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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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No Offence ... the similarities to Bodyguard .... are somewhat striking. |
It's now established that cop dramas have to have women cops in the lead with men being dorks around them. The men are no longer permitted to challenge the idea of women being in charge, they (and we) are required to accept that that is the natural order of things. You Mark my words, it won't be long before we have a woman in charge of the Met, however unsuitable she may be. Bodyguard is a bit of a throwback in this regard except that the hero, though male, is constantly reporting to (and if necessary for plot development purposes having sex with) powerful female authority figures. The men are all dorks. Even the male lead to some extent.
No Offence was an important breakthrough in having the lead woman as anti-eye candy. And, as you say, they now appear to have killed off the most eye-candyish one. Whether this was for social policy reasons or because she had contractual commitments elsewhere I couldn't say. Killing Eve is leading the next charge. The chief protagonists are women, neither are eye-candy and neither of them are of the ethnicity of the viewing audience. The cleaners have taken over the asylum.
The chief villain, an international contract killer, is also a woman but to ensure this is acceptable she is white/British and eye-candy, though with a very un-British facility for foreign languages. She has to be able to pass for a native wherever she is sent -- Italy most recently. She can also, in broad daylight, climb up drainpipes unobserved of houses that are hosting outdoor social events featuring hundreds of prominent people and guarded accordingly. Even the waiting chauffeurs didn't notice her shinning up a drainpipe only yards from the road. Makes you proud to be white/British that we have such role models.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I had that Monkman & Seagull round the other day. Something about A Genius Guide to Britain. I told 'em to sling their 'ooks. Genius? I think I'm a bit better than that.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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So the villains of Bodyguard both turned out to be women. But I've been telling you for years that women are congenitally wicked. The clue is in the chromosomes -- XX -- double-cross. I bet the serial murderer in Killing Eve turns out to be a woman as well. Can we trust them in power? Well, better there than in our homes.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The Bodyguard Episode 6
So the villains of Bodyguard both turned out to be women. |
Two? Too kind to the female sex. Nadia, a terrorist bomb maker, Lorraine a bent copper in the pay of organised crime, Chanel (the sexy former aide) who connives in David's kidnap.
David's main problem was after all PTSD caused by Femdoms, add to above list Julia and Anne. Sending David to occy health was his final humiliation for this series. No doubt in series 2, he will be fully restored and then pegged by Commander Sampson.
It has to be said in passing that DS Sharma was not the brightest, he cunningly kept all the plods in range of the bomb, that David was wearing after his kidnap, right up until the moment David was about to cut that final wire.... and....then err David sprinted off...."Fuck" said the watching security services as Sharma studied the abandoned Jacket......Quite.
It was all very American, the dogged little guy, the family reunion, the corruption of elites, the overlong ending, it was so full of cliches..
Addictive....Can't wait for Season 2.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Yes, it is such a nuisance that the first sniff of success has the money rolling in and money rolling in means it has to be made for an international audience. Not specifically American any more, by the way, they are becoming interestingly boutique.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I am second to none in denigrating the interviewing skills of Emily Maitlis but her skewering of Diane Abbott was a joy to behold, finishing with
Diane Abbott: Well, if you're just going to sit there spouting Tory rubbish at me...
Our Em: It was said by one of your delegates this afternoon. |
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The TV series, Black Earth Rising, about the Rwandan massacre is a thriller, less focused on the massacre than on the complicity of the French government and the cover-up of same. Because it's clear that's of far more interest to English (and American) viewers, a mixture of Secret Service ops and military corruption mixed with courtroom drama and Irish terrorism for understated balance.
A strong woman character soon gets killed off but somehow it adds weight to her story (all the women characters are incredibly strong in fact). Not a caper like Killing Eve but its dialogue is wittier.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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In that case I might give it another whirl. I was put off initially by the Rwandan angle. Whenever any African mise en scène is introduced I know that I am going to have noble savage tropes (!) hurled at me in great profusion. Noble women tropes I have got used to. And besides we have reached the wicked (but powerful) women trope stage so at least we get a limited palette there.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Killing Eve's most chilling episode in an otherwise fairly light-hearted drama was the poisoned perfume. Did the assassin, who may be Russian (her accent isn't obvious) use Novichok?
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote: | In that case I might give it another whirl. I was put off initially by the Rwandan angle. Whenever any African mise en scène is introduced I know that I am going to have noble savage tropes (!) hurled at me in great profusion. Noble women tropes I have got used to. And besides we have reached the wicked (but powerful) women trope stage so at least we get a limited palette there. |
You think you can handle it, but you cant, you think you can control it but soon it controls you. You will no longer be you.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Oddly enough, I think you are half right. Imagine the main terrestrial channels were like our newspapers, and spread across the political spectrum as well as the social classes. Can you even imagine the Sunday night blockbuster police procedural on the 'popular' right wing channel. That's the one in which Brexit supporting viewers are shouting, "Go on, my son, off the darkie!" and "You're right there, that woman DI must have been on the blob" etc etc.
It wouldn't be allowed even though this strand of non-liberal viewership is a significant demographic and pay their licence fees. Some say even the majority. It's a wonder how they manage to retain their reactionary opinions. But it's no wonder we can't shift the liberals.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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OK I did like DCI Gene Hunt, better than Alex Drake, but they still were a combination.
The modern trend is to take a successful prog, like Doctor Who and put a woman in. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but then the BBC have to signal their PC riskiness....
https://www.blogtorwho.com/video-the-thirteenth-doctor-smashes-the-glass-ceiling/
It's a glass ceiling GEDDIT.Hey you reactionary tossser. We are smashing the Glass Ceiling....Woman..... Glass Ceiling. Aha you spot it now, you Cretin. That is why we the BBC err are the most progressive folk in the world. Except on equal pay. (BTW sorry about that one)
If this is their best.... poor Jodie is done for.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Oddly enough they were the most progressive folk in the world re equal pay but as the most visible organisation in the most progressive country in the world, they still got it in the neck. And quite properly so -- keeping our place in the race to the future is what justifies the licence fee.
The puffing of daringly progressive actions is always hilarious to proper radicals such as ourselves. Whenever a telly programme is labelled as such you can be sure that it will be yet another rehashing of the orthodoxy of twenty, thirty, fifty years ago. I have spent the last twenty, thirty, fifty years waiting for someone to pop up with the immortal words, "The Dark Ages really were dark."
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Most inspiriting.
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