Sigh, Lie to me

[sqbr]

I'm watching "Lie to Me" and up until this episode (12) it avoided all the things which have bugged me about recent shows I've watched. EDIT: Used..and then subverted! &hearts Lie To Me, I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

Premise: company are hired to tell if people are lying. Has a CSI-esque dynamic of collecting clues to solve a mystery, with a somewhat House-esque "grumpy but brilliant middle aged guy (Tim Roth) with a bunch of sidekicks" dynamic too.

Less sexist that Being Human! The women are 3 dimensional, have lives and motivations that don't revolve around men, and don't neatly fall into a madonna/whore dichotomy. Bechdel test pass, in fact the reverse Bechdel test is more likely to be shaky.

Less objectifying than Chuck and Dollhouse! Women are pretty, but not objectified by either their clothing or the camera.

Less creepy that Dollhouse! There have been stories about rape and racism that actually used modern, complicated ideas about how those things are defined and play out in practice.

Less racist than Burn Notice! There have been POC victims where their victimisation was not a direct result of their race, and the bad guy may even have been white. (There was an episode with lots of Asians that didn't mention Triads once!) There is a Genius White Guy who saves the day but he's not infallible or too much of an irritatingly un-PC always-right jerk, though the dynamic is sometimes a bit problematic imo.

Better mysteries than Psych! Sometimes I guess who the bad guy is for narrative causality reasons or am a step or two ahead but don't sit there shouting at the screen "How did you not notice that, genius!"

Buuuut...we've just hit "Any woman (and to a lesser extent, man) with a disfigured face is a Tragic Victim whose life is Ruined" trope, which I had my fill of in Dollhouse. EDIT: Ok, doesn't look so bad now. It's still a serial killer plot, up there with zombies and irish music for "plots which irritate me out of all proportion". As an antidote, here's Facial Difference & Prosthetics.

Anyway, it was bugging me and I needed to get it off my chest before finishing the episode. It may well improve.

Comments

[sami]

OK, I haven't read your posts for reasons that will become clear:

From spoilers, I have determined that episode 12 of Lie to Me is going to be triggery as all hell for me, so I skipped watching it. If your post involves discussing these points, you might want to put a warning on it. :)

[sqbr]

Episode 12 would indeed be triggery as hell (it's bothering me a bit and I don't have triggers), but I'm reasonably sure the thing that irritated me, and this post, isn't.

[sami]

OK, I wanted to be sure.

Might be worth (if you want me and people like me to read your posts) including something like "while original source contains triggery material, this post does not"-type anti-warnings. So that I/we *can* read stuff that is ancillary to things to be avoided... up to you, though, obviously. This is in the category where you're not at risk of hurting people so I won't for a second think less of you for not wanting to do something, so much as I just won't read things that I think will be risky.

[sqbr]

*nods*

I will definitely keep that in mind should I, say, decide to make a post about the terrible use of shoes in Dollhouse etc. (Which I might. They were ALWAYS wearing stilettos! No matter how impractical it was in context! But I digress)

But in this case to be honest the fact the episode was triggery didn't even occur to me until you pointed it out, thus it never would have occurred to make the sort of disclaimer you're talking about. I make an effort to keep an eye out and warn for stuff in my own posts, but it often simply won't occur to me that something I'm linking to/reviewing etc is going to be triggery unless the trigger also happens to hit one of my related squicks. Which has hurt people including yourself before :( Still, I guess all I can do is try and remember the problem exists and work on avoiding it.

But! Regardless, what you said still good advice for when it DOES occur to me that the topic of my post might put people off unnecessarily.

[sami]

*nods* All we can do is our best, and since I know you try, I'm never annoyed with you if you miss something - but since I also know your intentions are good and, as the usage goes, it's an area in which I do believe you to be an ally, I'm just likely to point out these things when they come up with you, as I know you'll listen.

[sqbr]

And I appreciate that and am inspired to try better as a result :) I just had this moment of "Oh dear, the suggestion she's giving assumes I'm rather less clueless than I actually am."

[sami]

In fairness, Lie to Me is a show that actually deserves to be allowed a serial killer plot, which is pretty unusual.

Things that I like lots about Lie To Me, in a similar vein:

- The episode that actually takes on aversive racism as a concept, EXPLICITLY ADDRESSING that people who think they're not racist often still are.

- The earlier rape episode, where "technically she never said no, but it was still rape" is also actually taken on. Seriously seriously I think this is the FIRST TV show I've EVER seen take on the deeper concepts of consent, at all.

- How awesome is it that Ria Torres is brilliant and beautiful, but what people care about most is that she's BRILLIANT?

- How awesome is it that when Loker leaves an odd, ambiguous late-night voicemail on her phone, her boyfriend doesn't get jealous or suspicious, and his concern isn't neanderthal "MY WOMAN" issues, but whether Loker is treating her with the *respect* and *concern* due from a friend?

- Also, her black boyfriend is not seen as some kind of sexually overbearing stereotype, either. I love that one scene where he basically is all "hey, want to have sex?" in a nice way, and she smiles and declines, and... that's it. He doesn't get all disappointed, doesn't push it, she doesn't make an issue of it, it's just, clearly: not right now, and he takes that with a smile and continues the conversation. Patently, their relationship includes sex, but isn't defined by it, and he's a boyfriend who likes her for her, not just for sex, too.

- Also, the fact that their relationship is "interracial"? Not. An. Issue. Not even mentioned.

- All the random, not-for-any-specific-reason black people. It's set in DC. DC has a high black population. And hey, in Lie to Me, random cops and other people are black, and it's just... hey, he's a cop, he's on duty, his race should not be affecting anything about his interactions with anyone on screen, and IT DOESN'T.

- The episode with all the Koreans, Korean culture was relevant, but not stereotyped, not played up OR played down. Because, hey, their culture affects things, it's a part of who they are, but their race isn't EVERYTHING about them.

- It's kept relevant who has jurisdiction over what, but doesn't automatically become law enforcement agencies being petty and stupid about stuff.

I love Lie to Me SO HARD for all of this.

[sqbr]

Yes to all of that. It's very nice not to be horribly disappointed in a show.

[tree]

up there with zombies and irish music for "plots which irritate me out of all proportion"

*gasp* what's wrong with zombies?

[sqbr]

They Freak. Me. Out.

Seriously. I couldn't sleep after watching "Shaun of the Dead".

I don't have any objections on artistic grounds, though. As long as I don't have to read/watch it myself :)