The Siege — there was lots offensive about that movie, but it is fascinating as a pre-9/11 movie. I do give the guy some credit for trying, even if he wrote awful lines like “My first boyfriend was Palestinian. My father liked to say, they seduce you with their suffering.” Plus Tony Shalhoub actually plays an Arab — his own ethnicity — for once!

I think that military and police dramas are some of the most “integrated” genres on TV and in the movies. Think of how many of Denzel’s roles, for instance are him playing an FBI agent, a military officer, or a cop. Part of this must be because, sadly, the demographics of the military and law enforcement are more brown and black and yellow than many other fields. But I do think part of it is also a subtle bit of brainwashing: if you serve the government (by getting shot at, no less!), you can be “a star” “even if” you’re not white.

And why are legal dramas always on the side of the prosecution? We need a show about public defenders…

If you ain’t somebody like Frances McDormand or Kathy Bates, please don’t.

It may not be that cop shows are the only ones with proportional casts, just that there are an asston of cop/crime shows on right now. Law & Order and CSI have been around forever, but it feels like every new drama is some kind of business about solving crime. It’s what people are in to right now. I agree, though, that it’s annoying because there are very few balanced portrayals of cops in these shows. The cops are always or mostly the good guys and, as someone mentioned over on the CS thread, way more careful and non-prejudiced than real life would indicate.

I don’t have a TV, though, so rarely see any shows that aren’t the ones I watch, so you may be right that mostly it’s cop shows.

Arabs are starting to go through this now: we used to just be faceless bullet sponges for Chuck Norris, Ah-nold, et al. Now, once in a while (and I suspect increasingly), we “get to” be USA-loving 2nd-stringer federal agents and lackeys (see Jamie Foxx’s upcoming The Kingdom) who help lock up and kill — you guessed it — other Arabs. Ambiguous progress, to my mind.

The Closer Season 2 lost some of the focus on Gabriel, which is a shame because I like him. Still, it’s a great show. The episodes don’t shy away from serious subject matter, either.