CODED BIAS | THEM |
Pop Culture Weekly Round-Up 09/04/2021
Hello everyone. I hope you’re all well. Lockdown is finally winding down here where I live and the weather is also really good. So things are looking good for me. This week I’m talking about the great documentary CODED BIAS on Netflix. This is a must-watch if you are worried about tech companies and governments invading your privacy. I’m also talking about the new Amazon Prime Video Anthology Horror Series, THEM. I have some problems with the show but it is very well done and it has some great performances too. And as usual, I’m sharing some songs that I enjoyed during the week.
FILM
CODED BIAS
The filmmaker Shalini Kantayya examines the ways biases and inequities have become embedded in algorithms and other technologies in her remarkable documentary on Netflix.
Coded Bias isn’t one of those boring ‘talking heads’ documentaries. It follows the M.I.T. Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini, who has done a prominent investigation at how digital biases play out in the real world. She proves, using examples in the United States and abroad, that algorithms can determine who qualifies for certain loans or who gets stopped by law enforcement.
The documentary shows the racist angle of facial recognition systems and how it is totally biased towards people of color. It also covers a congressional hearing on facial-detection technology in 2019 which Buolamwini argues that it’s not just that the tech behind this technology is faulty; even if it were perfect, it would still infringe dangerously on our liberties.
The wins showed in the documentary are important, but as CODED BIAS reminds us intermittently, the fight ahead is a long and grim one. Personality, I’m not a fan of this kind of technology and I think it is a present danger to our privacy. Because the reality is that artificial intelligence doesn’t just dehumanize black people, it dehumanizes all of us.
TV
THEM
THEM is a new Amazon Prime Video anthology horror series that will deliver a different story each season.
This story is set in the 1950s and follows a black family (The Emory family) from the south of the US that moved to Campton, in Los Angeles, during the period called The Great Migration. At the time Compton, which now has a majority population of African Americans, was an all-white neighborhood.
Before start talking about the show, I have to address the elephant in the room. Since the trailer of THEM was released, the comparisons to Jordan Peele, 'Us', were all over the internet. Which was fair since the trailer really made the show look a lot like Peele’s film. But THEM is not a rip-off of US. Some similarities, yes. But it totally stands on its own.
Having said that, THEM has an interesting premising but it is not the best when it comes to execution. The pacing definitely could be better and the show is very sadistic and super uncomfortable to watch. The Emory family suffer horrific racial abuse from their white neighbors. It got to a point that I had to walk away from my TV many times when I was watching it. Some scenes made me very angry and I almost completely gave up the show.
But in the end, I watched all 10 episodes. THEM has very solid performances, with Ashley Thomas making a very compelling lead and Alison Pill doing an outstanding job playing one of the most hateful characters that I’ve ever seen on TV. The show is has also a lot of style. It is beautifully shot and the production values are top-notch. There are some mysterious supernatural forces that the family has to deal with. And plenty of jump scares and horror tropes to please anyone that loves this genre.
Overall, THEM is a bleak, visceral, and full of cruelty series. And unfortunately, the end does not justify the means. The racism in the show is outrageous and it really bothered me. Since THEM has already been renewed for a second season by Amazon Prime, I hope that the writers come up with better ways to tell this kind of story.
Top 5 songs
These were the 5 songs on my heavy rotation this week. You can listen to them on Spotify and YouTube.
1 - Fickle Friends - Not In The Mood
2 - Waterparks - Numb
3 - LiL Lotus - Fake Love
4 - With Confidence - Big Cat Judgement Day
5 - Ida Maria - Sick of You