Marcia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aphrodite_mine) wrote2010-12-14 09:37 pm
aphrodite_mine) wrote2010-12-14 09:37 pm
Misfits
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is much/any meta being written about Misfits.
Today I watched my last episode.
Let me tell you why.
Misfits is a British program that airs on E4, starring some really talented young actors. The premise is fun: a group of teens enrolled in community service for various reasons are caught in a strange electrical storm and struck with super powers, that they soon discover and keep secret from the world. Eventually, the group come into contact with others who have been influenced by the storm, and engage in other adventures including keeping their powers secret from their probation workers.
In case spoilers are an issue for either of my flists, the rest of this will be under a cut. What follows are discussions of powers, episodic encounters and a description of what happens to the two main female characters, Alicia and Kelly, up to and including episode 2x5.
Today I watched my last episode.
Let me tell you why.
Misfits is a British program that airs on E4, starring some really talented young actors. The premise is fun: a group of teens enrolled in community service for various reasons are caught in a strange electrical storm and struck with super powers, that they soon discover and keep secret from the world. Eventually, the group come into contact with others who have been influenced by the storm, and engage in other adventures including keeping their powers secret from their probation workers.
In case spoilers are an issue for either of my flists, the rest of this will be under a cut. What follows are discussions of powers, episodic encounters and a description of what happens to the two main female characters, Alicia and Kelly, up to and including episode 2x5.
To spoil the entirety of season one and two, I will go ahead and list the powers of the group members by gender.
Boys:
- Curtis - The ability to move back and forth in time, often proactive, limited control
- Simon - The ability to become invisible, used proactively, control (at first this is a passive power, but at first Simon is a much more 'feminine' character, and shown to be a victim of his circumstances and surroundings); Simon also "becomes" Future!Simon, who no longer relies on his invisibility but uses ninja-like skills to rescue the team frequently
- Nathan - The ability to come back from the dead, proactive, no control; can see dead people, proactive, no control
Girls:
- Alicia - When touched, the toucher becomes overcome with violent lust, only once used proactively, otherwise a hindrance, no control
- Kelly - Telepath - used proactively often, no control (Kelly is the 'butch'er girl, curvy and busty, definitely on 'par' with the guys)
- Nikki - Teleportation - unable to be used proactively, limited control (this power was thrust upon her when she received the heart of a dead man who had the power)
So... just in the basic premise of the show, you'll notice that there is a pretty strong disconnect between how the men and women are allowed to function. The females tend to have powers that are abusive to themselves (overhearing sexually abusive thoughts, accidentally touching someone and 'making' them want to rape you) and out of control, while the men have powers that are useful (becoming invisible to break into a bank, turning back time to re-do a combat scenario, literally, coming back to life).
And that is just the main characters.
When it comes to week-to-week characters, there is a similar problem.
I'll run down the list of characters from the wikipedia page, to prove this point.
Males:
Tony, first probation worker, Hulk-like power, killed by Kelly
Finn, baby with the power to mentally manipulate - not significant in itself, but he is the child of a single mother seeking out a father with his powers
Vince, tattoos with his mind, tattoos affect mental state, control and proactive
Ollie, teleportation, has control - however when he dies and this power is passed on to Nikki, she cannot control it
Tim, believes he is living a video game, plot involves getting money from his boss, and abusing his former girlfriend (he substitutes Kelly, making her wear a wedding dress)
Bruno -- I will get to him.
Jessica's father, when a man gets close to his daughter, he is overcome with rage and kills them
Females:
Sally, fiance of Tony, in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed and then literally refrigerated by Simon
Ruth, power to appear young but is really 82, seduces Nathan, dies of natural causes (frequent disgut of old people)
Jodi, power to turn people bald (make people feel how she feels), has no control
Rachel, power to influence, uses it to encourage virtue - conservative clothing and disdain of sex, killed by Nathan (Individuality)
Lucy, power to shapeshift, uses it to 'seduce' Simon, has no control, causes her pain
Lily, ability to generate ice because of her intimacy issues, spontaneously combusts while not initiating sex with Nathan's brother, shown with Nathan's brother after death as his girlfriend -- or rather "I'm fucking her" despite the dubious nature of their deaths
And... I'll just let those facts speak for themselves.
On to episode 2x5, which requires a bit more explanation.
I love Kelly. She is a fierce bitch, and one of the few full-figured main characters on television to be given a sexual identity. She holds her own against anyone she comes in contact with. She is the reason I've stuck out this show for so long. So when she got a love interest in 2x5 who wasn't horrible looking, was actually a nice guy (and she can read minds, so she would know) I was getting excited.
I should have known better.
During their hookup, Kelly insists to Bruno that she's not a slag (it is, after all, their first 'date') but the music playing insists that she's getting slutty. Nice move, Misfits. Nice move Number One, that is.
The next time they see one another, Kelly is happy to see Bruno. After all, he's a nice guy and they seem to have good sexual chemistry.
Not so.
They're just starting to have sex a second time when things get rough. Really rough. The camera doesn't pan away. Bruno's face is... near terrifying. Kelly screams for him to get off of her, and, I suppose to his credit, he does.
Kelly goes from fierce and in charge to wounded and dejected.
Later on, Bruno begs to explain. She wouldn't want to be with him if she knew.
The rest of the episode plays on obvious visuals -- Bruno is on the run from the police, and is chased to the rooftop. There are helicoptors and gunshots. Bruno, as he dies, reverts to his prior form. The storm, it seems, turned this gorilla into a human.
He was merely giving in to his animal instinct.
And Kelly, brokenhearted at this brutality (on the behalf of the police) and this honesty (he loved her, after all, and only wanted to be human) forgives him. Kisses him on the gorilla-lips. The episode ends with his death and her sadness.
My favorite character was raped by a gorilla.
And that, Misfits, is why I will never be watching you again.
Boys:
- Curtis - The ability to move back and forth in time, often proactive, limited control
- Simon - The ability to become invisible, used proactively, control (at first this is a passive power, but at first Simon is a much more 'feminine' character, and shown to be a victim of his circumstances and surroundings); Simon also "becomes" Future!Simon, who no longer relies on his invisibility but uses ninja-like skills to rescue the team frequently
- Nathan - The ability to come back from the dead, proactive, no control; can see dead people, proactive, no control
Girls:
- Alicia - When touched, the toucher becomes overcome with violent lust, only once used proactively, otherwise a hindrance, no control
- Kelly - Telepath - used proactively often, no control (Kelly is the 'butch'er girl, curvy and busty, definitely on 'par' with the guys)
- Nikki - Teleportation - unable to be used proactively, limited control (this power was thrust upon her when she received the heart of a dead man who had the power)
So... just in the basic premise of the show, you'll notice that there is a pretty strong disconnect between how the men and women are allowed to function. The females tend to have powers that are abusive to themselves (overhearing sexually abusive thoughts, accidentally touching someone and 'making' them want to rape you) and out of control, while the men have powers that are useful (becoming invisible to break into a bank, turning back time to re-do a combat scenario, literally, coming back to life).
And that is just the main characters.
When it comes to week-to-week characters, there is a similar problem.
I'll run down the list of characters from the wikipedia page, to prove this point.
Males:
Tony, first probation worker, Hulk-like power, killed by Kelly
Finn, baby with the power to mentally manipulate - not significant in itself, but he is the child of a single mother seeking out a father with his powers
Vince, tattoos with his mind, tattoos affect mental state, control and proactive
Ollie, teleportation, has control - however when he dies and this power is passed on to Nikki, she cannot control it
Tim, believes he is living a video game, plot involves getting money from his boss, and abusing his former girlfriend (he substitutes Kelly, making her wear a wedding dress)
Bruno -- I will get to him.
Jessica's father, when a man gets close to his daughter, he is overcome with rage and kills them
Females:
Sally, fiance of Tony, in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed and then literally refrigerated by Simon
Ruth, power to appear young but is really 82, seduces Nathan, dies of natural causes (frequent disgut of old people)
Jodi, power to turn people bald (make people feel how she feels), has no control
Rachel, power to influence, uses it to encourage virtue - conservative clothing and disdain of sex, killed by Nathan (Individuality)
Lucy, power to shapeshift, uses it to 'seduce' Simon, has no control, causes her pain
Lily, ability to generate ice because of her intimacy issues, spontaneously combusts while not initiating sex with Nathan's brother, shown with Nathan's brother after death as his girlfriend -- or rather "I'm fucking her" despite the dubious nature of their deaths
And... I'll just let those facts speak for themselves.
On to episode 2x5, which requires a bit more explanation.
I love Kelly. She is a fierce bitch, and one of the few full-figured main characters on television to be given a sexual identity. She holds her own against anyone she comes in contact with. She is the reason I've stuck out this show for so long. So when she got a love interest in 2x5 who wasn't horrible looking, was actually a nice guy (and she can read minds, so she would know) I was getting excited.
I should have known better.
During their hookup, Kelly insists to Bruno that she's not a slag (it is, after all, their first 'date') but the music playing insists that she's getting slutty. Nice move, Misfits. Nice move Number One, that is.
The next time they see one another, Kelly is happy to see Bruno. After all, he's a nice guy and they seem to have good sexual chemistry.
Not so.
They're just starting to have sex a second time when things get rough. Really rough. The camera doesn't pan away. Bruno's face is... near terrifying. Kelly screams for him to get off of her, and, I suppose to his credit, he does.
Kelly goes from fierce and in charge to wounded and dejected.
Later on, Bruno begs to explain. She wouldn't want to be with him if she knew.
The rest of the episode plays on obvious visuals -- Bruno is on the run from the police, and is chased to the rooftop. There are helicoptors and gunshots. Bruno, as he dies, reverts to his prior form. The storm, it seems, turned this gorilla into a human.
He was merely giving in to his animal instinct.
And Kelly, brokenhearted at this brutality (on the behalf of the police) and this honesty (he loved her, after all, and only wanted to be human) forgives him. Kisses him on the gorilla-lips. The episode ends with his death and her sadness.
My favorite character was raped by a gorilla.
And that, Misfits, is why I will never be watching you again.
no subject
I think I'm yet to reach the breaking point with this show, although last week really put me off on so many levels with the gorilla storyline and 'poor Bruno giving in to his "inner beast"' juxtaposed with the near-incestuous violence and control of Jessica's sexuality by her father (I was disturbed by that A LOT, didn't see it as a father looking out for his daughter personally and yet much of the time the show decided to have Jessica fending off aggressive male advances so... idek), amongst other things.
I've been trying to figure out if Overman is even thinking about how deeply WRONG these things are, particularly Alisha's power. God. I'm fine if a writer decides to approach something without an overt 'political'/whatever agenda; in fact, I support that wholly. I don't want to walk away with a 'lesson' or whatever, that's never what it's about for me. But I just keep wondering if he's at all self-aware of the show and what he's doing with these characters on a meta level. I honestly can't tell, I think you'd have to be brain dead to NOT be but... jeez.
EVERY (very nearly) female character has been the victim of violence in one way or another and oftentimes that's somehow inverted so that SHE bears the blame for suffering that violence and SHE has somehow brought it upon herself. Let's not even start with the sexist, heteronormative, ageist, you name it tone to most things that happen.
I think what's still keeping me watching is that I'm drawn to the characters, imperfect and really problematic, I'm interested in them and their experiences and just how miserably human and complicated they are. I don't think that Overman is trying to romanticize or idealize any of them, and I find that fascinating --- they're all really f*cked up. And I mean all, women and men. Fandom is a whole other issue when it comes to this but, then again, it always is. I'm also compelled by how the show works with certain genres, subverts them, plays with them (even though I don't think it's as ZOMG!groundbreakingly smart as they say it is, it really isn't most of the time *shrug*).
So, I guess I'll have to see how it goes. It takes a lot for me to quit a show because of my problems with the way women/minorities/'others' (and that's really important to me) are depicted because I feel like I wouldn't watch anything; or read etc. But hopefully I'll get my ass into gear and start working through the problems on my journal or find more of the folks who already are.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, agree with so much here, and it's really worth it to put these on the table. I'll try come back to discuss things a little deeper since I feel like I've just rambled about irrelevant things :/
eta: forgive me for the excessive additions.
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Thank you!
I think you did a fabulous job of expressing yourself, seriously! I love that you went through each character and thought about the ways that power is working in all of them. When you laid it out like that, especially with the women, it kind of hit me over the head. Just SO happy to see people talking about it!
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The show seems like it's not trying to be anything deep and thought provoking but it's not like an intelligent person can ignore some of the really sick things going down. I feel like you go into it and from jump you know these people are a mess and they're actually all horrible. When I first started watching the show I was always turning to my boyfriend like wtf these people have no redeeming qualities they're all such terrible humans except Kelly really.
So weird to run into this post and this comment when I was talking with my friend today about Alisha's "power".
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Kelly is a much nicer person them almost all of them, but let's not romanticize her character either. She gets sent to community service for assault. She punches a girl because the girl called her a slag. When her attempt to show that she can be nice with Jodi goes awry and Jodi charges her, she pushes back and then later throws a chair at her.
As she says in 2x05, sometimes she just can't help herself. She is pretty violent and is referred to as the muscle of the gang pretty often.
I love Kelly, I just thought we should look at her objectively.
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Yes, yes, yes THIS--- Kelly and Curtis (some of the time) strike me as the most 'decent' of the lot. Although, I LOVE that Alisha's finally had room in the narrative to actually grow as a character and I really like what they're doing with her personality-wise, she's still got her bitchiness but there's emotional depth that they barely allowed us to see all season 1. Now if ONLY they'd develop that 'power' because, jeebus, it's all kinds of bad.
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