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Am I jaded? With television, that is.
Jan. 14th, 2014 12:05 amSo last night, PBS finally got around to broadcasting the episode of Downton Abbey with The Scene.
If you've been keeping up with season four of Downton Abbey at all (and I'll understand if you haven't), you probably heard about this scene months ago since for various not very good reasons Downton Abbey is broadcast months earlier over in Britain, which meant a fairly large part of the U.S. audience had already heard all about it. Related vent: I get why shows were broadcast months or even years later in separate countries back in the 1970s, but since we now live in an age where shows are capable of throwing up Spanish/Portuguese subtitles in time for a simultaneous South American/North American broadcast, and where people can start pirating shows seconds after the initial broadcast, can we end this practice now, please? You want to combat online piracy? Release shows worldwide on the same day. Also, HBO, allow non-cable subscribers to purchase episodes of your show one week after initial broadcast. We want to give you money, HBO. We just don't want or need full cable service. This has been a public service message from your little local writer.
Where was I? Oh, yes. So, I knew that The Scene was coming up. PBS, who also knew about The Scene and the initial reaction to it responded by throwing up a number of Viewer Discretion Is Advised Warnings. I braced myself, although alas not with wine since I was already sporting a glorious and rapidly growing rash from the round of antibiotics that I'm currently on and figured why add to the issues. But I had a cat, and if necessary, a teddy bear. It wasn't necessary since it was a chilly evening by cat standards and he was more than willing to support me through The Scene.
I didn't need him.
Because I have to tell you, my reaction to The Scene was, "That's it?"
That's what's so shocking and controversial?
This was considered graphic?
I was so unshocked I immediately Twittered that I assumed the scene had been edited down for U.S. audiences. Not an unnatural assumption: PBS has frequently tweaked the show, usually for timeline considerations. Not this time, several people who had seen both versions immediately told me.
Am I just that jaded? I asked myself. About television, that is? About violence? About television violence? Has Game of Thrones really had that much of an effect on me?
Part of it, I realized, is that within the past week I'd seen a somewhat similar scene over on Grimm that had been considerably more violent and had shrugged my way through that. Then again, since Grimm is more or less a monster of the week show, so I tend to give a pass to anything that doesn't involve actual eyeballs (scenes in Grimm have occasionally involved actual eyeballs, or props meant to look like actual eyeballs). Then too, that particular scene in Grimm was not filmed to be shocking, or distressing: it was filmed to be a very rare example on Grimm of girl power and girl bonding. That Grimm felt that accomplishing this needed a domestic violence scene is another issue entirely, but to its credit the other rare examples of girl bonding on the show have come from other sources.
So, ok, jaded. Then again, when back in December Scandal had offered what I shall just euphemistically call the "Pulling Teeth" scene where AUUGH I had indeed felt shocked and horrified to the point of going into a coughing fit. Granted a significant part of this came from the fact that I had JUST been watching The Sound of Music which was one hell of a tonal shift, but, still.
So maybe I'm not entirely jaded.
Maybe.
And of course part of the issue for viewers is, I suspect, that when we turn on Grimm, which is more or less a monster of the week/light horror show, we are expecting to be appalled, horrified, grossed-out. When we turn on Scandal we are expecting to be horrified by just how awful nearly every character on that show is, although perhaps NOT THAT HORRIFIED, ABC.
Downton Abbey, however, presents itself as classic escapism, a story of a more mannered, refined period, where the servants are all mostly happy to support the status quo of QUICK GET THOSE ARISTOCRATS THEIR TEA, like NOW, please. (There's an unintentionally hilarious moment early in this season, not played for laughs, where the household goes into a panic because they have no one -- NO ONE -- who can immediately help get her ladyship into a dress, which granted would have been a fairly serious concern in the late 19th century when getting into aristocratic dresses, complete with corsets, was not a joke, and a fairly lengthy process, but a lot less of a concern in 1922 or 1923, wherever we are now in the show). A refined period where violence was less common. You know, like in Jane Austen novel.
Except that this is a pretty serious misreading of Jane Austen.
People tend to forget, what with all the wars of wit and words, but her books have a fairly significant bit of violence: people get whipped in Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility has sexual predators and a duel; the wealthy people in Persuasion made their money from war. Sexual predators creep around everywhere, and if many people in the novel blame Lydia for running off with Wickham, Austen herself was quite well aware that Wickham was a sexual predator, if a charming sort of sexual predator -- and Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bennett all take at least part of the blame for what happened.
And what's true for Jane Austen is true for the real world, too. Nothing violent happened to me today -- but I could occasionally hear the sounds of sirens in the background. I can read the news. I can listen to people. I know what's out there.
So I guess, even in my escapist fiction, I expect that.
Now, all that said, was I thrilled with how The Scene was handled? Not at all. Comments that it was exploitative are in the maybe category -- as I said, it was less graphic than other comparable scenes, including a second, different scene in Scandal. Comments that how it was edited was manipulative are also in the maybe category -- the editing explained certain plot points.
What is less in the maybe category is how the show handled the lead up to The Scene, which is to say, not at all well, with its implications of "oooh, if only that character had listened to a GUY," and various bits of misogyny and other unpleasant bits, and how the show handled the aftermath to the scene, in which a character with excellent reasons not to say a word about said scene instead ignores all of those reasons and chooses....some very questionable reasons not to say a word about said scene. Wow, that was difficult to write without spoiling.
And less in the maybe category is the reality that television contains several images of violence, that I have come to expect certain events in my television shows, and that it says something that The Scene in Downton Abbey had corresponding scenes in House of Cards, Scandal, Grimm, Game of Thrones and (implied only; not depicted) Arrow this year alone. I suppose I am more surprised when shows don't go there, but when even Scandal which was not exactly originally pitched as a violent show...
Well.
And what is also less in the maybe category is that when I hear that something is going to be disturbing and violent on a television show my thoughts jump to the Red Wedding. (Which was horrific, no question.)
Not The Scene in Downton Abbey.
So maybe I'm more than a bit jaded after all.
I think I had more of a point when I started off with this and it got lost somewhere along the way. Somewhat the way the day got lost somewhere along the way.
If you've been keeping up with season four of Downton Abbey at all (and I'll understand if you haven't), you probably heard about this scene months ago since for various not very good reasons Downton Abbey is broadcast months earlier over in Britain, which meant a fairly large part of the U.S. audience had already heard all about it. Related vent: I get why shows were broadcast months or even years later in separate countries back in the 1970s, but since we now live in an age where shows are capable of throwing up Spanish/Portuguese subtitles in time for a simultaneous South American/North American broadcast, and where people can start pirating shows seconds after the initial broadcast, can we end this practice now, please? You want to combat online piracy? Release shows worldwide on the same day. Also, HBO, allow non-cable subscribers to purchase episodes of your show one week after initial broadcast. We want to give you money, HBO. We just don't want or need full cable service. This has been a public service message from your little local writer.
Where was I? Oh, yes. So, I knew that The Scene was coming up. PBS, who also knew about The Scene and the initial reaction to it responded by throwing up a number of Viewer Discretion Is Advised Warnings. I braced myself, although alas not with wine since I was already sporting a glorious and rapidly growing rash from the round of antibiotics that I'm currently on and figured why add to the issues. But I had a cat, and if necessary, a teddy bear. It wasn't necessary since it was a chilly evening by cat standards and he was more than willing to support me through The Scene.
I didn't need him.
Because I have to tell you, my reaction to The Scene was, "That's it?"
That's what's so shocking and controversial?
This was considered graphic?
I was so unshocked I immediately Twittered that I assumed the scene had been edited down for U.S. audiences. Not an unnatural assumption: PBS has frequently tweaked the show, usually for timeline considerations. Not this time, several people who had seen both versions immediately told me.
Am I just that jaded? I asked myself. About television, that is? About violence? About television violence? Has Game of Thrones really had that much of an effect on me?
Part of it, I realized, is that within the past week I'd seen a somewhat similar scene over on Grimm that had been considerably more violent and had shrugged my way through that. Then again, since Grimm is more or less a monster of the week show, so I tend to give a pass to anything that doesn't involve actual eyeballs (scenes in Grimm have occasionally involved actual eyeballs, or props meant to look like actual eyeballs). Then too, that particular scene in Grimm was not filmed to be shocking, or distressing: it was filmed to be a very rare example on Grimm of girl power and girl bonding. That Grimm felt that accomplishing this needed a domestic violence scene is another issue entirely, but to its credit the other rare examples of girl bonding on the show have come from other sources.
So, ok, jaded. Then again, when back in December Scandal had offered what I shall just euphemistically call the "Pulling Teeth" scene where AUUGH I had indeed felt shocked and horrified to the point of going into a coughing fit. Granted a significant part of this came from the fact that I had JUST been watching The Sound of Music which was one hell of a tonal shift, but, still.
So maybe I'm not entirely jaded.
Maybe.
And of course part of the issue for viewers is, I suspect, that when we turn on Grimm, which is more or less a monster of the week/light horror show, we are expecting to be appalled, horrified, grossed-out. When we turn on Scandal we are expecting to be horrified by just how awful nearly every character on that show is, although perhaps NOT THAT HORRIFIED, ABC.
Downton Abbey, however, presents itself as classic escapism, a story of a more mannered, refined period, where the servants are all mostly happy to support the status quo of QUICK GET THOSE ARISTOCRATS THEIR TEA, like NOW, please. (There's an unintentionally hilarious moment early in this season, not played for laughs, where the household goes into a panic because they have no one -- NO ONE -- who can immediately help get her ladyship into a dress, which granted would have been a fairly serious concern in the late 19th century when getting into aristocratic dresses, complete with corsets, was not a joke, and a fairly lengthy process, but a lot less of a concern in 1922 or 1923, wherever we are now in the show). A refined period where violence was less common. You know, like in Jane Austen novel.
Except that this is a pretty serious misreading of Jane Austen.
People tend to forget, what with all the wars of wit and words, but her books have a fairly significant bit of violence: people get whipped in Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility has sexual predators and a duel; the wealthy people in Persuasion made their money from war. Sexual predators creep around everywhere, and if many people in the novel blame Lydia for running off with Wickham, Austen herself was quite well aware that Wickham was a sexual predator, if a charming sort of sexual predator -- and Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bennett all take at least part of the blame for what happened.
And what's true for Jane Austen is true for the real world, too. Nothing violent happened to me today -- but I could occasionally hear the sounds of sirens in the background. I can read the news. I can listen to people. I know what's out there.
So I guess, even in my escapist fiction, I expect that.
Now, all that said, was I thrilled with how The Scene was handled? Not at all. Comments that it was exploitative are in the maybe category -- as I said, it was less graphic than other comparable scenes, including a second, different scene in Scandal. Comments that how it was edited was manipulative are also in the maybe category -- the editing explained certain plot points.
What is less in the maybe category is how the show handled the lead up to The Scene, which is to say, not at all well, with its implications of "oooh, if only that character had listened to a GUY," and various bits of misogyny and other unpleasant bits, and how the show handled the aftermath to the scene, in which a character with excellent reasons not to say a word about said scene instead ignores all of those reasons and chooses....some very questionable reasons not to say a word about said scene. Wow, that was difficult to write without spoiling.
And less in the maybe category is the reality that television contains several images of violence, that I have come to expect certain events in my television shows, and that it says something that The Scene in Downton Abbey had corresponding scenes in House of Cards, Scandal, Grimm, Game of Thrones and (implied only; not depicted) Arrow this year alone. I suppose I am more surprised when shows don't go there, but when even Scandal which was not exactly originally pitched as a violent show...
Well.
And what is also less in the maybe category is that when I hear that something is going to be disturbing and violent on a television show my thoughts jump to the Red Wedding. (Which was horrific, no question.)
Not The Scene in Downton Abbey.
So maybe I'm more than a bit jaded after all.
I think I had more of a point when I started off with this and it got lost somewhere along the way. Somewhat the way the day got lost somewhere along the way.