Yet another take on True Detective

[Monte Davis]

Uhh... wow. I must have been drugged or sleep-typing; I honestly have no
memory of my post asserting that  the casting of TD is gender-neutrally and
race-neutrally representative of demographically average Gulf Coast
American faces and bodies, and that I'm really turned on by all the great
sex that that happy stud Marty is getting. I apologize.





On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 12:29 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Look, I really like the show, but I, too, cringed when yet another nubile
> young woman - she's a clerk at a phone store, not a prostitute - begs
> overweight, older, drunk, married and, frankly, ugly Woody to fuck her in
> the ass. And this young woman, with her history of being an abused child
> turned child-whore, growing up in the strip mall/pork-rind-eating white
> trash culture, has an absolutely flawless face and body. I guess if she had
> a little flab on her belly, Woody wouldn't dream of fucking her in any
> orifice at all. Even Pynchon referenced in V the sad freshman adage that
> "the ugly ones fuck." Where are the ugly (read: real) women?  Maybe my
> complaint is with the casting director: aside from the younger black
> detective (who's merely averagely attractive), and Matt (who cleans up well
> in the younger scenes, but isn't what you'd call stunning, given the
> character's weird personality) every man on the show is ugly. The redneck
> men don't have flawless faces and bodies - no, that wouldn't be realistic,
> would it? They're overweight, scarred, tattooed, pierced and butt-ugly.
> Poor Michelle W. - after years of a bad marriage to Woody, she doesn't even
> earn the right to a double chin or a little flab? Presumably, if she'd "let
> herself go," we'd see Woody's fucking around as justified. Oh, and where
> are the black women? Two black male detectives, and a token black male
> preacher in the first episode - who's in his congregation? Not sexy enough
> to be hookers or bimbos for Woody?
>
> You mention Sherlock, Monte. Again,two main white male characters - but
> lots of eye candy for women. The show's launched practically a mass
> movement in China:
>
>
> http://www.thewire.com/culture/2014/01/chinese-women-cant-stop-reading-and-writing-sherlock-gay-fan-fic/357046/
>
>
> Yes, the truth is finally out about what women want. We want to see
> straight guys doing each other. We want to write and think and snicker
> about it. Why? Because it's an absolute thrill for us to see men treated as
> sex objects, for a fucking change.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Monte Davis
> Sent: Feb 25, 2014 10:44 AM
> To: rich
> Cc: kelber , "pynchon-l at waste.org"
> Subject: Re: Yet another take on True Detective
>
> I admire Nussbaum, but this time I think she's tasking TD with the sins of
> many lesser movies and TV shows trading in detective bromance, victimized
> women etc. Yeah, they've been abused a lot, but they get all their  "These
> tropes are so easy and abused by now."
>
> She writes as if she fears that viewers are putting Rust Cohle on a
> pedestal for his philosophic insight. Huh!?! Is there any question he's as
> whacked-out as the whole Yellow King cult put together? This is like
> criticizing Sherlock for not acknowledging that the brilliant Holmes is
> socially awkward and isolated...
>
> Also: I've known T-Bone Burnett was a stone genius producer since Los
> Lobos and Elvis Costello CDs thirty years back, but he's amazing me all
> over again every Sunday night with the TD music.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 9:26 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> the other shows she mentions Top of the Lake and The Fall were very good
>> and just as good as true detective, with strong female leads. neither is
>> really likable  as are the detectives in True detective. But to criticize a
>> show for not having a strong female lead is like whining that the
>> aforementioned shows above not having a strong male lead (they really
>> don't). Moreoever, the focus is on these two male detectives with all their
>> shortcomings--thats the strength of the show. Woody Harrelson's wife doesnt
>> strike me as a weak character. The circles of whores, junkies, rural white
>> trash, the overly sexualized religious atmosphere, the characters they come
>> across fits the story. thats how I see it anyway
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 11:50 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yeah, the woman to bimbo ratio is pretty miniscule.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2014/03/03/140303crte_television_nussbaum?currentPage=1
>>>
>>> LK
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>
>>
>>
>  - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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