Daredevil and Catholicism
I finally watched Daredevil. I find it interesting that the producers said they wanted to do a gritty, darker show, but without "gratuitous violence," cause, um, holy shit? Does the existence of Game of Thrones suddenly mean that everything that is less violent than Game of Thrones is suddenly not gratuitous? I really liked episode 10, but other than that... I'm also finding it funny that Daredevil is *gritty* show, but if you look at season one of Arrow, Oliver Queen kills/maims way more people. Just not with graphic and extended sound design. I think Arrow qualifies as darker.
I spent a lot of it thinking about the intersection of Catholicism and crime/detective shows. Cause it seems to me that whenever a character's Christianity is a major plot point, they're always Catholic. Fraser in due South, Scully in X-Files, Murdock in Daredevil. I can't off the top of my head think of a show where a Protestant character (any flavor of Protestant) has had their faith be foregrounded. I have a few theories as to why:
- Cop shows have main characters that are often of the ethnic groups that have made up police departments for much of the twentieth century, that is Irish and Italian immigrants, who are Catholic.
- The influence of the Godfather movies on crime stories, since the pageantry of Catholicism is forefront in that film.
- The association of Catholicism with white urban decay. Even in shows without a Catholic main character, we'll often meet a Catholic priest in a run down church in the worst (white) neighborhood of the city, who is doing his best to help that community.
- Writers just like confessionals a lot, and Protestantism doesn't have as defined ritual as Catholicism, making it a harder thing to write about.
What do you guys think?
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I spent a lot of it thinking about the intersection of Catholicism and crime/detective shows. Cause it seems to me that whenever a character's Christianity is a major plot point, they're always Catholic. Fraser in due South, Scully in X-Files, Murdock in Daredevil. I can't off the top of my head think of a show where a Protestant character (any flavor of Protestant) has had their faith be foregrounded. I have a few theories as to why:
- Cop shows have main characters that are often of the ethnic groups that have made up police departments for much of the twentieth century, that is Irish and Italian immigrants, who are Catholic.
- The influence of the Godfather movies on crime stories, since the pageantry of Catholicism is forefront in that film.
- The association of Catholicism with white urban decay. Even in shows without a Catholic main character, we'll often meet a Catholic priest in a run down church in the worst (white) neighborhood of the city, who is doing his best to help that community.
- Writers just like confessionals a lot, and Protestantism doesn't have as defined ritual as Catholicism, making it a harder thing to write about.
What do you guys think?
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here.