Just like Adirondacks.
I have noticed several ways the series made cultural changes, some of them really extreme. I’m guessing it was to make the show more accessible, but I wish they hadn’t. There are other ways they could have handled it.
Can you say what they are?
One thing I noticed right away was the Navajo characters being o.k. with being around corpses. My memory from the books was that this was a very strong tabu and wouldn’t have been breeched as easily as it was in the show.
Well, this is typical for pretty much ALL television and movie presentations of all people everywhere. Not sure I can get too excited over it, but then I’m not Navajo.
I binge-watched the first four episodes (of Dark Winds) over the last couple of days. I don’t know how inauthentic it is but supposedly all of the writers are Native American, though perhaps not of the Navaho nation. I did have one question, though. We saw that the bad guys were transferring some of the cash from the bank heist by hiding it in the frame of that cactus painting. But wouldn’t anyone handling the painting immediately notice that it was unusually heavy? And, by the way, why was Bernadette (the police sergeant) being so cagy about her clan?
I was wondering the same thing. The writing is a bit uneven for this series. Also, I can’t tell if they’re doing flashbacks sometimes or not.
In Navajo culture, certain clans are not supposed to inter-marry. By asking Bernadette her clan, he’s subtly showing that he’s interested in her.
The death taboos for sure (and there are several types of taboos), the clans bit, also you see Pueblo culture mixed in.
I think they have also minimized the absolutely grinding poverty that existed then and undoubtedly exists today. Things are clean, unpatched, water is available for example.
All of that said, there is a lot they’re doing right: Native American cast, Native American writers and crew. I hope it’s a model for other shows. I’m enjoying it and I’m glad it’s been renewed.
Most all of the primary actors are not Navajo, other than Jeremiah Bitsui, so I can see how the language might get mangled.
The actor who plays Leaphorn’s wife is Diné also.
The show may not be completely authentic, but until I watched it, I didn’t know that the language and the people are called Diné, or that they have that rite of passage for girls. So I learned stuff.
It’s great that Indians are getting Indian roles for a change. My daughter-in-law’s sister teaches band at a mostly Native school. She says her Native students are thrilled to see themselves represented on the screen in series like Reservation Dogs for a change.
Me, too.
We watched the first three eps of “Only Murders in the Building” (season 2). It’s every bit as bad as season one. I had forgotten just how unfunny these people can be. If it wasn’t for Martin Short doing some heavy lifting, it would not even elicit the occasional chuckle in each episode. Selena Gomez continues to be nearly catatonic, with some intermittent signs of life. The best bits involve the secondary cast members. Oh, and Amy Shumer? Please go away.
I literally do not get the appreciation for that one. I figure you have to be closer to that social milieu to get it, and as a suburbanite, ¯_(ツ)_/¯
OTOH, anyone who has ever worked in the food industry will enjoy The Bear on Hulu (for me, I think it’s also an F/X show).
yeah, the NY Times has been giddy in anticipation of OMITB Season 2. I watched most of Season 1 (and gave up) and I just don’t get it.
Television used to be so limited that Henny Youngman would get big ratings making jokes about various NYC neighborhoods the country had never seen. Now television is so fragmented that Steve Martin gets big reviews making jokes about various NYC tenant coops the country has never seen.
On top of which, unless you’re a show-biz insider, a lot of what is said sails right over one’s head. They seem to be more interested in entertaining each other (and a select audience) rather than the general television audience. I’m done with it, although my wife, who lived in NYC for some years, may want to continue.
Personally, I like the show (Only Murders in the Building) and particularly like the building. The exterior shots are of a real NYC apartment building called the Belnord (though I think that’s an uglier name than the in-show name of the Arconia), and before the second season aired, the New York Times ran an article (gift link) about the real building.
That very much makes me think of the claim that Turning Red is only appealing to Asian women from Toronto.