E'nuff S'nuff
A bank robber was being tracked in Los Angeles. The assailant took hostages. At first, he forced them to remove their clothes, but didn't actually harm anyone. In subsequent incidents, his intensity level kept ratcheting up. At one bank, when a man refused to disrobe, the robber pistol-whipped him, and kept battering the man until he died. At the next location, he told a 14-year-old boy to strike his mother repeatedly. When the boy wouldn't continue, the robber killed him.
That's entertainment.
allegedly. This was the plot the other night.
The Sysmistress was watching "Criminal Minds" on CBS. Like "CSI" and all of its offshoots, the show is a direct descendant of "The Silence of the Lambs".
I don't get 'em.
I like a fair amount of dark stuff. Don't get me started on "The Wire". But these feel like snuff films. Beautiful young women as victims of violent sexual assaults. Children abducted and molested. Lots of blood. Just what you want to watch right before bed.
"But Sysm," you say, "the pervs on the show are always brought to justice."
No. The pervs on the show are the writers and producers. The pervs don't exist except in their ugly imaginations. And I don't give a fuck how many times they think they're getting all dignified and moving by having their end sequences in slow-mo, pensive reaction shots, to the tune of Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah".
They're soul-less and ugly.
Series star Thomas Gibson was quoted in USA Today, saying:
"When I read these horrific stories that seem to happen metaphorically in the house next door, there's something that's captivating about it in a very dark way," Gibson says. "There's something that we as a society want to understand about how some of us turn out this way.
Oh. You're doing us a service.
The network has every right to air these shows, and people have every right to watch them. But I have no reason why anybody would want to.
This entry was posted
on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 8:38 PM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
12:02 AMThank you. I feel like those shows are all just some kind of sick porn. The violence and rape and ugliness don't have a point. What I love most about The Wire is that you walk away feeling educated, not like you just took a bath in something dirty, which is how all those CSI-type shows make me feel.
Gratuitous violence, especially sexual violence or violence against children just makes me sick. Hubby and I were loving the first season of 24 until the wife gets raped while the daughter in the next room listens. During that scene, Hubby and I just looked at each other and said, "I don't want to watch a show that uses rape to sell soap." If the violence isn't intrinsic to the plot - if it doesn't propel the story in a meaningful way or educate the audience, it is just porn. And that's fucking gross.
2:03 AM
I became incredibly uncomfortable when "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" started and I can't stand to watch it. There is something about a show that gets ratings based on it's ability to provide an audience with some sick voyeuristic pleasure of watching someone describe a sexual assault in graphic detail. Every week.
All these shows, especially ones like "SVU" seem to serve as cautionary tales, that people should just stay in their homes with bars on their windows and multiple locks on their doors and just watch more TV, because out there in the real world, there are sick twisted things going on.
7:44 AM
You totally read my mind. Just a week ago I was watching some show where someone was being brutally murdered and I thought, "I should have some interesting and horrifying dreams tonight." I changed the channel to Sponge Bob.
9:07 AM
See, the ancient Romans didn't have TV's, so people had to go to the Colosseum to see people ripped to pieces before their very eyes.
Yeah, we're so much better than them. How we've advanced as a species.
9:28 AM
The above comment has actually posted by Milfie, while she was snooping on my computer for her Christmas present. And so now once again, she already knows what she's getting.
9:53 AM
I do not! I was printing my hillbilly tapas recipe.
I am offended.
Of course, had I known, I would've looked, so I guess the accusation is fair enough.
11:17 AM
I cannot watch this dreck, either, ever since I saw Robert Deniro take a bite out of a woman's cheek in the remake of Cape Fear. Why does this shit need to be filmed?
And why, in television, is watching two adults having consentual sex considered morally bereft, while watching two adults getting raped, tortured, or murdered considered prime time entertainment?
Keep turning it off, folks. Click.
4:36 PM
How about the new genre of films that only exist to show young people being slowly tortured? I'm talking about Saw, Hostel, etc. What sick people enjoy this kind of garbage?
9:25 PM
HEY! I had more jokes about how bad Rex Grossman is!! What gives?
12:05 AM
I think knitty kitty hit the nail on the head.
Fear is the new Greed.
12:32 PM
Maybe we should just show Little House on The Prairie on every channel, during every hour of every day so that no one is offended.
No one, except people that hate Michael Landon.
Personally, I think Ubie's first comment about the Romans hit the nail on the head. People are dumb and they like seeing violence and tragedy, they always have. Displaying violence of any kind on TV is excessive, no matter if you pretty it up by saying it's about the justice system, the science behind crime scenes or that "you walk away feeling educated". None of it is neccessary, but we show it because people keep watching it.
Also, I think SVU is the best show on TV not named Scrubs or Mythbusters. So, I'm no exception.
1:57 PM
i'm late. this party is over.
and i admit, i like to watch some of those shows. i find the formulas comforting.
4:09 PM
Tits - I watch "24" with the wife, because I can predict their plots with amazing accuracy. Or they telegraph them so overtly that I can't help myself.
Miss Knit - I want to start a new show called "Gaper's Block", where I slowly pan past grisly multi-vehicle accidents. There'll be Scratch 'n' Sniff cards to go along with it.
Brooke - I did the same thing. But Sponge Bob and Patrick were playing with hooks -- even though Mr. Krabbs had explicitly warned them not too. The violence was stomach churning. And at the end of the episode, they stripped Spongebob, and the other undersea characters mocked him, calling him "Sponge Bob Nudie-Pants." There's nowhere to hide.
Dilf - The Ancient Roman's would've killed for CSI:Miami's lighting scheme and Sunglasses of Justice.
Dilf (the real one) - You had your identity stolen! Look what society is coming to!
Ubie - I'll always love you for your Prison Balls.
Rewhatever - I agree. As Steve Martin once said, "I think sex is a beautiful act between two or more people."
Todd - I'm right there with you. I saw the first "Scream." It brought the funny, but it also brought the creepy misogyny.
Nick - Yep. He's 11-2, Central Division Champ, Shit. The 339 yards he posted yesterday was a disgrace.
Doctor - You think you can kill a post? Never again.
Nick - I'm glad you like TV. You help pay my mortgage. If everyone only watched what I did, the only products sold would be MedicAlert bracelets and Cialis. To the same people. Thankfully, as long as we have different tastes, James Belushi will always have a job.
Kendra - I get it for the Law & Order style shows. But the procedurals seem to be trying to one-up each other with how graphic they can get. And the lovely Sysmistress watches these shows as I'm trying to go to sleep. If I'm going to hear screaming and thrashing while I'm in bed, I'd prefer that I have something to do with it.
10:54 PM
Nick is a James Belushi fan?
» Post a Comment