Quickies

Quickies: Detective Tropes, Approaching Meteor Shower, and Smallpox

On May 5, 1891, Carnegie Hall opened and the composer that day was Tchaikovsky.

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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3 Comments

  1. I am of the opinion that not all dead girl shows are created equal. Veronica Mars was pretty empowering, aside from the disastrous third season which we shall not discuss. It had its issues, but it set out with the intention of subverting the classic formula. As for True Detective, I’m only three episodes in and so remain largely undecided, but so far the story feels like an indictment of patriarchy. Neither of the main characters are presented as paragons- they are both clearly and deeply flawed people, and their actions have consequences on themselves and the people around them. I HATE the dynamic between the Woody Harelson’s character and Maggie, but it is a well written dynamic. She does not accept his behavior. Typically in noir that type of “manliness” is portrayed as attractive. (I think of Blade Runner, with its incredibly offensive rapiness and the woman swooning with passion because she realizes she really did want it but just didn’t know it until he’d shoved her against a wall and stuck his tongue down her throat.) That being said, I don’t know that I can handle watching the rest of it for the same reason I can’t handle GoT. And I agree with the theory that GoT can mostly be seen as a feminist show on how awful patriarchy is, but I’ve also lived enough of those situations that I don’t need to watch them play out on screen. So I’m on the fence on both because HBO tends to be so exploitative of its female cast members, even while treating the characters with great care, and that dichotomy makes me intensely uncomfortable.

    1. Regarding GoT – from the perspective of someone who watches the show AND reads the books, I think they’re actually spoiling some of the progressive message of the books for the sake of making it “edgier”. Like GoT needed to be edgier, sheesh.

      The Song of Ice and Fire series is strongly anti-patriarchy, though. The show can’t entirely erase that. It’s very much about the evils of oppression and how even in the midst of such horror and hierarchical crap women and other oppressed peoples will fight to survive and thrive.
      GoT is at its best when it’s empowering the powerless.

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