akeyoftime (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
akeyoftime) wrote2009-12-05 09:16 pm
akeyoftime) wrote2009-12-05 09:16 pm
Entry tags:
I can be whatever I want to be.
Oh Dollhouse, did you really have to go there?
Ramblings pertaining to the portrayal of disability below the cut. Spoilers for episodes 2x05 and 2x06. Some acting props and a tip of the hat to gender portrayal at the end.
A bitter-cripple? Really? I thought everyone knew that doing it that explicitly was a tired old trope. Bad enough when you showed Bennett's injured arm first as if to shout, hello! This is the first and last thing you need to know! But to make it her sole motivation - and a villainous one, no mistake - is just embarrassing.
While we're talking about embarrassing, I dig the themes you were trying to get across when you had Echo 'overcome' her disability, but what a terrible way to demonstrate them. I know it's not the message the show was trying to get across, but I can't help but read that I should just be trying harder to overcome the pain, fatigue, and brain damage. I just have to want it more. (Also, that I should want it more, because I'm quintessentially deficient and maybe a little bit helpless in a body like this one.)
It also occurs to me that you could make a very solid case out of describing Topher's eccentricities as the symptoms of some conditions related to metal health. I don't know enough to make a solid case either way (there's some holiday research to do) but equally embarrassing, show, if you've been using psychological disability as the butt of the joke for two seasons.
Huge huge huge huge acting props to Enver Gjokaj for the downright uncanny transformation into Topher Brink and then the beautifully clear break back into Victor at the end. Someone had better hire that fellow now that the show is officially cancelled, because really? All I have to say is: why so awesome, Enver?
As to the gender discourse, I quite liked the use of Adelle's sexuality as the bluff, while the violence and threats were the real weapons. I've seen it done before, but it was particularly effective in this instance.
Ramblings pertaining to the portrayal of disability below the cut. Spoilers for episodes 2x05 and 2x06. Some acting props and a tip of the hat to gender portrayal at the end.
A bitter-cripple? Really? I thought everyone knew that doing it that explicitly was a tired old trope. Bad enough when you showed Bennett's injured arm first as if to shout, hello! This is the first and last thing you need to know! But to make it her sole motivation - and a villainous one, no mistake - is just embarrassing.
While we're talking about embarrassing, I dig the themes you were trying to get across when you had Echo 'overcome' her disability, but what a terrible way to demonstrate them. I know it's not the message the show was trying to get across, but I can't help but read that I should just be trying harder to overcome the pain, fatigue, and brain damage. I just have to want it more. (Also, that I should want it more, because I'm quintessentially deficient and maybe a little bit helpless in a body like this one.)
It also occurs to me that you could make a very solid case out of describing Topher's eccentricities as the symptoms of some conditions related to metal health. I don't know enough to make a solid case either way (there's some holiday research to do) but equally embarrassing, show, if you've been using psychological disability as the butt of the joke for two seasons.
Huge huge huge huge acting props to Enver Gjokaj for the downright uncanny transformation into Topher Brink and then the beautifully clear break back into Victor at the end. Someone had better hire that fellow now that the show is officially cancelled, because really? All I have to say is: why so awesome, Enver?
As to the gender discourse, I quite liked the use of Adelle's sexuality as the bluff, while the violence and threats were the real weapons. I've seen it done before, but it was particularly effective in this instance.
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Don't be takin' my cynical Mal away from me, noes!
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As far as Echo getting over her disability, I didn't give her any credit for that whatsoever. Echo is a Joss Whedon's Strong Woman(tm) superhero. When she needs to adapt to a situation, her brain unlocks the mystical secrets of deus ex machina and does it for her. You'd really think they'd have Topher trying to figure out where she hides all those other minds when they're wiping her.
Topher's biggest problem is that each and every person he works with has a type-a personality, and he gets pushed aside whenever one of them has an agenda. Their office interactions are based almost entirely on dominance and intimidation. I think he's also quite dependent on the security and familiarity of the dollhouse, so he becomes very anxious with anything that could risk removing him from it.