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Bon Appetit’s Youtube channel has set the new standard for how media companies need to brand themselves.

Here, try it. I want you to know that I can accept zero criticism right now

– Claire Saffitz

If 10 years ago I asked you to name the first chefs you can think of, you’d probably have a very short list: Martha Stewart, Gordon Ramsay, Bobby Flay, maybe Paula Deen. Your list would be short and unchanging and probably consist of the names you saw on Food Network.

If I asked you or 5.95 million other subscribers that same question today, your answers may sound a little different: Claire Saffitz, Brad Leone, Carla Lalli-Music, or any of the other members of the Bon Appetit test kitchen. 

Strangely enough, BA has become a Youtube phenomenon, blurring the line between magazine and television series with its assorted internet shows and a cast of familiar faces. 

The history of what can best be described as a food/media empire started in 1956 when the magazine was founded. Eventually bought up by Conde Nast (who currently own publications such as Vogue, GQ, and The New Yorker), the magazine has continued to thrive under current Editor Adam Rappaport. Now the magazine has expanded to include the extremely popular Youtube account, various social media channels, and a podcast. They even have a merch store. Essentially it’s doing everything right as a modern media company. 

BA started their Youtube channel almost 8 years ago in 2012 but didn’t see the rapid growth they do today until video editor Matt Hunziker (affectionately referred to as “Hunzie”) changed the channel’s video style with a 9 minute video of Test Kitchen Manager Brad Leone making Kombucha. Branded under the name “It’s Alive with Brad”, the video moved away from the polished look BA was used to and instead was, as Haley Nahman puts it,  “full of spills and swearing and fast cuts with irreverent commentary added via text overlay”. 

The video now has 3.3 million views since being published on October 21, 2016, and it started the new BA as we know it. Since then many of the editors-at-large and various other members of the magazine have started their own web series on the channel. Leone himself has continued “It’s Alive” as a show about fermentation, but series such as Carla Lalli-Music’s “Back to Back” feature celebrity guests trying to keep up with only verbal instructions of a professional chef, and Chris Morocco’s “Reverse Engineering” shows Morocco recreating recipes after only smelling or tasting them. 

The arguably most famous of BA’s shows, though, is Claire Saffitz’s “Gourmet Makes”, where Saffitz is tasked with recreating junk foods from scratch (and hopefully making them more “gourmet” by using better ingredients). 5 episodes from the series alone make up half of the channel’s top ten most popular videos, and Saffitz now has 835 thousand followers on Instagram. 

What makes Saffitz and every other member of the BA test kitchen so entertaining is how human they all seem. The members often interact with each other during episodes, and often they can be seen working in the background of every shot. Unlike most cooking shows that are designed to look effortless, BA’s videos often pull back the curtain on the reality of recipe design and kitchen work. Claire, for example, regularly gets frustrated and fails miserably as she tries to recreate snacks like Pop Rocks, but her perseverance through it all leaves viewers intensely satisfied.

The personality that gets to shine through BA’s videos is definitely the root of the company’s success on Youtube, and will definitely be a model for media companies for years to come. 

Netflix’s Big Mouth and Sex Education are doing more for students than most schools are, and that’s a problem.

I think I have a problem. My body has complete control over me.

– Otis Milburn

Sex. 

Depending on your upbringing, or just your general life experiences, that word may make you cringe. Or it may intrigue you. Or you’re just reading this as a healthy and well-adjusted adult and so the word doesn’t particularly mean much to you. 

Regardless of which category you fall into, sex is one of those topics that’s very hard to breach for young people. It’s uncomfortable to discuss because it’s “supposed” to be a private and intimate affair. Discussing it is seen as indecent. 

And yet there comes a time in every young person’s life when they must receive the fated “talk”. The topic of sex must in some way be breached so that the child can prepare themselves to enter a world full of many choices, many questions, and many consequences. 

But the quality of these talks varies significantly for many young people. Some don’t have parents who are willing or even able to answer the questions they have. In fact, only Forty-three percent of parents say they feel very comfortable talking with their children about sex and sexual health according to Planned Parenthood. And when it comes to Sex-Ed in schools, the quality can range significantly. Only 29 states and DC require some form of Sex-Ed to be taught in public schools, and of those states, only 22 require that information to be “medically, factually or technically accurate”.

And so the problem arises that we are truly doing disservice our kids by not arming them with the knowledge they need to have healthy sexual lives. However, shows like Netflix’s Big Mouth and Sex Education are providing access to real information about a wide variety of topics relating to sexual health to a whole new audience. 

The shows find ways to do this in a way that doesn’t feel out of place. They embrace the reality of sex and development as something normal to everyone, which somehow makes the shows feel more real. In Season 2 Episode 5 of Big Mouth, “The Planned Parenthood Episode” the show actively discusses Planned Parenthood while discrediting misinformation and providing a witty guide to contraception (in a Bachelorette style skit, nonetheless!). 

In the same vein, Sex Education opens its sophomore season with some very real answers to questions about chlamydia with some very direct explanations from the main character Otis that “you cannot catch chlamydia from the air, you have to have sexual contact with the carrier”. 

Many teens have found a haven in shows like Big Mouth and Sex Education, saying that the advice on screen is usually being discussed by friends, which the Guardian says “opens up the conversation, so advice can be delivered in a frank way rather than seeming clinical and removed”. 

So even if our schools aren’t doing enough to prepare our kids to enter the adult world of sex and relationships, at least streaming services like Netflix are doing something. But it sure would be nice if schools could start taking some responsibility and start giving good Sex-Ed to students. Because if there’s one thing we don’t want, it’s a bunch of teenagers getting sex advice from the internet.

HBO’s Looking opens a window into the lives of LGBTQ people. But is this just another stereotype?

I asked out my boss while straddling a torpedo.

– Patrick Murray

Finding good gay characters is hard. 

For many people in the LGBTQ community, finding representation in media is next to impossible. Even when we do find a character that’s like us, they’re never the forefront. It’s never their story that gets the focus. 

Like the Bechdel test I discussed in my post about The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, there’s another test that the Gay & Lesbian Allaince Against Defamation (GLAAD) uses to determine LGBTQ representation in media: the Vito Russo test.

Essentially the same as the Bechdel test, the Vito Russo test looks at LGBTQ characters and says that a film or show passes the test if there is an LGBTQ character who is both essential to the plot and who is not defined by the fact that they are LGBTQ (in other words, they are more than just “the gay character”).

The sad reality is, though, that in 2019 GLAAD found only 18.2% of major films contained characters that identified as LGBTQ (20/110). Of those films, only 13 then passed the Vito Russo test. The results are even slimmer when you start to break down those films into demographics, where still white gay men have a majority of the representation. 

Segueing over to the small screen, HBO’s Looking definitely passes the Vito Russo test. Set in modern-day San Francisco, it focuses on the lives of three gay friends who deal with the assorted social professional and romantic problems that any millennial living in San Fran faces. While of course being gay is a major part of the show, the characters all have fully fleshed out lives beyond just being gay, and all of them are essential to the plot. 

And yet for all the good Looking did by providing a platform to tell the story of gay people, it didn’t exactly paint the LGBTQ community in the best light. The main character Patrick has a long time affair with his boss which results in his boss breaking up with a long time boyfriend. Another main character, Augustín, breaks up with his boyfriend after it’s revealed that he’s been paying a male prostitute to let him follow behind and document events in the name of art. Even the name of the show is a reference to gay hookup apps (“looking” implying that one is actively searching for a hookup). 

Now, HBO has been known to take on adult themes and stories before. The hit series Girls was known for putting its characters in very adult settings and were not afraid to show these settings on camera. However, women are way more represented in the media than LGBTQ people. While we still have a long way to go to see truly equal representation for women in media, a quick google search for “movies that pass Bechdel test 2019” will provide dozens of listicles discussing a plethora of movies (spoiler alert: there are more than 20 movies mentioned, unlike the number that passed the Vito Russo test). 

The real problem here is that for all the good it does for the LGBTQ community, Looking also makes there appear to be harmful stereotypes about the morality of gay men. Suddenly we’re all made out to look like homewreckers or sex-fueled monsters. Every “open-relationship” shown on screen just makes it look like gay men aren’t mature enough to stay faithful to their partners. The relationships being discussed are very complex, but the show simplifies them too much. Uneducated viewers take these depictions as the norm and suddenly we see the LGBTQ community is immediately thought of as hypersexual and incapable of forming the same strong relationships anyone can.  

So while I can say it was nice to see the LGBTQ community being represented onscreen when I watched Looking, I was also disappointed by it. The show should be lauded for how it normalized LGBTQ characters, but it’s also disappointing when one of the only shows in which that occurs is one where the characters are also constantly having sex. To me, that’s not a good look. 

Netflix’s Tiger King is the latest hit docuseries to hit the small screen. But what does our reception of it say about society?

I went to work every day prepared to die in a tiger cage. Dying doesn’t scare me. At all.

– Joe Exotic

With all the psychosis 2020 has seemed to put us through, has it surprised anyone that a documentary about polygamous, gun-toting, gay meth-heads who raise tigers and hire hitmen has become wildly popular? 

Of course not: watching Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is like watching the Kardashians but in Oklahoma with ex-cons. Which is to say, it’s to be watched obsessively and in unhealthy volumes. 

The docuseries revolves around Joe Exotic, the almost cartoonish owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Zoo), and his steady downfall. Exotic, who’s real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for assorted crimes, including multiple counts of murder-for-hire, falsifying records, and violating the Endangered Species Act. 

Equally involved in the story of Exotic are his arch-rival and owner of Big Cat Rescue, Carol Baskin, and his mentor Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who runs Myrtle Beach Safari. Baskin, Mantle, and Exotic are all deep into the world of big cats, as well as shameless self-promotion on social media. Despite their antics, however, their popularity may have been dumb luck. 

Youtube channel Screen Junkies put it best when it describes Tiger King as “the ultimate example of timing is everything”. Truly, the docuseries was one of the earliest productions to actually benefit from a national quarantine. 

However, Tiger King’s notoriety points to a larger issue at hand. At the end of the day, these are real people making destructive life choices. And we the viewers are watching lives unravel from our couches. 

In the wake of Tiger King’s release the internet was flooded with memes. Of course, it wasn’t exactly hard to make fun of something as ridiculous as this. But the instantaneousness with which the internet decided to laugh at Tiger King instead of looking at the actual issues it presented is more than a bit concerning. 

Some of the memes reflect strangely macabre tones, like the Tik Tok trends that state with certainty that Carole Baskin killed her husband while smiling people dance along. And some have led to greater action, like the free Joe Exotic memes that have prompted his legal team to actually try and seek a presidential pardon for Exotic. 

Most concerning of all is that there is little care for the animals being abused in the series. Especially as the G.W. Zoo begins to decline throughout the 7 episode arc, the animals face more and more abuse from frustrated caretakers and a lack of proper food, space, or general care. Exotic’s niece even claimed that Exotic sold frozen cubs to be taxidermied and that he or others were rumored to have performed sexual acts on the animals at the zoo. 

Aside from that, as Sukriti Wahi describes in a piece for ELLE Australia, characters like Joe and Doc are dangerously romanticized by the series. Doc literally runs a sex cult as described by former employee Barbara Fisher. Joe meanwhile continuously supplied one of his former husbands, Travis Maldonado, with marijuana and meth, preying on Maldonado’s addiction to keep him in the relationship even though Maldonado didn’t identify as gay. Another of Joe’s husbands, John Finley (who also didn’t identify as gay), claims that Exotic constantly manipulated him while also keeping Finley around by providing him with guns and trucks. 

At the end of the day, Tiger King may be entertaining, but it’s also a very concerning look into how damaged people can gain insane amounts of popularity on the internet. This notoriety only encourages more of this behavior, and in the end we see more problems and fewer solutions. And that’s a royal pain. 

Netflix’s The Witcher faced severe backlash over casting by some very racist online trolls.

We Have To Cling To Something. If We Don’t, The World Descends Into Chaos.

– Visenna

Some shows are successful because they speak to deeper messages and universal themes. Other shows gain success simply for their fun action scenes or cool story. 

Netflix’s The Witcher has seemingly found a way to straddle that line in the best way possible. 

Based on the book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the series takes place in a world filled with magical and supernatural beings, including chemically altered monster hunters known as “witchers”. The original series was adapted into a wildly popular video game series by CD Projekt Red. The video games truly caused the series to gain the wild popularity it has today, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt being considered one of the best open-world games to exist. 

The announcement of the show’s release was met with great excitement, especially as many hoped it could fill a Game of Thrones sized hole in their heart. 

The show was finally released in December of 2019 and quickly rose to be the second most popular series of 2019 on the streaming service, despite being released only 11 days before the end of the year. 

What is most intriguing perhaps is the backlash the series faced in casting. As someone who knew very little about the series before watching the show, I saw trailers and was excited by the thought of more small screen fantasy. Apparently the casting was deemed wrong to many diehard fans though, as many expressed backlash at the choice to cast some characters as not fully white. 

One of the main characters, a sorceress named Yennifer, is described as being pale with dark hair in the books and games but is being played by Anya Chalotra, a biracial actor of Indian and White descent. The backlash caused by this casting choice was quite disturbing, both because  Sapkowski himself admitted that the visual representations of characters such as Yennifer were loosely adapted in the games anyways and were not to be considered canon and because of the overt racism that is being shown.

The backlash was even worse when it was discovered that showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich was looking for a non-white actor to play Ciri (the white-haired and very pale adopted daughter of the main characters). While in all honesty the choice to make Ciri a person of color should play no role in the show, the fan backlash was bad enough to force Hissrich to take a social media hiatus.

These sorts of racists complaints about casting are not new. In 2015 when it was announced that Noma Dumezweni, a black actress, would play Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, many fans were outraged even as J.K. Rowling and Emma Watson both praised the decision. 

In 2019, Halle Bailey faced the same backlash when it was announced that she, a black actress, would be playing Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. 

The irony of the complaints about casting in The Witcher is that the show itself comments on racism throughout. Even though the main character, Geralt, is a white man, he is a witcher. In the world in which the story is set, witchers face significant hardships when dealing with humans who look down upon them and judge them. As people expect to watch Geralt push through his own challenges with racism, it’s strange to think that those who are most “in tune with the lore” don’t recognize the double standard they have. 

Frankly, the overt racism that these complaints show is disheartening. Fans are hiding their hate behind claims of “canonical lore”, and then trying to say that they aren’t being racist. It’s time for people to stop looking at beloved characters as being so flat and underdeveloped that they can only be recognizable by race and features. The diversification of casting in television has and continues to be a struggle, and shows that do it well should be praised, not berated. 

If we ever want to be an equal society, we need to be okay with change. And maybe that first change is seeing a beloved character in a new way.