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Mar. 20th, 2015 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethtoday I watched a bunch of MacGyver in a row and they were more stupid that way.
female character of the week gets really boring. she's there to look pretty and be very nearly competent but then screw up in some completely obvious way so a man can fix it. the more her competence is talked up the more Mac looks good when he outsmarts her in her area of expertise, and the more obvious her screw up is the more the audience can feel good about being smarter than the supposed expert.
I guess the same thing happens in Doctor Who but it's not quite so blatant. Also in Doctor Who the companion gets to be competent in their narrower field and then need rescuing for reasons outside their expertise. It's a different vibe than 'good but not quite good enough to play with the mans'.
boooooored now.
the last one I've watched today I thought was going to kill the black guy in the first act again, but no, he got rescued. he was attempting suicide because of money, so then they did crime to frame the criminal who stole the money. and by the end he wasn't feeling suicidal any more. because crime was fun and rewarding. which, you know, not a method I've heard of in therapy, but I can see how that could work.
I'm also constantly amused by how many ways Mac shows the audience at home how to screw themselves up really badly with common household objects. Improvised explosives are the solution to so many problems. So many.
*facepalm*
I dislike when the plot contrives to make women wear less, and I very much dislike when they have Mac trick a woman into wearing less. Like, dude, just ask, don't pretend like you need her buttons to save your lives, that's creepy.
Also the... I can't even call it romance, the thing where sometimes they stand next to each other for a while and then decide to kiss? I started out thinking I didn't like the kissing parts because my inner 8 year old watches this show, and I'm sure that's part of it, but rather more relevant is that humans do not work like this and it is creepy. Creepy doll people mush their mouths together and look awkward. Blergh.
Also there was one with Russian mind control, where a man got married and it was all a trick to get him on his honeymoon to be reprogrammed by Russians. And that was so ... cheap trick, boring. Instead of characterisation and having a guy stuck in a dilemma between trusting his wife and trusting a work colleague, they just had some flash lights while he makes stress faces and fights his programming. Again, people do not work like that, and there's a much better story hiding in there, it's just that would require writing people.
Also also, I'm kind of thinking it's sad I can't write for 80s TV. Like, if this is the standard, I've totally got this. I can write humans this good. My humans can look at least this realistic, no problem.
Sometimes there's main character theme stuff like where a guy was pretending he was someone's father and looking for them to say sorry for leaving, and he was all comparing himself and Mac, and Mac was having daddy issues at him so very loudly. That works. He's a guy who wants to see the best in people, and then the show lets that work out well for him, it's great. I hate grimdark shows made of cynicism and betrayal, humans don't work like that neither. So he goes around making friends and having feelings at them, that's fun.
It's just also pretty straightforward. So it's good background viewing for an afternoon.
But it's kind of freaky weird that the one and only episode thus far with two whole women in it had them both be manipulative via kissing and then one be the evil temptress. Women are actual people too. Just not on TV.
Leaves me more grateful for... well, still scraps, but slightly improved scraps?
meh.
female character of the week gets really boring. she's there to look pretty and be very nearly competent but then screw up in some completely obvious way so a man can fix it. the more her competence is talked up the more Mac looks good when he outsmarts her in her area of expertise, and the more obvious her screw up is the more the audience can feel good about being smarter than the supposed expert.
I guess the same thing happens in Doctor Who but it's not quite so blatant. Also in Doctor Who the companion gets to be competent in their narrower field and then need rescuing for reasons outside their expertise. It's a different vibe than 'good but not quite good enough to play with the mans'.
boooooored now.
the last one I've watched today I thought was going to kill the black guy in the first act again, but no, he got rescued. he was attempting suicide because of money, so then they did crime to frame the criminal who stole the money. and by the end he wasn't feeling suicidal any more. because crime was fun and rewarding. which, you know, not a method I've heard of in therapy, but I can see how that could work.
I'm also constantly amused by how many ways Mac shows the audience at home how to screw themselves up really badly with common household objects. Improvised explosives are the solution to so many problems. So many.
*facepalm*
I dislike when the plot contrives to make women wear less, and I very much dislike when they have Mac trick a woman into wearing less. Like, dude, just ask, don't pretend like you need her buttons to save your lives, that's creepy.
Also the... I can't even call it romance, the thing where sometimes they stand next to each other for a while and then decide to kiss? I started out thinking I didn't like the kissing parts because my inner 8 year old watches this show, and I'm sure that's part of it, but rather more relevant is that humans do not work like this and it is creepy. Creepy doll people mush their mouths together and look awkward. Blergh.
Also there was one with Russian mind control, where a man got married and it was all a trick to get him on his honeymoon to be reprogrammed by Russians. And that was so ... cheap trick, boring. Instead of characterisation and having a guy stuck in a dilemma between trusting his wife and trusting a work colleague, they just had some flash lights while he makes stress faces and fights his programming. Again, people do not work like that, and there's a much better story hiding in there, it's just that would require writing people.
Also also, I'm kind of thinking it's sad I can't write for 80s TV. Like, if this is the standard, I've totally got this. I can write humans this good. My humans can look at least this realistic, no problem.
Sometimes there's main character theme stuff like where a guy was pretending he was someone's father and looking for them to say sorry for leaving, and he was all comparing himself and Mac, and Mac was having daddy issues at him so very loudly. That works. He's a guy who wants to see the best in people, and then the show lets that work out well for him, it's great. I hate grimdark shows made of cynicism and betrayal, humans don't work like that neither. So he goes around making friends and having feelings at them, that's fun.
It's just also pretty straightforward. So it's good background viewing for an afternoon.
But it's kind of freaky weird that the one and only episode thus far with two whole women in it had them both be manipulative via kissing and then one be the evil temptress. Women are actual people too. Just not on TV.
Leaves me more grateful for... well, still scraps, but slightly improved scraps?
meh.