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Conquistador posted:Watch SoA S1-2 SoA was God awful. Telling people to watch it after The Shield, giving them hope it could be anywhere near as good is just cruel.  Maybe it's easier to watch if you're American. Didn't the opening have Biker tattoos turning into American flags and bald eagles and poo poo? Jesus. Then the actual show starts and the Biker dude is all 'This was never meant to be a criminal gang, it was a kind of 'social club' to better AMERICA' or some other nonsense that reminded me a lot of Antwon Mitchel. Remember when he was running a 'social club' that was 'totally not a gang' and it was made clear that this was total horseshit excuse nonsense. It's basically that except it's genuinely trying to act like biker gangs aren't just as bad as gangbangers. I mean I just couldn't get over it, it felt like a huge contradiction or at least an unfortunate implication... You know, black gangsters saying 'it's just a lifestyle, it doesn't mean we have to be criminals' and it was almost played for laughs, but this show expects me to take it seriously because this time it's white guys? And I'm usually against the social justice knee-jerk reaction, but all that kept going through my head while I watched SoA was 'This show feels a little racist', but maybe that's because I was expecting too much coming in hot from The Shield.
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Feb 14, 2014 21:12
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 00:57 |
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Cartoon posted:I'm not sure if it is unintentional and subtextual but there is a whole dissertation about Alpha Male psychology and status inherent in the major characters in The Shield. Mackey is portrayed as being irresistible to most women and the appeal only makes sense in the context of his status in the pecking order. For both this and the possibly unwarranted focus on underaged sex there is a deeply uncomfortable side to the writing in The Shield. What me not being able to stop watching it says about me? That's a part of it I'd say, but I'm pretty sure Kav's wife also hosed him in part just to gently caress with Kav. She is crazy after all. On the underage sex part, I always took that to be a power thing. I mean, Shane, who is constantly undermined, emotionally immature, and shown to be not THAT great with women his own age is the first example that jumps to mind. I mean he has Mara, and they do love each other, but it's hardly a healthy relationship and she seems to be the one in control most of the time. I've seen the kind of guys who go after 'jailbait' girls and they fit Shane to a T. The only other examples I can think of are all gangbangers and that one child porno episode. And that kind of poo poo does happen a lot in 'rougher' areas for roughly the same reasons as above. In all I thought it was an intentional representation of predatory relationships, at no point did I get the impression that the writing (in this aspect) was ~*$PROBLEMATIC$*~.
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Feb 24, 2014 05:27
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escape artist posted:Pretty sure Corrine was the wife of Shawn Ryan. So both of Vic's family members were cast as a result of nepotism. At least it's thematically appropriate?
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Mar 6, 2014 04:14
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:What bugs me, as well as other posters here is specifically that; Julian becomes more-or-less a background character. I'm not saying that the gay thing needed to be there all 7 seasons, but dammit, give the character something else. Wasn't that because of the pregnancy diverging the beat-cop plot-lines for the later seasons? Did they ever say what was actually meant to happen in that dropped plotline? I'm curious to see what the original plans for Juliens later plotlines were.
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Mar 16, 2014 22:52
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Lugaloco posted:"That cat still keeping you up at night?" Dutch is a pretty good example of a heroic psychopath in my opinion. A lot of shows try to have their cake and eat it too, having the whole 'staring too long into the abyss' bullshit and how 'He's just like the killers he hunts, and it makes him dark and troubled' but really he's an attractive white man with a wife, 2.5 kids, who goes to church on Sundays and helps old ladies with their grocery bags. The Shield is like gently caress that, this guy is a psychopath with no social skills and a morbid curiosity about the world. And he's still one of the best (if not THE best) detective in the Barn. See, not every TV detective has to be the same :V
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Mar 30, 2014 22:53
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That idea is terrible, but I disagree with yall about him not being a psycho. He's not a cartoon psycho, but he fits the symptoms to me. The big difference about Dutch is that his outlet is detective-ing. You can just see it in the way his eyes light up whenever a serial killer comes up. He loves that poo poo. But he has the logical knowledge that serial killing and poo poo is wrong, so while he is psychopathic he's a good guy and moral out of sense and logic rather than instinct, if that makes any sense. I mean psychopath doesn't mean serial killer, psychopaths are CEO's, postmen and pretty much every other job under the sun the same as everyone else. Dutch isn't Hannibal but he isn't exactly normal either.
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Apr 1, 2014 03:35
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bobkatt013 posted:So closer to Will Graham than Hannibal? Yeah but Will Graham again is one of those TV psycho's were everything's super-romanticized. Though Will Graham is probably how Dutch see's himself, everyone else sees the goon that he is :v
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Apr 2, 2014 18:24
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Ronnie did some awful things. He may not have been AS dirty as Vic and Shane, but let's not kid ourselves and call him innocent. In fact I really like that ending for him, because it saves me having to make the 'Ronnie was only FOLLOWING ORDERS' comparison.
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Apr 8, 2014 00:13
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Everyone except Dutch and Claudette are shitheads.
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Apr 9, 2014 04:26
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 00:57 |
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Error 404 posted:Hey man, Billings was ok. Billings framed a dude just try and impress his (ex?) wife. Also he was a lousy detective. That makes him a poo poo-head.
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Apr 9, 2014 04:31
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