![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Episode reaction- 24- 8x05:
1. So, the deal is happening five hours from now. HA. How convenient for you to get your weapons right at the 8hour/9hour transition when we usually start seeing the next big threat. Plot change overs always happen at hours 8/9, 13/14, and the crazy bender of episode 18. Oh 24, how predictable you are.
2. I'm enjoying the little moments of real conflict they're giving us with Hassan's family and the brothers. It makes them seem a lot more real, and it's a nice touch to have them care so much. I liked that Dalia was angry about the affair, but still tried to protect Kayla from her anger. I like that the Hassans had a true marriage of equals before it all fell apart, and I I REALLY like the brothers storyline because it's nice to see real affection and conflict among the villains and leave little breadcrumbs for our heroes to follow at the same time.
3. That said, I'm not really feeling this season for a number of reasons, primarily having to do with the lack of urgency. Right now most of my excitement centers around Jack and Renee, but that has less to do with the villains and more to do with Renee teetering on the edge of implosion. Where are the villains in this piece? At this point last year, we had Dubaku, Emerson with the knowledge that Juma was probably coming at some point too. They were engaged with the main cast. They actually posed real threats with real time limits and they were focused on getting shit done, which is what made them scary as fuck. This season, not so much.Fredo Farhad is off boning some hookers for the next 5 hours and the Nuclear Brothers are off getting medical treatment. None of this inspires any sense of urgency, which is why we have time to spend on:
4. The stupid ripped out of a Lifetime movie plotline for Dana. My patience is officially at its end. At this point, it's a paper tiger, wherein the entire plot hinges on people not talking to each other and that simply will not do. Poor Man's DiCaprio is now trying to blackmail her into breaking the law. Call his bluff and fess up, Dana. It's not worth getting arrested again, and if Cole's as good a guy as you keep saying he is, he'll work through it with you. GAH.
5. What really annoys me right now too is that we're wasting that time on that crap, when they had a perfectly good scene to air that might make me care about the Presidential storyline more. There was a deleted scene, wherein we got to see Hassan pretty coldly ordering the purges, despite the reluctance of his presumably Head of Security (who btw, might be dating his daughter). That scene would have dovetailed nicely into the Taylor/Hassan argument about how to respond to the insurgents.
As storylines go, it's not as exciting as chasing after bad guys and chopping off thumbs, but the President storylines are always filled with these kind of ethical debates every season and this one is par the course. It's building into a nice complex argument between Hassan and Taylor, and I like that they're showing more nuances to Hassan and giving him understandable reasons for acting the way he does.
6. All in all though, it's Annie Wersching who's carrying the season for me this year, and not just because Renee's my favorite character right now. I love Jack, but he spent the episode in the car. He reacted beautifully and heartbreakingly so, but Renee's really the only one who really brings any sense of urgency to the plot. We care because Jack cares but also because Renee's the only person bringing in any interaction with the villain, and she's so broken right now we're not sure how she'll react. It sorta kills me to see her in the same position as she was last year at the end of 7x05, but this time not fighting at all. It's a nice touch to just lay it out there, bare because the cover wasn't working, so she retreated into the truth. That scene is totally going on AW's reel, and if she doesn't get an Emmy nod this year, I'll be very surprised.
7. Warning. Rant to follow. Also potential trigger warnings for conversations about rape.
That said, the raging feminist in me has to wonder why the writers chose to give her that much of a broken background with Vladimir. For all intensive purposes, Renee has functioned on this show on par with the male lead. One of the more refreshing parts of S7 is that her narrative focused mostly on the moral quandaries of her job. She acted with the agency and drive normally only given to characters like Tony and Jack, and and her role as a traditional love interest was periphery at best. Even now in S8, despite the fact that the UST undercurrents are shippy as hell this season, her primary role has been driving the action, and she has been in complete control of her own destruction/salvation. By writing her as a victim, they've complicated her bad-assery in S7 in a way that retroactively handicaps it. She's no longer badass in her own right simply because it's part of her character's DNA; she's a badass because she's been victimized first.
Did they have to go there with Renee? Would they have physically and emotionally abused the male lead so explicitly as to actually call the attempted rape out in the script, even if it was unconfirmed? Somehow, I doubt it. To date, I can only think of one show that allowed the rape of its male lead (and recognized it for what it was- none of this dubious consent stuff). And while yeah, the writers on that show handled it well, there's a reason we rarely see it in male leads that has nothing to do with the fact that statistics of rape victims are higher in women than men. Narratives about rape always revolve around loss of power and to apply that to a male lead, who traditionally is characterized by strength, is too emasculating for most writers to handle. For all that there might be fan speculation about what happened in China and hints between Jack and Ramon Salazar if you are wearing slash goggles, the *writers* never explicitly indicate anything about it in the script. The writers would never, ever go there with Jack, which is why I don't like seeing them going there with Renee.
And it *bugs* me because it's so wholly unnecessary. I watched the promo for this week because it was included in the streamed version I was watching. Setting aside the fact that it's now even harder to reconcile a battered, almost raped Renee with how innocent she seemed in S7, it pisses me off beyond belief that they've decided to go there with Renee. I mean, she's already dark and broken enough. It was already interesting to see whether she'd become the architect to her own spiraling downfall. They could have easily played it as Vladimir blackmailing her into having sex because he's always had a crush on her. At least then, it would only be a matter of having her choose how far she's going to play on that relationship for the sake of the mission, since it would be the first time he made a real pass at her.
Instead they've added a layer of violence and fear into the mix by making her an abused victim in a no-win situation. If she refuses, she loses her in, possibly blows her cover and maybe gets herself killed. If she consents, then it erases the victorious escape she had prior to this op. This isn't just an issue of physical abuse if the sex occurs; the psychological damage here is also present because it confirms the idea that no matter how much you think you can escape him, even after 6 years, you can't. Vladimir still wins.
And worse, the implications it has on the shippery front, in my mind, are equally as potentially damaging. In one fell swoop, the writers have cut Renee off at the knees, taken away her agency and swapped out character development for victimization, and it's just LAZY if they did all this just so that they can use it to get Jack and Renee together. I have no problems with 'Jack helping Renee get better' as a stepping stone to getting them together, but I also don't want him to be THE one to save her. Renee needs to play an active role in saving herself because that's the only way I will accept them being them together- as the equals they have always seen each other to be. And I just don't know *how* they're going to pull that off with the scenario they've placed Renee in.
TL;DR read version: They just retconned one of the strongest female characters they've written to date as a victim and placed her in a situation where she is sure to be victimized even more one way or the other. And the entire plot just took a huge turn into hurt/comfort fanfic territory in a way that I'm not sure I trust the writers to handle correctly, so I can't even squee properly about that.
I dunno. I'm hoping to be proven wrong, because I'd really like to have my kickass female character back. Annie can only do so much, and while she and Kiefer are totally keeping the show afloat, I want this season to be so much more.
1. So, the deal is happening five hours from now. HA. How convenient for you to get your weapons right at the 8hour/9hour transition when we usually start seeing the next big threat. Plot change overs always happen at hours 8/9, 13/14, and the crazy bender of episode 18. Oh 24, how predictable you are.
2. I'm enjoying the little moments of real conflict they're giving us with Hassan's family and the brothers. It makes them seem a lot more real, and it's a nice touch to have them care so much. I liked that Dalia was angry about the affair, but still tried to protect Kayla from her anger. I like that the Hassans had a true marriage of equals before it all fell apart, and I I REALLY like the brothers storyline because it's nice to see real affection and conflict among the villains and leave little breadcrumbs for our heroes to follow at the same time.
3. That said, I'm not really feeling this season for a number of reasons, primarily having to do with the lack of urgency. Right now most of my excitement centers around Jack and Renee, but that has less to do with the villains and more to do with Renee teetering on the edge of implosion. Where are the villains in this piece? At this point last year, we had Dubaku, Emerson with the knowledge that Juma was probably coming at some point too. They were engaged with the main cast. They actually posed real threats with real time limits and they were focused on getting shit done, which is what made them scary as fuck. This season, not so much.
4. The stupid ripped out of a Lifetime movie plotline for Dana. My patience is officially at its end. At this point, it's a paper tiger, wherein the entire plot hinges on people not talking to each other and that simply will not do. Poor Man's DiCaprio is now trying to blackmail her into breaking the law. Call his bluff and fess up, Dana. It's not worth getting arrested again, and if Cole's as good a guy as you keep saying he is, he'll work through it with you. GAH.
5. What really annoys me right now too is that we're wasting that time on that crap, when they had a perfectly good scene to air that might make me care about the Presidential storyline more. There was a deleted scene, wherein we got to see Hassan pretty coldly ordering the purges, despite the reluctance of his presumably Head of Security (who btw, might be dating his daughter). That scene would have dovetailed nicely into the Taylor/Hassan argument about how to respond to the insurgents.
As storylines go, it's not as exciting as chasing after bad guys and chopping off thumbs, but the President storylines are always filled with these kind of ethical debates every season and this one is par the course. It's building into a nice complex argument between Hassan and Taylor, and I like that they're showing more nuances to Hassan and giving him understandable reasons for acting the way he does.
6. All in all though, it's Annie Wersching who's carrying the season for me this year, and not just because Renee's my favorite character right now. I love Jack, but he spent the episode in the car. He reacted beautifully and heartbreakingly so, but Renee's really the only one who really brings any sense of urgency to the plot. We care because Jack cares but also because Renee's the only person bringing in any interaction with the villain, and she's so broken right now we're not sure how she'll react. It sorta kills me to see her in the same position as she was last year at the end of 7x05, but this time not fighting at all. It's a nice touch to just lay it out there, bare because the cover wasn't working, so she retreated into the truth. That scene is totally going on AW's reel, and if she doesn't get an Emmy nod this year, I'll be very surprised.
7. Warning. Rant to follow. Also potential trigger warnings for conversations about rape.
That said, the raging feminist in me has to wonder why the writers chose to give her that much of a broken background with Vladimir. For all intensive purposes, Renee has functioned on this show on par with the male lead. One of the more refreshing parts of S7 is that her narrative focused mostly on the moral quandaries of her job. She acted with the agency and drive normally only given to characters like Tony and Jack, and and her role as a traditional love interest was periphery at best. Even now in S8, despite the fact that the UST undercurrents are shippy as hell this season, her primary role has been driving the action, and she has been in complete control of her own destruction/salvation. By writing her as a victim, they've complicated her bad-assery in S7 in a way that retroactively handicaps it. She's no longer badass in her own right simply because it's part of her character's DNA; she's a badass because she's been victimized first.
Did they have to go there with Renee? Would they have physically and emotionally abused the male lead so explicitly as to actually call the attempted rape out in the script, even if it was unconfirmed? Somehow, I doubt it. To date, I can only think of one show that allowed the rape of its male lead (and recognized it for what it was- none of this dubious consent stuff). And while yeah, the writers on that show handled it well, there's a reason we rarely see it in male leads that has nothing to do with the fact that statistics of rape victims are higher in women than men. Narratives about rape always revolve around loss of power and to apply that to a male lead, who traditionally is characterized by strength, is too emasculating for most writers to handle. For all that there might be fan speculation about what happened in China and hints between Jack and Ramon Salazar if you are wearing slash goggles, the *writers* never explicitly indicate anything about it in the script. The writers would never, ever go there with Jack, which is why I don't like seeing them going there with Renee.
And it *bugs* me because it's so wholly unnecessary. I watched the promo for this week because it was included in the streamed version I was watching. Setting aside the fact that it's now even harder to reconcile a battered, almost raped Renee with how innocent she seemed in S7, it pisses me off beyond belief that they've decided to go there with Renee. I mean, she's already dark and broken enough. It was already interesting to see whether she'd become the architect to her own spiraling downfall. They could have easily played it as Vladimir blackmailing her into having sex because he's always had a crush on her. At least then, it would only be a matter of having her choose how far she's going to play on that relationship for the sake of the mission, since it would be the first time he made a real pass at her.
Instead they've added a layer of violence and fear into the mix by making her an abused victim in a no-win situation. If she refuses, she loses her in, possibly blows her cover and maybe gets herself killed. If she consents, then it erases the victorious escape she had prior to this op. This isn't just an issue of physical abuse if the sex occurs; the psychological damage here is also present because it confirms the idea that no matter how much you think you can escape him, even after 6 years, you can't. Vladimir still wins.
And worse, the implications it has on the shippery front, in my mind, are equally as potentially damaging. In one fell swoop, the writers have cut Renee off at the knees, taken away her agency and swapped out character development for victimization, and it's just LAZY if they did all this just so that they can use it to get Jack and Renee together. I have no problems with 'Jack helping Renee get better' as a stepping stone to getting them together, but I also don't want him to be THE one to save her. Renee needs to play an active role in saving herself because that's the only way I will accept them being them together- as the equals they have always seen each other to be. And I just don't know *how* they're going to pull that off with the scenario they've placed Renee in.
TL;DR read version: They just retconned one of the strongest female characters they've written to date as a victim and placed her in a situation where she is sure to be victimized even more one way or the other. And the entire plot just took a huge turn into hurt/comfort fanfic territory in a way that I'm not sure I trust the writers to handle correctly, so I can't even squee properly about that.
I dunno. I'm hoping to be proven wrong, because I'd really like to have my kickass female character back. Annie can only do so much, and while she and Kiefer are totally keeping the show afloat, I want this season to be so much more.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
The ONLY thing left inside me that holds an electron of optimism is this: it does seem odd that if they wanted the shock value of Renee prostituting herself to her former tormenter in order to keep the cover going, they'd make the preview THAT heavy with suggestion. idk. I'm probably just grasping at insane straws because I can't let my girl go.
*returns to sobbing*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject