lost

Okay, I spent a solid 14 hours this Monday watching Lost. I had heard that it was pretty good, but I didn't expect it to suck my life away. I sat down in the morning to watch an episode with my breakfast, and I ended up turning it off sometime around 4am, because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.

Yeah, it's a good show, but that's not what I want to talk about.

I'd like, just once, for a TV show to just take a big shit all over stereotypes and conventions. Lost does not do this, obviously. The cast is totally full of every racial stereotype you can imagine, and it's not like they're bastards for doing this, we expect it. It's everywhere in our media, there's hardly a movie or show out there without them.

But these are the characters I'd like to see in a tv show:

Older black woman - Instead of being wise, and saying "honey", and knowing people's inner secrets, I want an older black woman who is completely imperceptive, callous, arrogant. We've seen the "wise mammy" character in every damn movie and show ever. Let's see a cursing and spitting black woman COWBOY, kicking ass and taking names.

Asian woman - Let's have an asian woman (real asian, not americanized asian) who isn't meek and mysteriously good with herbs. I don't understand why every asian woman is born with a magical ability to heal people with herbs, but that needs to go. I want them to put an asian girl on the show who looks and acts more like the asians I've seen in real life, in cities like Tokyo. Make her a gum chewing, tittering fashion whore. Even better, make her a middle aged gum chewing, tittering fashion whore. Asians in media are always very young or very old.

Indian/arabic/generic brown guy - These guys are always problem solvers, or techies, or some other deus ex machina device where anything that the main characters can't figure out will be magically solved by the phenomenal abilities of Generic Brown Guy! I have to give Lost respect, they make Brown Guy have a love interest, he's usually totally asexual and nonthreatening. Here's what I'd like, give the asian woman role to an indian guy, that would freak people out. Have a young indian guy be really meek and good with herbs and acupuncture. I've never seen that in a show.

Fat guy who isn't comic relief - nuff said. I don't care what role Fat Guy gets, but just once, I'd like to see him not be the Jester. Give him a love interest, make him angsty or serious, but stop making him the dancing monkey. Show some creativity.

That's all I've got for now. But you get the point. I'd like to see a minority in a tv show and not be able to predict their niche and behavior.