Little Fires Everywhere is based on a novel written by Celeste Ng that follows the lives of residents in the suburbs of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 90s. Bill and Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon and Joshua Jackson) are longtime residents of the community and are the parents of 4 teenagers who are all on the path to self-discovery. The Richardson’s have a tight family unit and are doing their best to raise healthy, ambitious, generous and well-rounded children. Elena is having a hard time with her younger daughter Izzy (Megan Stott) who is clearly going through a rebellious stage so the two of them are in constant disagreement.
Elena is a suburban upper-class mom who is pretty uptight and wants control of her family and her image. She seems to have the Richardson kids’ lives already planned out for their successful future. Elena is a perfectionist, a quality that doesn’t really work in her favor with her kids because she’s judgmental and intimidating. The family inherited a rental property and that is when she meets single mother Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) and her intelligent teenage daughter Pearl Warren (Lexi Underwood). Mia a traveling artist and her daughter have been living in their car and responded to an ad for Elena’s rental. Upon their first meeting, Mia has her guard up with Elena and there is tension between the two. Mia is put off by Elena’s invasive and privileged tone during their first conversation.
Little Fires Everywhere — “Seeds and All” – Episode 102 – (Photo by: Erin Simkin/Hulu)
Elena seems totally unaware of how uncomfortable and unwelcome this makes Mia. Despite their bumpy start the Warren’s move into the rental property. Pearl immediately adapts to her new environment after she meets Moody, one of Richardson’s sons (Gavin Lewis). The two teenagers are attracted to each other and start spending a lot of time together. Hanging out with the Richardsons somewhat opens Pearl’s eyes to a whole new world. Although there are racial and economic differences between their two worlds, the teenagers still develop a friendship. Pearl also learns that she and Elena have a common interest – writing and journalism. Mia doesn’t approve of Pearl’s friendly relationships with the Richardsons but doesn’t express this to her daughter immediately.
The series takes a deep dive into classism and racism. For instance, Pearl, after spending more time with the Richardsons, realizes just how underprivileged her life has been. She has had to constantly move around. Because of her mother, she has never really had a nice stable place to live, she has never met her father and her school counselor won’t consider placing her in the correct math class at her new school because of her race. Instead of taking her mother Mia’s advice on standing up to her counselor, Pearl asks Elena for help to get enrolled in the correct math class. After a quick conversation with the counselor, Elena (much thanks to her race and status) easily gets Pearl in. When Mia starts working for the Richardsons as their “house manager”, Pearl seems to be surprised, ashamed and uncomfortable that her black mom is now working for this white family that she is trying to build new relationships with. This only further magnifies the differences between the two families. After Mia becomes Elena’s house manager, the two of them get to know each other a little better. Mia, however, is still very guarded with the new family and keeps her distance.
Little Fires Everywhere (Photo by: Hulu)
At the end of the three-episode premiere, Mia remains a mystery. Even in her relationship with her daughter Pearl, she is keeping a secret. Pearl has never met her father and her mother refuses to identify him. This is extremely frustrating for Pearl and leaves audiences wondering what exactly is Mia hiding?
Mia is not the only one with secrets. Each character is hiding something and those secrets have yet to come to light. The suspense of how the stories unfold makes the audience crave more. Little Fires Everywhere is a captivating, stimulating drama with an amazing cast that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats. New episodes are available every Wednesday on Hulu.
The squad is back! Starz dropped the new trailer for ‘Run The World’ season 2, and it looks like our favorite NYC girls are in for more fun and drama. Bresha Webb, Amber Stevens West, and Corbin Reid are reprising their roles as Renee, Whitney, and Sondi, respectively. Andrea Bordeaux (who played Ella in Season 1) departed the show over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The new season will follow the “euphoric highs and heartbreaking lows that Whitney, Renee, and Sondi must endure in their pursuit of world domination,” says the official synopsis. “Whitney must follow the road of self-discovery to thrive in her life with or without Ola, while Renee and Sondi must decide what they truly want out of life — both in love and their careers. Whether they reunite with a past love, taste the life of a millionaire, or see their career take off in a radical new direction, these powerful Black women, fortified by their impenetrable friendship, won’t let anything get in their way.”
The new episodes of ‘Run the World’ will premiere on Friday, May 26.
This year, Disney is gearing up to release live-action remakes of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Peter Pan.’ Each will feature a Black actor playing a fictional character originally portrayed by a white actor. Halle Bailey, a Black actress and singer, is set to portray the beloved red-haired, fish-tailed under-the-sea princess Ariel. Yara Shahidi, a daughter of an Iranian father and an African-American mother, will star as Peter Pan’s most trusted fairy friend Tinkerbell. Both movies are scheduled to be released in the next two months.
The casting decisions came with backlash from a vast number of Twitter and Redditt users, who claim – “blackwashing” childhood characters (i.e., taking an originally white character and making them a person of color) will not solve the lack of inclusivity in Hollywood. But is that really why they so passionately stand against it? The negative attention on Little Mermaid and Tinker Bell has also fueled great support from other fans who view such anger as racist behavior. “Those opposed to diversity on screen are the ones fighting it in real life,” one Twitter user wrote. Rob Marshall, who directs the upcoming Little Mermaid remake, admitted he was caught off guard by some of the negative responses that came with casting Bailey. “I wasn’t anticipating that because, in a way, I felt like we’ve moved so far past that kind of thing.” He also insisted there was no agenda in Disney’s decision to hire the 22-year-old, “We just were looking for the best actor for the role, period. The end,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “We saw everybody and every ethnicity. The goal was to find someone who can be incredibly strong, passionate, beautiful, smart, clever, and with a great deal of fire and joy,” Marshall explained.
For a few years now, Disney, among other media companies, has made an effort to redeem itself from a century-long history of producing controversial movies and animated films (‘Song of the South,’ ‘Dumbo, ‘The Aristocrats”), some of which have been deemed racist or ‘culturally outdated’ as Disney conveniently describes it. Most recently, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced a diversity and inclusion program ‘Reimagine Tomorrow,’ that is committed to “amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment.” Casting more people of color could count as a way to honor their commitment, but is changing the ethnicity of established characters the best solution? Some argue that it could be. Several previously released remakes that followed this model have done well, despite surrounding controversy.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella cast/ Disney
In 1997, Disney released Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a reimagining of the famed tale. It did not just have a non-white main cast but also received a budget of $12 million, which ranked it among the most expensive television films ever made. The remake featured Brandy, an African-American actor/singer, as Cinderella, the late Whitney Houston as Fairy Godmother, Paulo Montalban, an Asian actor as Prince Christopher, and Victor Garber and Whoopi Goldberg as the king and queen. Although the non-traditional reiteration of the Disney story received mixed reviews from critics, it was met with a lot of praise, specifically from the Black community. “This Cinderella remake is such a beautiful, magical gem of a movie filled with a multiracial cast, and I can’t believe it came out in 1997! Talk about progressive!” a review on IMDb reads. “I think this live-action Cinderella movie is my most favorite. I love the songs and the comedy. Most of the actors are familiar. This movie also teaches us that no matter what we look like, black, white, Asian, we are all the same,” another fan wrote in his five-star review.
Most recently, Disney doubled down on casting non-white actors to star in their remakes. Aside from the aforementioned ‘Little Mermaid’ and ‘Peter Pan’ films, Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, was cast to play Snow White in a movie scheduled to be released in 2024. Disney’s ‘Wonder Years’ reboot features an all-Black main cast. Zendaya plays MJ in the new Spider-Man movies. And that’s not just with Disney. Amazon Prime Video recently cast Afro-Latino actor Ismael Cruz Córdova to play Arondir, a Silvan elf, in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.’ The reimagining of ‘The West Side Story’ featured Latino actors in leading roles. Almost every casting announcement caused a social media stir.
Rachel Zegler spotted on the set of ‘Snow White’
But why remake in the first place? According to Dr. Matthew Jones, Film Studies lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester, “Remake and reboot culture is not new. It’s often framed as something novel and unique to our postmodern times, but there is actually a rich tradition of remakes in Western film culture,” he told Cosmopolitan. So why are they still being made? The answer is fairly simple – remakes are a safe financial bet. Studios capitalize on people’s nostalgia and the connections they already have with their favorite characters. “The most secure option for studios is always going to be something we call a ‘pre-sold property,’ Dr. Jones continued, “meaning films with pre-existing fan audiences. And what types of films have fan audiences before they are even released? Remakes, reboots, and sequels do, precisely because they are already properties familiar to audiences and which some people will feel an emotional attachment to already.”
Those opposed to Disney’s casting decisions to ‘race swap’ insist the company should focus on creating original characters and storylines instead of reimagining the ones they have become so accustomed to. “Another remake! Did Hollywood run out of ideas?” One Reddit user asked. “Disney is only changing the race/ethnicity of characters in live-action remakes to spark controversy and get more people talking about the movie rather than trying to bring minorities to light as protagonists,” another speculated. However, it’s no secret that the United States has a long and dark history of racial discrimination and injustice. So, when minority groups are shown outside of the tired, stereotypical roles or, furthermore, play roles that are considered “traditionally” white – it implies a change that some simply don’t want to accept.
Indeed, Disney had succeeded in the past in introducing original non-white animated characters such as Mulan (the live-action version was released in 2020), Tiana in ‘Princess and the Frog’ (the remake is currently in the works), Moana, and most recently, the family of ‘Encanto.’ But original content inevitably means more resources spent, and with remakes that deliver guaranteed financial gains and casting decisions that bring attention (positive or negative), studios seem to achieve desirable results still. Additionally, the cultural and racial diversification of Disney’s fan base and the pressure to acknowledge and show more of those faces on the screen pushes the company to do just that. So the main question remains – does Hollywood genuinely cares about inclusivity, or is it just adjusting for the sake of profits? No matter the answer, one thing is clear – Disney is not going anywhere any time soon, and neither are the Black, Asian, Latino, and other non-white people across the globe. Those who have a problem will just have to learn to live with it.