![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
schrödinger's show
I ... may actually need an Eastwick icon. Because tonight's reaction is pretending to be 'things that skeeved me' vs 'things that kind of counteracted the skeeving' but is actually a 'my various conspiracy theories, let me show you them' post. Which is ridiculous, because it's only a small step from conspiracy theories to actual desire for fannish participation, and, and, what, self, what is this.
I really should make a catalogue of skeevy vs non-skeevy things, but the really fun thing here is that I am suddenly reading this like Schrödinger show, and depending on the reading the skeeviness level drops or rises.
For instance, surface premise: Darryl is the devil; he probably gave/unleashed the powers these women have; he has some sort of EvilCylon Plan; DEATH DOOM DESTRUCTION; and oh, giving women agency leads to bad stuff like deadbeat husbands getting struck by lightning and attempted rapists getting hanged. In this world potential!future!Jamie is doing the right thing; in this world crazy old Eleanor Whatsit has been permanently destroyed by the evil in which she was caught up; and in this world I am probably going to have to shoot the show in the face. Or at least scream at the TV, because the devil hasn't given me the power to explode it with my mind.
The much more interesting premise, and the one I am hoping like crazy they go with: Darryl is something yet to be revealed, but not the devil in the traditional sense. (A friend with whom I am watching concedes the dog is appropriate imagery but wants to know where the water --> wine crossed wires are coming from.) Darryl isn't responsible for the various witchy powers; it is, as our voiceover narration in the first episode said, a convergence, the time being right, and Darryl is ... trying to take advantage of it? Maybe? So far he hasn't really done anything besides grant more or less all of their wishes, and even when his dog stopped Joanna and Penny from getting almost any information, it didn't hurt them. Arguably granting their wishes isn't 100% fantastic, but ... what they have all been given is a new skill set they're not entirely sure how to use, and the world is not made of black-and-white answers. Darryl gave Raymond his job back and offered to give Kat his lawyer. Obviously Killing People Is Bad, therefore attempted-rapist!boy being dead is bad, except I am perfectly willing to admit that I was wishing all ill on that kid just as hard as Roxie & co were. And on the subject of killing people being bad! we can so far accuse Darryl of identity theft and possibly fire-ants; we can so far accuse Roxie & co of bad intentions but not of actually hanging the kid -- and on the other side we've got our two swirly-symbol people, Eleanor and Jamie. Jamie hasn't shanked or kidnapped or buried anyone yet, but that self-branding thing kind of concerns me; meanwhile Eleanor freely admits to killing pretty young Paul Gross whose name I can't remember.
What I am trying to say here is that I desperately want a genuinely complex world with interesting motivations and no easy clear morality, because not only would it make for better drama, it would be genuinely intelligent and erase most of my fairly large reservations about the treatment of women and power. Oh, and it would validate my initial reaction to Darryl's speech about using your anger, which I am going to probably watch repeatedly and was the point at which I sat up very straight and went "I THINK I LIKE THIS SHOW." Because if using your anger means only DEATH & BADNESS then I will smash the TV with my mind-powers, which are, y'know, female and uncontrollable and BAD; but if using your anger means having your own damn agency and getting what you want to the best of your ability in a world that is trying very hard to deny you, then I am 110% for this show.
...Oh, and I think the writing was a bit more solid this time! There may be a direct correlation between the percentage of dialogue that is abysmal and the percentage of dialogue that Paul Gross makes sound like porn, but that's okay, because I find PG saying reasonably intelligent things in a normal voice just as wonderful as PG saying ridiculous things in a porn voice. Anyway.
WHY DO I HAVE ACTUAL THINKY THOUGHTS. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
I really should make a catalogue of skeevy vs non-skeevy things, but the really fun thing here is that I am suddenly reading this like Schrödinger show, and depending on the reading the skeeviness level drops or rises.
For instance, surface premise: Darryl is the devil; he probably gave/unleashed the powers these women have; he has some sort of Evil
The much more interesting premise, and the one I am hoping like crazy they go with: Darryl is something yet to be revealed, but not the devil in the traditional sense. (A friend with whom I am watching concedes the dog is appropriate imagery but wants to know where the water --> wine crossed wires are coming from.) Darryl isn't responsible for the various witchy powers; it is, as our voiceover narration in the first episode said, a convergence, the time being right, and Darryl is ... trying to take advantage of it? Maybe? So far he hasn't really done anything besides grant more or less all of their wishes, and even when his dog stopped Joanna and Penny from getting almost any information, it didn't hurt them. Arguably granting their wishes isn't 100% fantastic, but ... what they have all been given is a new skill set they're not entirely sure how to use, and the world is not made of black-and-white answers. Darryl gave Raymond his job back and offered to give Kat his lawyer. Obviously Killing People Is Bad, therefore attempted-rapist!boy being dead is bad, except I am perfectly willing to admit that I was wishing all ill on that kid just as hard as Roxie & co were. And on the subject of killing people being bad! we can so far accuse Darryl of identity theft and possibly fire-ants; we can so far accuse Roxie & co of bad intentions but not of actually hanging the kid -- and on the other side we've got our two swirly-symbol people, Eleanor and Jamie. Jamie hasn't shanked or kidnapped or buried anyone yet, but that self-branding thing kind of concerns me; meanwhile Eleanor freely admits to killing pretty young Paul Gross whose name I can't remember.
What I am trying to say here is that I desperately want a genuinely complex world with interesting motivations and no easy clear morality, because not only would it make for better drama, it would be genuinely intelligent and erase most of my fairly large reservations about the treatment of women and power. Oh, and it would validate my initial reaction to Darryl's speech about using your anger, which I am going to probably watch repeatedly and was the point at which I sat up very straight and went "I THINK I LIKE THIS SHOW." Because if using your anger means only DEATH & BADNESS then I will smash the TV with my mind-powers, which are, y'know, female and uncontrollable and BAD; but if using your anger means having your own damn agency and getting what you want to the best of your ability in a world that is trying very hard to deny you, then I am 110% for this show.
...Oh, and I think the writing was a bit more solid this time! There may be a direct correlation between the percentage of dialogue that is abysmal and the percentage of dialogue that Paul Gross makes sound like porn, but that's okay, because I find PG saying reasonably intelligent things in a normal voice just as wonderful as PG saying ridiculous things in a porn voice. Anyway.
WHY DO I HAVE ACTUAL THINKY THOUGHTS. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
no subject
Also, the porn-voice gives me the giggles, utterly.
no subject
I am SO GLAD there was nothing like the awful "I've got a huge lump ... of clay" dialogue in this episode. Ohhhh man. /o\
no subject
I am right now feeling like, "women have too much power that they can't control! It puts them on a path to ruin and homicidal squirrel-shooting craziness!" is an overriding feature, and I'm hoping there's something else to see here.
no subject
The head joke was pretty bad though, but not NEARLY as bad as whatever stupid euphemism they used for vagina. On a show where they can make *head jokes* and Roxie can go "Motherffffuuuuuu", I'm pretty sure three adult women two of whom have actually pushed children out of their vaginas can say the word. Godddd. (OK: pet peeve, yis.)
no subject
(I *did* laugh at the head joke, too, because it surprised me, but then I was annoyed about it)
no subject
I am weirdly pleased that Kat and Roxie both took the time to tell Joanna that she had made a vagina-looking turkey, though. Just because I have decided to let everything further my possibly-arbitrary OT3 agenda. (...I am not sure if I should have this agenda? Because Darryl's pillow-fight comment implies that he has the same agenda as I do, and that might be problematic!)
WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THIS SHOW. >:(
no subject
This is all by way of saying: Yeah, if the show turns into a bit about how women who have power and aren't controlled by men are EEEEVIL, I will cry. OTOH, I wonder if part of the problem is that their natural powers are being perverted by Darren or Darryl or whatever the goddamn hell his name is? (Oddly, I can remember the drownded guy: Sebastian. Good name, memorable, predictable spelling. Plus, The Little Mermaid.)
On the OTHER other hand, we now have a total of two stereotypical WOMAN POWERS: 1. Mystic Sex Convincing! and 2. DEEP EARTHY MOTHERY MAGICK. The latter bothers me a LOT less than the former, though, because at least she can blow people up. (The bit where she can't control it bites, of course, but that goes without saying.)
no subject
I am really, really hoping that if they go with the obvious surface zomg-it's-the-devil!! plot, they'll at least end the series with the three women completely kicking his ass and then getting to keep their powers, which they now understand completely and can use to the best of their awesome abilities. That's possible too, right?
I am kind of okay with Kat's power, because yesterday it was all ~butterflies~ and ~good mothering~ and those things actually make me really happy. I like the idea that empowering Kat makes her win Biggest Pumpkin contests! Joanna's power on the other hand makes me want to TEAR MY HAIR OUT, although I really love that she is less interested in Hypnotizing Will Into Sleeping With Her than she is with Investigating Why Darryl Is A Creeper. But yeah, it's still ... lots of problematic! Gahhh.
no subject
Aside from that, I'm all curious about who the third woman in the picture is. You don't see her face that well. Is she still in town? Is she dead? Is she someone we've already meet?
no subject
I bet the third woman in the picture is the one who slipped the file about Darryl being dead under Penny's door, but other than that I got nothin'.
no subject
It's like crack. It's bad for me but I DON'T CARE.
no subject
Enjoying Paul's disrobing is a fine thing to do! I HOPE IT HAPPENS EVERY EPISODE. XD
no subject
I read an interview that said there would be much, much disrobing! So I live in hope. :D
no subject
\\\o/// Errr no of course I am not shallow.
no subject
\\\o/// EMBRACE THE SHALLOW WITH ME, ARIA.