Bons voisinages dans Show me a hero

Abstract

The miniseries Show Me a Hero, is an HBO product created by David Simon and directed by Paul Haggis. We witness segregation in Yonkers, a northern city in the state of New York, next to New York City. The representation of the neighbourhood is made on several spatial scales and several temporal representations, between a recent past, that of the 1980s when the plot takes place, our present that motivates the production of this miniseries, and the traces of a more remote, tragic past.This article explains why this miniseries can be part of the list that Stanley Cavell gave his students to define perfectionism without giving a definition. Public policies of desegregation as a process of collective perfectionism are thus examined, but also the trajectories of redemption of characters who either oppose the housing projects, or badly need them. It is essential to study how faces and emotions affecting the thinking subjects show how reflexive judgment is also a judgment by emotions that tip individual trajectories. Victims can take hold of their lives again, become involved in politics, or simply “improve”. Terrifying characters can also become likeable. The point is to understand the perfectionist competence of a community of citizens.

Keywords

• community
• emotion
• neighbourhood
• perfectionism
• segregation