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8 Muslim Characters…

This was, unfortunately, a much harder list to put together than my lists of Jewish and Christian characters. While we have started to slowly move away from the stereotype of Muslim characters only being depicted as terrorists, there still are not very many who are lead or recurring characters on mainstream television shows. I will preface this by saying I do not watch all of these shows, so I apologize if my descriptions of any of the characters is wrong.

1. Nasir Khan – The Night Of, played by Riz Ahmed
Nasir is Pakistani-American college student, born and raised in Queens, NY, who is accused of murdering a girl on the Upper West Side. He is denied bail when the District Attorney uses his Pakistani background to claim that he is a “flight risk.”

2. Nimah and Raina Amin – Quantico, played by Yasmine Al Massri
Arab-American twin sisters from Michigan who begin training for the FBI as one person to see if they could do the same while undercover in the field. Raina is the more conservative of the two, and the one that wears a hijab.

3. Arastoo Vaziri – Bones, played by Pej Vahdat
One of the Squinterns working at the Jeffersonian, he is originally from Iran but was exiled for his political views. His family still resides in the country, and Arastoo is allowed to visit Tehran when his brother is diagnosed with a brain tumor.

4. Aliyah Shadeed – American Crime, played by Regina King
The sister of drug addict Carter Nix, who has been accused of murder, she is relentless in trying to prove her brother’s innocence. She is American-born and a convert to Islam.

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Quotes of the Week: April 3-10

These are my favorite quotes from the past week, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Shameless
Rita: Do I need to call the police?
Ian: Sure. That’s what most people do when they see someone with a mental illness.
Rita: No. You got let go because you lied on your employment application
Ian: Bullshit. What do you think I should have done? Would you have hired me if I had checked that box that said I had a mental illness? What kind of choice is that? Tell the truth, you don’t get the job. Lie, maybe they’ll never find out. What would you do? You’d lie. So would you. So would you. You think because I’m bipolar, an illness that I am managing, by the way, that I can’t do this job where half the people you deal with are mentally ill? Are living on the streets because they can’t get help, or are too sick to know they even need help? You wouldn’t refuse to hire me if I was in a wheelchair, if I had a physical handicap, or HIV. No, because it is illegal to discriminate against someone who is handicapped, and I… I am handicapped. It’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything to bring this on myself. I have a disease. If I show up one day and I’m acting all freaky, then you, or you, or you, Rita, you tell me to go home, and I will go, but don’t tell me I can’t do this job.

Grantchester
Sidney: Maybe my type doesn’t exist.
Geordie: Or is already married?

Quantico
Alex: There’s no such thing as the truth. There’s what you think, what the other person thinks, and then what the world remembers.

The Real O’Neals
Eileen: Look away!
Kenny: What are you doing?
Eileen: I’m eating gay cake on the toilet.

Jimmy: Is this what we’re doing? We’re letting God take out Grandma?

iZombie
Vaughn: That’s Rob Thomas. I mean, there’s something so compelling about the stuff he writes.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson: Gotta admit, this time stuff’s always been a little over my head. Like in Terminator, if John Connor’s alive and able to send his friend back in time to save his mom to make sure he’s born, doesn’t that mean he doesn’t have to?
Lincoln: I, uh, never saw the original Terminator
Coulson: You’re off the team.

Daisy: Wait, what are you gonna do?
Coulson: Find Grant Ward. Yeah. Day got weirder.

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Quotes of the Week: December 6-20

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

The Leftovers
Man at Bar: You pushed a little a girl into a well. You don’t want to sing?

John: I killed you.
Kevin: Nope.

Quantico
Ryan: A soldier isn’t a criminal just because you don’t believe in their war.

Supergirl
James: No hero can save everyone. Not even Superman. But a real hero never stops trying.

Fargo
Ed: Are you seein’ this?
Peggy: It’s just a flyin’ saucer, Ed. We gotta go.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson: I’ll be damned. Tatooine.

You’re the Worst
Gretchen: After I cleaned the fries off your face and put you to bed, you said something to me that was pretty dark.
Jimmy: Don’t tell me.
Gretchen: Okay. I won’t… I love you too.

The Vampire Diaries
Stefan: You are my back-up. You’re just terrible at it!

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Quotes of the Week: November 22-December 5

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Master of None
Anush: I’ll just be doing some burpees over there in the kitchen.

Jessica Jones
Claire: You don’t need powers to be of use.

Empire
Skye: Thank you for seeing me.
Jamal: Thank you for letting me see you.

Kingdom
Ryan: Getting by is not an option if you can be exceptional.

The Leftovers
G.R. Leader: Violence is weakness.

Quantico
Natalie: Sir, with respect, when the people you trust the most are all on one side and you’re the only one on the other, what does that make you?

Superstore
Garrett: Yo, you should come with us, man. We’re gonna throw some mannequin limbs in the dumpster and watch garbage men freak out.
Jonah: That sounds awesome.
Garrett: It is awesome.

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Quotes of the Week: October 18-24

These are my favorite quotes from the past week, not just from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Once Upon a Time
Arthur: You betrayed me. You broke the sacred trust of the Round Table.
David: You tried to trick me with a catchy title and a comfy chair.

Homeland
Saul: I’m not a statesman, Heir Düring. I’m a spy.

Quantico
Shaw: I teach the people who find people. You think I couldn’t find you?

The Leftovers
Laurie: I don’t want to hurt them, but they won’t jump out of the way.

Jane the Virgin
Rogelio: Cruise ships is where old people perform! I mean, who am I? Charo?!

Narrator: Never was there sounder advice from a tipsy hallucination.

Blindspot
Jane: It wasn’t your fault.
Kurt: I’ve heard that my whole life.
Jane: But you haven’t heard it from me. It wasn’t your fault. You told me Taylor was my starting point. I think you’re wrong. You…you’re my starting point.

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8 New Fall Shows…

There are a lot of new shows that plan to check out this year, but these are the ones about which I am most excited.

1. Hand of God released September 4th on Amazon Prime, stars Ron Perlman, Dana Delany, Julian Morris, Alona Tal, Andre Royo, Garret Dillahunt, Elizabeth McLaughlin and Emayatzy Corinealdi. Perlman plays a corrupt judge who has a breakdown after his son tries to commit suicide. He starts to believe that God is leading him down a path of vigilante justice. I watched the pilot episode last year and really enjoyed it. This show has a great cast and I am very much looking forward to seeing where they take us in the first season.



2. The Bastard Executioner premieres on FX, stars Lee Jones, Stephen Moyer, Katey Sagal, Flora Spencer-Longhurst, Sam Spruell, Sarah Sweeney, Danny Sapani, Kurt Sutter, Darren Evans, Timothy V. Murphy, Sarah White, Ethan Griffiths and Elen Rhys. Set in 14th century Wales, this show follows Wilkin Brattle as he decides to abandon his life as a warrior and become a journeyman executioner. I am still in mourning over the loss of Sons of Anarchy, so I am hoping this will fill that hole in my heart.



3. Blindspot premieres on September 21st on NBC, stars Jaimie Alexander, Sullivan Stapleton, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Rob Brown, Audrey Esparza, Ashley Johnson and Ukweli Roach. A woman is found naked inside a duffle bag in Times Square and she has no memory of who she is or how she got there. The only clues she has are the tattoos that cover her body, which include the name of FBI Agent Kurt Weller. It has been described as a ‘procedural with a twist,’ I just hope that it does not get too bogged down in the procedural, and that the twists are feel organic. There is nothing I hate more than twists just for the sake of twists. That being said, I think this show looks great and I have high hopes for it.



4. Heroes Reborn premieres September 24th on NBC, stars Zachary Levi, Judith Shekoni, Jack Coleman, Henry Zebrowski, Robbie Kay, Gatlin Green, Danika Yarosh, Kiki Sukezane, Ryan Guzman, Rya Kihlstedt, Masi Oka, Greg Grunberg, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Noah Gray-Cabey and Jimmy Jean-Louis. Four years after Claire Bennet revealed the existence of people with special abilities (a.k.a. Evos) a terrorist attack decimated Odessa, Texas. The Evos were blamed for the event and have gone into hiding or are on the run. I recently rewatched the original series in preparation. I loved the show when it started, but gave up halfway through season three, so it was interesting to see where the show had ended up. This reboot seems a little grittier and hopefully refocuses on the human aspects of these people with extraordinary abilities.

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