Why the Milwaukee Bucks’ Empty Court Was Historic Television

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - Suddenly I love sports. - The bizarre, dark underbelly of Drag Race fandom. - Tom Cruise sees a movie. - Mariah Carey predicts the future. - Catman. An Empty Court Is Must-See TV The most powerful thing to happen on TV this week was nothing. I can’t remember the last time I watched an NBA game. [Insert the Titanic “[it’s been 84 years…” gif](.] I don’t watch sports. I’m the cliché who can’t even complain about the homophobia of calling the Tony Awards “the Super Bowl for gays” because for this gay, the Tony Awards is the Super Bowl. But after the news that, in response to the [shooting of Jacob Blake]( by police in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks [organized a strike]( and [refused to play game five]( of the NBA’s first-round playoffs against the Orlando Magic, I revisited the 45 minutes or so of footage that played on NBA TV as the events unfolded. It was striking, historic television. [Alternate text] It starts with a wide shot of the court as “Fear the Deer” flashes on the Jumbotron. The Orlando Magic are warming up on one side of the arena, while the other half is conspicuously empty. The commentators start talking about the “developing situation” as it becomes clear that the Bucks are not only not coming out to warm up, but also are going to miss tip off. The players from the Magic walk off to the locker room, and the court is empty. No spectators. No one on the floor. Just “Black Lives Matter” written on the court. As they begin to receive confirmation that this is a strike in reaction to the epidemic of police brutality—and the players’ frustrations over being captive entertainers in a NBA bubble while a nationwide revolution beckons—commentators fill the airtime talking about the significance of the video that showed a police officer shooting at Blake seven times in the back. Former players call in and talk about their own experiences being Black and having fraught interactions with police, and what it’s like to know someone who has been shot and killed by cops. Eventually, announcers Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Jackson start discussing the history of the civil rights movement, Jim Crow laws, racial profiling, “the cycle,” and trauma, all from the courtside media booth at a NBA game. Watching it, you’re engrossed. You recognize that what you’re witnessing is surreal in every way. You don’t have to be a sports fan to recognize a monumental moment as it happens; that is why sports transcend. What you saw on screen stood in stark contrast, too, to the images of activism and protest that have cemented themselves in recent months: crowds of people taking to the streets en masse to demand action. The negative space here and the silence—whatever you think about the privilege of millionaire athletes involved—was profound. Fed up with corporate, empty gestures from the NBA, the players served up an empty court. Then, of course, there was the nothing that was the Republican National Convention, which aired this week across multiple channels. As [Stephen Colbert said on his show Wednesday night]( about his decision not to watch, “Why should we pay attention to what they’re saying if none of what they’re saying tonight is about what’s happening in America right now? Why should we watch their reality show if it doesn’t reflect our reality?” If you did view the first few days of the RNC, you’d think the pandemic is over, the Black Lives Matter movement never existed, and the greatest threat facing America right now is [cancel culture](. [I’ve written before]( about how preoccupied this president and administration are with television, the TV news cycle, and orchestrating moments and narratives to fit their own script—and how shockingly bad they’ve been at it. Then it was back when the president delivered a speech threatening military retaliation against BLM protesters, unaware that CNN was airing in split-screen footage of police violently clearing demonstrators out of Lafayette Square to make way for his hollow photo-op at St. John’s Church. Now it’s the RNC pageant of ignorance, televised bombast that once again not only fails miserably to meet the moment, but is undermined by the footage of actual news happening alongside it. Two major, influential organizations currently exist inside of bubbles. Only one appears to be able to see out into the real world. The Outrageous Drag Race Fan Bullying Scandal New York City’s [stay-at-home order](went into effect in mid-March, and, in the next weeks, the city became a terrifying place to live: a hot zone of fear and dread chaotically amplified by a never-ending soundtrack of [ambulance sirens]( and news reports about [freezer trucks]( full of dead bodies and overcrowded hospitals being unable to treat sick patients. To stave off the waking nightmare of gasping for my last breath in the hallway of the [Javits Center](, I searched for happiness and distraction wherever we could find it. [RuPaul’s Drag Race]( was airing its 12th season on Friday nights, and each week my boyfriend and I would order a pizza, pour some Manhattans, and escape to the sequins, comedy, and sermons about loving yourself, lip-syncing along for our proverbial lives. [Image] As the season was winding down, RuPaul and VH1 announced that it would follow up with a new iteration of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars. What a treat! Then it added RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race to the lineup. Werk! Then Canada’s Drag Race began airing. Now RuPaul’s Drag Race: Vegas Revue just launched. The last five months haven’t seen a single week go by without a new episode of Drag Race in some form—sometimes for three-and-a-half hours a night—and in turn I’ve gained about 15 pounds in pure pizza weight and have possibly become an alcoholic. This is not a complaint. Some of the episodes have been good. Some have been baffling. Canada’s Drag Race, particularly, has displayed some of the most confusing and exasperating reality-TV judging I’ve ever seen. (Ru, if you can hear this [over the drilling](, you need to talk to your friends up north. They’re really fracking it up.) But spending so much time immersed in the Drag Race universe has surfaced the disturbing underbelly of a program that has provided so much joy in desperate times. The fan community has become disturbingly toxic, counteracting everything that’s good and necessary about the show. It came out this week that Canada’s Drag Race judge Jeffrey Bower-Chapman [deleted his Twitter account]( after being bullied off social media with violent threats and insults from fans. Is Bower-Chapman a particularly great judge? No. Have we ever agreed with his insights? No. How many different character voices does he do per line reading when speaking to contestants? Four to seven. BUT IT IS A REALITY TV SHOW. Should he be getting death threats and a steady stream of vitriolic attacks? People....no! [Alternate text] These targeted campaigns are not new among Drag Race fans. There’s an ugly history of contestants having to speak out publicly after being violently harassed by fans who don’t think they deserved to advance in the competition, while others have had to plead with their own supporters to stop those attacks against their castmates. It’s also unignorable that there’s an undercurrent of racism to all this. We read about [Gamergate](, the toxicity in the DC vs. Marvel wars, and the [doxxing and attacks on critics]( by fan armies angry over a negative review. This may be naive and all Gay Pollyanna of me, but it’s incredibly disheartening for a series revolutionary for the way in which it celebrates and advances the LGBT+ community to also play host to a level of ugliness that stoops to the level of those other fandoms. I also can’t imagine taking a reality TV competition that seriously?!? Be passionate about it! That’s the point of these things. But there’s a difference between, “Ah, man, I wish my favorite didn’t go home, I’m so annoyed” and sending a reality TV star messages saying that they should kill themselves. I dunno...call me crazy. Isn’t the whole point of the show the journey to finding light and support in a world that discounts and ostracizes? Isn’t it about camaraderie, about uplift? Isn’t it just a TV show? Can I get an Amen up in here? Tom Cruise’s Big Tenet Adventure There was a blind item [posted Wednesday]( on the notorious anonymous Hollywood gossip blog Crazy Days and Nights. [Alternate text]( Anyway a video went viral this week of Tom Cruise in London strapping on his mask, hopping in a taxi, and going to the cinema to see a screening of Tenet, the Christopher Nolan film that’s been at the center of the debate about when and whether it’s safe to reopen theaters amidst the ongoing pandemic. “Big movie. Big screen. Loved it,” [said the star](, having executed yet another of his famous death-defying stunts. Also this week, [Variety reported]( that there are Christopher Nolan superfans who are hopping on flights from their hometowns where it’s still deemed too unsafe for movie theaters to open to other areas of the country where they’d be able to see Tenet in cinemas. All I want to know is if men are OK. Mariah Carey Always Knew “When you’re around so many people and what not, it’s germs. And you know not everybody uses hand sanitizer. I ain’t mentioning no names, but just pick up a bottle. It’s at your nearest store. It’s not that deep.” [Alternate text] That was Mariah Carey, [back in 2010](. A queen ahead of her time in so many ways. ([Watch the video here](.) It’s Catman. [Alternate text] Everyone is sitting around wondering about the future of the film industry and whether it’s safe to start production again, let alone send audiences to theaters. Meanwhile the perfect piece of cinema already exists, and you can view it right now from the comfort of your home. Someone put the audio from the Cats trailer over the new The Batman trailer. Catman. ([Watch it here](.) [Alternate text] - Love Fraud: A fun and fascinating hunt for a big ole jackass. - You Cannot Kill David Arquette: A shockingly moving (but still weird!) documentary. - Get Duked!: “An anarchic satire of generational politics, hip-hop loving farmers and hallucinogenic rabbit shites.” - Bill & Ted Face the Music: When do we not want Keanu Reeves in our lives? [Alternate text] - The New Mutants: An incessantly delayed film released in a pandemic that didn’t screen for critics. But, sure, maybe it’s not a total disaster. Advertisement [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © Copyright 2020 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011 [Privacy Policy]( If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, [click here]( to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. 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