Quickie Review: Julia

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Kevin M.

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Apr 6, 2022, 12:24:11 AM4/6/22
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Apparently all the men in Julia Child’s life were either easily manipulated rubes or misogynistic neanderthals. And all the women were progressive go-getters. Costarring Frasier’s family. 

On HBO Max 
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Kevin M. (RPCV)

Kevin M.

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May 7, 2022, 10:54:08 PM5/7/22
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Julia gets a second season

I like this show, but I again voice the criticism that the portrayal of the men is… well… the only word for it is sexist. I suppose the argument can be made that the percentage of sexist portrayals/depictions of women in media vastly outnumbers this single series, but this show does so unabashedly as if it is daring… well… men to voice the criticism. So I’ll take the bait. It is telling a good story… a story that is worthy of being told, and it is well acted and produced… all reasons to watch it. I’m not offended by the depictions of men, but if I was one of the men portrayed, or if I was related to them or knew them, I suspect offense would exist. What I do feel as a viewer who knows at least a bit of the events depicted is that the story feels incomplete in its unfair treatment of the male characters. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

Marti Lawrence

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Jun 8, 2022, 4:11:43 PM6/8/22
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We usually wait until all episodes of a series are released so we can watch one or two per night. We just finished Breads the sixth episode, and while the sexist portrayal of men may feel exaggerated, I lived through those times, and misogyny was the norm. I had bosses who felt like groping any female employee was their right, stealing our good ideas and claiming them as their own was acceptable, and advancing less qualified men over women was not an issue. I think the men in Julia are being portrayed as “seeing the light” as in her boss Russ realizing what a treasure Alice is, or Julia’s husband Paul, coming to understand the sacrifices she made to follow him wherever his diplomatic career took them.  I can appreciate your point of view though, and enjoy reading the comments on this site very much.

~Marti

PGage

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Jun 8, 2022, 9:56:32 PM6/8/22
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I watched this a few weeks ago, and really liked it. I don’t really understand Kevin’s critique, unless he is being sarcastic. The male characters seem fairly drawn to me too.

There was something about the show that irritated me. Unlike all the hand wringing about distortions of fact in the HBO Lakers series, that mostly did not bother me very much (in context of it’s almost magical realism that clearly identifies itself as a caricature) Julia indulges in a kind of high minded, well intentioned distortion that really irritates me. A key supporting character is an African American woman who is shown as an associate producer whose idea it was to syndicate the show. 

Obviously, there was no AA producer at WGBH in the early 1960s. I get that they wanted to avoid criticism that the series was #sowhite, and wanted a way to explore racial issues, but pretending that racist Boston in 
1962 was dealing with race at a level of say New York City in 1992 is IMO worse than ignoring race completely- especially when ignoring race completely would likely be closer to an accurate telling of the story.


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Bob Jersey

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Jun 8, 2022, 10:17:55 PM6/8/22
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So have Daniel Goldfarb and his writers' room out-Sorkinned Sorkin?     B

PGage, to Marti Lawrence and Kevin M, June 8th:

PGage

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Jun 8, 2022, 11:18:43 PM6/8/22
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I don’t know what this means.

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David Bruggeman

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Jun 9, 2022, 2:58:52 AM6/9/22
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Possibly an allusion to the Sorkin project on Lucy and Desi?

David

Bob Jersey

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Jun 9, 2022, 7:07:12 PM6/9/22
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Exactly.     B

David Bruggeman, to PGage through moi, June 9th:
Possibly an allusion to the Sorkin project on Lucy and Desi?


I don’t know what this means.

PGage

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Jun 9, 2022, 11:18:03 PM6/9/22
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I don’t see the parallel to what I wrote. Julia was good, Ricardo’s sucked. My criticism of Julia was that it inserted a fictional black producer into the narrative; while Sorkin compressed and rearranged details to fit his timeline, he did not insert any fictional people into the main cast or production staff of I Love Lucy.

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Marti Lawrence

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Jun 10, 2022, 1:18:33 PM6/10/22
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I agree that the inclusion of a black woman in a position of power in that time period is unrealistic. I suspect you are correct, that this fictional character was written in so the cast wasn't all white. In reality, the crew at the TV station probably didn't include any African Americans. I enjoyed Brittany Bradford's portrayal of Alice Naman, and I wasn't disturbed by the fabrication, but I admit I did a search to see if she was an actual person, because it seemed so unrealistic.  I can see how in telling the story of a real-life person, stretching artistic license to invent a character could bother some viewers.

I enjoyed the series tremendously, but I am a sucker for period pieces with gorgeous fashions, automobiles, and set décor.  I also thought the actor who portrayed Mr. Rogers did a fantastic job of capturing his unique speech pattern and demeanor, even though he was only on screen for a few minutes.

I guess I am old and out of the loop, because the comment about  out-Sorkinned Sorkin has me complexly confused. I appreciate this conversation, so if that comment could be explained, I would sure be grateful. 

~Marti

Bob Jersey

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Jun 10, 2022, 8:05:25 PM6/10/22
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Marti: I just considered the inclusion of the Black character unrealistic just as you did, much as I considered bringing contemporary themes into Being The Ricardos unrealistic.

I made an honest observation, and PGage countered it. I'm not sweating it.     B

Marti Lawrence, to PGage, in part, June 10th:

PGage

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Jun 10, 2022, 11:02:24 PM6/10/22
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Well, now that you unpack it I understand your point. I had a similar critique of Ricardos at the time. 

But I don’t think I would name that for Sorkin, both because there were so many other, more serious problems with Ricardos, and because it’s one thing to have historically accurate characters have conversations that are noticeably anachronistic but still broadly consistent with their actual personas, and quite another to create new characters to create a completely new and false representation of history.

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Kevin M.

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Jan 10, 2024, 9:54:55 PM1/10/24
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The second season was better than the first… so of course it has been cancelled 



Marti Lawrence

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Jan 11, 2024, 9:23:42 AM1/11/24
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Damn, that is disappointing. 

~Marti

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