Asian American feminism, politics, and pop culture
By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
If I ever have to deal with an assassination attempt moments after uncovering major threats to American democracy, I can only hope to deal with it all as competently as Maggie Q’s Hannah Wells.
Continue reading “Designated Survivor Recap: Season 1, Episode 10, ‘The Oath’”
By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
‘He doesn’t have security clearance! This is why security clearances are important! This episode is more relevant than the producers probably realize!’
Those were my first thoughts while watching last night’s episode of Designated Survivor.
Continue reading “‘Designated Survivor’ Recap: Season 1, Episode 7, ‘The Traitor’”
By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
Serious pop culture watchers know that it’s impossible to completely disconnect between seeing parallels between the real world and the fictional worlds we try to lose ourselves in. This has been particularly true for me since Tuesday’s presidential election results were announced, as I previously mentioned in my Designated Survivor recap.
Continue reading “‘Quantico’ Recap: Season 2, Episode 7: ‘LCFLUTTER’”
By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
“So we have a lot of suspects, doing a whole lot of nothing.”
For once, I agreed with Ryan 100 percent at the beginning of this episode. Of course, he said that line as he, Alex, Nimah, and Shelby were going through the various young members of the CIA training class. As usual, this week’s intro was full of red herrings. Does the working mom have something to hide? The lawyer? The party planner?
(Note: I’ve given up learning everyone’s name. There are too many characters!)
Continue reading “‘Quantico’ Recap: Season 2, Episode 6, ‘Aquiline’”
By Guest Contributor: Lakshmi Gandhi (@LakshmiGandhi)
Shortly after the fifteenth anniversary of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, The Week posted this excellent piece headlined September 12, 2001, which detailed just how terrifying the day after that devastating loss was.
“And while most of us remember with unsettling clarity where we were when we heard that hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center (and later, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field), killing nearly 3,000 people,” writes Lauren Hansen, “it might be the next day — September 12, 2001 — that actually marked the beginning of a new era, one in which full-body scans at the airport, color-coded threat levels, slow-burn wars that never really end, and an undercurrent of fear running beneath the mundanity of life became the norm.”
I kept thinking about that line as I watched Wednesday’s episode of Designated Survivor. Aptly titled “The First Day,” viewers were thrown into a world that’s chaotic, violent, and fearful — and ready to pounce on anyone who appears foreign or brown.
Continue reading “‘Designated Survivor’ Recap: Season 1, Episode 2, ‘The First Day’”