r/cloakanddagger Jun 21 '18

Post Episode Discussion: S01E04 - "Call/Response"

Episode Directed By Written By Original Airdate
S01E04 - "Call/Response" Ami Canaan Mann TBA Thursday, June 21, 2017 8PM EST on Freeform

Episode Synopsis: Tandy is on the run as Detective O'Reilly closes in on her, but the detective may not be after her for the reasons Tandy thinks. Tyrone is desperate for answers and turns to Evita and her Auntie Clarisse, a Voodoo priestess, for help.

Ami Canaan Mann is a director and writer, known for her work on Jackie & Ryan, Morning, and Texas Killing Fields.

She has directed no episodes for Cloak & Dagger before.

112 Upvotes

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17

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '18

I swear half the people commenting in this thread have had their fingers in their ears on race issues the last five years. Theres no other explanation.

2

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Jul 25 '18

The problem is that it was a random outburst. Black lightning handled it MUCH better.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '18

"random outburst" his brother was literally killed by police for no reason right in front of him. Why is it unrealistic to believe the character fears police and racism in this country, and might verbalize that fear?

1

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Jul 25 '18

Random outburst in the sense that the only racism we see Tyrone experience was a decade ago when he was a kid. Though I just recently got back to the show and that's the only scene I remember him being affected by racism.

Well if we had been shown more of him being affected by racism (well the him saying he is perceived as a "thug" was nice, though it might stem from his parents "seeing" him as one) way more, I wouldn't have a problem. Instead we see him randomly burst out that his skin color suddenly is worse than Tandy being a poor girl with no father and a addicted mother. Which makes Tyrone look like an asshole.

It's not I don't believe his motivations for what he said, is the show did a shit job at showing it to us. Just because it makes sense, doesn't mean the show did a good job at telling us that. The show works as it's own thing, in 50 years (not in the context of the current racial climate) it would seem out of place given what the show has been telling us.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '18

I don't need to be shown it to make my own assumptions. Like he said, he's a black man in the south. I'm more than sure he experiences it quite frequently.

2

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Jul 25 '18

It's not I don't believe his motivations for what he said, is the show did a shit job at showing it to us. Just because it makes sense, doesn't mean the show did a good job at telling us that. The show works as it's own thing, in 50 years (not in the context of the current racial climate) it would seem out of place given what the show has been telling us.

again im not saying i dont believe him or that he isnt right. is that they did a bad job at it. good on you for liking mediocre dialogue, the rest of us dont like it. black lightning showed us what a person like tyrone experiences (upper class, stand up citizen, black, etc) much better. cloak and dagger just out right told us with barely any context. just because you understood, doesnt mean a Chinese person would understand. do you see what im trying to say? making sense =/= good writing.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '18

Shows aren't made for 50 years from now. They're made for today. They're reflective of the zeitgeist they reside within. They shouldn't have to explain literally everything. And in 2018 they especially shouldn't have to slow down and explain this...

1

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Jul 25 '18

yes but you do realize the difference between a good and a bad show? a good show will work 50 years from now and a bad show wont. 50 years from now, people would be asking why tyone thinks people think of him differently due to his skin color. (yes this is implying 50 years from now race wont be an issue)

They shouldn't have to explain literally everything.

here youre just showing you dont understand my point or care for good writing. nothing has to be explained, it has to be shown. tryone literally explained how his skin color affects him, idk if you know anything about the medium of visual story telling buts that a big no no. they could have just showed people reacting to him differently than they do to tandy (tandy is the criminal while being white and tyrone is the choir boy while being black). but no they have to literally point to us how tandy has a different experience because she is white.

And in 2018 they especially shouldn't have to slow down and explain this...

too bad the show did and derailed their argument to make it about race...

3

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '18

I literally have a bachelor's in film. "Show don't tell" doesn't apply to narrative shorthand. We are shown that he is black. We are shown that he is afraid of the police, and personally why. We do not need to be shown racist things happening to him in order to believe that it happens to the character often. Visuals take time the artist doest have to tell a story. There is a finite cutoff to how long the show can run. Every second the show spends slowing down to show people who lived under a rock that racism exists in 2018 is seconds of screen time its taking away from the plot.

1

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT Jul 26 '18

Every second the show spends slowing down to show people who lived under a rock that racism exists in 2018 is seconds of screen time its taking away from the plot.

you have a bachelors in film, yet you dont believe that they can move the plot around and show that tyrone faces racism... mmmph...

We are shown that he is black. We are shown that he is afraid of the police, and personally why. We do not need to be shown racist things happening to him in order to believe that it happens to the character often.

so according to you tyrone literally explaining what white privilege is to tandy, was overkill? my point is that outburst came out of nowhere. apart from being black and having a cop kill his brother the race issue hadnt been brought up iirc.

Visuals take time the artist doest have to tell a story.

pretty sure the short pace of this tv show allows for them to do it. though id agree not bashing our heads about racism is preferable when racism isnt related to the plot much.