Sorry--I wasn't at all clear about my thinking, I think.
I guess I'd say that yes, sex scenes and violence scenes are all, in some ways gratuitous, but there are levels of that, as to whether they feel tacked on or not, and whether they feel like they somehow fit in with a general aesthetic of the show/film or not.
Tarantino's violence, like them or not, have a look that's distinctive. Tony Scott's True Romance has an absolutely fabulous shootout scene with down pillows exploding everywhere, and it's just amazing to watch--chaos turned all floaty and surreal. The famous chase scene in the French Connection is famous for a reason. Queer as Folk has sex scenes that, while gratuitous in that they aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, are also stylish, stylized, and visually interesting beyond the fact that many of us find ATG fucking interesting. Sex and violence without style are just boring.
The kinds of things we've seen lately in terms of the violence on Numb3rs feel tacked on, to me, like the jumps the skaters have been doing at the Olympics lately--done strictly for points, and now separate from the dance and artistry of the whole.
And I think that someone, somewhere (in demographics land) decided that on Numb3rs "we need more men and they like guns and so we'll have guns." And if they nuance that, it's just "more, longer, bigger" and not, well, interesting. If they'd done that with architecture and lighting--decided "we need a house and some lights," we'd have a house and lights instead of the glowey golden woody upper-middle class beauty of that Craftsman home (fetish fetish fetish).
Anyway--I didn't mean to suggest that I was a chick who didn't appreciate violence. Just that this feels like it was done to get a male audience (who was assumed to like a wham, bam approach rather than a long, slow, artistic fuck *g*).
no subject
I guess I'd say that yes, sex scenes and violence scenes are all, in some ways gratuitous, but there are levels of that, as to whether they feel tacked on or not, and whether they feel like they somehow fit in with a general aesthetic of the show/film or not.
Tarantino's violence, like them or not, have a look that's distinctive. Tony Scott's True Romance has an absolutely fabulous shootout scene with down pillows exploding everywhere, and it's just amazing to watch--chaos turned all floaty and surreal. The famous chase scene in the French Connection is famous for a reason. Queer as Folk has sex scenes that, while gratuitous in that they aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, are also stylish, stylized, and visually interesting beyond the fact that many of us find ATG fucking interesting. Sex and violence without style are just boring.
The kinds of things we've seen lately in terms of the violence on Numb3rs feel tacked on, to me, like the jumps the skaters have been doing at the Olympics lately--done strictly for points, and now separate from the dance and artistry of the whole.
And I think that someone, somewhere (in demographics land) decided that on Numb3rs "we need more men and they like guns and so we'll have guns." And if they nuance that, it's just "more, longer, bigger" and not, well, interesting. If they'd done that with architecture and lighting--decided "we need a house and some lights," we'd have a house and lights instead of the glowey golden woody upper-middle class beauty of that Craftsman home (fetish fetish fetish).
Anyway--I didn't mean to suggest that I was a chick who didn't appreciate violence. Just that this feels like it was done to get a male audience (who was assumed to like a wham, bam approach rather than a long, slow, artistic fuck *g*).