Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

mattlakeman.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 111 posts

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#41

Post by Lio »

JadeNB wrote: post #10
phist_mcgee wrote: post #5

The article refers to the banality of evil in realation to Eichmann. There's actually been quite a bit of historical push back on this assertion, which in some ways has been used to rehabilitate Eichmann's image as a bureaucrat. Eichmann while not the chief architect, was definitely partly responsible for the Holocaust's "success" and actively climbed the nazi hierarchy by finding a niche to fill - exterminating jewi…

I always thought "the banality of evil" wasn't about minimizing the horror of his actions. It's not saying "what he did wasn't so bad," but "these horrible actions were done not by an obvious villain, but by someone personally unremarkable."

Yes. There a tendency to ascribe charisma to the perpetrators of evil. You see this in the fascination with true crime.

The reality is far more boring; these horrific actions were perpetrated by someone that occasionally had bad breath.

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#43

Post by jancsika »

> nor in the exaggerated cartoony manner of other comedic anti-heroes

I'm not sure I understand the focus on realism here.

I mean, there's absolutely nothing in any scene of The Thick of It that looks at all realistic to me. But it captures the essence of incompetence, corruption, and opportunism so completely that reading actual news stories inescapably brings to mind scenes from that series.

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#44

Post by walthamstow »

simonw wrote: post #9

If you haven't heard of Peep Show but you enjoyed Succession you should know that Jessie Armstrong, the creator and showrunner of Succession, was previously one half of the Jessie Armstrong and Sam Bain pair responsible for Peep Show. I find the similarities between the two shows fascinating: in particular the way they both revel in how flawed their central characters are.

And likewise their new comedy movie taking the piss out of tech bros, Mountainhead.

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#46

Post by Nursie »

Lio wrote: post #39
Nursie wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well… part of what made Breaking Bad so good was the artful way it manipulated your feelings for Walter. 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 e…

By that point I was hoping Jessie got out of it all alive, because while he was clearly a dumbass with questionable morals, nobody deserved what he was going through, and the abuse he'd put up with at the hands of Walt among others.

Walt was still fascinating to watch and maybe I approved of or disliked some of his individual actions, and we definitely had deep insight to his character by then, but I don't think I'd describe myself as rooting for him or experiencing his story in a particularly sympathetic way. I wasn't experiencing the story through him by then as I might have been early on, if that makes sense.

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#47

Post by mablopoule »

annie_muss wrote: post #37

This article really makes sense. 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 nearl…

Another TV show that played with this concept well is "30 Rocks", with the main protagonist dreading to go to her high school reunion because she was a nerdy girl mocked by the high-school bully, As the episode go on, she realize that she was the bully, everyone was terrified of her and her extremely cruel remarks, including her friend who was afraid of her, turning the whole 'underdog nerd' trope on it's head.

On a more serious note, this is also why I'm wary of the "punching up" or "punching down" rethoric, because it's often easy to downplay any form of violence as justified retribution.

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#48

Post by labster »

disposablese wrote: post #25
kjellsbells wrote: post #18

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.

Did you miss the day they taught ethical calculus in maths class?

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#49

Post by [deleted] »

Lio wrote: post #41
JadeNB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought "the banality of evil" wasn't about minimizing the horror of his actions. It's not saying "what he did wasn't so bad," but "these horrible actions were done not by an obvious villain, but by someone personally unremarkable."

Yes. There a tendency to ascribe charisma to the perpetrators of evil. You see this in the fascination with true crime. The reality is far more boring; these horrific actions were perpetrated by someone that occasionally had bad breath.

[deleted]

Re: Peep Show is the most realistic portrayal of evil I have seen (2020)

#50

Post by jl6 »

> If Peep Show has any sort of singular thematic message, it’s that low self-esteem is the root of all evil.

Interestingly this is a similar conclusion that the Unabomber came to in Industrial Society and its Future:

https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/In...

Kaczynski called out low self-esteem as one of several foundational components in the psychology of his hated enemies (“leftists”), whom he believed to be the primary scourge of society (ironic, coming from a mass murderer). Modern analysis of incel culture also places low self-esteem at the center of the problem.

Post reply on HN