"The Neniwa" tosses out lot of things and wraps it up with a neat bow. The old wise chief was right all along! The former Indian businessman isn't as bad as he seems! But it's horribly stereotypical. Indians as "noble savages who also spout sage wisdom" was a 80s cliche (see also MacGyver and Walker Texas Ranger) and not any better than the Indians as "How!"-speaking psuedo-Russians in 50s Westerns.
Frank Salsedo as the old chief is pretty good, granted. But the constant shots of a flying eagle to communicate Indian mysticism just come across as padding. Also the hints that Ray is some kind of Indian trickster spirit, the title-mentioned Neniwa. Nothing comes of any of it. And the Scrooge-like conversion of the Indian businessman is both too fast and too easy. One old woman at a reservation (Meskhwaki instead of Meskwaki: why make up a fictional tribal name so close to a real one?) takes his hands and says something in her native tongue, and the businessman does a spiritual 180.
"The Neniwa" is an okay episode of 'Stingray'. But once it gets mired in 80s Indian stereotypes, it goes downhill and never comes back up. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Frank Salsedo as the old chief is pretty good, granted. But the constant shots of a flying eagle to communicate Indian mysticism just come across as padding. Also the hints that Ray is some kind of Indian trickster spirit, the title-mentioned Neniwa. Nothing comes of any of it. And the Scrooge-like conversion of the Indian businessman is both too fast and too easy. One old woman at a reservation (Meskhwaki instead of Meskwaki: why make up a fictional tribal name so close to a real one?) takes his hands and says something in her native tongue, and the businessman does a spiritual 180.
"The Neniwa" is an okay episode of 'Stingray'. But once it gets mired in 80s Indian stereotypes, it goes downhill and never comes back up. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?