SPOILER ALERT – There are spoilers in here for the second season of the Almighty Johnsons
Let me just start with the fact that I actually really enjoyed watching this show. With that being said, I also noticed that there were a TON of problems regards to its portrayal of women and minorities. In the second season specifically, Maori culture is inaccurately portrayed, belittled and implicitly made fun of. And while the casting was PC, the overall tone of their portrayal was honestly just plain painful to watch.
The first thing that bugged me right off was the music that they play in the background, as it is either reggae or some kind of sci-fi esque music that implies that they're aliens or something. This ties into their portrayal as not being very financially stable- they drive a crappy van, their meetings are held in a garage, and they ask for weed as repayment for a murder, so that they can sell it. They are constantly making fun of the characters and objectifying them. The Norse goddesses are constantly making objectifying remarks like "I've always had a thing for brown boys, they're quite naughty". They are also constantly making fun of Jerome's character as being ridiculous and misogynistic, and therefore takes validation away from any of his claims in the show. In this vein, these characters seem to just be there for some comic relief (although I think they failed hard on this one, because I definitely did not laugh). There's an especially offensive and painfully awkward rapping scene that somehow is supposed to be representative of what actually happens at a hui, and their whole ceremony (hui) is totally made fun of.
The inaccuracy of their portrayal of Maori culture, and their lack of research is also incredibly apparent, when a simple google search gives you more accurate information than this show does (I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Maori culture, but from the research I did do, it seems like there's a lot of "reinterpretation" that the writers did, especially in regards to the prophecy that seems to mirror the Norse prophecy almost exactly). I understand that creative license is applicable to some extent, but what's really terrible to me is the amount of time tediously going into each Norse god and goddesses backgrounds and mythology, and totally butchering the Maori's. This ties into the portrayal of the Maori Gods as being underrepresented in the show (there's only 3 Maori gods, yet somehow there are like innumerable Norse gods and goddesses just wandering around NZ???? Please tell me how the hell this works). The Maori gods that are represented are also compared to the Norse gods as being not as powerful or important, and that they don't have as "cool" of powers as the Norse gods.
Finally, the biggest issue I saw right off the bat, was that this show completely embraces the neocolonial narrative that because you have lived in a place for a couple generations that means you're entitled to it, because it's not the same as when your ancestors came in and took the land. This was really solidified for me when one of the Norse goddesses says (as a response to Jerome saying their gods have been there forever and always): "you've just been here longer than us" and that "thousands of years" is "still not always". This show, especially this season, ultimately supports the idea that the colonizing religion is the "correct" religion, because Gaia ultimately becomes a Norse goddess and so the Maori one's just kind of disappear and aren't important for the rest of the show.
Let me just start with the fact that I actually really enjoyed watching this show. With that being said, I also noticed that there were a TON of problems regards to its portrayal of women and minorities. In the second season specifically, Maori culture is inaccurately portrayed, belittled and implicitly made fun of. And while the casting was PC, the overall tone of their portrayal was honestly just plain painful to watch.
The first thing that bugged me right off was the music that they play in the background, as it is either reggae or some kind of sci-fi esque music that implies that they're aliens or something. This ties into their portrayal as not being very financially stable- they drive a crappy van, their meetings are held in a garage, and they ask for weed as repayment for a murder, so that they can sell it. They are constantly making fun of the characters and objectifying them. The Norse goddesses are constantly making objectifying remarks like "I've always had a thing for brown boys, they're quite naughty". They are also constantly making fun of Jerome's character as being ridiculous and misogynistic, and therefore takes validation away from any of his claims in the show. In this vein, these characters seem to just be there for some comic relief (although I think they failed hard on this one, because I definitely did not laugh). There's an especially offensive and painfully awkward rapping scene that somehow is supposed to be representative of what actually happens at a hui, and their whole ceremony (hui) is totally made fun of.
The inaccuracy of their portrayal of Maori culture, and their lack of research is also incredibly apparent, when a simple google search gives you more accurate information than this show does (I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Maori culture, but from the research I did do, it seems like there's a lot of "reinterpretation" that the writers did, especially in regards to the prophecy that seems to mirror the Norse prophecy almost exactly). I understand that creative license is applicable to some extent, but what's really terrible to me is the amount of time tediously going into each Norse god and goddesses backgrounds and mythology, and totally butchering the Maori's. This ties into the portrayal of the Maori Gods as being underrepresented in the show (there's only 3 Maori gods, yet somehow there are like innumerable Norse gods and goddesses just wandering around NZ???? Please tell me how the hell this works). The Maori gods that are represented are also compared to the Norse gods as being not as powerful or important, and that they don't have as "cool" of powers as the Norse gods.
Finally, the biggest issue I saw right off the bat, was that this show completely embraces the neocolonial narrative that because you have lived in a place for a couple generations that means you're entitled to it, because it's not the same as when your ancestors came in and took the land. This was really solidified for me when one of the Norse goddesses says (as a response to Jerome saying their gods have been there forever and always): "you've just been here longer than us" and that "thousands of years" is "still not always". This show, especially this season, ultimately supports the idea that the colonizing religion is the "correct" religion, because Gaia ultimately becomes a Norse goddess and so the Maori one's just kind of disappear and aren't important for the rest of the show.