Alcatraz 1x03
Umm, wow. I think I'm failing out already. It made me want to puke, and not in the "wow, this is so realistic and compelling" kind of way (which is why I still watch SouthLAnd despite the violence) but more like the "wow, this is so lacking in nuance it infuriates me and it makes me sick that I just wasted an hour of my time."
Seriously, as someone who was physically and emotionally abused by my older brother this episode was just... ROTTEN.
First of all, I don't know why family violence is such a popular plot device in the first place. Seriously, WHY? To make your character extra-evil? Because that just shows that you're COMPLETELY IGNORANT about the complexity of family violence, and undermines the point you were trying to make. Yes, there are some people out there who are Just Born Bad. But for fuck's sake, that is NOT the vast majority of domestic violence cases. Most of the time - shock, horror - it doesn't come out of nowhere. And it's not perpetrated by someone who's unambiguously evil. The whole reason it's so pervasive and hard to escape from is that it happens so often it becomes normal. I've talked about this before, that my maternal grandfather grew up without a mother because his Dad beat her to death. And that my own mother beat my brother, who then abused me. THAT is the reality: the vast majority of violent criminals come from a violent background. There are exceptions but that's just it: they are exceptions.
I'm not making excuses; I'm stating facts. Often, people from a violent background perpetuate the violence. Unless they make a conscious effort NOT to do so, which is what I've spent the last ten years trying to achieve.
And really, the older brother strangles his little brother to death because of jealousy over his mother's favoritism? And we're NOT supposed to think that his mother's blatant favoritism was a Bad Thing, but a natural occurrence because she could Tell He Was Evil?
I can't even. I've lost the ability to can. We're supposed to think the mother was Noble And Conflicted because she didn't want to lost "two babies in one day" so she covered up the murder, but fucking SERIOUSLY. Since when does rejecting your child because they don't share your hobbies = a reasonable thing to do? And the father was a non-entity, except to speak for the audience about how his son the murderer was unambiguously evil. Noble, self-sacrificing mother and angry, condemning father totes = edgy, original drama. THAT hasn't been done a MILLION fucking times.
Tl; dr: STOP USING MY CHILDHOOD TO MAKE YOURSELVES LOOK ~EDGY. IT'S NOT WORKING, IT'S CLICHED AS HELL, AND IT'S INSULTING.
Crossposted from http://ariadne83.dreamwidth.org/100849.html, where it has
comments
Seriously, as someone who was physically and emotionally abused by my older brother this episode was just... ROTTEN.
First of all, I don't know why family violence is such a popular plot device in the first place. Seriously, WHY? To make your character extra-evil? Because that just shows that you're COMPLETELY IGNORANT about the complexity of family violence, and undermines the point you were trying to make. Yes, there are some people out there who are Just Born Bad. But for fuck's sake, that is NOT the vast majority of domestic violence cases. Most of the time - shock, horror - it doesn't come out of nowhere. And it's not perpetrated by someone who's unambiguously evil. The whole reason it's so pervasive and hard to escape from is that it happens so often it becomes normal. I've talked about this before, that my maternal grandfather grew up without a mother because his Dad beat her to death. And that my own mother beat my brother, who then abused me. THAT is the reality: the vast majority of violent criminals come from a violent background. There are exceptions but that's just it: they are exceptions.
I'm not making excuses; I'm stating facts. Often, people from a violent background perpetuate the violence. Unless they make a conscious effort NOT to do so, which is what I've spent the last ten years trying to achieve.
And really, the older brother strangles his little brother to death because of jealousy over his mother's favoritism? And we're NOT supposed to think that his mother's blatant favoritism was a Bad Thing, but a natural occurrence because she could Tell He Was Evil?
I can't even. I've lost the ability to can. We're supposed to think the mother was Noble And Conflicted because she didn't want to lost "two babies in one day" so she covered up the murder, but fucking SERIOUSLY. Since when does rejecting your child because they don't share your hobbies = a reasonable thing to do? And the father was a non-entity, except to speak for the audience about how his son the murderer was unambiguously evil. Noble, self-sacrificing mother and angry, condemning father totes = edgy, original drama. THAT hasn't been done a MILLION fucking times.
Tl; dr: STOP USING MY CHILDHOOD TO MAKE YOURSELVES LOOK ~EDGY. IT'S NOT WORKING, IT'S CLICHED AS HELL, AND IT'S INSULTING.
Crossposted from http://ariadne83.dreamwidth.org/100849.html, where it has
comments