Close Encounters of the You Call Yourself a Nerd? Kind
“There is something deeply depraved and repellent about obsessive fanboy one-upsmanship”
~words of the ne’er-truer variety spoken by StrangeAppar8us in comments to this post, apparently unaware that I’m founder of, and senior partner at, the offices of Deeply, Depraved, and Repellant
Welcome to round 2 of my (I guess) ongoing (sure why not) one-sided dorkfight with Mr. Durrr Hey Guys Maybe Zombies Are Metaphors For Stuff. I wasn’t looking to get back in the ring (I’m afraid I’ll get my fist caught in that chin-cleft), and this time was supposed to be spent more gainfully (in the caloric sense, beer and Wheat Thins mostly), but nooooooo, I had to follow the daisy-chain of links that led from here to here.
I’ve heard that Battlestar Galactica is a favorite of neoconservatives for its supposedly metaphorical allusions to Bush foreign policy. I’ve never seen that show, but I am planning to watch ABC’s remake of “V” - and by the looks of the preview, it’s possible that show may become conservatives’ new favorite TV show:
I’ve never had Toblerone, but I am planning on eating some of those chocolate coins that aren’t allowed to call themselves “chocolate.” (that’s the obvious analogy here, but it implies that BSG was worth watching all the way through. DON’T. It’s NOT. Just pretend the episode where they sacrifice the Pegasus to get everybody off New Caprica is the finale. The rest of that season’s serviceable but pointless, and season 4 owes Deepak Chopra a producer credit)
Oh, by the way, Sirota’s piece is from May of this year (if I had just checked the date before working up a full head of steam, this could’ve been avoided—I’d apologize, but you have the option of reading something else, whereas I’m stuck here until I fill my zinger quota), so I’m privy to plot points he couldn’t possibly have known about (like the plot, for one), but if this seems an unfair tack to take, keep in mind that he wrote a handwringing analysis of a trailer. I’m just matching dick move for dick move here.
Am I crazy or does this preview make the show seem like a not-so-subtle fringe-right-wing criticism of Obama and Obama followers?
Darn that either-or fallacy!
In questioning Obama’s citizenship and heritage, conservatives have always portrayed Obama as an alien visitor. They’ve also constantly implied that behind Obama’s friendly veneer are sinister motives - and they seem to believe that while most of the public are gullible fools believing in Obama as a savior, they and their tea-party protestors see the “real truth” of those motives.
Credit where it’s due, at least the guy’s taking time out from his busy schedule of accusing most of the public of being gullible fools believing in Obama as a savior to upbraid the right for believing that most of the public are gullible fools believing in Obama as a savior.
Now, didn’t I basically just describe that preview? I think I did - in fact, I took notes on the preview. Check this out:
Well, the clip’s right there and it’s only, like, three minutes long, I’m not sure you need to go through the…
1:00 “The world’s in bad shape - who wouldn’t welcome a savior?”
1:10 - “Thousands are flocking to see the mothership in person”
1:20 - “We’re all so quick to jump on the bandwagon, but before we get on let’s at least examine…”
1:40 - “Gratitude can morph into worship”...“You two are obsessed with the V’s”...“You know what the V’s - they call it spreading hope”
2:15 - “If you could speak to the protestors, what would you say? That embracing change is never easy, but the reward for doing so can be far greater than anything you can imagine”...“They gain trust when all they are really doing is positioning themselves as the saviors of mankind”
2:40 - “They are arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there: devotion.”
It’s all there, right?
If by “it” you mean the whole trailer, yeah. Uh… good job transcribing it?
The idea of V/Obama as a “savior” with “thousands flocking to see” them. The religious right, represented by a priest, warning everyone not to “jump on the bandwagon” for V/Obama. Warnings that support for V/Obama can “morph into worship,” and the V/Obama followers defending themselves by saying it’s not worship, “they call it spreading hope.” Then a highly scripted media event in which V/Obama soothingly says “embracing change is never easy, but the reward for doing so can be far greater than anything you can imagine” - and another warning from a self-styled truth-telling protestor insisting that it’s all a sinister farce, that Obama/V deceptively “gains trust when all they are really doing is positioning themselves as the saviors of mankind” (recall this McCain ad against Obama making almost exactly the same charge). And finally, the harrowing warning that Obama/V “are arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there: devotion.”
Watching this guy connect the dots is like watching someone connect dots for a connect-the-dots picture, like the one on the kiddie placemat where they spot you the scoop of ice cream and you’ve gotta figure out the cone part. Or maybe it’s like listening to a William Friedkin DVD commentary, but I thought I’d lead with the joke more than three people’ll get.
Now, it’s certainly possible I’m just seeing it this way, and that the directors of this show have absolutely no desire for this to be any kind of echo of the right’s anti-Obama narratives.
Is it, David? Is it really possible that television producers lack a hard-right agenda and are just trying to do work they can be relatively unashamed of within a system that punishes creativity and crushes individualism? I doubt it, dude. I’m pretty sure hooking evangelical pharmacists up with a conscience clause is job #1 when they’re hammering out act-breaks.
But I’m not actually making any accusation at all. I’m just noticing the storyline of the slick, unknown false prophet using charisma and charm to foist a sinister alien plot on an all-too-gullible world of sycophants, and the courageous tea-party-ish protestors heroically braving Establishment scorn to get the “truth” out against the odds. That’s how the fringe right views reality and itself these days, and that’s exactly the frame of this new show (which is kinda weird for an alien invasion plot, which typically portrays the aliens as overtly and brazenly evil, rather than as tricky hucksters who seem good at first).
Yeah, that is weird, it’s only been done in countless stories of this type, including a fairly high-profile miniseries from the 80s I vaguely recall seeing. What was the name again? I think a young Freddy Krueger was in it, everybody dressed like Mork and sported wraparounds, and someone ate a mouse (this was back in the days before computers had a ctrl-alt-makeactoreatmouse function, so it was just, like, shot from the side—the “no pick” angle, if you will). I’m pretty sure I heard something about it getting remade one of these days.
Shogun? No, there weren’t aliens in Shogun. What am I thinking of?
Note to self: Remake Shogun but with aliens. Do this FUCKING YESTERDAY.
Oh, and about this: “and that’s exactly the frame of this new show ...” Swear to God, if I hear one more Democratic strategist use the word “frame” or a variant thereof, I’m moving to Kansas. Then there’ll be one more thing the matter with it and all you knobs’ll have to rewrite your books.
Is it life imitating art imitating life? Or has the silly right-wing narrative become so ingrained in our culture that it is everywhere, whether deliberately or inadvertently? Or, as I wondered already, am I just crazy?
Life imi… hey, no fair adding a step!
Certainly possible it’s the latter…but it is eerie (oh, and yes, I will definitely be watching the show, as I was a big fan of the original “V”).
Really? I would think a big fan of the original might have noticed that the remake follows its source material more or less beat-for-beat. They flipped the meaning of the iconic “V” graffiti in a way I found mildly clever (is Shepard Fairey enough of a dickhead to try and sue ABC? Stay tuned!), and the sleeper-cell subplot’s new, but otherwise it’s very much half-a-dozen to the original’s six.
UPDATE: Time’s James Poniewozik picked up on this theme, too:
Remake of the classic alien-invasion miniseries plays in the trailer, weirdly, like an allegory of the Obama election: aliens come to Earth, promise “hope” and “change” (words actually used), inspire cult-like devotion, but have creepy intent and are secretly lizards. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. But it has potential to be Glenn Beck’s new favorite show.
See, when I find myself agreeing with something I saw in Time, I try to figure out where it all went so very, very wrong.
Again, it’s creepy…
No, it’s really not, Dave. What is creepy is that liberals can’t just see monsters under their beds like conservatives, they’ve gotta go that extra step of seeing pro-monster propaganda tracts in their SpaceSavers. Also creepy: worrying that somebody somewhere might interpret a weightless work of fiction in the exact same way you just interpreted it, except they’re not sophistimacated and might have their brains broken, and then they’ll stop pushing to unionize their fellow bagboys or whatever it is you’re so concerned about.
Lemme be fair (shudder) for a second here. He’s not wrong about the parallels. They’re there, and they’re intentional. What he’s wrong about is that this is somehow new or unique or problematic or even notable. This is how science fiction works (I’m talking here about “soft” as opposed to “hard” SF, and if you don’t know the difference, count your blessings; that’s a can of giant sandworms you don’t wanna open). Creators incorporate present-day themes into their outlandish storylines to give them relevance and a certain verisimiltude. You may recognize this approach from a little-known genre offering known as EVERYTHING IN THE GENRE. V is a little more on-the-nose than most, but it’s a primetime network TV show. You want subtle, you’re lookin’ at a rental fee, way it goes.
I don’t even have a problem with Sirota pointing it out, really, though the way he showily decodes something that’s totally not cryptic tends to grate a bit. What I take issue with is this reflexive quaking-in-the-boots over wrongthink in pop culture that’s been liberal SOP ever since Mondale tried to make a zeitgeisty Clara Peller joke and got crickets back. What, I’m supposed to worry about whether or not any given entertainment property’s in my party’s corner? Sorry, I’m a little busy NOT WORRYING ABOUT STUPID SHIT. Well, stupid shit that doesn’t directly involve me, at any rate.
And I take mad issue with the notion that Sirota can watch a show (or an ad for a show, for Christ’s sake) that plays around with the notion of Obama as too good to be true without having his thoughts scrambled, but oh goodness gracious me we can’t possibly trust the nobly struggling proletariat to be so discerning.
Seriously, progressives-for-hire, why do you even bother taking the side of the common man? You clearly can’t stand the fat dumbass, so why not just let the Republicans grind him up into meat-pie filling? Hell, join in and at least get yourself a meat pie out of it—as it stands, you’re getting nothing back on a pretty heavy investment of thinly-veiled contempt.
People like Sirota think everybody’s an idiot but them. And they’re right, except for two crucial details: 1) they’re idiots too, and 2) everybody is an idiot in their own wonderfully idiosyncratic way. That’s why they call it idiosyncratic! Or maybe it’s not, I dunno, making claims without checking their veracity is one of my… uh… quirky things that are unique to me, whaddayacallem.
People aren’t “the masses,” okay? And they’re not The People, for the love of fuck, they’re people. People watch TV shows; when those shows end they’re roughly the same people they were at the opening credits. If TV had the power to change hearts and minds people would stop watching it because the hell, man, I’m just tryin’ to check out Morena Baccarin’s gams and maybe see some blaster-play over here, I don’t need you screwin’ around with my belief system.
Y’know, normal people see something like Big Hollywood and think “why is that piece of shit there?” Professional liberals see something like Big Hollywood and think “why don’t we have our own piece of shit like that?”
How’s the show itself? Eh. Not terrible, but it’s definitely on-in-the-background fare. I’m a little hung up on the fact that I was watching spaceships hover over world capitals in 4:3 while Parks and Recreation apparently has the kind of epic sweep that deserves the widescreen treatment, but I can’t very well berate Sirota for useless wankery and then go off on an aspect-ratio rant, now can I?
Oh, almost forgot: within the universe of the retooled V, aliens have lived among us for decades, assuming positions of influence at every level of society, including the government. They’ve worked to destabilize the world in order to prime mankind for servility to a perceived savior. One of the ways in which they’ve done this is by—and if this isn’t verbatim it’s close—“waging unnecessary wars.”
Yes, Bush and Cheney are evil lizardmen from another world. If this does your liberal heart proud, you need to get over the whole being-a-Cornerite’s-mirror-image thing and stop looking to your TV for reinforcement and learn to appreciate the simple, nutrition-neutral pleasure of a topical joke amidst alien mayhem. And you’re the reason The Daily Show’s been coasting, by the way.
If, however, you hasten to assert that it’s not an issue for you since you never watch TV and don’t even have a TV, fuck you, seriously. You guys were full of it before The Simpsons came out, never mind The Sopranos.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/05/09 at 11:02 AM • Permalink
Categories: Geek Speak • Politics • Television • YouTubidity •
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