A Post That Was Not Going To Be About True Detectives

I was so revving up for a post about this show. It is so well-written and the acting, the ACTING!!!! I cannot take my eyes off Matthew McConaughey and I am not talking about his abs. His tortured damaged present day self is mesmerizing and thinking about what took him from his admittedly damaged past self to this ruined wreck of a man is getting to be an obsession.

So, first and foremost, SPOILER ALERT!!!! I cannot contain myself. Sorry. Stop now if you haven’t watched at least the first three episodes. Also, BAD LANGUAGE. Yep. F-bombs all over the place.

But what I was going to blog about was the way women are portrayed in this series. Start out with the dead naked tied-up woman and the way the camera lingers over her pale bloodless body or maybe even the opening credits with plenty of naked butts. It took me a while, but I started realizing the way the men in the show treated the women in general was seriously objectifying. It’s not just the bad guys. It’s not just the murdered prostitute. Woody Harrelson doesn’t really care who his wife is or what she’s thinking or feeling or what his girlfriend is thinking or feeling. He just wants to f*ck them and he wants to be the only one to f*ck them. They are essentially just places to put his penis and he only gets upset if he thinks someone else might be using them as places to put their penises. Seriously, we all know what he was talking about with the whole “mow my lawn” metaphor, right?

I was getting ready to get up on my high horse and pull out old copies of Andrea Dworkin books. Then there was this subtle shift in the last episode I watched (which was not the most recent one because Andy went to Indonesia and I’m going to wait until he comes back to watch the rest with him). Something about the women insisting that they are more than just holes. I’m not sure if it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’m hoping not. I’m hoping that’s part of where this is going.

Part of what made me so upset when I thought about the whole treatment of women thing is that the whole series is so well done. I wanted it to be well done and to respect women. It made me sad that those two things couldn’t seem to co-exist and now I’m thinking I jumped to a conclusion (really, who can blame me, have you watched the strip club scene?).  So I’m not sure whether or not to be upset about the treatment of women or applaud the way it shows how some men treat women and how evil it is.

Anybody else watching this? If not, seriously, check it out if for no other reason then Matthew McConaughey’s amazing acting and the dazzling writing.