5 Gasp-Inducing Moments In Beloved Shows

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Reacted To Criticism Over Racism With More Racism

When Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt makes a dicey joke, it's usually the naive Kimmy struggling to understand how the world has changed in the 15 years she was held captive. But there's an incredibly odd subplot in the first season wherein Jane Krakowski's character, Jacqueline White, is revealed to be hiding her ethnic background as a Lakota. In flashbacks, which feature Krakowski wearing bronzer to darken her skin, we learn she had her hair dyed blonde and put in blue contacts to become the character we know.

Some viewers didn't appreciate this, and they didn't swallow co-creator Robert Carlock's rationale that "We have a couple of writers on staff with Native American heritage ... So we felt like we had a little room to go in that direction." Still, the show had built up enough goodwill that most chalked it up as a poorly thought-out wacky B-plot, and were willing to move on. Then the writer's room chose to respond to the criticism about racism and cultural appropriation with more racism and cultural appropriation.

The second season features an episode in which Kimmy's best friend Titus (a black man), writes a play where he dresses up as a geisha, pissing off the activist group Respectable Asian Portrayals in Entertainment. (Or R.A.P.E., because why not at this point?) But after seeing the show, the Asian critics come to love it. So the show's meta-commentary on the controversy was essentially: "Don't you see? These fictional people who we've made up actually LOVE having their culture appropriated." Perfect solution!

Related: 5 Racist Tropes Hollywood Won't Let Die

4

Black-ish Thought Chris Brown Was A Great Idea For A Guest Star

ABC's Black-ish, which is loosely based on creator Kenya Barris' marriage to a doctor and their lives with their six children, hasn't been afraid to dive head-on into controversial topics, including episodes about police brutality, Colin Kaepernick's protests, and one that was pulled for being too anti-Trump. Annnnnndddd they also welcomed Chris Brown as a guest star. In 2017.

3

Captain Planet Teaches Kids Population Control

Captain Planet And The Planeteers was a perfect cartoon distillation of '90s eco-consciousness, exposing kids to a broad "Save the planet!" message back in the golden era of big companies methodically passing the blame for wrecking the planet onto individuals. But while the titular green-flattop-mullet-having hero's anti-pollution messages tended not to bother kids whose parents weren't Exxon board members, one episode's message veered into dystopian insanity.

In "Population Bomb," Cap saves people from a crumbling city, which leads the Planeteers to decide that overpopulation, and not any sort of malevolent corporate middle-fingering, is what's causing society to collapse. At one point, Planeteer Gi even says, "governments recommend having two kids, tops, to solve this issue." Wheeler gets upset about the idea of someone limiting how many kids he can have, but changes his tune after he visits ... a city of advanced mice that has descended into an over-forested polluted fascist dictatorship, which uses a tsunami-creating superweapon on its own people, who are revolting over taxes.

2

RuPaul's Questionable "She-Male" Challenge

The phrase "reality TV" is often used as a derisive synonym for "schlocky garbage" or "the dumbing down of culture," but RuPaul's Drag Race has been one of the most visible tentpoles of LGBTQ representation on television since its launch in 2009. But even this unapologetically ridiculous camp-fest caused a stir in the trans community with the questionably titled game "Female or She-Male."

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Star Trek: The Next Generation's Gender-Role-Swap Episode Was A Sexist Mess That Everyone Involved Hated

From airing the first interracial kiss in TV history, to being praised by Martin Luther King Jr. himself, to Discovery flaunting the diversity of its cast and writing team, the Star Trek franchise has always used its futuristic setting to push progressive ideas. Obviously, when you air hundreds of episodes with sweeping philosophical lessons over the course of five decades, it's inevitable that some of them won't age perfectly. "Angel One" from Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season wasn't one of those. Everyone in the cast knew it was tribble shit while they were making it.