Oddly enough, that's exactly why I stopped watching

[giandujakiss]

Why Mandy Patinkin pulled plug on Criminal Minds

"It's (violent TV) a curiosity, I don't get it," he said.

"I'm very disturbed by the fact that at the end of a long day this is what people go home to watch to unwind. They watch horrible, mysogynistic, violent activity. It saddens me. There is so much else to do, so many other ideas to put into our consciousness. I'm very disturbed by it."

I know, I know, half my FList loves this show. There was this one point when suddenly it seemed everyone became obsessed. Did it just get better at some point? Because when I stopped watching, which was when Patinkin left, the torture porn and the misogyny pretty much exceeded my tolerance levels - and I watch SPN and L&O:SVU, which means my tolerance levels are actually pretty high.

(via umadoshi)

Comments

[mswyrr]

I've always had a lot of respect for Patinkin and it's good to know that he had thoughtful, ethical and partially feminist (!!yay!! feminist dudes in media ftw) reasons for doing something that I had thought was kinda "WTF?" when I heard about it.

For me, though I respect the good parts of the show (female characters! POC! attempts at deconstructing the nastiness it simultaneously participates in), I had to stop watching it because of how bothered I was viscerally and ethically by taking part in the torture porn as a voyeur, even though I was using my fast-forward button.

It *is* problematic that people take this stuff in such large quantities. Not that Criminal Minds is the problem--if it were gone there would be plenty of other shows which aren't making the attempt to be good about women, POC, the responsibilities of the genre--but there is a problem and I can totally see why Patinkin would want to stop participating in his little corner of it. Doesn't solve anything, but the only power individuals often have is to refuse to participate.

I wish more people in film and television would talk about these issues openly. I don't want censorship or anything like that; but I'd like to think that people with other visions have the chance to bring us some of that "so much else." Sometimes my family and I just take a break from dramas and watch some gorgeous nature shows like Planet Earth to escape from people and their ouchy crazy writ large. ;)

[giandujakiss]

Yeah, over at my LJ, people were defending the show because of the female characters and POC - and that's true, I just had to stop watching because of the violence level.

As for people in Hollywood - given the horror stories I've heard about how a lot of the people there think (i.e., fairly ingrained sexist and racist attitudes), I'm not ... expecting them to radically alter their businessplans unless forced to do so :-).

[mswyrr]

As for people in Hollywood - given the horror stories I've heard about how a lot of the people there think (i.e., fairly ingrained sexist and racist attitudes), I'm not ... expecting them to radically alter their businessplans unless forced to do so :-).

:D Yeah. True. Capitalism made TV, but it* also made TV SUCK.

*(or the stupidly instinctively biased thinking it inspires in fearful little jackass Hollywood money people?)