here's how Gil can still win
May. 30th, 2023 06:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyHelp, I have Succession feels, as I have not bonded with a telly show like that in awhile. I mean it was a perfect ending. Everything about the show was perfect. Now my post-work couch slump watching will, by definition, be something that's not as good.
(Yes, I recognize the irony of complaining about this the morning after an actual IRL fascist has been elected in Alberta. Please take this as mock whining, because I am but a weak person and need distractions from real problems.)
Anyway hit me with your best memes, hot takes, links to deep dive videos, whatever. There are not enough thinkpieces in the world to fill the gaping hole in my life now.
I'll start: This show is an attack on the entire tradition of Western dramatic narrative in ways that previous Difficult Male Antihero shows attempt but fail at.
(Yes, I recognize the irony of complaining about this the morning after an actual IRL fascist has been elected in Alberta. Please take this as mock whining, because I am but a weak person and need distractions from real problems.)
Anyway hit me with your best memes, hot takes, links to deep dive videos, whatever. There are not enough thinkpieces in the world to fill the gaping hole in my life now.
I'll start: This show is an attack on the entire tradition of Western dramatic narrative in ways that previous Difficult Male Antihero shows attempt but fail at.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 12:05 pm (UTC)That said, it is so nice to see people enjoy the final episode of a show.
an actual IRL fascist has been elected in Alberta
Wait... there was an election in Alberta?
I had no idea. IIRC Notley was in charge, maybe?
I guess we can assume MOAR TAR SANDS!
no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 12:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 04:44 pm (UTC)Notley was voted out last election in favour of fascist closet case Jason Kenney. He proved to be not fascist enough for the convoy chuds and was replaced by Marjorie Taylor Greene clone Danielle Smith. She just won the election.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 09:21 am (UTC)He proved to be not fascist enough for the convoy chuds and was replaced by Marjorie Taylor Greene clone Danielle Smith. She just won the election.
I read about last night. It seems like a horrible outcome. NA politics just seems to be getting worse and worse. I am really getting concerned about inevitable lurch to the right in two years.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 11:22 am (UTC)IIRC, the last time the US attacked Canada it didn't go well.
It's nonsense rhetoric, and it plays well with <30% of the US population.
It's horrific and nonsense, but will it get him anywhere?
I am not so sure.
I'm trying to be optimistic.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-02 11:38 pm (UTC)Ideas don’t respect borders and we have our own neo fascists at both provincial and federal levels.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-03 08:46 am (UTC)Canada will have the worst, because the American Bund is just there.
But at least you have compulsory voting and ranked-choice voting I assume. It tends to act as a bulwark against the worst excesses of human nature.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-03 11:29 am (UTC)fue
Date: 2023-06-03 11:48 am (UTC)Re: fue
Date: 2023-06-03 11:52 am (UTC)We have a very strong neo-Nazi movement. One has just been elected premier of Alberta, another has been crowned our new prime minister in advance by the media, despite us having not have done the whole messy work of voting for him yet.
Re: fue
Date: 2023-06-03 12:15 pm (UTC)There's a difference between here and them being neo nazis, for all their leanings,
and actual goose-steeping nazis.
It's a thin line, but a line. I hope.
Re: fue
Date: 2023-06-03 12:21 pm (UTC)Re: fue
Date: 2023-06-03 12:33 pm (UTC)There was a time that was a career killer. A single photo should not be, but context matters.
But if you have 9 Nazis and someone else sitting around a table, you have 10 Nazis at the table.
I've always heard this as and 11/12 split.
And I have only heard this on the past year or so.
I've hung around with alleged rapists and racists, and I grew up in the ANM era, but it's tiring. Moreseo now.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-03 03:45 pm (UTC)| But at least you have compulsory voting and ranked-choice voting I assume.
Bad assumption. If only. The Liberals promised to replace first past the post by a PR system two elections again and it’s the first promise they broke, after the party establishment realized they’d never form another majority government if they implemented that.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-04 07:31 am (UTC)It's like you have the worse of multiple worlds: a centre-right party on the "left" and a silly voting system.
What we're seeing here is, increasingly (like the US without the gerrymandering) centre and left leaning voters are increasingly nominating independent candidates, increasing the risk of "minority government" and the horrors of compromise.
It's actually working out well enough (should be better, a lot of the Teals are economic conservatives, social liberals).
I can see the downside for the Canadian Libs.
But, what happens here does suggest they don't need to worry. My average ballot has 6-7 candidates.
Aside from the two majors, and Greens, you have 3-4 "interesting" folk: racists, anti-issue and whatever.
And the demographic shift if the inner city electorates (at least) almost inevitably leans progressive.
If nothing else, it blunts the efforts of fringe candidates you see in the US, and the two-party all-or-nothing identity politics.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 02:50 pm (UTC)(this is me being contrary as an invitation to expand on your last point)
no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 04:49 pm (UTC)I think you’re right in terms of audience reaction, largely because the cast is so strong and Armstrong walks a difficult tightrope in creating characters that are irredeemable monsters but also sympathetic. But that would be a misreading of what happens on the show.
Western narrative tradition is all about the individual protagonist, the Great, the one with subjectivity. We are invited to sympathize with him and identify with him. This is something the show teases at—with the exception of the election episode, there is usually someone to root for. But as soon as you get complacent and start identifying, it very deliberately reminds you that you are not the main character; you are the NPC they crush under their heel and don’t even think about.
Also killing off the main character in episode 3 of a 10 episode season is a boss move and doesn’t follow the television formula at all and it’s rad af.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 12:30 am (UTC)But a lot of people just admire and covet power, so you can't tell these stories w/o a contingent of people idolizing the person the script is trying to tear down.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 12:40 am (UTC)Because I think that's the issue with Complicated Bad Men like Walter White or Don Draper—they're awful and they destroy everything, but they're cool. Whereas whatever else the Roy kids are, they're not cool at all.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 10:47 am (UTC)That said I think the show's ability to deliberately make you empathize and then pull the rug out from under you is something novel. (The Tumblr reaction to Roman being fash was...certainly something.) These people are monsters but they're humans and that makes their monstrosity worse.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 02:10 pm (UTC)also i hear npr cover it and they're always doing talks like 'is logan a bad guy' & i really can't deal w/ it, though this is more an issue w/ how we talk about media than the actual show.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 04:12 pm (UTC)It’s such a boring question, too. Is Logan a bad guy? Obviously Logan is a bad guy. He has no redeeming characteristics besides being funny and Roman is funnier. A more interesting question is the line between satire where the writer has contempt for every single character and satire where the writer has sympathy for them despite every single character being objectively evil.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-30 10:17 pm (UTC)I am coping by reading the first season scripts. Halfway through episode 1 and I cannot BELIEVE there was a time they called Marcia "Marcy". She put a stop to that as soon as she got those trust papers signed. (Remember the whole thing about Marcia and the trust? I appreciate the magic that Succession can just abandon these would-be important subplots, and we all go, "Ah yes, great writing," and not, "This seems super messy?")
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Date: 2023-05-30 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-05-30 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-31 06:48 pm (UTC)Of course I also want to hold down everyone I know and force them to watch it like I did with Breaking Bad and Black Sails, which is the most satisfying way to watch a thing a second time.
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Date: 2023-05-31 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
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