Saturday, July 23, 2011

True Blood: Escaped from Hotshot, but Free of Torment?

Am I the only one still stuck in Hotshot? Jason mercifully skipped town in the last episode of True Blood, but I’m still shuddering from his three episodes in captivity. I’ve been watching heinous fictional crimes since I was a wee toddler, yet few things have disturbed me as much as Jason’s turn as “Ghost Daddy.” First off, I love True Blood. Love the writing, the cast, the stories. Alan Ball, this is your barbecue, and it tastes good. But popular TV is a very nuanced and telling social artifact, reflecting its consumers as well as its creators. The same way I would not look at the Egyptian pyramids and say “That architect must have loved triangles,” I’m not going to say, “True Blood writers are being awfully frivolous about rape.” Instead, I’m going to say: “Why did those pharaohs think they needed to be buried in pyramids?” or, to complete the analogy: “Why, amidst all the violence in True Blood and TV in general, was Jason’s abuse so disturbing?”

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