Millions of millennials grew up with
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (1991-1995), a game show based on a video game where contestants answered geography questions in order to track down the elusive super-thief (diversity alert: Carmen was middle-aged, female, and I assume Latina).
A powerful woman who thumbs her nose at the system and doesn't have any male admirers. A lesbian girls' dream!
No other gay content in the show itself, but host Greg Lee is apparently gay. Seen here with his date, actor Gregory Michael of
Dante's Cove,, at the 2007 Outfest. The top photo is Gregory in action.
Anyway,
Carmen won lots of Peabody awards and spun off into
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (1996-1998), hosted by Kevin Shinick.
And
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (1994-99), an animated series which pits the superthief (voiced by Broadway legend Rita Moreno) and her V.I.L.E. organization against 14-year old detective Zack (Scott Menville) and his older sister Ivy of the A.C.M.E. Agency. It also starts to redeem Carmen, making her an anti-hero who uses her thieving skills to help Zack fight cadres of real baddies.
Now Netflix has released
Carmen Sandiego (2019), an animated series with Carmen completely rehabilitated, a "modern day Robin Hood." Trained to be a V.I.L.E. agent, she decided to devote her life to something other than evil, and went rogue. Now she works behind the scenes, pursued by both A.C.M.E. and V.I.L.E., to solve crimes and thwart thefts of Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam, the Magna Carta in Mumbai, smart fabric in Greece, and rare gems in Japan, with the ultimate goal of taking down the entire V.I.L.E. enterprise.
Her scoobies include:
1. Teenage computer hacker Player (Finn Wolfhard).
2. Redheaded doofus Zack (Michael Hawley)
3. His sister Ivy, who looks nonbinary.
4. Shadosan, the Japanese sensei who adopted and taught Carmen.
Their main antagonists are A.C.M.E. agent Chase Devineaux (Rafael Petardi) and V.I.L.E. agent Graham (Michael Goldsmith), whom Carmen dates briefly. Otherwise I don't see any hetero-romance plotlines, which is remarkable. Not a lot of gay subtext, either, but with children's tv, I'll take what I can get.
Millions of millennials grew up with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (1991-1995), a game show based on a video game where contestants answered geography questions in order to track down the elusive super-thief (diversity alert: Carmen was middle-aged, female, and I assume Latina).
I refuse to believe that Carmen ISN'T attracted to girls to an extent (like bisexual or omni)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree
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