You’ve sent the bunker so many tips and emails about it, I obviously had to check it out. CW debuted “Aliens in America” tonight, a sitcom about a Pakistani exchange student named Raja. Upon learning about this…interesting concept, several of you were skeptical, while some of you were uneasy in that vague way we all are familiar with, when we hear about something and imagine the worst.
A few of you couldn’t get over the fact that the protagonist was named “Raja”, since that’s so, like, NOT a Pakistani name. Yes, this offended you more than anything else. 🙂 Let’s leave behind the small fact that there’s no official, international governing body for judging names or anything– I get what you meant, you were worried that this was sloppiness on the part of the creators, in a “Diwali Barbie is not wearing a sari!” sort of way.
Well, the first boy I had a crush on in high school was Pakistani AND named Raja, so I was the perfect choice for this non-assignment, since I’m not bothered by that detail, at all. 😉
Here’s wiki’s first blurb about the program:
Aliens in America is an upcoming American situation comedy created by David Guarascio and Moses Port, who also serve as executive producers alongside Tim Doyle. Luke Greenfield directed the pilot. The show is about a Wisconsin homemaker who arranges to host a foreign exchange student, believing the visitor will help her shy son become more popular. When the student turns out to be a Muslim teenager from Pakistan, her plans go awry. [wiki]
And here is a plot synopsis:
Justin Tolchuk is a sensitive, lanky 16-year-old just trying to make it through the social nightmare of high school in Medora, Wisconsin, with the help of his well-meaning mom Franny, aspiring-entrepreneur dad Gary, and his popular sister Claire, who is sweetly unaware of how good-looking she is. When Franny signs up for the school’s international exchange student program, she pictures an athletic, brilliant Nordic teen who will bestow instant coolness on her outsider son. However, when the Tolchuk’s exchange student arrives, he turns out to be Raja Musharaff, a 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim. Despite the cultural chasm between them, Justin and Raja quickly develop an unlikely friendship that just might allow them to navigate the minefield that is contemporary high school. It’s going to be a very interesting year for Raja, Justin, his family and the entire population of Medora.”[wiki]
And HERE is what meandered through my head, as I watched it. Let’s call it “unLiveblogging” and call it a night. I have pizza to eat.
::
The host family Dad– that’s Luke from Gilmore Girls!
What’s up with the gong noise which plays when he sees the sister? Am I the only one who finds that more East/less South Asian?
Raja wears a “shower kameez”. Nice.
Some idiot yells “Apu! Where’s my slushee?” at him, in the halls of his new h.s. Yep, sounds about right.
Idiot teacher who is a little too real for me: “…(Raja is) a real-live Pack-is-tany who practices Muslimism!”
More from teacher, whom I am not hot for: “You are so different from us. How does that feel?” I think I would have had the same perplexed reaction Raja did.
Teacher then asks how Raja being different/there for a year makes others feel??
Vapid side-swept bangs brings up 9/11 and says she feels angry, which inspires this brilliance: “Now who else is angry at Raja?”
Love how Raja looks away kindly while the boy he’s there to “help” socially molests pillow in sad simulated make-out session I thought only 12-year old girls engaged in…
Super cute line from voiceover: “I’ve always felt like an outsider and a weirdo and here comes this kid from a village in Pakistan and suddenly I’m not an outsider anymore…just a weirdo.”
The moment Raja goes from terrorist to sweet kid, for the “Mom”, i.e. the moment she sees him the way I do– “It’s funny how everything you think about a person can change in an instant.”
::
Okay, I loved the show– what did you think? I know there was much concern about whether it would be sensitive or well-done and I think it was. To me, Raja is the most appealing character on AiA…actually, I think most of the males were, including “the dad” and the unpopular kid Raja is imported to befriend. The teacher I quoted above and “the mom” are the ones who inspire eye-rolling and hissing– but even the latter realizes she’s being unfair by the end of tonight’s series premier. By the way, to any Badgers in the house– are those Wisscansin accents realistic? And was I the only one who almost fell over because of the final scene? After certain posts and discussions we’ve seen on SM, I was delighted by how universal certain parental issues themes are.
I was watching too, after reading the positive review in the Times that someone posted on the News Tab.
I didn’t think it was that great, though I’m inclined to be forgiving (or at least, apathetic) since the show is clearly oriented at teenagers.
My main beef is that he’s not a realistic Pakistani — his clothes are off (anyone coming to the west would be wearing western clothes), his accent is off (I think he’s an ABD doing a fake accent), and he doesn’t particularly seem to have a back-story other than “he’s good hearted and sensitive.” The show didn’t seem to get much past its own high concept, which is itself a tired cliche (remember “Perfect Stranger” from like 20 years ago?).
A few of you couldn’t get over the fact that the protagonist was named “Rajaâ€, since that’s so, like, NOT a Pakistani name
‘Raja’ is a rather common Pakistani name. India has a miniscule percentage of Punjabi Muslims so common Pakistani Punjabi names like ‘Chauhan’, ‘Gill’, ‘Malik’, ‘Sahni’, ‘Chaudhary’ might be disorienting to Indians who are only familiar with Indian Muslims and their faux Arabic/Turko/Persian names.
Amardeep, my expectations of anything on “the CW” (and really, any show aimed at tweens/teens) are very, very low, which is why I was very, very pleased. 😉 I wonder why I didn’t feel the same way about back story…maybe I was too conscious of the fact that it was the “first” episode? That bit at the end about his parents was enough for me.
I don’t remember “Perfect Strangers”…is that the show with Balki or something? If so, never watched it. 🙂
Anna, I’ve yet to read your whole post in detail, but thought I’d get this out first.
“Raja” is a very valid ‘Pakistani’ name, and it can be both a first and a last name, and also serves as an honorific for large landholders (‘feudals’). It has the same semantic content as it does in India, right across cultures and language groups.
I addressed the issue back when Manish posted about it on ultrabrown, two months ago when the pilot aired. Some of the same, frankly, misinformed speculation about the appropriateness of the name and the supposed inauthenticity of the casting (not the characterization or stereotypification, which I might grant..) occured then. I find the narrowing of the nomenclatural imagination quite disturbing. Where are people getting this from, I wonder.
This is what my comment then was:
Well, it helps with the gap if you know of Rameez Raja (or any other notable named Raja).
No, the Air India Maharaja does not count.
Hooo boy! Yes, I’ve watched a few episodes on Indian TV (some local cable channel IIRC). The saddest thing was that gags from Perfect Strangers (like one episode where the immigrant guy goes to get a driver’s license) were being recycled for primetime comedies like Shriman Shrimati and relatives. (I don’t know if Perfect Strangers itself was original or rehashing tired jokes from elsewhere).
Was he Hindu?
To get back to the current show, it might be marginally funny to have Raja kidnap a girl and then have her brother (guest star David Duchovny) say with great seriousness “My sister was kidnapped by an alien.” Beyond that, I don’t see a sustainable comedy environment if its only selling point is a culture shock. Drama and family drama and high school drama, maybe.
No. He was very Muslim. Didn’t explicitly point that out since a Hindu Raja in my anecdote wouldn’t be as relevant to this post.
Looking forward to this show! Thanks for the reminder Anna. I’ll give it few chances on the TiVo.
Waiter, there’s a Hindu Raja in my anecdote!
Plot idea: Raja & friends goes to Area 51. Get shot at. Raja says “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I’m an alien!”.
Okay, apparently my standards for network comedies are WAY lower than all of yours. 😉 If something is cute, which this show was, I’m actually pleasantly surprised and more than satisfied. I think the vast majority of Teewee is awful. Sometimes, I feel like a television comedy is just any show which isn’t “serious”, if that makes sense. Light-hearted? Comedy. Silly? Comedy. Teh Gays? Comedy. Surgery or detective work? Not comedy. I don’t expect to laugh b/c of anything on television. I’ve never realized it, but I only anticipate laughing when I’m at the movies, i.e. when I watched “Superbad” or “Knocked Up”.
I think the focus of AiA is going to be on beating us about the head with the whole, “THE ONE YOU THINK IS WEIRD IS THE MOST NORMAL!”-angle; maybe they could make promo tees that say, “Pakistani Muslims don’t suck!”. I see plenty of opportunity for high school/family tension/situations.
On the casting of a South African-born Hindu in the role of ‘Raja’: One aspect of the subcontinental diaspora in South Africa that I’ve noticed is – while it has both Hindus and Muslims, the ‘national’ identification with Pakistan is missing from the Muslims – because they immigrated, in the main, during the 19th century, before Pakistan was even conceived (ca. 1930). One such 4th or 5th gen South Asian-South African friend told me he wasn’t even sure if the rest of his ancestral family that did not come to South Africa was now in India or Pakistan, and he was not narrowminded enough to want to or have to choose, identifying equally with both countries, but more so with the civilizational entity ‘India’.
The ‘inauthenticity’ argument is also invalid if one looks at diasporic actors representing first generation visitors or immigrants – since when can’t one boy of South Asian descent represent another on screen? Also, there’s something to be said for a little bit of representational chaos leading to greater, ’emergent’ authenticity.
But that being said, I’d be curious if anyone has any background insights on why this actor was actually chosen for the role.
Sorry, but this can’t compare to Gossip Girl.
Now THAT was a premier which disappointed me.
As ACD mentioned, also Rajput Muslims/ Jat Muslims often have names that can be confused for Hindu names.
Or even Bengali Muslims, like Kabir Chaudhury, Reema Chaudhury.
Not necessarily, Amardeep. Pakistan developed the shalwar kameez in that style as a specifically male ‘national dress’, and I’ve met many (male) Pakistanis abroad who are not embarrased in the least, to be publicly seen wearing it. This is in contrast to Indians, whether they be ‘Westernized’ home-based or diasporic – the Pakistanis wear their national dress, known colloquially as the ‘Awami suit’ (people’s suit) proudly, while Indians don’t, at least partly because the closed-collar Indian jacket can be quite uncomfortable.
Bottom line, to the extent we’re arguing over the minutiae of authenticity, this detail actually enhances it, in my view.
Link
hahaha, Anna, good pick… I just watched the show and while it obviously isn’t going to win any Emmy’s – i quite enjoyed the sarcasm it exhibited.
Wow…this much analysis for a show on the CW??? Am really surprised… As Anna pointed out, the bar is usually lowered for anything on this network and its a surprise to find something amusing…Will have to check out thes how to see what the buzz is about.
Maybe I’m a cynic…but I don’t expect most TV shows to get authenticity correct when they portray most Asian minorities…most networks use glittering generalities and its surprising when they get a few things right.
Well, it helps with the gap if you know of Rameez Raja (or any other notable named Raja).
Also, Wasim Raja
Pop quiz…If you ask any auto rikshaw driver in India to name a muslim man with last name Raja..who will it be?
Pop quiz…If you ask any auto rikshaw driver in India to name a muslim man with last name Raja..who will it be?
my answer: wasim raja
LMAO. But the pedant in me wishes to point out… Area 54, no? What to do.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the Mom character has “Karen Walker”-potential?
I was underwhelmed. Granted, the show has been hyped by critics such that you would think it was a breakthrough comedy on par with Arrested Development, so I probably had a higher bar than most (especially since, if you’re going to make all kinds of errors in accent/name/etc, then it better be side-splittingly funny or truly original). I’d read a few reviews that mentioned Malcolm in the Middle and Wonder Years along with Aliens in America, but I didn’t expect that it was just going to be an amalgam of those shows (plus a healthy dose of Perfect Strangers as well).
Yes, it’s better than most things on television (although it’s not funnier than the show that preceded it, Everybody Hates Chris, and it’s also not funnier than 30Rock or The Office or even Ugly Betty), but I doubt that I will try to watch the show regularly.
Its only the first show, they can explore those options later in the season. I can envision an episode where his family visits from the village in pakistan.
For me nothing will match the pure genius of “Small Wonder”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSvjqwJixw (Sorry I’m a pretentious Mac user who cannot post the hyperlink)
I haven’t seen this show yet, but I have yet to see a single South Asian male in the US wear a shalwar kameez wherever they go. I doubt most Pakistani guys in Pakistan even wear them everyday when they go to school and work.
You have’nt been to Jackson Heights in Queens, have you?
on the question of raja’s backstory–actually, there is a hint of strong tragedy in his backstory. when the wisconsin mother tells him he must go back to pakistan, and says she’s sure his mother will be happy to have him home again, he tells her that both his parents are dead and how awful this makes him feel. this is what changes the wisconsin mother’s mind about letting him stay.
Raja in the name in Pakistan sometimes points to the person’s Rajput affiliation. And not only in Sindh but also in Punjab and across the Rajasthan border linguistic/community afiliations at times trump national and religious identities. Raja is also popular in Bangladesh for a different provenance. Hassan Raja is the first name that comes to mind – that gifted folk singer.
13:
18:
CW haters!! I am admittedly a TV junkie, and CW (UPN/WB) has had some of the better TV shows than the reality and crime trash that the other four networks routinely spew out.
Gilmore Girls (Wins me a lot of points with women when they find that I am a fan of Rory and Lorelai) Veronica Mars (The greatest show evah … Too bad it is over) Smallville (Not a big fan of this show/genre, but supposedly it is great) Everybody hates Chris (Sweet show. Wonder years in 1980’s Brooklyn…)
I did watch a preair (pirated) DVD screener of AiA a few weeks back, with a different character playing the Dad (Since then replaced by Luke from GG), and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Hope to watch the aired version soon…
As others have pointed out, Raja is a valid and common Pakistani name…but just ‘Raj’ would be out of place I think.
No dude !!! it’s Altaf Raja.
RE song when sister walks by – wasn’t the “gong” part of “Loosen up my buttons” by Pussycat Dolls?
The kid looks gay in that pic.
Pretty funny with all the PCness over the name Raja when it is an actual real name used by Pakistanis.
I havent watched this but there is another show The Big Bang Theory on CBS about geeks and ofcourse there is a token brown guy who cannot talk when around girls
I do support airing of shows based on foreign nationals. Given the fact that majority of North Americans are ignorant about other nations starting from geography outside North America to cultural heritage. However i do want the shows to be as real as possible and i seriously doubt if there are many Americans well versed in life outside America to conceive and develop these shows
Big Bang Theory on CBS – token brown guy who cannot talk when around girls.
True. Though I felt the cliche was more a geek one than a brown one. I also thought the brown guy came off fairly okay, as there was none of that Apu-like accent and turban BS.
I havent seen it. But I cannot imagine that he is any worse than real life Indian like Pradeep on the Pickup Artist.
Okay, Raja’s a last name for quite a few south-Asian Muslims. It doesn’t really tend to be a first name.
Here’s a Pakistani take on the sitcom:
http://pakistaniat.com/2007/10/01/cw-premier-tonight-tv-muslim-comedy-aliens-in-america-with-a-pakistani-central-character
My uncle’s first name is Raju (not his real name — but no-one uses their real name). He is Pakistani, and his parents think he’s a good Muslim.
Does Raj=Raja=Raju=Raji?
Definitely Altaf Raja…
I haven’t watched the show yet, but I’m very curious to see what they do.
I think the show has a lot of potential for comedy and drama:
One thing I liked about the description is that this nerdy American white child can also feel like an outsider even though he is part of the mainstream culture. It’ll be interesting to see how the show brings out the shared teenage angst with the uniqueness of individuals’ experiences.
wonder if they’ll bring up that ironic fate that some SM’ers have expressed – the fact that otherness can also add to your coolness
There’s comedy in the ignorance that some of the Pak boy’s neighbors or teachers show; But there’s also of course a great deal of realism and danger in such attitudes. I just saw the DC premiere of a “Dream in Doubt” so this is fresh in my mind. “Dream in Doubt” is the story of, among other things, being American post-911 from the eyes of members of the Sikh community in Western United States. Specifically they spend a lot of time with one Sikh family made up of 5 brothers, 2 of whom were shot after 9-11. Don’t mean to go off topic, but its a great documentary and I hope, if this show gains momentum, that they can bring up such issues too.
madhuri: However i do want the shows to be as real as possible and i seriously doubt if there are many Americans well versed in life outside America to conceive and develop these shows
In fact, there are many Americans not well versed with life inside America. Case in point: K-Ville, the third episode of which aired last night and disappointed me so much with its geography-breaking jumpcuts and poorly-placed Cajun/Creole/New Orleans stereotypes. Most TV shows give the masses what they want to hear and only enough shock value as they can take; the networks aren’t really there to change your mind.
Only Deadwood and L&O reruns for some time to come, thanks.
Ooooh! I meant to ask you about that show and forgot– so glad you commented! 🙂
ANNA: Ooooh! I meant to ask you about that show and forgot– so glad you commented! 🙂
Aaaah, K-Ville. I, too, sorta liveblogged the pilot three weeks ago. Like our moron of a mayor says about New Orleans’s murder rate, I’d say that the show “keeps our brand out there.” Sure, K-Ville and Aliens in America keep the post-Katrina-Flood and America’s-tenuous-relationships-with-Arabs-and-South-Asians themes out there, but how they do it is so important. If the rest of America thinks that half of New Orleans still “stinks of mold and sludge” two years after the Flood (which it doesn’t) and a young South Asian man in America wears a salwar-kameez to school everyday (which most don’t especially if they are brand new here) or anoter stereotype which makes us roll our eyes, it is a gross misrepresentation.
There is a very fine line between being on the front burner of the American consciousness and imprinting ourselves one way or another, and I wonder if such TV shows help or hurt. It’s still up in the air for me.
Asha’s Dad, I too loved Small Wonder 🙂
I’ve definitely seen people wear the salwar kameez (guys) as everyday wear in a non-desi context.
Pravin, what did you mean by that?
Pravin: The kid looks gay in that pic.
WHOA. How did I miss that?
Pravin, I’m not sure what you meant, but what you typed violates our comment policy.
the thing i loved about being brown in my high school was that all the hall monitors were desi, and basicallylooked the other way whenever i skipped class.