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[ivy03]

After yesterday's post, I of course had to go home and watch some Pretender. It turns out I was confusing his devirginifying episode with his only other love interest on the show

Comments

[trinityvixen]

It's a difference of the decades. The 1990s were, all things considered, an incredibly optimistic time. It makes sense, in a way, what with the economic boom and the promise of the dot-coms making the future our reality, etc. etc. Really, most shows then were pretty upbeat. (I mean, even Xena, who started off a bad guy, got her own show about helping people every week.) So if this guy is lurking and appears to be harmless (if not a little..."touched" given Jarod's response to things like kids on tricycles and the like), okay, he's harmless!

Jump cut to twenty(!!!) years later, we've seen a major terrorist attack (or three), had a financial and housing crisis, learned our government has granted itself Orwellian powers over life, death, and privacy, and that you should always be suspicious because living in fear and paranoia is almost your 2.5nd Amendment Right. Needless to say, things have changed. It's hard to imagine how anyone in the 90s survived.

[trinityvixen]

Also, it was the 1990s, and the idea of a guy's butt being visible (Dennis Franz's butt, of all things, so not really the sex bomb that rocked the world) was something that set off panic. That Jarod played at being a gigolo at this stage without ever having sex is not only expected for early 1990s writing (ugh, have you been reading darkling1 and moonlightalice's TNG reviews?), it's probably not far off from the way things are today. Women don't have sex drives! They're not allowed. But if they do have sex, they're either always satisfied or are harpies who never can be. And most of it will be off screen anyway, unless you're on Spartacus in which case HAVE ALL THE BOOBIES. (And, to be fair, the occasional cock and man-on-man, which is kind of awesome even though it's like 97%-to-3%.)

[ivy03]

Late nineties. Pretender ran 1996-97--the gigolo episode was 1998.

What amuses me most is the cataclysmic difference between pre- and post-iPhone. Having people going around with enormous folding maps and being unable to check emails until they get home is just mind bending now.

[trinityvixen]

Great point. I have the same reaction to old movies, especially horror movies, where no one can get help because the phones are out/don't exist!. I mean, to some degree, they've adapted with the "no signal!" reach-around, but there are so many movies that couldn't happen with technology being what it is. I think the only movie that did something interesting with how connected people could be was Cellular, wherein a kidnap victim was able to randomly dial out to a stranger's cell phone and the point was that he couldn't drop the call (or she'd die). It was a movie that depended on communication. Not a great movie, but a terrific concept I'd like to see more of. I take it Person of Interest does do some of that?

[ivy03]

In PoI, every single episode, they use people's phones to spy on them. This is a show that takes the creepy surveillance of the state and just supes it up. It's a given of the show that our heroes can find out anything about you, from spying on you to using internet profiles and purchases. The show also doesn't try to argue that it's not creepy. It's very creepy, and definitely too much power. But yeah, it's a show of the moment--not technologically possible twenty years ago, and not really conceivable pre-9/11. (Yes, the government has spied on its citizens before, but not so baldly, and not so extensively.)

[sydni_64]

Oooh, I have been rewatching Pretender, too! :) Nearing the end of season one though, and planning to watch them in order.

Also, this: "that's all women really want, right? A man who listens? Not, you know, cunnilungus?" made me laugh so hard. lol

My one beef with PoI, a show I love and adore more than anything else new I've seen in years, is the fact that Reese follows people for so long before they actually notice he is there. I am sorry, but there is absolutely no way in hell I would not spot that handsome guy.

[ivy03]

I still find it less egregious than Jarod's stalking. POI they at least acknowledge he's menacing. Pretender, Jarod's all black leather and spiked hair by the later seasons and people still react like he's a cuddly teddy bear.