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selenakDarth Real Life keeps me busy, thus, only two links:
The Americans: Mother/Russia, thoughtful meta on the narrative strategies The Americans use - and twist - within the antihero genre: The antihero genre, dedicated as it is to selling us on characters who are neither wholly good nor irredeemably evil, is the perfect vehicle for this project, and The Americans hews closely to the antihero script. Philip and Elizabeth are special because they are highly trained Soviet operatives. (...) They’re humanized not only by their children but also by the remorse they feel when they kill anyone whose death does not serve their mission.
But what about the other important element of the antihero formula? Who are the easier-to-hate characters who make our murderous protagonists more likable? Here is where The Americans diverges from the genre as we know it and takes it to even grayer pastures. We would expect a show about the Cold War to present an abundance of options for antagonists and there are certainly a handful of stock villains who crop up throughout the show’s six seasons. But more often than not, The Americans surrounds Philip and Elizabeth with individuals who are, like them, neither wholly good nor irredeemably evil.
(I hadn't put it in these terms before, but it's true: The Americans basically avoids what 99% of all antihero tales does in this regard.) (The essay also offers good points on gender and audience sympathy.)
Doctor Who:
A little slice of heaven: in which a villain pushes the Thirteenth Doctor enough for her to show the Doctor's darker side, and Graham is there to witness (and help).
The Americans: Mother/Russia, thoughtful meta on the narrative strategies The Americans use - and twist - within the antihero genre: The antihero genre, dedicated as it is to selling us on characters who are neither wholly good nor irredeemably evil, is the perfect vehicle for this project, and The Americans hews closely to the antihero script. Philip and Elizabeth are special because they are highly trained Soviet operatives. (...) They’re humanized not only by their children but also by the remorse they feel when they kill anyone whose death does not serve their mission.
But what about the other important element of the antihero formula? Who are the easier-to-hate characters who make our murderous protagonists more likable? Here is where The Americans diverges from the genre as we know it and takes it to even grayer pastures. We would expect a show about the Cold War to present an abundance of options for antagonists and there are certainly a handful of stock villains who crop up throughout the show’s six seasons. But more often than not, The Americans surrounds Philip and Elizabeth with individuals who are, like them, neither wholly good nor irredeemably evil.
(I hadn't put it in these terms before, but it's true: The Americans basically avoids what 99% of all antihero tales does in this regard.) (The essay also offers good points on gender and audience sympathy.)
Doctor Who:
A little slice of heaven: in which a villain pushes the Thirteenth Doctor enough for her to show the Doctor's darker side, and Graham is there to witness (and help).
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:07 am (UTC)...not completely unrelated but still in another show, the "not the intended audience" factor for me also came when watching Alias; when Sydney, our heroine, working for the CIA, tells her mother, Irina Derevko, formerly a KGB agent undercover as Laura Bristow, now independent, "you are a traitor to this country". Because well, she's not - it was never Irina's country and she was doing exactly what Sydney does in the present. Mind you, it was ic for Sydney in s2 to say so, because the reveal that her mother was alive and had never been Laura Bristow, an American literature professor, is relatively new for her - she doesn't think of her mother as a Russian yet. But I bet Abrams and friends also assumed the audience would be with Sydney in this matter.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 12:04 pm (UTC)I haven't watched Alias, but yes, that is exactly the same assumption - that the viewers will automatically share certain common national viewpoints and opinions. I'm sure that by and large it's a correct assumption, for the intended audience, but as an outsider these moments range from interesting to extremely jarring for me.
Though I would have to think about this at more length, I must say that I suspect it isn't a coincidence that the shows that throw me out of my suspension of disbelief (and even anger me) with their false assumption are shows that are not particularly well-written, and tend towards hitting the wrong beats anyway.