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Class episodes and discussion. Spoilers |
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#51 |
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No, the football coach. Well worth a look
![]() In Buffy, I remember a clever scene in season 2 or 3, where the school principal and the local police chief exchange a few words. Its made clear the local police know exactly what is going on locally, and see their job as not just policing a community living on the Hellmouth but also covering it up. It was a really simple scene that helped demonstrate that the supernatural stuff wasn't going unnoticed. They need to do something similar with class. More people die in episode 2 and its clear none of the deaths are reported as deaths, just disappearances. But at some point so many people will have 'vanished' the local police would start to be concerned. ![]() UNIT was mentioned upthread. It would have just taken one UNIT visit from one UNIT geek to show they'd taken the police investigation over and were aware of what was going on, but on the Doctor's advice were merely observing for the moment. But, no, the writer was too busy shoehorning in non-jokes about old blokes fiddling with themselves.
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#52 |
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Pc bingo card. Looks like the BBC ticked every box on their card here. Hindu. Asian. Jamaica. Wheelchair. Gay kiss. Yep job done yet again in a BBC show.
As for everything else, as a pilot goes it chucked everyone and everything in rather quickly. The second episode scaled that back, and felt very much less 'tick box exercise'. Besides, again this is London we're talking about. As someone who came out of sixth form in London a handful of years ago I can vouch for that kind of diversity... my current group of school friends I've maintained contact with consists of English, Irish, Indian, Greek, Iranian... white and black... I'm the 'token LGBT' guy myself. Class reflects that reality quite well I think. Quote:
How old is the girl whose mother was annoyed because she was "talking to boys" supposed to be? Surely over 16? How ridiculous is it that her mother would say that?
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#53 |
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Join Date: Dec 2009
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Pc bingo card. Looks like the BBC ticked every box on their card here. Hindu. Asian. Jamaica. Wheelchair. Gay kiss. Yep job done yet again in a BBC show.
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There are mature themes which are treated in a very superficial and immature way. It's incredibly confusing and I don't think I've watched anything like this before.
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#54 |
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They need a meeting place, like the library/magic shop in Buffy or the hub in Torchwood or Sarah Jane's attic. If they're going to be the school's official scooby gang they need to embrace it and have somewhere to meet, research and plan.
I would also say that Torchwood found its style as it went along. It was much more adult and sweary in season 1 than in season 2. I think Class will develop overtime too. There are some lovely 'slow burn' stories already set up and I'm sure we'll get the occasional 'Who' reference chucked in for good measure. Next year, BBC2 perhaps? |
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#55 |
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Next year, BBC2 perhaps?
Maybe a slightly longer second series if it all goes well? Another hurdle Class has to overcome is that it's had to cram everything into just eight episodes - which considering it also had to introduce entirely new characters (whereas TW and SJA both had familiar leads to some extent to ease that process) makes it even more impressive. Maybe up the episode count to ten the next time around or something, hopefully not at the expense of quality.
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#56 |
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Pc bingo card. Looks like the BBC ticked every box on their card here. Hindu. Asian. Jamaica. Wheelchair. Gay kiss. Yep job done yet again in a BBC show.
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#57 |
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I honestly never even noticed... I just saw a group of people with different characteristics. Maybe I'm just used to living amongst that kind of diversity.
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#58 |
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Same here. I watched it with my husband (me 46, him 44) and two young people, a 16yo lad and a 14yo girl. None of us noticed. But then, as you've said, why would we?
There's a gay Polish(?) guy, a genius black girl with no apparent father, a nice but dim English girl with a disabled mother and no apparent father, and an cocky Asian sports star guy with no apparent mother. Other characters include a dotty old biddy who talks about her awful husband, and an ineffectual Headmaster. Only the two Aliens rang true to me.
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#59 |
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Only the two Aliens rang true to me.
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#60 |
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#61 |
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I do have to ask, what does it take for a gay kiss to be seen as just a kiss? How many hoops must gay representation jump through before it is eligible for the heteronormative seal of approval? It was just a kiss between two guys, and was on screen for less than two seconds. In a 21st Century setting, and London at that. Maybe less part of a pc agenda, more a reflection of reality? Or should everyone just always presumptuously claim that any same-sex affection shown on screen is a part of some agenda to shoehorn in political correctness?
As for everything else, as a pilot goes it chucked everyone and everything in rather quickly. The second episode scaled that back, and felt very much less 'tick box exercise'. Besides, again this is London we're talking about. As someone who came out of sixth form in London a handful of years ago I can vouch for that kind of diversity... my current group of school friends I've maintained contact with consists of English, Irish, Indian, Greek, Iranian... white and black... I'm the 'token LGBT' guy myself. Class reflects that reality quite well I think. She's 14 I believe... she's been skipped ahead a few years as she's so smart. |
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#62 |
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I honestly never even noticed... I just saw a group of people with different characteristics. Maybe I'm just used to living amongst that kind of diversity.
*Is it Peter Capaldi gawn mad? * Still, being set in Cardiff they had to reflect the area, I suppose. Oh....hang on... |
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#63 |
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Wait serious question why does Doctor Who only film Mainly in Cardiff? When theres been other BBC Shows that haven't.
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#64 |
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Wait serious question why does Doctor Who only film Mainly in Cardiff? When theres been other BBC Shows that haven't.
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#65 |
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Just saw the first episode. Was surprised how much I enjoyed it, seeing as I'm not exactly the target age range.
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#66 |
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Heteronormative?? Did you just make that one up?
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#67 |
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I didn't think about it until the woman in the wheelchair came on. Then it clicked that there was a checklist being ticked, and it made me laugh.
There's a gay Polish(?) guy, a genius black girl with no apparent father, a nice but dim English girl with a disabled mother and no apparent father, and an cocky Asian sports star guy with no apparent mother. Other characters include a dotty old biddy who talks about her awful husband, and an ineffectual Headmaster. Only the two Aliens rang true to me. ![]() The programme makers clearly decided on this checklist beforehand, which personally I find quite sad, patronising and bigoted. To actually sit there and think, there's not enough black people on telly so we have to get some in oh and let's not forget the asians we don't want them to feel left out do we; better have some disabled representation too; lots of strong females that's a must, oh and only catholic couples stay together so everyone else have to be from broken homes or their parents are widows/widowers. oh nearly forgot about the gays, won't it be funny to make the catholic gay ha ha ha; now is there anybody we've missed? - oh we forgot about the transgenders........ patronising bigots. Imagine if you ran a business and created yourself a checklist -Must haves: 1 black employee, 1 asian employee, 2 gay employees, 1 disabled employee etc... Nobody is saying these groups shouldn't be represented on television, it's just that a single series shouldn't deliberately go out of its way to 'tick all the boxes'. That said, once I got past that little silliness, I actually quite enjoyed it. I must admit, though it has a couple of flaws, it is much better than I had thought it was going to be. |
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#68 |
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I just look at this show and think, "Well, it's based in London. Why wouldn't it be like that?"
I think disabled characters are where LGBT characters were 10 years ago; some viewers are cynical about their inclusion and either see them as being tokenistic or assume there must be a storyline specifically about that issue (to justify their inclusion). Hopefully we'll get to the stage where we don't immediately think the writer is trying to make a point and simply accept characters as reflecting society. The world isn't made up of heterosexual, able-bodied white folk but there are still a lot of shows - a majority even - that would leave viewers feeling that is the case. So I'm very pleased with the range of characters in Class. Oh, and Abomination - thank you for the new word (heteronormative). Very useful. |
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#69 |
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Half my neighbours are black, I have friends and a tutor who is gay, my mother is disabled, and half the population happens to be female. Part of what Class aims to do is (amongst the killer aliens and stuff) tell stories that young people, and by extension all sorts of people in general, can relate to, and it's already touched upon things such as PTSD, parents not accepting your sexuality, having to look after somebody disabled, etc. and will likely continue to do so. As somebody at the age of 21 I've found a few things about the show I can relate to, and this is reflected by the fact that the show's cast is pretty much what I'd get if I randomly chose a bunch of people off the streets If you find it "patronising" (or perhaps the word you're looking for is threatening?) then I think that's more a problem with yourself. Not everyone can relate to the straight white athletic guy, I'm afraid.
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#70 |
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Agree 100% Lord Smexy.
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#71 |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
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Well. Good points 1st
Pc bingo card. Looks like the BBC ticked every box on their card here. Hindu. Asian. Jamaica. Wheelchair. Gay kiss. Yep job done yet again in a BBC show. And Tanya and her mum, isn't it mentioned a few times that she is a strict Nigerian parent? I thought the point of the show was that these people that would not usually give each other the time of day have been pulled together to fight against all these bad guys |
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#72 |
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Half my neighbours are black, I have friends and a tutor who is gay, my mother is disabled, and half the population happens to be female. Part of what Class aims to do is (amongst the killer aliens and stuff) tell stories that young people, and by extension all sorts of people in general, can relate to, and it's already touched upon things such as PTSD, parents not accepting your sexuality, having to look after somebody disabled, etc. and will likely continue to do so. As somebody at the age of 21 I've found a few things about the show I can relate to, and this is reflected by the fact that the show's cast is pretty much what I'd get if I randomly chose a bunch of people off the streets If you find it "patronising" (or perhaps the word you're looking for is threatening?) then I think that's more a problem with yourself. Not everyone can relate to the straight white athletic guy, I'm afraid.
I agree that the character types are found in every street. My problem with the programme was that they seemed to be just that - types. For example - it seemed to me they only made the Alien gay because they needed a gay bloke to pair up with the other gay bloke. But ignore me. I'm just miffed because the only elderly person in the first episode was depicted as an idiot with a disgusting elderly husband at home. She couldn't have been intelligent and witty, could she? That's not on the checklist. |
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#73 |
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I'm just miffed because the only elderly person in the first episode was depicted as an idiot with a disgusting elderly husband at home. She couldn't have been intelligent and witty, could she? That's not on the checklist.
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#74 |
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To be fair, the Doctor's at least 2000 years old now and he pretty much saved the day in Episode 1. So the older demographic did get quite a positive representation over all
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#75 |
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I
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To be fair, the Doctor's at least 2000 years old now and he pretty much saved the day in Episode 1. So the older demographic did get quite a positive representation over all
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