Noughts and Crosses – episode 2
Mar. 14th, 2020 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessStill held my attention, although I had an issue with how it dealt with time – a few things were covered in montage, which was fine here beyond making the pacing a bit strange. But I don’t really get why it took so long for the dead body to be released to the family and why it was such a short amount of time for Callum and his class to get through training and graduate from Mercy Point, other than dramatic expediency.
The episode continued to show us so much racism, just in reverse, ranging from the casual to the violent, all demeaning, all dehumanising. But again, I was struck by the toxic masculinity. I mostly exempt Ted, who scored so many points off Kemal in their conversation and tried to sow the seeds of collective action among his colleagues, but got sacked for it. I also mostly exempt Cal, except he had a lot of pride over money and such.
But Lacan? From about five seconds of him, I was wondering why Sephie hadn’t dumped him already, what with her making eyes at someone else and the fact Lacan seemed to think he owned her, including her brain. It soon became apparent that he was well insecure (and after A Moment with Cal, I’m wondering if he’s gay, but I totally misread where things were going with Elaine, so take that with a pinch of salt) but one of the reasons he was with Sephie was sucking up to power. I couldn’t see why she didn’t use that power (i.e. her father) to protect her from Lacan.
Though when she did dump him, I thought she could have picked a better i.e. less humiliating time and place, but I guess we are meant to focus on her words to him.
But then, she and Callum came off as so naïve, hopeful and starry-eyed about each other but naïve – certainly not paranoid enough about Lacan. The club they went to wasn’t that nice, music aside, but invited viewers to BYOS.
And Kemal – ugh, if I was PM, I wouldn’t want that snake in the grass as my Home Sec. The police guy’s sexism also rankled, because at least she’s trying not to kill people! Does it actually hurt your penis when she won’t authorise you to kill people?
We saw more of Kemal’s machinations – I enjoyed his scene with That Killer Adam Dawn, because he so obviously was convinced he was better than him. Again, I couldn’t see why Kemal hadn’t sent a lackey for plausible deniability, because Dawn may be useful, but he’s probably not trustworthy, but it would have been less dramatically satisfying.
The young man he and Meggie know things about continues to bubble under. Jude and his attitude were lodged in tinderbox territory, and Meggie was on to Callum/Sephie. The influence of African style on her and her family’s clothes is still a stark visual cue, and it was a jolt to see the pagan (?) funeral rites dissed – so Christianity waned in Albion and the rest of this world? Although way to be vague about religion and the ramifications otherwise, show.
Sephie’s earring game continues to excel.
There's no point pretending that I was watching this normally. Even more so than last week, I was willing to be taken somewhere else, and this Thursday evening was a sobering one in the UK.
The episode continued to show us so much racism, just in reverse, ranging from the casual to the violent, all demeaning, all dehumanising. But again, I was struck by the toxic masculinity. I mostly exempt Ted, who scored so many points off Kemal in their conversation and tried to sow the seeds of collective action among his colleagues, but got sacked for it. I also mostly exempt Cal, except he had a lot of pride over money and such.
But Lacan? From about five seconds of him, I was wondering why Sephie hadn’t dumped him already, what with her making eyes at someone else and the fact Lacan seemed to think he owned her, including her brain. It soon became apparent that he was well insecure (and after A Moment with Cal, I’m wondering if he’s gay, but I totally misread where things were going with Elaine, so take that with a pinch of salt) but one of the reasons he was with Sephie was sucking up to power. I couldn’t see why she didn’t use that power (i.e. her father) to protect her from Lacan.
Though when she did dump him, I thought she could have picked a better i.e. less humiliating time and place, but I guess we are meant to focus on her words to him.
But then, she and Callum came off as so naïve, hopeful and starry-eyed about each other but naïve – certainly not paranoid enough about Lacan. The club they went to wasn’t that nice, music aside, but invited viewers to BYOS.
And Kemal – ugh, if I was PM, I wouldn’t want that snake in the grass as my Home Sec. The police guy’s sexism also rankled, because at least she’s trying not to kill people! Does it actually hurt your penis when she won’t authorise you to kill people?
We saw more of Kemal’s machinations – I enjoyed his scene with That Killer Adam Dawn, because he so obviously was convinced he was better than him. Again, I couldn’t see why Kemal hadn’t sent a lackey for plausible deniability, because Dawn may be useful, but he’s probably not trustworthy, but it would have been less dramatically satisfying.
The young man he and Meggie know things about continues to bubble under. Jude and his attitude were lodged in tinderbox territory, and Meggie was on to Callum/Sephie. The influence of African style on her and her family’s clothes is still a stark visual cue, and it was a jolt to see the pagan (?) funeral rites dissed – so Christianity waned in Albion and the rest of this world? Although way to be vague about religion and the ramifications otherwise, show.
Sephie’s earring game continues to excel.
There's no point pretending that I was watching this normally. Even more so than last week, I was willing to be taken somewhere else, and this Thursday evening was a sobering one in the UK.
