Still watching] Doc S1 (Hulu): Still a solid medical drama with a likable lead.
🤯 [Still watching] Severance S2 (Apple TV+): The Kier mythology is another kind of weird. I’m so curious about what they do at Lumon.
🤦♀️ [Still watching] Prime Target S1 (Apple TV+): I still haven’t watched the latest episode, but I have one thing to say about the two before that. Who leaves their super-secret password on a card at their desk for everyone to see?
❤️🩹 [Finished] For All Mankind S4 (Apple TV+): I thought I would lose when they almost killed yet another beloved character. But it’s ok, everything’s ok. Honestly, it's one of the best shows I have ever watched.
Freshly out shows I’m curious about
Harlem Ice: A docuseries about an ice skating team from Harlem. It reminds me a bit of the Choir docuseries from last year. I’m a sucker for this kind of feel-good show.
Sweethearts: A dating show following highschool couples as they prepare to go to University. It seems like an interesting spin on the typical dating genre.
Yellowjackets (Newest season): I just binged the first seasons, so they’re still fresh in my memory, and I can’t wait for this new season to drop on SkyShowtime where I live. I’m still mad it didn’t drop on Valentine’s day like in the US.
That’s it for me! Now it’s your turn to let me know about all the interesting news and new shows you’ve seen lately :D
I love Abbott, it’s one of the only shows I can consistently rely on for pure joy and laughter
I don’t really understand the dead owl stunt. It seemed so random to me. I wonder if there’s something I’m missing? And, I’m dying to watch The Pitt, but we just cancelled our streaming platform that showed it here in Canada.