There were plenty of criticisms about this portrayal (see the New Yorker's piece "Tarantino Unchained" for an example), even though the overall reviews for the movie were positive. And the movie definitely did not succeed in humanizing any of the other slaves - it couldn't even humanize Django's quest object, making…

You're right; he wasn't referring to all house slaves (though whether Django really feels that way or not, it's interesting that his response to Stehpen is to act like a slaveowner relishing his power). But I strongly got the sense that the movie was espousing this notion. Interestingly, it's not an uncommon idea - I…

Django, to Stephen:

But what about the whole "house slaves are race traitors that deserve horrible death" message? That's a pretty immature and disturbing view of slavery.
And there IS a white savior in the movie - the film uses the trope rather than parodying it.

"its emphasis on in-your-face brutality"
Its emphasis on reality, you mean?
And I'm not sure what you mean that Slave doesn't cite its influences - its influence is primarily the autobiographical account that it's named for.

It's not just about who has the most small, shiny statues. Cumberbatch's was for services to charity as well as performing arts.

Though that Mal is actually a projection in the mind of a male character…

Also, as the article pointed out, it's not necessarily bad to have some movies that fail the Bechdel test or the reverse test. It would be fine to sometimes have movies that focus only on male stories or on female stories - it's that it's skewed overwhelmingly in one direction.

Vast majority? I bet you're wrong. And while female fans may indeed be in the minority, don't you think that may have something to do with the lack of female characters in these franchises? Not to mention the attitude among many (not all!) male fans that the genre belongs to them and women are interlopers.

"Moffat's obession…" It seems fair to note that Mr. Moffat only writes 1/3 of the episodes. The Empty Hearse, which contains one instance of this joke, was written by Mark Gatiss (It's also worth noting, not as an excuse but as context, that Mr. Gatiss is gay). I perfectly understand your objection to this kind of…

Is there really much value to be gained in comparing these series, given the drastic difference in structure and tone? Here's the thing: Elementary is absolutely not a fundamentally better show than Sherlock, because the two shows have different fundamentals. I admit I've only seen a couple episodes of Elementary,…

"He is a victim-hero who can do evil, but remains morally unblemished because of his good intentions"