vsoy
Dec 19th, 2006, 12:50 PM
It's a 2 part miniseries on HBO which they're showing a gazillion times this week and next. I think the next re-airing of part 1 is tonight, but I'm sure they'll have it on tommorow and the next couple of days.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758789/
I'm not a big fan of these shows dramatizing disasters like this and 9/11. It's kind of morbid and most don't do the suffering and sheer horror these people go through justice.
The miniseries focuses on the experiences of a group of people in Thailand. There's a young, successful British black family, white family with teenage boys, Thai local working at one of the resorts, a British white journalist working with a Thai photojournalist(who got this loser the job covering the story) and 2 British embassy administrators.
While this show dwells on the emotional aspects of the disaster, it does look at race dynamics and colonialism. I'm not sure how much of it that I'm pissed off the extent colonialism played in the efforts after the aftermath or the show's limitations but I have mixed feelings about the miniseries.
There's the dynamic between the white journalist Nick (He was Ringo in "Pulp Fiction") and the Thai photojournalist Chai (Will Yune Lee). Nick wants to sensationalize a story about monks burning dead, unidentified bodies. He's taking pics of dead people while Chai is trying to show respect to his peeps and putting up with Nick's callousness. It is mentioned in the beginning of the show that Chai got Nick this gig and so I'm wondering if Chai will dump this loser and give him a lesson about sensitivity. Their coverage and interaction the home news company just reminds me that newspeople are just interested in getting the story and how many Westerners were killed.
There's also the embassy people, one is an out of touch white dude who chooses another office location that is further away, air conditioned and hard to find. Hmmm maybe he doesn't want people to find the office so he doesn't have to do anything? The second in command is a white woman played by Toni Collete who actually gives a damn and helps people. Her nasal Thai accent is annoying, but it gives her character street credit. She helps out the local Thai who just lost his grandma and was thrown in jail for looting food and she actually sees the devastation's impact on the locals.
Then there's the successful young black family and white family with teenage boys. The black father snubs the white father while checking in the hotel but later on watches over him while getting medical help. The melodrama over the missing daughter and the constant shit the black mother giving the black father for losing her spells disaster for the marriage.
I guess what I find irritating about the miniseries is that the non white characters still look after the white ones even though they may or may not be aware that colonialism and white privilege played a big part in the recovery efforts. I'm not even sure if the average viewer (white and non white)would even pick up on this aspect of the miniseries.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758789/
I'm not a big fan of these shows dramatizing disasters like this and 9/11. It's kind of morbid and most don't do the suffering and sheer horror these people go through justice.
The miniseries focuses on the experiences of a group of people in Thailand. There's a young, successful British black family, white family with teenage boys, Thai local working at one of the resorts, a British white journalist working with a Thai photojournalist(who got this loser the job covering the story) and 2 British embassy administrators.
While this show dwells on the emotional aspects of the disaster, it does look at race dynamics and colonialism. I'm not sure how much of it that I'm pissed off the extent colonialism played in the efforts after the aftermath or the show's limitations but I have mixed feelings about the miniseries.
There's the dynamic between the white journalist Nick (He was Ringo in "Pulp Fiction") and the Thai photojournalist Chai (Will Yune Lee). Nick wants to sensationalize a story about monks burning dead, unidentified bodies. He's taking pics of dead people while Chai is trying to show respect to his peeps and putting up with Nick's callousness. It is mentioned in the beginning of the show that Chai got Nick this gig and so I'm wondering if Chai will dump this loser and give him a lesson about sensitivity. Their coverage and interaction the home news company just reminds me that newspeople are just interested in getting the story and how many Westerners were killed.
There's also the embassy people, one is an out of touch white dude who chooses another office location that is further away, air conditioned and hard to find. Hmmm maybe he doesn't want people to find the office so he doesn't have to do anything? The second in command is a white woman played by Toni Collete who actually gives a damn and helps people. Her nasal Thai accent is annoying, but it gives her character street credit. She helps out the local Thai who just lost his grandma and was thrown in jail for looting food and she actually sees the devastation's impact on the locals.
Then there's the successful young black family and white family with teenage boys. The black father snubs the white father while checking in the hotel but later on watches over him while getting medical help. The melodrama over the missing daughter and the constant shit the black mother giving the black father for losing her spells disaster for the marriage.
I guess what I find irritating about the miniseries is that the non white characters still look after the white ones even though they may or may not be aware that colonialism and white privilege played a big part in the recovery efforts. I'm not even sure if the average viewer (white and non white)would even pick up on this aspect of the miniseries.