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Jan 18, 2022

Trans and Nonbinary Inclusivity on Nickelodeon's "Danger Force"

 


I reviewed the Nickelodeon teencom Henry Danger, about a teenage superhero-in-training, back in 2014, and called it a "gay subtext classic."  It stayed on for five seasons and 121 episodes, but I didn't watch, in spite of Cooper Barnes' physique and Jace Norman's transformation from skinny kid to hunky 21-year old: the laugh track was too annoying and the plotlines a bit infantile.  Besides, I gave up television in favor of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus.  It's not on any of them.  

I understand that the gay subtext never turned into a text.  Michael D. Cohen, who plays the wacky inventor Schwoz, revealed that he is transgender in 2019, but his character is apparently cisgender heterosexual.

The lack of LGBTQ representation may be alleviated, to an extent, in the spin-off Danger Force (2020-), which is also unavailable on any of my streaming services. The premise has Captain Man (Cooper Barnes) and Schwoz training a new cohort of kid superheroes:


From left to right:

1. Mika, whose superpower is sonic screams.

2. Chapa, whose superpower is electrokinesis.

3. Bose, whose superpower is telekinesis.

4. Miles, whose superpower is teleportation.


Two girls, two boys aged 14-15.  No beefcake potential there, but look carefully at the cast. #2 is a girl, and #4 is a boy, both gender atypical.  They are cast as heterosexual: Chapa gets a crush on Creston (played by Jax Kemp, left), and Miles dates a girl.  But being gender-atypical is a good start.

Bose and Miles get crushes on Creston, too, but I'm not sure how the episode plays out.

Two episodes have LGBT guest stars.  In "Say My Name," the team reunites a lost boy with his parents, who turn out to be two dads.  Captain Man is unclear on the concept, and asks where the mother is, but he soon comes around.  "Oh, you adopted him!"


Michael D. Cohen runs the Trans Youth Acting Challenge, to help trans and nonbinary actors break into the business -- he received 200 applications for 15 spots.  One of the participants, 13-year old Sasha A. Cohen (no relation), was cast in the episode "Manlee Men" as a teenage reporter who helps save the day.  I don't know if the character is identified as trans or not.

Not bad for Nickelodeon.  But I'm still waiting for a gay regular character.


  


4 comments:

  1. Sasha Cohen, the trans boy cast on Danger Force, did in fact play a trans character. In a pretty good meta-joke, Schwoz is the character who has to have the concept of transsexual identity explained to him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're looking for the Loud House

    Also technically Korra did reveal its lead was bisexual
    And while I am thankful for the attempt I am personally not fond of the execution as she had much better chemistry with her old boyfriend

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "The Loud House" has a couple of gay dads in the background, and Luna has a crush on a girl in one episode. There was also a minor character written as male, but when the voice actor transitioned between her first and second appearance, they made the character female also.

      Delete
  3. I love the LGBTQIA+ characters and I love LGBTQIA+ because one of my friends are trans and another one is bi my cousin is pan and I am bi

    ReplyDelete

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