My thoughts: The increasingly questionable morals of H50

[4thoffive]

The increasingly questionable morals of H50I’ve been thinking about this since last night’s episode and I need to get it out so all of you have to suffer through my ramblings. Sorry

Comments

[kahuna_burger]

Steve's actions in 2.01 definately bothered me as well. Realistically, he could have killed those EMTs or the cop. You just can't physically take someone down that way with major risk. So he was in danger. Is his life worth more than those of three public servants? If Wo Fat was right there with a gun planning to shoot those very same people, would Steve be condoned for letting them be shot at to make good his own escape? If not, how can the risk to him excuse the active attack on innocents?

The vigilanteism bothers me too. It changes my perceptions of some of the characters and not in a good way. Not that I can't see the visceral enjoyment of a good revenge fantasy, but that's not what I got to know this show as, and the shift can be disturbing. Consider the tsunami ep where Danny pointed out that their future could be improved by letting someone complete what was a largely victimless crime, and immediately shot his own idea down. That's a big change in a character.

Finally, it bugs me when people say "it's a fantasy." Fiction is tied in to the real world at different levels and I judge the behaviour of fictional characters with one eye to how real the world they're placed in is. H50 is not set in Middle Earth with enemies literally Made Of Evil so anything is permissible towards them, it's not in a cartoon world where people can be flattened and walk around later. It's set roughly Here and Now and that's the context in which I consider the character's actions.

[4thoffive]

Yes the steve escape thing has always really bothered me - maybe even more than Chin killing the man who murdered his wife. Chin's actions were wrong but then again we knew the man he killed was himself a killer. Steve beat the shit out of three innocent men and as you say, that kind of beating could have killed them.

Your argument about fiction vs fantasy resonates with me too. I actually can't stand fantasy because it's too far from reality for me (I'm not very imaginative I guess) and I need to recognize something of reality in what I'm reading and what I watch and I'm seeing less and less of it in H50.

One of the things I've always liked about the show was how good and decent - and flawed - these characters were. They don't seem that way to me anymore.