It has been a game of mine - Beth tolerates me - when we are watching television. No matter what the show, no matter where or when it was set, there will be at least one black and one gay person, usually a gay couple. This goes for both British and American shows.

It's kind of a drinking game for a teetotaler.

(We watched a French show last night that was all white. Very suspicious, although blacks may be 5% and Muslims 10% of the population. They are clearly not trying hard enough. We turned it off without finishing, so maybe there is a lesson in there, somewhere.)

Let's say there are 4-6 principal characters in an episode. Blacks make up about 12% of the overall population and gays about 5%. So, statistically - and I am not suggesting quotas or not having plots in which race or gender drive the plot, let creativity flourish - blacks would, on average, show up once every other show or so as a principal character and gays essentially never. Hispanics are maybe 20% of the population, so statistically, they should show up in almost every episode as a principal character, but they actually rarely appear. Once upon a time, we talked about gratuitous sex - now gratuitous sex is ubiquitous. Now we have gratuitous blacks and gays.

Of course, if the setting is the Atlanta police department or Montrose in Houston, averages don't apply. But I hope you get my point.

Mostly I don't care, except to the extent it provides commentary on our society. I get through the silliness of literally every main couple on TV or commercials being mixed race.

We live in those times - propaganda are us.

Must. Have. Social. Signals. 

(Mixed, black and white, marriages are about 12% of all marriages.)

There we are, and I move on after having bagged my quota.

I noticed a trend in Agatha Christie when we were binging her, that, even though each show was not linked to the others, there seemed to always be a red sportscar. My night would be complete when the red sportscar showed up. Also in detective shows, they always use flashlights instead of turning on the lights, so a flashlight (Beth loves that in Britain, they are called torches) scene is on my bingo card. Of course, the person who did it is the minor character that is introduced but has little to do with moving the plot forward. Beth and I compete on that one - and she wins most nights.

You can tell that TV can be boring at times - most of the time?, my standards for excitement are low - look, a red sportscar - and I may be a little ADD. One of my favorite games is picking up on continuity errors.

One of my indicators that the race thing is healing will be that white main-character couples begin reappearing.

Then, Odessa A’zion, from Marty Supreme, has to withdraw from a picture where she plays a half-Mexican because she is not. Wokeness literally demanded it.

Heads, I win; tails you lose.

Of course, we could have used some wokeness rather than having to endure Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins (a character I loved) - an American playing cockney! And, with wokeness, we would have missed Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously and Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek - although wokeness is restricted and not directed towards the English or Cambodians or Greeks.

It was a bonus, I guess, that Linda played a man.

These days, Matlock is a woman - the original was much better, but remaking classics is tough - I didn't like the remakes of Magnum PI or Hawaii 50, which were gender-ly correct. Watson today is black - a reimagination that may be creative; I have not watched it. I thoroughly enjoyed Lucy Liu as Watson in Elementary, which was set in the present day. 

The only time I actually care, outside of my concern about our current social mores, is when I am watching a documentary or historical piece. Then I want to learn. I want to actually know what the social and racial mores were.

One of the most important generals in the Revolutionary War was gay. I want to know that. Washington and the troops accepting and following an out, gay man in the 1700s is fascinating - and he made general! In the same war, a slave was key to gathering intelligence on the British. I want to know that, too.

I just learned that a black, Lupita Nyong'o, is playing Helen of Troy in the upcoming release of The Odyssey. 

What do I think of that?

Well, nothing, actually.

Oscar rules demand minority representation in a film for it to be considered for the Best Picture Oscar (actual standards detailed at the bottom of this newsletter; TV has no formal rules, although informal rules are in force.)

So, political correctness is baked into the system. It's not about diversity - you can have an all-black cast - it's about minority representation.

So, a black Helen or perhaps Idris Elba (one of my favorite actors) as Odysseus was inevitable. No matter what the time or place of a movie, there will be a minority.

There were very few blacks in Ancient Greece or Troy and Helen of Troy was not one of them - she is described by Homer as having  white arms, long robes, and beautiful hair.

I am a little upset at the cultural appropriation of an American playing the Greek/Ithacan, Odysseus, but I'll get over it. I'm more upset that Matt Damon does not wear Odysseus' boar tusk helmet, opting for something more classic. That is one of those details I cherish.

It's a lot of pressure, being the fairest among all goddesses and mortal females - no matter what color.