Trans/plant/portation

This is an occasional series on popular culture tropes and narratives. Previously I looked at doomsday narratives.

It could be that vampire popular culture is on the wane, and if so, I for one am good with it. I’ve had it with evil-possessed, remnants of humanity’s whimpering stories, or the good-girl-meets-renegade-vampire paranormal romance. There are loads more creatures, myths, and epic battles to create and explore. But underneath the cult favorites of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and True Blood, what do these monsters say about our fears? Our culture? I’ll try to come up with some possibilities.

So in the spirit of the Halloween season, here is a non-exhaustive list (I’ve left out aliens, androids, and machines for another post) of the beings that go bump in the night, and why they haunt us. Of course there are more ways to interpret these creatures, so if you’ve got another take on it, please let us know in the comments—I’d love to hear people’s thoughts!

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An adorable baby has gone into the foster system that Drs. Shepherd and Grey wanted to prevent for her, but Grey’s leads off by talking about leadership. Leadership? Not to be found in the bickering couple who seem to love arguing more than each other. Not for Dr. Kepner, who is trying to find her feet as Chief Resident. We’ll get into leadership among the fifth-year residents in a minute, but again, who wants to discuss such things when baby Zola is gone? Spoilers from here on out!

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Another in a series of posts by guest bloggers, today’s is from Kirthana Ramisetti, a.k.a. the force behind Pop Scribblings on Twitter. I had the good fortune to work with her over at I Fry Mine in Butter, and I highly recommend reading anything she has to say about television. Thanks, Kirthana!

It’s hard to do a “very special episode” of a character giving birth without devolving into eyerolling cliches. But once in awhile there are some memorable ones, and in honor the arrival of Emile Dean Maroon Beechey and his parents, here are some of TV’s best baby episodes.

The Cosby Show: I always appreciate when a TV show lets its pregnant character give birth in a hospital rather than come up with a contrivance that forces the poor woman to give birth somewhere ridiculous like a broken elevator or an airplane. The Cosby Show only allows one slight cliche when Sandra and Elvin surprise their families with the news of twins (“It’s a boy!” “Awww!” “And a girl!” “What?”).

But the nice thing about letting Sandra give birth in a normal way is that the focus of the episode was on the family moments, as Cliff and Clair react to being grandparents for the first time. The best part of the show was Cliff and Sandra’s sweet and funny conversation about becoming a parent. Sandra telling Cliff “I just want to say how much I’ve loved having you as a father” is genuinely touching, as is Cliff’s response: “Good parents are made by good children.”

(the scene begins at the 2:54 mark)

Network television ain’t what it used to be, which I suppose makes it something of an old gray mare. With original programming from upstart cable networks like TNT, A&E, AMC, SyFy, and USA, the low-numbered channels have seen a lot of writing talent drift away, especially as draconian managers like Jeff Zucker, former head of NBC, drove them away. Perhaps what’s bad for the founders of TV is good for audiences—cable is trying out some inventive show concepts, and even if they turn into their own formulaic narratives, at least they’re different formulas (I’m looking at you, Burn Notice). A few freshman shows caught my eye this summer, like Necessary Roughness, which I see as a much overdue examination of masculinity and sports. But there are a few gems that have left me hanging all summer or which are about to go on hiatus and not return until the mid-season replacements have stepped in to staunch the bleeding of the oh-so-awful new shows some networks are putting up this fall. In either case, here’s my short list of what I can’t wait to watch again. Between diaper changes, that is. Read More…

Call me jaded (Jaded!), but I’m not buying what they’re selling on television anymore. I don’t watch nearly as many commercials as I used to, having learned to fast forward through them in the 1980s with our top-loading VCR. Oh yeah, I went there. I can ignore ads old school and with my DVR. Good thing skipping ads is so easy, except when OnDemand makes it impossible. I will even opt for the longer running ads on Hulu so I can skip out and grab a drink. See what I did there? Even when the ad is playing, I leave the room! Only the furnishings will be subject to Madison Avenue’s messaging! Muahahaha…

Yes, again, all of this is simple stuff. But somewhere in the midst of skipping through, cutting out, and ignoring, I think commercials gave up on us. They don’t even try to sell us products and services anymore. Read More…

Maybe it seems like just a couple of weeks ago we all celebrated Memorial Day, and then there was the end of Glenn Beck’s gig on Fox, and suddenly the entire United States was embroiled in an epic saga of betrayal and urgency, all the media trained on one subject that terrified even the most stoic among us—the Casey Anthony trial. No wait, the debt ceiling.

In any case, that late-summer conference, booked last spring, is now in two days, and there is still a mess of stuff to accomplish. Here’s the last-minute guide for writers who waited too long to pack their conference bags: Read More…

Season 9 of Project Runway kicked off last night and as a longtime viewer of the series, I was interested to see who would be taking a stab at fabric design this go around. This interest persisted despite Tim Gunn’s ridiculous comments earlier this week that Hillary Clinton dresses as if she “is confused about her gender.” Shame on you, Tim, for not offering her any helpful advice privately, but huge disappointment on you, Tim, for making a transphobic attack in your criticism. Still, I sat down to catch the opener and see which of the 16—erm, 20—contestants would make it through week one. Read More…

I suspect I’ve told too many people these last several months that I have concerns about being able to create a quality swaddle for our baby once it’s been born, because now I have something on the order of a dozen swaddles. If the sage green velcro-fastening fleece doesn’t work, there’s a stretchable muslin swaddler with little bees on it that all of the Who’s Who in LA are using for their little ones. If that one isn’t a good fit for our baby Houdini, then I have a broad blanket I can use, or an inspired-by-NASA breathable swath of material that one friend swears by. The only piece of equipment I seem to be lacking is an auto-swaddler, but I suppose it’s not sitting in our nursery because it doesn’t exist. Maybe I should file for a patent. Patents are all the rage right now. Read More…

TRIGGER WARNING: This blog post is about sexual assault.

A friend asked me to write something up about the debacle that was the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and presumed future candidate for the French Presidency. And then I sat in front of a blank screen, staring and staring and feeling more than one wave of frustration crash over me. Something bothered me about this case—the way it intersected with power, race, and gender hierarchies, its resurrection of the threadbare narrative of “she asked for/deserved it,” and finally, the hopelessness many of us felt because of the outcome of the case that never made it to trial. For if such a preponderance of evidence as was gathered against Mr. Strauss-Kahn still fails to be taken seriously, what possibility remains that any case will actually be heard on its merits? Read More…

I’m old enough that I remember the introduction of “New Coke,” when the soda pop manufacturer decided to make their formula taste closer to that of Pepsi, which I find is most useful as a scrubbing agent rather than a thirst-quenching beverage. It was April 23, 1985, and while it was a little late to be included in all of the Orwellian weird events of 1984, it certainly can still be grouped into the moments we all would love to forget about the 1980s—big hair and scrunchy socks notwithstanding.

There was actual public outcry. People poured the redesigned drink into the streets, and Coke executives were floored. Soon, there was “Coke classic” on the shelves of grocery stores again, and we all breathed a sigh of relief, even as we muttered to ourselves about stupid executives. Quietly, some time later, Coke pulled the new formula altogether. Read More…