Dark Matter, SyFy's new space show, premieres June 12th

[Christopher]

Think of it more as embracing one's heritage and trying to maintain a cultural identity.

I'll believe that when I hear it from a Japanese person. But I doubt I would. As I said, Japanese culture is as much about embracing modernity as valuing heritage. Real Japanese people don't go around waving swords and knives all the time; they're far too busy with their mobile phones and other gadgets. Surely to Japanese people centuries in the future, their cultural heritage would be as much about bullet trains and anime as about kimonos and swords.

 

[sojourner]

And yet, we've only seen about 5 minutes of that culture on the show so far. Most of it in the Royal palace. The place where you would expect the traditions and decorum to be most prominent.

 

[Christopher]

As I said, sure, one would expect traditions there, but one would also expect the royal security forces to be armed with more than pointy bits of metal. I just don't see anything plausible about how this is portrayed so far, and it feels uncomfortably like the same old ignorant, Orientalist caricatures of Asia that we've been seeing in Western media for decades. Four has been a stereotype from the start, and this amplifies that stereotype to a very disturbing degree.

 

[sojourner]

I'll wait to see more to pass judgement.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

A lot of families of immigrants play up the supposed traditions of their ancestry in ways that people remaining in the home country never would. So you'll get Irish immigrant families in the US doing all kinds of exaggerated Irish cultural traditions that people in Ireland itself would find baffling and outdated. I could see people who abandoned not only their home country but their home planet entirely taking that kind of behavior to the nth degree and living out almost a caricature of ancient Japanese culture, especially if they were trying to root themselves in a hereditary claim to an Imperial legacy that probably no longer exists.

I wish they'd just open up the damn vault already, since I'm 99% sure they're just going to find their original bodies in stasis inside, except for Corso and Das.

It was a little weird that 6 shot the guy who came in yelling at them for blowing up the space station. I get that he wanted to prevent his involvement in the attack from getting out, but it kind of undermines that whole redemptive arc if you murder the messenger who was clearly as disgusted by the terrorist attack as he was.

I agree that the idyllic farm life is almost definitely 3's upbringing, just for the comedic angle that would provide.

Good episode, even if the obligatory Inception episode is right up there with the obligatory zombie episode and the obligatory boxing episode (that was on Killjoys, but I'm sure we'll get one here too) for scifi TV cliches. We didn't really learn much new, except for Griffin's background as a resistance fighter against the corporate authority. The Das and Ryu stuff you could pretty much infer, and the farm life thing is just amusing more than anything else.

 

[Christopher]

A lot of families of immigrants play up the supposed traditions of their ancestry in ways that people remaining in the home country never would. So you'll get Irish immigrant families in the US doing all kinds of exaggerated Irish cultural traditions that people in Ireland itself would find baffling and outdated. I could see people who abandoned not only their home country but their home planet entirely taking that kind of behavior to the nth degree and living out almost a caricature of ancient Japanese culture, especially if they were trying to root themselves in a hereditary claim to an Imperial legacy that probably no longer exists.

And I'd be willing to buy that if we had been given any evidence that mainstream Ishida culture is more modern. Instead, absolutely everything we've been shown about it so far is a mass of Orientalist cliches. And I'm afraid that's far more likely to be the result of laziness and ignorance on the part of the white writers than it is to be part of some more well-considered exercise in worldbuilding. Irish-Americans might embrace their traditions, but they don't appreciate seeing their culture portrayed on TV as just a collection of stereotypes, any more than anyone else does. It's a bad idea to fall back on stereotypes, even if it is later given some in-universe justification.

It was a little weird that 6 shot the guy who came in yelling at them for blowing up the space station. I get that he wanted to prevent his involvement in the attack from getting out, but it kind of undermines that whole redemptive arc if you murder the messenger who was clearly as disgusted by the terrorist attack as he was.

I sort of got the impression that killing the others was self-defense, that they would've turned on him for killing their superior, even if they were uneasy with what he'd done. But yeah, it was kind of excessive. Maybe that's the idea -- that while these characters may have been pushed to become criminals, they nonetheless committed wrongs of their own afterward.

 

[sojourner]

And hey, he goes from resistance fighter fighting corporate authority on Continuum to resistance fighter fighting authority on Darkmatter. He must be getting tired of that.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Well, apart from two glimpses of the inside of the Imperial palace and the family who's specifically playing up the traditions, the only thing we've seen of their culture is a huge city on a space colony, an advanced interplanetary rocket, and modern news coverage of the goings on on the planet. So, I think that implies a mix of old and new.

I'm not making excuses for any stereotyping, just offering up a possible explanation based on what I've seen other Irish-American families do regarding Irish culture.

 

[Autistoid]

But it would be nice if they drew inspiration from an informed understanding of Japan rather than a lazy caricature out of a martial arts movie.

Meh,

who cares no really?

Would we get so upset, if we had a bunch of blond blue eyed,folk talking of Valhalla station etc?

I"m assuming that the worlds are diverse enough that this is just 1 in a 1000 representations of japenese culture if its even directly japanese.

The question is do you think your asian friends are bothered by this character?

 

[Autistoid]

Real Japanese people don't go around waving swords and knives all the time; they're far too busy with their mobile phones and other gadgets. Surely to Japanese people centuries in the future, their cultural heritage would be as much about bullet trains and anime as about kimonos and swords.

Eh wha? you think your average japanese descent canadians knows or cares about any of the stuff you mentioned.

The show is super canadian, I don't think asian kids like the character because Japanese.

It's likely a change for people who are tired of seeing the nervous asian kid (Cough cough ensign kim, the linguist from Enterprise etc)

Also the fact that the actors speak with canadian english is a nice touch to say these people aren't really asian.

 

[Autistoid]

Well, apart from two glimpses of the inside of the Imperial palace and the family who's specifically playing up the traditions, the only thing we've seen of their culture is a huge city on a space colony, an advanced interplanetary rocket, and modern news coverage of the goings on on the planet. So, I think that implies a mix of old and new.

I'm not making excuses for any stereotyping, just offering up a possible explanation based on what I've seen other Irish-American families do regarding Irish culture.

Also keep in mind its implied that these people are actually gangsters not true royals.

Just as you'd expect a group of future irish ganster to be bareknuckle fighting with bottles of whisky.

I'm very irish btw.



My bigger issue is the idea that the sociopath of the group might be developing a sense of guilt.

That's far more annoying, as you clearly make him a sociopath and try to walk all over his neurology.

It'd be far more interesting if he was just accepted for his lack of morals. Instead of trying to fix a person that cannot be fixed.

 

[Star Wolf]

Real Japanese people don't go around waving swords and knives all the time; they're far too busy with their mobile phones and other gadgets. Surely to Japanese people centuries in the future, their cultural heritage would be as much about bullet trains and anime as about kimonos and swords.

Eh wha? you think your average japanese descent canadians knows or cares about any of the stuff you mentioned.

The show is super canadian, I don't think asian kids like the character because Japanese.

It's likely a change for people who are tired of seeing the nervous asian kid (Cough cough ensign kim, the linguist from Enterprise etc)

Also the fact that the actors speak with canadian english is a nice touch to say these people aren't really asian.

I don't know about Canadians but here in the Southland NHK taiga dramas were broadcast for years. One of the last one's that I saw most of was Genroko Ryoran which told the story of the 47 Ronin. To the point the Ronin became ronin because their feudal lord broke the weapons rules in the palace. From what we saw I can accept that the rules in the palace in a society trying to look at their noble past. Come to think of it there was a similar blades only rule in the Star Lord black & white comic.

 

[Cyrus]

The stolen key that Five/Das has probably comes into play in a future episode.

 

[sojourner]

The stolen key that Five/Das has probably comes into play in a future episode.

Ya think?

 

[JD]

I really enjoyed this one. I loved getting to learn more about Four, Six and Five.
The stuff with Four was a little stereotyped, but I didn't think it was that horrible. We see a lot of these types of traditionalist cultures in sci-fi, so I don't think it's really rediculous or unrealistic for it to be a part of the universe of the show. I enjoyed it overall, and I'm very curious to see what Four is going to do now that he knows the truth about his father's murder.
Six's backstory was pretty interesting to.
So Five's friend was the dead kid from earlier in the season, right?
I wonder what role the key will play as the show goes on, because I doubt they would introduce something like that and not have it play some kind of a role in the future.
I like how they gave Six, and Four specific goals now.
I do agree with the other posters that the farm childhood was probably Three's, that seems like exactly the kind of unexpected twist they like to throw into these kinds of stories.

 

[Jolaris]

I do agree with the other posters that the farm childhood was probably Three's, that seems like exactly the kind of unexpected twist they like to throw into these kinds of stories.

Seeing the episode made me think, when she said it was a boy's face and she didn't recognize it, that it belongs to none of those people but somebody else entirely...

Dark Matter has to me become must see tv as long as they keep these twist's and surprise's coming, compared to Defiance which I lost a lot of respect for when they did their own version of the Red Wedding...

 

[Christopher]

The stuff with Four was a little stereotyped, but I didn't think it was that horrible.

Not horrible, perhaps -- it can theoretically be justified as weird royals and their weird traditions -- but it is annoying and somewhat problematical. It would've been better if they'd explicitly placed it in the context of a less stereotyped, more modern Ishida society, rather than having it be our exclusive view of that society so far. Painting any culture, Earthly or otherwise, as monolithic is lazy writing.

We see a lot of these types of traditionalist cultures in sci-fi

Yes, and many of them are thinly veiled racist caricatures (TNG: "Code of Honor," for example). American TV and movies have a long and unfortunate tradition of painting all non-Western cultures, especially the traditionalist ones, as backward, irrational, unenlightened, and violence-prone, and science fiction has often used the same tropes, sometimes more blatantly than others. The fact that Ishida culture is explicitly Japanese makes it even more overt.

So Five's friend was the dead kid from earlier in the season, right?

Yes.

 

[sojourner]

Painting any culture, Earthly or otherwise, as monolithic is lazy writing.

Again, you're basing this on 5 minutes of screen time. Not nearly enough to know the full scope.

 

[Cyrus]

I do agree with the other posters that the farm childhood was probably Three's, that seems like exactly the kind of unexpected twist they like to throw into these kinds of stories.

Seeing the episode made me think, when she said it was a boy's face and she didn't recognize it, that it belongs to none of those people but somebody else entirely...

Since we do know that One has his face changed (to look like the real Corso), he is the logical choice here.

 

[JD]

^I didn't think of that, but that would make a lot of sense.

I had a couple more thoughts, but my computer was being stupid and I didn't get my post edited before you guys responded.
I wasn't to surprised that Six was a decent guy, more or less, before he lost his memory. I don't really see their overall personalities having been changed to drastically after the memory loss.
Five being a stowaway does explain a lot. She didn't seem to be a part of the crew, so it was pretty clear she ended up on board some other way.
I'm very curious to see how the Four and Six we saw last night went from where we saw them in the flashback's to being crew members on the Raza.
I hope we get Three and Two's backstories soon. I wonder if Two was the Captain, because she seemed to take charge pretty instinctively. I wonder if we'll get any kind of flashbacks for The Android? I'm assuming if we do we'd have to see them through another character's memories.