Recent Television
Jan. 27th, 2020 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickRecent television offerings over here (I consume my television in what you could reasonably characterize as binges.) include Gentleman Jack (Lovely outfits. I like her clothes so much! She has her own theme music! And she Fucking Gets Shit Done, which is just a delight.) and The Boys, about which more thoughts under the cut.
Back when Arrow was in early seasons, I worried about Felicity. I eventually quit watching Arrow when keeping up with theKardashians continuity became more bothersome than I was willing to deal with. But early on, the show was unkind to Felicity in ways that bothered me. I went on about it at length at the time -- I would here like to interject that DW's fucking journal search engine thing is really one of the nicest things about the damn place -- and I was reminded of it this weekend while watching The Boys, an Amazon Prime offering that was surprisingly better than I was expecting. I mean, it was well-reviewed (I get new television from reading reviews) and all, but it was actually fun. Delightfully fun. I'm through the first season and really quite interested in seeing the second season.
But, and here's the talky part (not that I haven't been talking heretofore), I feel bad for The Deep. And even more interestingly, I feel bad for feeling bad for The Deep.
If you haven't seen the show... it's a superhero show where the superheroes are branded, packaged, merchandised, and marketed to the nth degree. Saving people isn't their primary job. Making money for their company is their primary job. And they aren't, mostly, very nice people. Jaded, sociopathic, drunk, whatsis. Probably average people imbued with massive power(s) and wealth, so you get a mixed bag out there.
The show's protagonists (who are more or less normal humans) are also not particularly nice people. They're bent on revenge and killing supes. Nobody is entirely nice in this show. Maybe the hero girl from Iowa is nice, but the show's protagonists aren't much better than the heroes they are gunning for. Anyway.
The Deep is basically Aquaman. (Homelander is Superman. Queen Maeve is Wonder Woman. A-Train is The Flash. People who are better than me at superheroes can probably map the other ones, too, but I am too dumb for that.) The Deep, who has an obvious fondness for working out and eating nothing but broccoli and chicken breasts (both steamed without anything else on them), is kind of an abusive jerk who leverages consent in a rapey and assholish way. We know he's like that because he pulls that exact move on our pretty young heroine of Good Heart who is moving up to the Big Superhero Team from Iowa or some fucking midwestern place. He coerces her into giving him a blowjob on the grounds that if she doesn't, he will get her thrown out of Big Superhero Team and sent back to Iowa. A (his words) "three minutes, maybe" blowjob. Okay, so that's terrible. It is. It is 100% A JACKASS MOVE. Also not much of a recommendation of your stamina if you're gonna blow after a three minute blowjob, but whatever.
And so yeah. That's in Episode 1.
In Episode 2, we see that The Deep is afraid of Homelander (a sociopath whom one would be totally right to fear, actor was also the guy in Banshee, go fucking figure. If I could see faces, I would be able to tell this easier instead of finding out on the internets.). And we see that The Deep regards his own JACKASS rape behavior as sort of like hazing. Newsflash, The Deep, blowjobs are not appropriate hazing. And we know he's not entirely thrilled with his hero role under Vought which he thinks is demeaning and exploitative and also the Diversity Hire.
In Episode 4, he's in his therapist's office, where we learn he has a first name (Kevin) and the rest of his alleged team picks on him and makes fun of him. And he has an ill-fated dolphin rescue attempt which (a) kills the dolphin and (b) makes the news, not in a good way.
In Episode 6, he has to film a public apology to Good Hearted Girl From Iowa, which he should do. Apology takes several takes, but it is mostly "Believed encounter was consensual" which is what every fucking rapist ever claims, even when the vic is passed out behind a dumpster at the time of the encounter. He gets his manly yellow dick-compensator vehicle's window broken at the gas station for it. He also gets to take a sabbatical from the Big Superhero Team (based in New York City) in Sandusky Ohio.
In Episode 7, The Deep settles into Sandusky on a $75 per diem. No crime-fighting agenda. No personal chef. But there's a DQ down the street. And there's a girl he picks up. She is not... not a good listener and the encounter does not go well. I mean, it started out OK but then it went way off the fucking rails.
I would like to note here that the acting on the part of our man (Chace Crawford) playing The Deep is fucking fantastic. The facial expressions are spot on. Dude does an absolutely great job portraying someone who is having bad sex that he doesn't want to be having. Dialogue for this scene is also on point.
Him: "Okay, that hurts. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, stop. Stop, stop, stop."
Her: "Come on, it's just my pinkie." (I feel some shame for laughing out loud at this line, but my god, that is the most perfect line ever and someone should win some sort of line-writing award for that.)
Him: "No, I said it hurt. Look, I think maybe you should go."
Spoiler: She doesn't go.
Looking shell-shocked, The Deep is at the grocery clearly eating his feelings (twinkies, doritos, etc). He talks to the lobsters in the tank at what is clearly a Very Nice grocery store for Sandusky, Ohio. He wants to rescue the lobster but when the guy behind the counter gets the lobster out of the tank, he stabs it in the brain.
And in Episode 8, The Deep finds out he doesn't get to go fight superpowered terrorists with The Big Superhero Team because he is apparently going to be in Purgatory, Ohio for the foreseeable future. He also shaves off all his body hair to the tune of Everybody Hurts. And calls himself a fucking idiot. Repeatedly.
So. I feel bad for The Deep because he has a fairly shitty life, as superheroes go. And I feel bad for feeling bad because he's a jerk to women and leverages power to get sex when he can get away with it. This is a lot more complexity than I expected from a show with people wearing fake muscle suits. (Homelander, I am looking directly at you.)
Back when Arrow was in early seasons, I worried about Felicity. I eventually quit watching Arrow when keeping up with the
But, and here's the talky part (not that I haven't been talking heretofore), I feel bad for The Deep. And even more interestingly, I feel bad for feeling bad for The Deep.
If you haven't seen the show... it's a superhero show where the superheroes are branded, packaged, merchandised, and marketed to the nth degree. Saving people isn't their primary job. Making money for their company is their primary job. And they aren't, mostly, very nice people. Jaded, sociopathic, drunk, whatsis. Probably average people imbued with massive power(s) and wealth, so you get a mixed bag out there.
The show's protagonists (who are more or less normal humans) are also not particularly nice people. They're bent on revenge and killing supes. Nobody is entirely nice in this show. Maybe the hero girl from Iowa is nice, but the show's protagonists aren't much better than the heroes they are gunning for. Anyway.
The Deep is basically Aquaman. (Homelander is Superman. Queen Maeve is Wonder Woman. A-Train is The Flash. People who are better than me at superheroes can probably map the other ones, too, but I am too dumb for that.) The Deep, who has an obvious fondness for working out and eating nothing but broccoli and chicken breasts (both steamed without anything else on them), is kind of an abusive jerk who leverages consent in a rapey and assholish way. We know he's like that because he pulls that exact move on our pretty young heroine of Good Heart who is moving up to the Big Superhero Team from Iowa or some fucking midwestern place. He coerces her into giving him a blowjob on the grounds that if she doesn't, he will get her thrown out of Big Superhero Team and sent back to Iowa. A (his words) "three minutes, maybe" blowjob. Okay, so that's terrible. It is. It is 100% A JACKASS MOVE. Also not much of a recommendation of your stamina if you're gonna blow after a three minute blowjob, but whatever.
And so yeah. That's in Episode 1.
In Episode 2, we see that The Deep is afraid of Homelander (a sociopath whom one would be totally right to fear, actor was also the guy in Banshee, go fucking figure. If I could see faces, I would be able to tell this easier instead of finding out on the internets.). And we see that The Deep regards his own JACKASS rape behavior as sort of like hazing. Newsflash, The Deep, blowjobs are not appropriate hazing. And we know he's not entirely thrilled with his hero role under Vought which he thinks is demeaning and exploitative and also the Diversity Hire.
In Episode 4, he's in his therapist's office, where we learn he has a first name (Kevin) and the rest of his alleged team picks on him and makes fun of him. And he has an ill-fated dolphin rescue attempt which (a) kills the dolphin and (b) makes the news, not in a good way.
In Episode 6, he has to film a public apology to Good Hearted Girl From Iowa, which he should do. Apology takes several takes, but it is mostly "Believed encounter was consensual" which is what every fucking rapist ever claims, even when the vic is passed out behind a dumpster at the time of the encounter. He gets his manly yellow dick-compensator vehicle's window broken at the gas station for it. He also gets to take a sabbatical from the Big Superhero Team (based in New York City) in Sandusky Ohio.
In Episode 7, The Deep settles into Sandusky on a $75 per diem. No crime-fighting agenda. No personal chef. But there's a DQ down the street. And there's a girl he picks up. She is not... not a good listener and the encounter does not go well. I mean, it started out OK but then it went way off the fucking rails.
I would like to note here that the acting on the part of our man (Chace Crawford) playing The Deep is fucking fantastic. The facial expressions are spot on. Dude does an absolutely great job portraying someone who is having bad sex that he doesn't want to be having. Dialogue for this scene is also on point.
Him: "Okay, that hurts. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, stop. Stop, stop, stop."
Her: "Come on, it's just my pinkie." (I feel some shame for laughing out loud at this line, but my god, that is the most perfect line ever and someone should win some sort of line-writing award for that.)
Him: "No, I said it hurt. Look, I think maybe you should go."
Spoiler: She doesn't go.
Looking shell-shocked, The Deep is at the grocery clearly eating his feelings (twinkies, doritos, etc). He talks to the lobsters in the tank at what is clearly a Very Nice grocery store for Sandusky, Ohio. He wants to rescue the lobster but when the guy behind the counter gets the lobster out of the tank, he stabs it in the brain.
And in Episode 8, The Deep finds out he doesn't get to go fight superpowered terrorists with The Big Superhero Team because he is apparently going to be in Purgatory, Ohio for the foreseeable future. He also shaves off all his body hair to the tune of Everybody Hurts. And calls himself a fucking idiot. Repeatedly.
So. I feel bad for The Deep because he has a fairly shitty life, as superheroes go. And I feel bad for feeling bad because he's a jerk to women and leverages power to get sex when he can get away with it. This is a lot more complexity than I expected from a show with people wearing fake muscle suits. (Homelander, I am looking directly at you.)
