Thursday, April 8, 2021

Charlotte - Peripheral Post 2

 *This is meant to be a comment on Daniela's post about The Flight Attendant, but I wasn't able to comment on her post for some reason, so I'm posting it here instead*


I have been infuriated by this show as well! I was into it for a couple episodes and then it started to really grind my gears (also I watched this when it first came out so my thoughts are not completely fresh but my anger is still palpable). Watching other male antihero crime shows, the protagonist is depicted as incredibly smart and good at being a criminal (Walter White, Tony Soprano, etc.). In The Flight Attendant, which felt like a show trying to be ~feminist~ and ~progressive~, Cassie makes incredibly stupid decisions from the moment she discovers the body in the bed. She tries to run away from the FBI at the airport and then goes to the dead guy's office, seemingly with no plan. She behaves like she has never seen a single episode of any crime show. This is not to endorse the actions of male antiheroes, it's more just to say that, like Daniela said above, Cassie's whiteness protects her from facing any real consequences. She does not outfox anybody, she simply encounters a string of lucky coincidences that - surprise! - land her a new job with the FBI for the inevitable season two. I also took issue with how she decides to stop drinking and is immediately successful (feminism is all about choice babes and Cassie chooses happiness!). Never mind rehab or detox or the dangers of dying from unsupervised alcohol withdrawals; just stop drinking! I had this problem with The Queen's Gambit as well, and I think representing addiction/mental illness this way is potentially very harmful. 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Supplemental 4- Sabina

 Television and The Globe - What happens when a show goes international? Not to continue on this whole Drag Race trend, but I mean it is int...