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Rizzoli and Isles
So I watched Rizzoli and Isles last night. Since I'm such a big fan of procedurals and have watched many a buddy cop show in the past, I was looking forward to seeing that rare bird--a sister cop show.
When they opened the show on the extended panicked whimpering of a woman as she is threatened and then raped, I knew we were in trouble. I've watched many, many procedural shows. The screaming woman is a staple, I know. And maybe I was just expecting a bit more from a show starring women, but there seemed to be a particular delight in this show in terrorizing women.
That was, in fact, the plot. Seems that Rizzoli was tortured by a serial killer named "the Surgeon" who has a student continuing his work while he's in prison. Though they don't say whether she was raped, rape is clearly a part of the killer's MO, and in one of the little flashbacks to her captivity, you see her partner come to her rescue and the first thing he does (after shooting the perp) is take off his coat to cover her. So. The implication is there. But at the very least she was mutilated and psychologically tortured.
When she's approaching the crime scene at the beginning of the show, a coworker who is clearly supposed to be "the jerk" (every cop show has one) tells her this should be a walk down memory lane for her, or something like that, then smirks. I'm sorry, what? Who does that? "Oh, hey fellow cop, you are just about to walk into a situation that will give you flashbacks to the time you were tortured and (possibly) raped. Have fun!" This, to me, is way over the line of jerky behavior and into outright sadistic behavior. This is not a guy I want to love to hate. This is a guy I'd like to eviscerate.
But even without that asshole, no one warns her before they get to the crime scene that it appears to be the same guy who attacked her even though everyone appears to know.
I just want to step back for a moment and examine this "brutal attack in the history of the tough-as-nails woman" trope for a little bit. In the vast array of buddy cop shows I've seen, I can think of many where the hero is motivated by his wife/family having been kidnapped/tortured/killed. Women in refrigerator. Standard. I can think of one show where a male lead's backstory involves rape. One. And this was revealed several seasons in, not in the pilot.
And yet when it's a female cop, this seems the default story. Oh, well she's so tough now but vulnerable on the inside because she was raped. Because clearly you need rape to justify toughness in a woman. This is more common, I think, in books than on tv. Half the books on the shelves in my office have a heroine who is overcoming, if not rape, assault or torture. And what do both the woman in refrigerator and rape victim heroine have in common? Oh, yes. It's always the woman that's assaulted.
I AM FUCKING SICK OF IT. I really, really am.
And this episode was all about Rizzoli's fear. There were tilted camera angles and ominous music, the obligatory walk through a prison's hall with the male prisoners reaching out for her, the obligatory confrontation with her assailant where he verbally intimidates her, and her repeated statements that she's never been so scared in all her life. And of course you have her acting extra macho to cover up her fear and consequently acting like a moron.
Even outside of this, the show felt focused on Rizzoli and Isles' girliness or lack thereof. Rizzoli's first scene involves her playing basketball with her brother, getting her nose broken, and then getting berated for "rough housing with the boys." She of course insists it's nothing, and given the utter lack of swelling or black eyes, I guess it was.
Rizzoli is the cliche of a tomboy, not wearing makeup, insistent on being one of the boys, unable to deal with her attraction to men. Isles is equally un-girly, but because she has an interest in science and is therefore weird. The men in the division call her "Queen of the Dead." (I am suddenly profoundly grateful it was Mulder who had the reputation of being a weirdo on X-Files and not Scully.) Both of their inappropriately high heels seem compensation for their failings as traditional women in other regards. At one point, Rizzoli and Isles talk about wanting a pony and a pink canopy bed (respectively) when they were girls, as if to point out that at least at one point they were girly.
There is a scene where Rizzoli goes over to Isles's apartment and they're lying on a bed together. I wanted to glee in the fem-slash but could not. First there was the obligatory lesbian joke (OMG women in bed together tee hee!). Then they spent that time in bed together talking about boys. And their tits. Cause that's what women do. Especially professional women with diverse interests. Especially when they're in the middle of a crisis.
In addition, we had Rizzoli saying no but meaning yes (though the guy did, thankfully, take her at her word and leave). The only thing the episode didn't have was the leads running around in their underwear, for which I am profoundly grateful. Rizzoli also got her own butt out of the fire at the end (despite only being in the fire because she acted like a moron), for which I am also grateful.
I will give this show one more chance, on the hope that there was only so much of a focus on Rizzoli's fear because it was the pilot. But if this shit continues, that's it. Is it so fucking hard to write a procedural show starring women without making the entire show about how OMG! they're women?
This reminds me of that horrid SGA episode with the all-female team. Once again Hollywood has decided that just casting women is enough and they don't have to, you know, write them as well-rounded people not completely defined by their gender. If this show bombs I'm sure they'll decide it was because it starred women, not because of its myriad other flaws. Typical.
I also watched this right after The Closer, which I may have to write an analysis of later, since I think in a lot of ways it is a very feminist show. (Though in other ways it's very not.) But it does better than Rizzoli and Isles.
Of course, what I would have been watching if this hadn't been on was the epic cat fight on Real Housewives of New Jersey, which is somewhere in the negative double-digits on the scale of feminist entertainment.
When they opened the show on the extended panicked whimpering of a woman as she is threatened and then raped, I knew we were in trouble. I've watched many, many procedural shows. The screaming woman is a staple, I know. And maybe I was just expecting a bit more from a show starring women, but there seemed to be a particular delight in this show in terrorizing women.
That was, in fact, the plot. Seems that Rizzoli was tortured by a serial killer named "the Surgeon" who has a student continuing his work while he's in prison. Though they don't say whether she was raped, rape is clearly a part of the killer's MO, and in one of the little flashbacks to her captivity, you see her partner come to her rescue and the first thing he does (after shooting the perp) is take off his coat to cover her. So. The implication is there. But at the very least she was mutilated and psychologically tortured.
When she's approaching the crime scene at the beginning of the show, a coworker who is clearly supposed to be "the jerk" (every cop show has one) tells her this should be a walk down memory lane for her, or something like that, then smirks. I'm sorry, what? Who does that? "Oh, hey fellow cop, you are just about to walk into a situation that will give you flashbacks to the time you were tortured and (possibly) raped. Have fun!" This, to me, is way over the line of jerky behavior and into outright sadistic behavior. This is not a guy I want to love to hate. This is a guy I'd like to eviscerate.
But even without that asshole, no one warns her before they get to the crime scene that it appears to be the same guy who attacked her even though everyone appears to know.
I just want to step back for a moment and examine this "brutal attack in the history of the tough-as-nails woman" trope for a little bit. In the vast array of buddy cop shows I've seen, I can think of many where the hero is motivated by his wife/family having been kidnapped/tortured/killed. Women in refrigerator. Standard. I can think of one show where a male lead's backstory involves rape. One. And this was revealed several seasons in, not in the pilot.
And yet when it's a female cop, this seems the default story. Oh, well she's so tough now but vulnerable on the inside because she was raped. Because clearly you need rape to justify toughness in a woman. This is more common, I think, in books than on tv. Half the books on the shelves in my office have a heroine who is overcoming, if not rape, assault or torture. And what do both the woman in refrigerator and rape victim heroine have in common? Oh, yes. It's always the woman that's assaulted.
I AM FUCKING SICK OF IT. I really, really am.
And this episode was all about Rizzoli's fear. There were tilted camera angles and ominous music, the obligatory walk through a prison's hall with the male prisoners reaching out for her, the obligatory confrontation with her assailant where he verbally intimidates her, and her repeated statements that she's never been so scared in all her life. And of course you have her acting extra macho to cover up her fear and consequently acting like a moron.
Even outside of this, the show felt focused on Rizzoli and Isles' girliness or lack thereof. Rizzoli's first scene involves her playing basketball with her brother, getting her nose broken, and then getting berated for "rough housing with the boys." She of course insists it's nothing, and given the utter lack of swelling or black eyes, I guess it was.
Rizzoli is the cliche of a tomboy, not wearing makeup, insistent on being one of the boys, unable to deal with her attraction to men. Isles is equally un-girly, but because she has an interest in science and is therefore weird. The men in the division call her "Queen of the Dead." (I am suddenly profoundly grateful it was Mulder who had the reputation of being a weirdo on X-Files and not Scully.) Both of their inappropriately high heels seem compensation for their failings as traditional women in other regards. At one point, Rizzoli and Isles talk about wanting a pony and a pink canopy bed (respectively) when they were girls, as if to point out that at least at one point they were girly.
There is a scene where Rizzoli goes over to Isles's apartment and they're lying on a bed together. I wanted to glee in the fem-slash but could not. First there was the obligatory lesbian joke (OMG women in bed together tee hee!). Then they spent that time in bed together talking about boys. And their tits. Cause that's what women do. Especially professional women with diverse interests. Especially when they're in the middle of a crisis.
In addition, we had Rizzoli saying no but meaning yes (though the guy did, thankfully, take her at her word and leave). The only thing the episode didn't have was the leads running around in their underwear, for which I am profoundly grateful. Rizzoli also got her own butt out of the fire at the end (despite only being in the fire because she acted like a moron), for which I am also grateful.
I will give this show one more chance, on the hope that there was only so much of a focus on Rizzoli's fear because it was the pilot. But if this shit continues, that's it. Is it so fucking hard to write a procedural show starring women without making the entire show about how OMG! they're women?
This reminds me of that horrid SGA episode with the all-female team. Once again Hollywood has decided that just casting women is enough and they don't have to, you know, write them as well-rounded people not completely defined by their gender. If this show bombs I'm sure they'll decide it was because it starred women, not because of its myriad other flaws. Typical.
I also watched this right after The Closer, which I may have to write an analysis of later, since I think in a lot of ways it is a very feminist show. (Though in other ways it's very not.) But it does better than Rizzoli and Isles.
Of course, what I would have been watching if this hadn't been on was the epic cat fight on Real Housewives of New Jersey, which is somewhere in the negative double-digits on the scale of feminist entertainment.
no subject
Also, it's 2010 people! Hollywood already did this gender switcheroo with many filmes, including Alien - Ripley was originally supposed to be a man....so....woo hoo for catching up with 1979? And also, Ripley (from what I've seen of the film) is...gritty, for lack of a better word, and Jolie is glam, super made-up, and running around in heels from what I saw in the trailers for Salt, so....maybe not so much....
no subject
It's a penis-soothing, butt-hurt-alleviating measure to reassure people that these women, with their power and independence and seemingly masculine traits can still be reduced to women at times and are thus not a threat to the butt-hurt, penis-having troglodytes who demand such amelioration.