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On the topic of evil, this sketch from Mitchell and Webb stayed with me for years. Are we the baddies? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY Every villain is the hero in their own story, after all.
I wish there were a somewhat acceptable, though controversial, way for us to distinguish between good and evil like how success is defined by disposable wealth. You can argue that society does not see it that, but there is no absolute way to denying it.
This is a good read for fans of the the show. I don’t think the central premise of redefined evil holds up, but it’s a fun read and the analysis of their characters is spot on.
Yeah, I never empathized with Mark and Jez so his thesis falls apart for me. Maybe he’s the baddie?
But in shows like this, in quite a lot of sitcoms with more cringey aspects, the protagonist is not necessarily a good person and they are often undone by their own pettiness, selfishness etc. Certainly in UK comedy anyway. Look at Fawlty Towers, The Office... Blackadder to a certain extent.
So when the article says this -
> It’s natural when experiencing any story to identify and sympathize with the protagonist.
Yes and no - this is something that creators can play with and may make deliberately jarring. See 'Lolita' for an extreme example. The article even brings up Walter White, saying - "we are drawn to root for the primary subject of the story". If you're still rooting for Walter by the end of Breaking Bad... were we watching the same show?
I place it in the category of “cringe humor,” and by that standard it’s more cringey than Seinfeld and curb - especially because of the first person shots. It is a great show! Well worth a watch.
I always refer to it as cringe humour too but for the reason that it makes me physically cringe seeing how they humiliate themselves in social situations - Like NO MARK PLEASE DONT DO THAT! DONT ACT ON THAT IMPULSE PLEASE! kinda thing.
This is a good read for fans of the the show. I don’t think the central premise of redefined evil holds up, but it’s a fun read and the analysis of their characters is spot on.
Yeah, I never empathized with Mark and Jez so his thesis falls apart for me. Maybe he’s the baddie?
I think back on my past and all the evil actions I have taken have all been fed by very low self-worth and insecurity.
When you think of yourself as below everyone else, trying to bring them down to your level with malicious acts can feel like quite reasonable. You're "punching up" so you can feel a sense of righteous justification.
It's only looking back that I realize I wasn't nearly as weak as I thought.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish there were a somewhat acceptable, though controversial, way for us to distinguish between good and evil like how success is defined by disposable wealth. You can argue that society does not see it that, but there is no absolute way to denying it.
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I never empathized with Mark and Jez so his thesis falls apart for me. Maybe he’s the baddie?
I think this is an important point - it's very easy to find oneself slipping into the protagonists' viewpoints, in a lot of media the protagonist is 'good', we see the story unfold from their viewpoint, then sympathise and empathise with them, even when they make mistakes, their motivations were pure, and what’s unfolding isn’t due to problems with them exactly. But in shows like this, in quite a lot of sitcoms with…
By the end I was back rooting for him.
I wanted his plan to rescue Jessie (and to an extent Skyler) to work. It felt like a partial atonement[1] and allowed to show wrap up satisfyingly.
I feel the same way the same way about Tony Soprano. A terrible person with terrible behaviour but I still root for him at the end.
1. Of course nothing would really atone for his actions in reality but narrative isn’t reality.
This is a good read for fans of the the show. I don’t think the central premise of redefined evil holds up, but it’s a fun read and the analysis of their characters is spot on.
That’s because it reads like a PR piece. Gauging interest or preseeding a reboot or rerelease.