Dear Readers: If you are a fan of “House” please stop reading RIGHT NOW. Major spoilers ahead!
For those of you who have been following “House” half as obsessively as I have – you should know that this weeks episode had a major shocker. Dr.Lawrence Kutner (our very own Kal Penn) committed suicide. I knew that this was going to happen almost a month ago . The Ausiello files predicted the death of a major male character on a leading TV series, I narrowed it down to “House” and I just knew that Kal Penn’s time had come. How,you ask? Elementary,my dears – its all because of the EMC theory-a theory that while not strictly scientific-has loads of empirical evidence to support it !
EMC stands for “Expendable Minority Character“- iin other words the hapless African American, Asian or desi who meets an untimely death all for the greater glory of the main star. Hollywood has perfected this to an art form.Take any action movie with a white hero and his essential minority sidekick. Four times out of five after umpteen blasts and mayhem, the EMC *must*die , with aforesaid hero weeping over him.
I think this works for Hollywood because they get their “token” character on screen to ward off any suggestions of lack of diversity and also get to kill off a cast member to inject pathos without alienating what they imagine to be the predominantly white audience. Its gotten so bad that the moment the EMC comes onto the screen- I start a countdown. The nadir was last year’s “Wanted” where the token desi was killed in the first two minutes of the movie.
I got news for Hollywood. The racial makeup of this country is changing and rapidly at that.
By the middle of the 21st century, non-Hispanic whites will make up a slim and fading majority of Americans. Hispanics will be nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians together will make up close to one-fourth of the population.
(link)
Killing off EMCs (who are no longer so much of a “minority”!) is likely to turn off the audience. Also, tokenism is dead. The country is celebrating the election of its first African American President and its time to let go of tired beliefs.
Coming back to Kal Penn, personally I thought the entire storyline was manipulative and sucked big time. I see absolutely no upside to showing a suicide that happened for no apparent reason. There is no learning to be had from Kutner’s death. No warning signs that could educate an audience on what to look for. I do know that there are real suicides that happen without warning signs – I just see no discernible benefit in showing one on primetime TV – except as a sensational way to boost ratings.The creators of House are emotionally exploiting the audience, reaching a new low with the creation of a site where viewers can mourn Dr.Kutner – something that I think is in the worst taste possible. Kal Penn himself ought to be ashamed to be part of something that sensationalizes a very real issue. After all, this is the same actor who did some work for NAMI ( National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Yes, I know that Kal Penn asked to be released for his contract to go work at the White House ( bizarre and a subject for a completely different post!) but I still think that the way his exit was handled screams “Exploitative Manipulation of Ratings!!”
With heavy hearts, we bid goodbye to Dr.Kutner – the latest in a long line of unwept, unsung and unremembered EMCs , who have sacrificed themselves at the altar of Hollywood.
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