I'm not sure you are still going to read this, but I think this topic deserves to be discussed, and the only way to discuss it is calmly. It'd be cool if you could read this, at least.
We do come from different backgrounds, obviously. People all over the world watch the show, and they necessarily have different backgrounds, and different feelings about the way that certain groups are portrayed. Tim Kring is essentially a white, male American. Middle-aged, if I may hazard a guess. I am grateful that he has the sense to realize that the story he's decided to tell cannot be limited to one nation. But by trying to incorporate people from different cultures and nations, he is bound to write about things he is not that familiar with.
This is a problem we all have. We are familiar mostly with our own issues. For the sake of making things clear: I am white, German, female. So, no, I do not have first-hand experience with how you grew up as a Latina in Texas. I don't have the same sensitivities you have towards the stereotypes and archetypes that have to do with your background.
But the same is true for you. You belong to one minority, but there are still a lot of minorities that you do not belong to and are unfamiliar with. People who belong to these other minorities might disagree with you on whether or not one character is offensive or inoffensive.
Hiro was not exactly a "model minority to begin with". To Asians, it is probably annoying as hell to be represented by a complete and utter geek who surrounded his work place with action figures and couldn't refrain from mentoning Star Trek even when questioned by the police about a murder. The otaku image is not a nice one to have.
And while his character got developed, the show still does a bad job at getting his culture right. As a person, Hiro is awesome. As a Japanese, it's a different matter. Since you and I aren't Japanese, we can ignore this more easily and focus on Hiro as a person.
I agree Maya was underdeveloped. There is really no sense in repeating again and again that Season 2 moved too slowly, everybody agrees on that, including the writers. Her storyline was not the only one that suffered under it. (It ended just at its main turning point, thanks to the strike.) I found that Peter's and Hiro's storylines dragged just as much. They were also just as ignorant of the cultures and countries they portrayed, according to people who know more about these places than I do. Claire's storyline was even more boring and annoying to me.
Still, out of all these storylines, I enjoyed Maya's most, and that has little to do with her race, nationality, language. It comes down to the fact that I think that in her situation, I wouldn't do much better. That's why I want to see her succeed.
Maybe it's also because there's something I admire about refugees, essentially, the willingness to give up everything you had, and to even risk their lives. It's a scary situation where you don't really know what's ahead and there's often no turning back either. I probably feel this way because my father was a refugee and I've been amazed all my life that he had managed to do something this courageous. Not saying it's entirely the same (there are countless differences), but it's just at the back of my mind when I see such stories.
Re: 122 - think the topic is important...
We do come from different backgrounds, obviously. People all over the world watch the show, and they necessarily have different backgrounds, and different feelings about the way that certain groups are portrayed.
Tim Kring is essentially a white, male American. Middle-aged, if I may hazard a guess. I am grateful that he has the sense to realize that the story he's decided to tell cannot be limited to one nation. But by trying to incorporate people from different cultures and nations, he is bound to write about things he is not that familiar with.
This is a problem we all have. We are familiar mostly with our own issues. For the sake of making things clear: I am white, German, female. So, no, I do not have first-hand experience with how you grew up as a Latina in Texas. I don't have the same sensitivities you have towards the stereotypes and archetypes that have to do with your background.
But the same is true for you. You belong to one minority, but there are still a lot of minorities that you do not belong to and are unfamiliar with. People who belong to these other minorities might disagree with you on whether or not one character is offensive or inoffensive.
Hiro was not exactly a "model minority to begin with". To Asians, it is probably annoying as hell to be represented by a complete and utter geek who surrounded his work place with action figures and couldn't refrain from mentoning Star Trek even when questioned by the police about a murder. The otaku image is not a nice one to have.
And while his character got developed, the show still does a bad job at getting his culture right. As a person, Hiro is awesome. As a Japanese, it's a different matter. Since you and I aren't Japanese, we can ignore this more easily and focus on Hiro as a person.
I agree Maya was underdeveloped. There is really no sense in repeating again and again that Season 2 moved too slowly, everybody agrees on that, including the writers. Her storyline was not the only one that suffered under it. (It ended just at its main turning point, thanks to the strike.) I found that Peter's and Hiro's storylines dragged just as much. They were also just as ignorant of the cultures and countries they portrayed, according to people who know more about these places than I do. Claire's storyline was even more boring and annoying to me.
Still, out of all these storylines, I enjoyed Maya's most, and that has little to do with her race, nationality, language. It comes down to the fact that I think that in her situation, I wouldn't do much better. That's why I want to see her succeed.
Maybe it's also because there's something I admire about refugees, essentially, the willingness to give up everything you had, and to even risk their lives. It's a scary situation where you don't really know what's ahead and there's often no turning back either. I probably feel this way because my father was a refugee and I've been amazed all my life that he had managed to do something this courageous. Not saying it's entirely the same (there are countless differences), but it's just at the back of my mind when I see such stories.