But if you compare it to something like Top of the Lake, it had so much less interesting things to say about that topic, mainly because it stuck pretty much to "yeah, vulnerable women, especially sex workers, are considered disposable" and never ventured much further beyond that.

Game of Thrones gets a lot of emotional mileage out of the murder of Ned Stark.

Ned Stark was portrayed as a good father. He got even more touching father-child-bonding moments in the show (and even in the books IIRC) than Cat did.

I was extremly disappointed in Don for dumping Faye in favour of her, but it makes perfect sense for his character and that alone justifies Megan's existence in the narrative. I've come to like her lot and I also liked the introduction of her awful, awful parents (the alcoholic maneater mom and the pretentious wanker…

It's a matter of personal resonance. The older I get the more I find myself interested in the specific rather than the abstract, so that's probably why True Detective didn't do much for me.

Nope. Patriarchy means that the manpain gets a lot more play in mainstream culture and feminine sensiblities get stepped on fairly much with impunity (for the sake of grittiness and "realism"). Men never have to see their Gary Stu self-insert characters raped and emotionally broken (which is something that happens to…

There might have been one moment or two throughout the show's run where the thought of Liz hooking up with Jack might not have seemed _completely_ absurd. But they never went there, for which I'm eternally grateful. I think this is indeed very true to real life - I firmly believe that even strong attraction doesn't…

Amen to that. I will never get people's fascination with sociopaths. I guess a certain ruthless efficiency is a popular power fantasy, but often the asshole hero is just pointlessly obnoxious to everyone unlucky enough to come into his sphere of influence. Maybe that's why Hannibal is my favourite, he's polite.

The objection is usually not so much to the nudity per se, but to the male-gaziness of it. There's a lot less complaining about the nudity in Spartacus for instance, because it's way more equal-opportunity objectification.

My brother and I are 17 months apart - mom's sanity seems to be intact and I generally liked having a sibling so close in age. I can see how it must have been stressful for my parents (I started walking fairly late and mom was somewhat stressed out about getting my out of the stroller before my brother would need it),…

I usually prefer the beta-couple. And with Much Ado in particular, I really, really doubt anyone watches it for Hero and Claudio. What woman in her right mind would want to be a Hero when she could imagine herself as a Beatrice?

The only somewhat plausible argument for team Kevin I've seen so far is that Kevin and Patrick fit better because they are more likely to have the same neuroses, that Richie is almost too saintly and Patrick might feel more comfortable with someone who's more similarily flawed. I mean there are some indications that…

Yeah, that's why I think that Kevin is all about "reservieren und weitersuchen" (stake your claim and keep searching) - he wants to have his cake and eat it, keep the stability of the boyfriend and indulge in a thrilling little workplace adventure - I see very little potential here as well.

Nobody would ever complain about _one_wicked stepmother in _one_ story. People complain about story after story about wicked stepmothers and the relative lack of stories about loving stepmothers to balance them. Which I think is valid, no? It should be legitimate to point out that the over-use of certain tropes does…

I think that ties in with the poster above who argued that these strong grown up women who could outwit the guy used to be more palatable, precisely because they were sold as a "joke" - when feminism pointed out that, actually, this is pretty much how it is, quite often, it was suddenly no longer all fun and games and…

Quoting the article "The ideal is a balance of power" - but in a narrative you need tension, and if you want to have tension your characters can't be on equal footing all the time - balance is not achieved in every isolated moment, but over the course of the entire story-arc, where sometimes he has the upper-hand, and…

I guess it's possible that Kevin is mainly hitting on Patrick to sabotage his relationship with his boyfriend because he subconsciously wants out. But I wouldn't necessarily conclude this just because he's showing some vague dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. Some people just have a certain…

I think it's perfectly possible that Kevin is both "really into Patrick" and a player. There is a genuine spark, the chemistry just fits, but is Kevin planning to develop that into something more substantial, something that might threaten his relationship to his boyfriend? Probably not. Could it happen anyway? Maybe,…

Maybe Patrick just smells extra nice to him. Really, it's often not more complicated than that.

Ah, I just wish I could still see the downvotes here.