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Post by housemouse on Feb 24, 2007 8:02:53 GMT -5
All of you know by now about my Friday Night Lights obsession. Here is a post from a Television Without Pity forum that refers to our favorite blond dude: Generally, I've seen physically disabled characters where the disability is there but mostly unexplored (Carrie Weaver on ER) or the disability is a metaphorical lesson (tragedy of the week movies, any show involving angels or Michael Landon). The next step up are shows like Monk or that one about a newly blind detective, or the one about an FBI agent who's deaf. Two obsessions, there in one post. Isn't it great when things come together?!  |
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Post by maggiethecat on Feb 24, 2007 19:20:35 GMT -5
Well, there you go, Mouse! Who was it who said, "I love it when a plan comes together?" (Hey, whatever happened to our memorable movie lines thread?  ) Too bad whoever posted didn't know the name of the show with "the newly blind detective."  |
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Post by Chocky on Feb 24, 2007 22:19:06 GMT -5
What is the show about the FBI agent who's deaf? I don't think we have that one here.
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Post by bjobsessed on Feb 24, 2007 22:32:20 GMT -5
What is the show about the FBI agent who's deaf? I don't think we have that one here. Here's a link that will tell you all about the show. It's on in reruns here and I really like it. It was based on a true story. Sue Thomas was/is a real FBI agent. (not sure if she still works). It ran from 2002-2005. |
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Post by shmeep on Feb 25, 2007 0:09:50 GMT -5
What is the show about the FBI agent who's deaf? I don't think we have that one here. Here's a link that will tell you all about the show. It's on in reruns here and I really like it. It was based on a true story. Sue Thomas was/is a real FBI agent. (not sure if she still works). It ran from 2002-2005. I would say very loosely based on a true story. This woman could lip read around corners and through the backs of peoples heads and could follow complex group conversations and she never never never had an interpreter no matter what. It is set in Washington DC and, speaking as a Sign Language interpreter in Washington DC, there are interpreters at all the agencies with Deaf employees. The lack of realism was a bit much for me, but I was forced to watch this show often at my old job because one of the Deaf teachers I worked with was friends with the star of the show and she made her ASL class watch it every week. It had some cool Deaf guest stars from time to time and the sign language was pretty good then, but...even then they didn't have interpreters. No...the Deaf main character did the interpreting even though she couldn't hear either. I really don't get that. I don't think it's even legal under the circumstances shown. Kind of ruined it for me. I wanted to like it. My husband and I turned it on when it was a new show and I couldn't figure out who the Deaf character was until the opening credits and he didn't even last that long. The worst part, in my opinion, was that this woman who was so advanced at lip-reading that she never needed an interpreter, was Deaf enough to need some sort of service dog for the Deaf and she took it to work with her but it served no obvious purpose. I don't know a single Deaf person who needs a service dog to perform their job. I think the dog was just there to look cute and give near-human reactions to whatever was going on. |
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Post by Chocky on Feb 25, 2007 4:29:16 GMT -5
Hmmm...that lack of realism annoys me too. Sometimes shows here have Deaf characters and I watch them for the signing practice but I often end up frustrated at the way the situation is portrayed (eg, lipreading complex conversations like you said shmeep, or the interpreter standing in the wrong spot). Anyway, this show has never been on here so I probably won't see it anyway.
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Post by Chris on Feb 25, 2007 6:20:54 GMT -5
Two obsessions, there in one post. Isn't it great when things come together?! What more can you ask for??? I would say very loosely based on a true story. This woman could lip read around corners and through the backs of peoples heads and could follow complex group conversations and she never never never had an interpreter no matter what. It is set in Washington DC and, speaking as a Sign Language interpreter in Washington DC, there are interpreters at all the agencies with Deaf employees. The lack of realism was a bit much for me, but I was forced to watch this show often at my old job because one of the Deaf teachers I worked with was friends with the star of the show and she made her ASL class watch it every week. It had some cool Deaf guest stars from time to time and the sign language was pretty good then, but...even then they didn't have interpreters. No...the Deaf main character did the interpreting even though she couldn't hear either. I really don't get that. I don't think it's even legal under the circumstances shown. Kind of ruined it for me. I wanted to like it. My husband and I turned it on when it was a new show and I couldn't figure out who the Deaf character was until the opening credits and he didn't even last that long. The worst part, in my opinion, was that this woman who was so advanced at lip-reading that she never needed an interpreter, was Deaf enough to need some sort of service dog for the Deaf and she took it to work with her but it served no obvious purpose. I don't know a single Deaf person who needs a service dog to perform their job. I think the dog was just there to look cute and give near-human reactions to whatever was going on. Shmeep, you said it!!!Karma. I saw one or two episodes of the show and got sooo annoyed, not realistic in any way. I know it was fiction but it was supposed to be based on a true story, in that case, stick to the real world people  Especially the dog thing, come on....  I'm relaxing now, rant over.... I would still love to see Friday Night Lights though  Take and keep smiling - Chris  |
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Post by shmeep on Feb 25, 2007 10:24:17 GMT -5
Shmeep, you said it!!!Karma. I saw one or two episodes of the show and got sooo annoyed, not realistic in any way. I know it was fiction but it was supposed to be based on a true story, in that case, stick to the real world people Especially the dog thing, come on.... I'm relaxing now, rant over.... I would still love to see Friday Night Lights though Thanks, Chris. I felt a little guilty about my rant here after I went to bed last night but it hit me that I'm extra picky about this show because it was presenting itself as realistic but was far from it. A lack of realism doesn't bother me when I watch medical dramas like ER and House, but Kenina says her husband can't stomach them because he has worked as an EMT and he can't get over how wrong they get so many things. That's me with Deaf shows. Sue Thomas, FBEye was irksome to me because they thought that since they had the real Sue Thomas advising on the show, everything she did was realistic. It wasn't. The real Sue Thomas worked for the FBI a few decades ago and she was never out in the field. Her job was to look at surveillance tape and get information from body language and lip reading that hearing people might miss. It would have been cool to see THAT. She was/is a phenomenal lip reader, but I'm not sure that a Deaf person in that situation, who doesn't know how much is actually missed despite that skill, can gage what is realistic and what isn't when it comes to the person portraying her. She may have thought she caught everything, but I could never watch that show without my BS detector going off. I'm married to a phenomenal lip reader who can speak as well as that character on the show and I am completely aware of his limitations and hers wouldn't have been much different. So...yeah. This show inspires me to rant. Most Deaf people I know never bothered to watch it or were immediately turned off by it. Children of a Lesser God gives an extremely realistic view of Deafness. When I first saw it, I didn't sign or know much about Deaf Culture so I found parts of it a bit chilling and I thought it was unnecessarily dark. Watching it from my current perspective was really interesting. Now I don't think it's dark at all. There is much about it that's realistic and it's so well presented. You get to see so many sides of Deaf Culture, from the oral to the militantly anti-oral. Great movie. And Mr. Holland's Opus does it all very well, but I don't enjoy it as much because it hits a little close to home when it comes t my husband's situation. But...the ASL teacher who is friends with Deann Bray from Sue Thomas is in the movie as--you guessed it!--an ASL teacher and the guy who plays Cole as a teenager went to school with my husband. They were in the same wedding a few years ago so I got to know him. Really nice guy. But back to the topic here...yes, Chris. You would love Friday Night Lights. I have no idea if it will air in other countries or when it will be out on DVD, but that's one you'll want to see. I have a friend at work who is a quadriplegic exactly like the Jason Street character and he's a huge fan of the show. I asked him if they got that storyline right and he said, "Mostly." I think the only thing that might be off is that Jason went through all his rehab really fast--but I think they had to do that to move the story along. All that he actually experiences is right, it would just normally take a person close to a year to get to where he is after just a couple of months. That doesn't bother me as it would if they were just blatantly wrong. And Mouse! Cool that they mentioned BJ in the FNL threads. I'm not surprised that someone took that leap. |
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Post by housemouse on Feb 25, 2007 10:32:25 GMT -5
Do either of you remember a show way back when (probably early 90's or late 80's) there was a show called Reasonable Doubts? It starred Marlee Matlin and Mark Harmon. She played a deaf district attorney and Harmon was her partner/interpreter. I always wondered if that one was at all realistic.
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Post by bjobsessed on Feb 25, 2007 11:30:18 GMT -5
I felt a little guilty about my rant here after I went to bed last night but it hit me that I'm extra picky about this show because it was presenting itself as realistic but was far from it. No need to feel guilty, Shmeep. Since I'm not that familiar with the Deaf Culture, I wouldn't know what was realistic and what wasn't. I know if they did a show about CP and didn't get it right, I would be very annoyed too. |
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Post by Chris on Feb 25, 2007 15:50:55 GMT -5
Do either of you remember a show way back when (probably early 90's or late 80's) there was a show called Reasonable Doubts? It starred Marlee Matlin and Mark Harmon. She played a deaf district attorney and Harmon was her partner/interpreter. I always wondered if that one was at all realistic. I actually have Reasonable Doubts on VHS tapes. I loved it back then and it was rather realistic. Marlee Matlin's character had an interpreter who would interpret for her in court and during most meetings and interwievs with defendants. Mark Harmon was her investigator and did interpret for her too. He was very criticized for his poor Sign Language skills but in my opinion they were in fact quite true to his character. His character grew up with a Deaf father and a Hearing mother and he knew some Sign Language but wasn't in any way fluent. To me his signing was very much like the signing I see many hearing people do, their grammar tend to be more towards Danish (that's of course what I know the best but I'm sure it's more or less the same everywhere) instead of true Sign Language Grammar. Thanks, Chris. I felt a little guilty about my rant here after I went to bed last night but it hit me that I'm extra picky about this show because it was presenting itself as realistic but was far from it. I agree, if a show presents itself as being realistic, then BE realistic. I can accept a lot within the premises of a show if they present it as fiction. That doesn't mean that they should not try to be as realistic as they can, but as in BJ, they said, OK, this is a show about a blind cop, that might not be realistic, but within that concept we will try to do it as realistic as we can. Meaning no super senses for instance... And of course, you can always discuss, as have been discussed on this board, if the character is too perfect, but they have done it as good as you can expect, I think. It seems like it's the same they are doing with FNL with Jason, what he experiences it right although it happens in a shorter timeline than it would in real life. There will always be a need to do things differently due to dramatic purposes in order to move the story along or to create a conflict between characters and that's fine with me, just don't pretend to be realistic if you're not. - Chris |
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Post by hoosier on Mar 5, 2007 18:53:43 GMT -5
Generally, I've seen physically disabled characters where the disability is there but mostly unexplored (Carrie Weaver on ER) or the disability is a metaphorical lesson (tragedy of the week movies, any show involving angels or Michael Landon). The next step up are shows like Monk or that one about a newly blind detective, or the one about an FBI agent who's deaf. With RE's track record, I am amazed that a critic even remembered BJ, especially after all the flack it took . And I am even more pleasantly surprised that he seemed to have grasped the idea that they were trying to portray what it was like for someone to suddenly be faced with a disability. Too bad the majority of other critics didn't recognize this when the show was on. Will wonders never cease? |
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Post by mlm828 on Feb 28, 2009 22:21:11 GMT -5
I thought I'd read everything written about Blind Justice , but when looking for something else yesterday, I came across this article about fictional blind detectives. It's always nice to find someone outside our little group who "got" Blind Justice. |
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Post by bjobsessed on Feb 28, 2009 22:29:43 GMT -5
I thought I'd read everything written about Blind Justice , but when looking for something else yesterday, I came across this article about fictional blind detectives. It's always nice to find someone outside our little group who "got" Blind Justice.Thanks, mlm. I have never seen that article before. |
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