Re: Just as Hopeless -- Buffy Trollop Central

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Date Posted: 18:40:39 05/03/02 Fri
Author: Akita
Subject: Re: Just as Hopeless
In reply to: DEN 's message, "Re: Just as Hopeless" on 20:30:47 05/02/02 Thu

DEN wrote: "We're not talking about jumping the shark here. We're talking about breaking faith. We're talking about moving allegory and fantasy into real-world events. I know the difference between rough sex and attempted rape. And I'm neither squeamish nor a sranger to sudden, violent death, But the last five minutes of Seeing Red left me vomiting for a half-hour. OK, it's just television. But after six years you get to CARE. Maybe that's the mistake."

Thank you, DEN, for saying what I've been looking for a place to say -- without being summarily told to "get over it" -- for a couple of weeks now.

"Real-world events." My stomach first started churning after Sam said this in "As You Were":

We think the eggs will be sold on
the black market. There's some
foreign military powers that'd
love to have their own Suvolte.
Could never train it, but drop it
on an urban population ...

I thought it was utterly tasteless to drop even an oblique reference to real-world terrorism into this show (and it didn't help that Buffy had earlier quipped of the Suvolte, "just like really mean Tribbles"). But then, a friend of mine was wounded at the Pentagon on 9/11, so I thought maybe I was overreacting.

But now comes the infamous Episode 19. (I broke down and looked at some clips, and really wish I hadn't. I didn't vomit, but I sure as hell didn't sleep very well that night.)

And I do *not* understand why ME felt it had to go there. Why punch these particular cultural hot buttons all at once? Surely any metaphor or point they are trying to make will be utterly lost in the uproar that will ensue (and has already started). Is attempted rape/aggravated sexual assault the only available metaphor for self-empowerment of women/people, or lack thereof, or whatever ME is trying to say? As to the death of Tara, well, suddenly she looks very much like nothing more than a long-lived plot device.
And that's the least of my problems with that particular event.

So from where I sit, "breaking faith" is the appropriate term.

And if UPN doesn't absolutely plaster this episode with warnings in very large letters -- the content is totally inappropriate for the 8:00 time slot -- then I hope the FCC goes after them big time.

Wish I felt better now. I don't. But I will shut up.

Akita
"It's all right. I have more scotch." -- Giles

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