Entertainment as education–watch out now!
Until recently, it’d seemed that Logo, the “gay network”, just played a non-stop reel of “Priscilla”, “Jeffrey”, and “Trick”. But now, the little queer network that could has added its first original series called “Noah’s Arc”. It’s something like a gay, black “Golden Girls” set in West Hollywood, and features lots of pretty black people that you would never see assembled en masse in the real WeHo, and a happenin’ gay black hip hop club that does not really exist.
Dramatic license? Sure, I’m all for it, even when infelicitous.
But when you have the main character—be frocked for the night in absurd punk attire, replete with kilt and ‘frohawk—bemoan to his friends, “Don’t you see? Were just aping the same gender-polarized archetypes perpetuated by straight society in an attempt to blah blah blah…” you done lost my vote of confidence.
So you want to “say something” with your show, “convey a message” of some sort? Well, you can make a point without stabbing it in the heart and startling people. You’ve got a stage, set, and cast of actors. Now you’ve just got to design the right dialogue to naturally frame whatever truth you’re trying to relate. People know more than you may think. Find the right way to shed light unto their eyes without banging their head into the pavement with pedantic pabulum.
Too, let’s watch it with the hair and make-up, okay? You’ve got Noah, the main character, popping up every few seconds with a new ‘do like some Mary J. Blige video: Buckwheat knots here, soul ‘fro there, gangsta girl corn rows up in my grill nyah. No one has time for that in real life.
And you should immediately incinerate all cases of that Count Chocula mannequin make-up used on the series regulars. It bespeaks an eerie smoothness that distracts the eye and unsettles the mind. I realize the people on TV are meant to look perfect, but they should still look like they have flesh, you know?
That said, it’s still a good show, with my favorite character being the tubby black queen”
(After Noah tells him how a “straight” friend and his girlfriend want to have a threesome wherein she would be the “conduit”):
“Conduit? What, like Whoopie Goldberg in ‘Ghost’? ‘You in danger, girl.’”)
(Upon arriving to make breakfast, and catching Noah and “straight” friend quickly dart into the bathroom):
“Noah, you got some brown sugar? You got your brown sugar there, girl?”
Funny. Very.
