Auteur television producer Shonda Rhimes is probably most famous for her work on Grey’s Anatomy, a primetime medical drama that debuted in the 2005 midseason, followed by spinoff Private Practice. As a high profile Black woman working in Hollywood, Rhimes has broken down a number of barriers and stereotypes in her work, from her approach to casting to her depiction of relationships. She’s also got the medical drama down pat, and recently added a third show, Off the Map, to her roster. It’s Grey’s reprised, except set in an exotic locale; more snakes and fewer coffee carts.
Rhimes’ latest, vaguely set ‘somewhere in South America,’ features a team of doctors working at a rural clinic to provide basic medical services to the population. The cast is heavily stocked with WASPs, complete with tragic backgrounds, and a handful of people of colour who mainly seem to populate the set to give the show more authenticity; we are not provided with information about their lives or backgrounds.
Watching Off the Map on Hulu, it’s clear to me that they’ve pretty much nailed the target demographic on this one; when the advertisements weren’t asking me to help send Rwandan children to school, they were suggesting I text funds to antimalaria campaigns, or participate in a programme to improve access to potable water in Africa. This is a show about do-gooders, for people who want to be do-gooders, or at least like to dream of spending a few years in the Peace Corps helping ‘the natives’ in some poor blighted country that has never known the gentle touch of Western medicine.
The focus of the show is very much on the pursuit of healing for dark, tangled pasts, as we were reminded in the closer of the pilot, when one of the characters remarks that the jungle is a great place to start over. This is a trope that representatives of conquering nations have been repeating for hundreds of years; after the colonisation comes to flock of earnest people to bring enlightenment to the populace and exorcise their own pasts. And, in the case of missionaries (yes, there is one, or at least a daughter of missionaries), sometimes that ‘enlightenment’ comes right along with colonisation in a two-for-one deal.
This week’s episode reminded us that one of the leading causes of disease in regions with poor sanitation is… poor sanitation; Dr. Cole (Jason Winston George) tells Dr. Fuller (Zach Gilford) that building a latrine in a new community will cut down on 50% of the diseases they treat at the clinic. And yet we never actually see any of these diseases, for the show is too busy depicting dramatic surgeries on hapless white folks who have bitten off more than they can chew in the jungle, and sending the docs on depressing house calls to poor local people with respiratory conditions.
The show likes to spend a lot of time reminding us that indigenous medicine is very old, sacred, and wise, except of course when it is wrong, which it is all the time because how could anyone believe that epilepsy is caused by demons?! The show is playing up the wise native stereotype for all it can get, complete with references to the rainforest as ‘the largest pharmacy in the world’ in every episode that’s aired so far, but, fundamentally, we always return to the clinic and the allopathic medicine practiced there.
Discussing the relationship with the local healer in the most recent episode, Dr. Cole points out that the only reason they are allowed to practice in the community is because they cultivate a respectful relationship with him, but there’s a patronising hint to the dynamic. We see this coming up repeatedly with the new doctors, who are chastened about the need to get a clue, work with the locals, and respect the fact that they’re in new territory, but always with the implication that the local community is somewhat backwards, and will eventually come ’round. I suspect many of the target viewers enjoy sitting smugly on the couch and smirking at the antics of the clueless, non-Spanish-speaking new doctors getting their comeuppance, while missing some of the larger issues going on.
Off the Map provides an opportunity for Rhimes to explore race and class dynamics, two things she tends to shy away from on her other shows, or to handle very poorly. She may be forced to confront them here, because she’s set herself up with quite a minefield. For all the references to imperialism tossed out by Dr. Alvarez (Valeria Cruz), Off theMap does not get a free pass simply because one of the characters makes metacommentary on the show; fundamentally, the show is development porn, and this fact should be painfully obvious to most viewers.
It’s hard to believe that Rhimes simply decided to set a show in an exotic locale to get away from the glossy, polished environs of Los Angeles and Seattle without thinking about the potential ramifications of the setting, the casting, and the framing of the story, but she may have done exactly that. If she’s unaware of the loaded history and current debates surrounding media like Off the Map and the relationship between colonial and colonised cultures, she’s may be in for a rude awakening from critics.
That awakening is already happening. The show is currently scoring 48 on Metacritic after two episodes, and the critics are not being terribly kind. Many of them are not missing the dubious nature of the content. Writing at The Washington Post, Hank Stuever notes:
“Off the Map” glistens with a sweaty sheen of good-hearted intentions, in which the first world feels better about itself by vaccinating the third world…
Is Off the Map going to turn into a metacommentary on privileged people from the United States, misguided ‘development’ programmes, and the complex intersections of colonialism, race, and class? Given the way the show is heading, it seems unlikely; it’s striking an earnest note, but not necessarily a critical one, and it’s clear who the heroes of this drama are supposed to be.
Watching Off the Map may assuage the white guilt of some viewers, assuming they can stomach the poor quality of the content, but I wouldn’t recommend getting too attached. The show seems destined for a one way ticket off primetime, although I thought that about Private Practice when it started airing, and it still manages to straggle along; the hunger for medical soap operas in any setting may be just enough to keep this heady stew of imperialism on the stove.
Shonda Rhimes, Jenna Banns and ABC Network Hates Your Guts, Black Women.
In this day and age of Michelle Obama and her beautiful daughters, who needs a Shonda Rhimes?
Yes, that’s right. The Shonda Rhimes in charge of creating “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Private Practice”, “Off the Map”, and a soon-to-be-produced movie based on the book “B*tch is the New Black”.
Producer Shonda Rhimes and producers Jenna Banns, Betsy Beers at ABC either refuse to portray Black women on their shows in the TV lineup – consistently eliminating them from roles, as in “Off the Map” – or continue to stereotype Black women as (arguably) successful, but dysfunctional with sterile roles, as in Grey’s Anatomy and, to a degree, Private Practice.
“…assuage the white guilt of some viewers…”, how could it possible do anything of the kind? We can get deeper insight into humanity through The Fairly OddParents.
…the program sucks. The characters are one-dimensional, and the actors are barely props. It fulfills Shonda’s contractual obligations to ABC, and it’ll be cancelled before March.