The Reels & Riddims Expanded Rating System for Caribbean Representation in TV & Film

We've revamped our rating system with fresh categories that spotlight the magic of soundtracks and cultural settings. Originally, Reels & Riddims identified Accent, Character Development, and Storyline as essential elements to evaluate the authenticity and quality of Caribbean representation in media. Now, we’re excited to introduce a more comprehensive, five-part rating system to deepen these assessments and bring focus to elements that amplify the Caribbean experience. We added 2 categories - Music & Sound and Visual Authenticity to highlight the Caribbean culture that’s central to our reviews. Originally there were 3 categories - 

Hear our thoughts on how accents, settings, and soundtracks impact authenticity in Caribbean and mainstream films and shows. Tune in and let us know what you think of our new categories!

Read more here - 

Connect with us: 

• @reelsandriddims on Instagram
• Website  | YouTube 

A Breadfruit Media Production

Transcript

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Reels and Rhythms' Rating System Evolution

Speaker 1 0:05

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Reels and Rhythms brought to you by CarryOn Friends in partnership with Style and Vibes and Breadfruit Media. Reels and Rhythms brings you commentary, reviews and perspectives to the fresh world of TV, film and concerts with plenty, plenty vibes, as only Michaela and I can, through the lens of Caribbean culture, caribbean American immigrant and first-generation experience. What's up my dupes?

Speaker 2 0:35

Nothing, nothing, we're full of experience.

Speaker 1 0:39

Listen, full hop of experience. The resume is long.

Speaker 2 0:43

The resume is long. Yes, yes, well, we are resume.

Speaker 2 0:47

It takes a very excited to be kicking off our segue so, reels and rhythms, um, we of course, watch all of these amazing pieces of content, whether it be film or series and documentaries, and our thing is to do a rating system. So I think for this season we had some new ideas, because we are bringing different kind of vibes. So I'd like to flip to the rating system, where we are bringing different kind of vibes, so we want to add a little flavor to the rating system where we are. So our original rating system was based on three categories Accent, character development and storyline. So, keri, tell them about the new category we are adding in the rating system.

Speaker 1 1:45

All right. So it can't be reels and rhythms without the rhythm section. So one of the categories that we are adding is music and sound, particularly the relevance to the music or the soundtrack in alignment with the story. Does it fit, does it enhance the storyline? And that really was something that came out a lot from watching Champion, which was all about the music. We also talked about it in Three Little Birds and also with Queenie.

Speaker 1 2:22

The music and even some of the things that we're going to review the music, the song choices at a particular time, was really on point, on cue for the character, for the storyline. So, for instance, the reels and rhythms rating system first came up in a episode we were talking about Michelle Buteau's Survival of the Thickest. I remember the scene when she was pretending to be in the club and she cocked up on the wall and danced. There was a dancehall song, a reggae song that was playing. That is timely, that was really good To us. It's like a no-brainer, but we've seen instances where they're playing the wrong song for the moment, and so music is one of the new categories that we feel is important in assessing what we're watching. So I mean, it's as real as an rhythm. So we can't live without the music part, because that's what Michaela and I love.

Speaker 1 3:17

And then the other category that we're bringing also in is called visual authenticity, and it's about capturing the look, feel, the atmosphere of Caribbean culture through different settings. So is the setting in the Caribbean? Is it supposed to be in Brooklyn? Is it supposed to be in Miami? Is it authentic in its representation of the locale? It says right. So those are also important. Again, big up to Champion. You know that whole setting and that whole shooting in Jamaica was also key. But if we go back, even to the archives, you know we think of Belly. Belly wasn't a Caribbean film, right, but Hype Williams understood what it meant to be shooting Jamaicans, right. And the whole scene going back to Jamaica, you know it was just again capturing visually and everyone is just like, yeah, feel like Moago Jamaica after seeing like parts of that. So those are the two new categories music and sound and visual authenticity.

Speaker 2 4:26

And one thing that also came up as we were kind of identifying the new categories is evaluation of the old categories, and one of them being the accent. So Carrie and I are Jamaican and so a lot of the movies and films that we experience a lot have Jamaican characters or descendants of Jamaicans, characters or descendants of Jamaicans. However, there are other English-speaking, spanish-speaking, french-speaking Caribbean characters played on other pieces of content which potentially could come up, and we were discussing the idea of should we be evaluating accents of countries that we are not heritaged to, and, in my opinion, I think, yeah, we can. You know, bossy up myself in a business?

Speaker 1 5:16

I don't think that was the issue, all right.

Speaker 2 5:20

All right, go on, Kerry, go on.

Speaker 1 5:22

No, it wasn't that. It's not that I don't think we can right, but in my instance so. I watched Bad Monkey on Apple TV and the character one character I looked him up he's actually Bahamian, but I'm not familiar enough with a Bahamian accent to really know the minutia or the detail. I'm very familiar with a Trini accent, a Guyanese accent or a Bayesian accent, but I realized in watching this and thinking through our rating system, I don't know if I know the Bahamian accent that well, to even say, is he doing a good job of the Bahamian accent? And then when I think about this, you think of all the other Caribbean countries. You know St Vincent, you know all these other places.

Speaker 1 6:06

So that's kind of where our discussion comes up and Michaela feels like we should. And I mean to the extent that I feel like it's recognizable or believable. Because again, I think a lot of times what they do with these accents. They say the person's from Bahamas but they're trying to do a Jamaican accent in the process of the character. So this is just saying that we're not saying we're an expert on all accents from the Caribbean, but we know enough. And me talking about the character in Bad Monkey was me being honest to say I don't know. I mean, I do know some Bahamian, you know big up to Bahamianista, but I don't remember her accent, you know, comparing it to this character on Bad Monkey and so forth.

Speaker 2 6:56

And I think it's a good thing to evaluate because essentially we're holding space for people of other cultures to kind of weigh in and we're taking that care and understanding going into the review no-transcript especially living in the US, particularly in New York or metropolitan areas where there are so many different cultures integrated into space. You know we talk about Brooklyn being the United States of the Caribbean, like that is a space where you hear constantly, hear different accents over time and so you become used to and familiarize with a lot of the accents. That doesn't mean you understand every single one. We as Jamaicans even understand, like there are some people who have different accents than we do, just being in the country, and it's the same as being in the US.

Speaker 2 8:33

Someone who speaks English from the South, from New Orleans, talks very different than someone from Chicago, and it's really just an accent thing, right, and so there's a level of authenticity that you can hear automatically and if I think that the intuition around like, does that sound right? You know, are they saying anything right? I remember when Black Panther came out and we saw videos of Lupita Nyong'o and they were in, I think, south Korea I can't remember in the scene in Black Panther. And then there were Koreans sharing commentary on whether what she was saying was actually actual or factual, or even close to the accident, and she didn't quite get it right, but in in their perspective. But I'm glad that they gave space for for that.

Speaker 2 9:23

South Korea or South Africa? No, south Korea. Cause when they went to the gambling place, oh, got it Outside, yeah, the woman outside where they were in in Korea and they were talking Korean, and so they questioned cause that was, I think, film in, but it goes back, but I don't know. Uh, but I remember seeing that video distinctly and they were literally asking um korean americans, like what is she saying? And they were like she's not saying anything so.

Speaker 1 9:57

But I mean, we we brought this up too in season two, where we're like all this time we've been watching coming to America and all these shows where American actors are playing African characters, like I remember Forrest Whitaker playing Idi Amin in the Last King of Scotland, and all of this is like how our African cousins have been dealing with this and you know, just to get their perspective or to be in their shoe to kind of see how they're being represented.

Speaker 1 10:27

And, like you said, you know we know accents vary within the country. You know when someone's from Brooklyn versus someone is from Boston or somewhere, it's the same thing. If you're in Jamaica, you know someone's from Kingston or another part of Jamaica, a different parish, and so it's the same with accents. They morph and they take on a different form depending on the country the person is in, the state, city that they live in, all of that good stuff. So I think that that adds to the richness and the diversity of what it means to speak with a Caribbean accent or coming from the Caribbean. So, yes, I'm excited about the new season, the new rating system and all the things I feel very excited about reels and rhythms and where we are going and what we're talking about.

TV Discussion

Speaker 1 11:21

And I get to watch TV and labrish about all the things that I'm watching on TV, so I'm excited.

Speaker 2 11:27

Yeah, the new additions, I think, add additional context and just give us more to talk about fun reels and rhythms Absolutely.

Speaker 1 11:38

And so, yeah, we just wanted to slide in and give you this setup for the new season, because we realized that we didn't really educate you on our rating system and where it comes from. We'll put a link to the original episode that we were talking about. The rating system came up and we'll have a blog post where you could read more about it, and we'd love for you to participate, um and even think of these, as you are watching your own um series or tv, you know movies or whatever you're watching, and let us know you know, do you like the categories or not. But, um, until next time, go out and watch some TV, walk good, every TV.

Speaker 2 12:20

Later.