Thursday, March 28, 2024

AdvertiseDonateSubmit
NewsSportsArtsOpinionThe QuadPhotoVideoIllustrationsCartoonsGraphicsThe StackPRIMEEnterpriseInteractivesPodcastsBruinwalkClassifieds

Superhero TV show ‘Raising Dion’ highlights struggles of motherhood

(Courtesy of Steve Dietl/Netflix)

By Olivia Mazzucato

Oct. 3, 2019 10:38 p.m.

Raising a kid takes a different kind of superhero altogether.

In “Raising Dion,” that superhero is Nicole, a single mother who has to contend with her son Dion’s newfound powers and consider how best to keep him safe. The Netflix show, created by UCLA alumna, writer and showrunner Carol Barbee, premieres Friday and serves as a love letter to mothers, Barbee said. By grounding the narrative in reality and emotion, “Raising Dion” offers a look at a very different superhero story, she said – it’s one of motherhood.

“It can be very difficult to be a mom and certainly a single mom,” Barbee said. “We wanted to show that that’s true. Nicole loves this kid and she would do anything for him, so she’s going to take on all of these horrible dangers and challenges to keep her kid safe.”

[RELATED: Netflix limited series explores effects of society failing to believe women]

“Raising Dion” was initially a comic book and short film created by Dennis Liu. As Barbee adapted the story for television, she wanted to maintain the focus on the very relatable challenge of raising a child in a world that is already difficult to navigate. Barbee said she approached the story in two ways – thematically, she wanted to explore the idea of nature versus nurture, and how Nicole’s relationship impacted the way Dion’s powers developed. Drawing on her experience with her son who was born prematurely, Barbee said she also wanted to explore the parallels in Nicole and Dion’s relationship to the process of raising a child with special needs.

“I really saw the parallel between having to figure out what your kid is capable of – figuring out how to keep him safe from the world and how to keep the world safe from them, how to let them go and explore and figure out who they are – but at the same time, you’re scared to death and you want to keep them safe,” Barbee said.

Because Nicole and Dion’s bond is so integral to the storyline, Barbee wanted to maintain Dion’s 7-year-old age from the original comic. At 7, kids still have a certain dependence on their parents and believe in magic – two elements that were important to Dion’s character.

“There’s a difference between a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old when you’re talking about believing in magic and also in how much they are bonded to their mothers and how much they depend on their mothers,” Barbee said. “It was really important to me that Dion be 7 years old to start because I hope the show goes a very long time, and he will only be little once.”

While having such a young child on set would pose production challenges, Barbee said the mother-son dynamic would fundamentally change if Dion was aged up. Therefore, while children are only allowed to be on set for eight hours, four of them being for education, Barbee said she and the production crew had to plan in order to make the most of the four hours they had with Dion’s actor.

[RELATED: Alumna Ava DuVernay’s series to set Exonerated Five’s truth free]

The team auditioned countless young boys in its search for the perfect Dion until it found Ja’Siah Young, who had only acted in a few projects prior to being cast. Young stood out because he was so natural and imaginative, Barbee said. Director Seith Mann said Young spent time bonding with Alisha Wainwright, who played Nicole, before filming started in order to make sure their dynamic felt natural. On set, director Rachel Goldberg said working with Young was about giving him more attention and guidance while also providing him the space to play, be creative and enjoy the experience.

But once the talent was solidified, the team behind “Raising Dion” then needed to build a world as real as the emotional connection between Young and Wainwright. Mann, who directed the pilot and was an executive producer for the season, was instrumental in pitching and crafting a visual style that grounded the supernatural elements in reality, Barbee said.

Mann said he used camera movement to convey stability – in Nicole and Dion’s house and cabin, the camera moves less to give the feeling of being on solid ground, while the camera floats in other less-secure locations during scenes of duress. The warm color palette also serves a similar function, Mann said.

“The palette and the camera movement came out of a desire to really make this world feel very real and grounded,” Mann said. “I didn’t want it to seem like a hyperreality or have this sort of pop or saturation that you might associate with comic books, per se. I wanted it to feel like the real world.”

And “Raising Dion” doesn’t just set out to reflect the real world – Goldberg believes the show can change it. By portraying a story about a single mom and a little black boy, both superheroes in their own right, the show offers positive representation that can be part of a larger, unseen cultural conversation about motherhood, she said.

“I hope just by seeing a little black superhero, it lets other people know that you too can be a superhero and you are being represented on screen,” Goldberg said. “The world is yours.”

Share this story:FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Olivia Mazzucato
COMMENTS
Featured Classifieds
More classifieds »
Related Posts