Depressing and Depressinger
Oct. 15th, 2004 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tmcgOn consecutive days, I saw the film The Magdalene Sisters and watched the second episode of "Desperate Housewives." The second day, I had also watched Sex in a Cold Climate, the documentary the film was based on, which is available as a special feature on the DVD.
"The heartless of a heartless world," by Joanne Laurier, at the World Socialist Web Site (gives spoilers)
"The Magdalene Laundries--An Unfortunate Part of Ireland's (Recent) Past" at getunderground.com
I recommend the documentary more highly than the film, although the film is quite good. I was most disturbed by the cultural repression that led to these young women being incarcerated, and found the first half hour of the film to be the most powerful (along with a couple of freeze-frames at the end). About halfway through the documentary, I had to shut it off for a few minutes. The interviews are intense, and heartrending.
A few hours later, my viewing companion persuaded me to watch "Desperate Housewives." Maybe if it were funny; maybe if the voice-overs weren't idiotic; maybe if the mysteries were intriguing; maybe if it weren't such a pathetic yearning imitation of "Sex in the City"; maybe if it were a genuine black comedy... But it's not. It's bland and simplistic, and its satire backfires.
In contrast with the films I'd just seen, it was depressing in a whole new way.
Alessandra Stanley did an interesting survey of new TV shows in the October 1st New York Times article "THE TV WATCH; Old-Time Sexism Suffuses New Season."
She begins:
She concludes, after a rundown of the new sitcoms and dramas:
"The heartless of a heartless world," by Joanne Laurier, at the World Socialist Web Site (gives spoilers)
"The Magdalene Laundries--An Unfortunate Part of Ireland's (Recent) Past" at getunderground.com
I recommend the documentary more highly than the film, although the film is quite good. I was most disturbed by the cultural repression that led to these young women being incarcerated, and found the first half hour of the film to be the most powerful (along with a couple of freeze-frames at the end). About halfway through the documentary, I had to shut it off for a few minutes. The interviews are intense, and heartrending.
A few hours later, my viewing companion persuaded me to watch "Desperate Housewives." Maybe if it were funny; maybe if the voice-overs weren't idiotic; maybe if the mysteries were intriguing; maybe if it weren't such a pathetic yearning imitation of "Sex in the City"; maybe if it were a genuine black comedy... But it's not. It's bland and simplistic, and its satire backfires.
In contrast with the films I'd just seen, it was depressing in a whole new way.
Alessandra Stanley did an interesting survey of new TV shows in the October 1st New York Times article "THE TV WATCH; Old-Time Sexism Suffuses New Season."
She begins:
Political correctness has left the building.
And like schoolchildren who throw spitballs as soon as the teacher's back is turned, television executives have giddily reverted to the sexism and racism that brought the humor police down on the networks in the first place.
The backlash is most obvious on ''Desperate Housewives'' and ''Boston Legal,'' ABC's heralded new dramatic comedies (dramedies, in Burbank parlance). Both begin on Sunday, and together they cast a retro glow on women at home and in the workplace -- and take a few elbow-jabs at blacks along the way.
''Desperate Housewives'' is entertaining, but it turns the clock back to pre-Betty Friedan America, lampooning four bored, frustrated, white upper-middle-class ladies who lunch.
''Boston Legal'' lets women practice law, but mostly on their backs...
She concludes, after a rundown of the new sitcoms and dramas:
Female empowerment is passe. And while it may be true that viewers get the television they deserve, some of the blame goes to Ray Romano for leading the way. It's not just that Everybody Loves Raymond. Now Everybody Hates Women.
