Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Labour & Pop Culture: The Crown and Supergirl

As I recover from the end of semester marking rush, I’ve noticed a few instances of labour issues appearing on TV shows. 

In an otherwise dull season of The Crown, there are two items of note:

Ep 3: Aberfan: This episode centres on the destruction of the mining village of Aberfan. Piles of coal slag were stacked too high and shifted, burying portions of the town, including the school. The Queen feels bad.

Ep. 9: Imbroglio: A subplot in this episode is the 1972 miner’s strike in Britain which causes rolling blackouts. After two months on the line, the workers gained a 27% pay increase. The Queen feels bad.

A funnier thing I noticed was in season 3 of Supergirl. Episode 4 sees Supergirl rescue a man from a burning factory. As Supergirl walks away, you can just see at the top of the frame the “days without an injury” sign flip from 190 to 0.

-- Bob Barnetson

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