Green Wing: Not Impressed

[skjaere]

I wasn't planning to write a review of Green Wing, but it seems I am not going to be able to sleep until I do. First, let me start by saying this is a weird show. I have no problem with weird. There were a lot of things I enjoyed -- enough to keep me watching through almost 20 hours of television in the hope of a satisfying resolution -- but there

Comments

[elenbarathi]

Ack, this is me not even clicking on your cut there, because this is not a good morning for me to even read about that shit. I have a hard limit about watching any depictions of sexual assault; I ask people specifically "Is there a rape in it?" when they recommend movies - was ever so furious with a friend who told me Rob Roy was "not that bad." Oh yes it was, and while I won't necessarily boycott a movie with sexual violence, I want to know when is a good time to slip out to the powder room or go get more beer or whatever.

It's not that watching that shit makes me feel fearful and traumatized - I react the other direction, with craving to Hulk out and go smash those evildoers against a building like rats in a sack; the Berserkr blood of my ancestry starts howling for vengeance. This is not consonant with my intention to live a life of peace, and not practical anyway, since I'm an overweight middle-aged lady, not Conan the Barbarian, so I try to avoid going there.

I just watched Blade Runner the other night, and was noticing again

[skjaere]

I have a feeling that the writers only thought it was "funny" in this case because it was a woman assaulting a man. But no. Still not funny. Really not. The show aired from 2004-2006, and I can find no evidence of a negative reaction among the fans, which is just as depressing as the original "joke".

[elenbarathi]

Ah, seven years ago: that makes it 'old news' these days.

Television pretty-much always sucks, and the parts of it that don't suck will be available on DVD soon enough, so there's really not much need to even have it, One can write to producers and sponsors to complain, and organize others to do the same, or one can turn the thing off and find something more satisfying to do.

[spectralbovine]

I watched this show a long time ago, and, to be honest, I doubt Sue's actions pinged me. They would now, obvs.

This is also a show in which someone throws a knife into someone's head. It's a fucked-up, crazy show, unlike anything else I'd seen, and I thought it was hilarious even though most everyone was horrible. The special wasn't entirely satisfying, if I recall.

I do love the season finale cliffhangers, though.

[skjaere]

There's a lot of fucked up stuff going on in this show, and I'm too sleepy right now to go over it all, so I just wanted to hit the major points. The knife to the head falls under the heading of "Guy being a douche". A very unsatisfying finale indeed, given everything that came before, and I have to say the first "cliffhanger" was better than the second one. When the second one happened, I clung to it, hoping it was a sign that all of series 2 had been a dream. What were the odds something like that would happen twice? But no. So disappointing. And so ultimately unfair to the only decent characters on the show. In the end, I just wanted to stand between the "happy couple" and the rest of the cast with a bat and yell at everyone to leave them a-fucking-lone for once and let them have a proper snog. They've earned it.

[brighty18]

Hey! I actually JUST started watching, but it seems that, even in Season One, they make light of a lot of potentially heavy stuff. Disabilities, child neglect, bullying, infidelity, assault, aging, body shaming, etc. I am certainly NOT saying that making light of rape (and I agree that that is what it would be) is acceptable, but I do suspect that they feel nearly everything is within limits on that show.

[skjaere]

Yeah, the rape scene basically just wiped all the other crap from my memory, it was so awful. A lot of this stuff is fairly standard and yawn-worthy in comedy, bad as they are, but I just couldn't believe they went there.

[superl99]

I had a similar reaction with an episode of Castle a while back. It's funny because guys always want sex and women never do, so this is just a zany situation that would never happen, lulz!!!11! Yeah, it really wasn't funny and I felt really uncomfortable about it. This sounds pretty awful. I remember when that show was on, but I can't say I was tempted to watch it, and I don't think I will now.

[haeddre]

There was an episode of Castle in which a woman sexually assaulted a man? I've seen them all and don't remember that.

[superl99]

From the beginning if October in series 5 (the current series), when Castle gets asked out by a tv presenter, and since he and Beckett are still a secret, he says yes. The woman comes to his place and literally jumps him, causing fruit bowls to be knocked over and his phone to accidentally ring Beckett, who hears sounds if a struggle and Castle shouting, 'No, don't!'

[haeddre]

Well, that's just...yuck. It reminds me of that movie years ago, with Ralph Fiennes...Oscar and Lucinda or something. It was really sad. He was in love with this one girl but this other woman was his fiance or something and he obviously wanted to dump her, but he was all shy and socially awkward...and then he got very sick and had a fever and was practically dead, and the woman climbed on top of him while he's all delirious and going "no no...Lucinda..." and then she basically has her way with him and gets pregnant. And then he dies or something and the girl who really loved him ended up raising his rape baby. Depressing as hell, but at least the movie made it pretty clear he was violated, and actually did a pretty good job of showing how a man actually can be raped by a woman...

[skjaere]

Bleh. Yeah, if you're going to portray it, at least acknowledge what you're doing.

[brighty18]

True.