#its a thing called morbid curiosity and a lot of ppl have that

[stag-bi]

stop calling other ppl disgusting or bad for being interested in true crime or reading abt it or having it as ur special interest... like i get that some ppl are obsessed w school shooters and glamorize them and that is gross (and a sign of other issues) but simply having an interest in a topic b/c of morbid curiosity =/= agreeing with murderers???

having morbid curiosity is a very human thing and theres nothing wrong with experiencing that or reading abt ANY topic at all. being curious and interested in all kinds of sides of humanity, whether its good or bad, is 100% ok, and honestly i think its good to learn abt everything and read information on things and being curious no matter what it is!!

[roominthecastle]

Well I knew you'd have some beautiful words to describe what I feel ;) I really did love all the quiet personal stories, it's just the change in pacing gave me a pause, but yes, not for a second did any of it fall short. There aren't many shows with such carefully made characters, are there? (Actually, are there? I'd say WW s1 and my personal fave poi, but there are still fingers on one hand. Need recs). And about John, the way he so stoicly receives all the blows but his eyes... I love pain...

oh I understand ;) They kinda split every core group dynamic into smaller, sometimes intersecting threads this season, which is probably why it all feels a bit all over the place, and I’m not saying there’s no downside to this, but I’m glad I could help a little, anon (as for recs, if you haven’t tried Fringe yet, you should. also Penny Dreadful, The Americans, Better Call Saul, The Last Kingdom, and Black Sails - quality character work in each of those).

And Rufus Sewell sure has one of the toughest jobs on this show - him and Joel de la Fuente. I *love* his portrayal of Kido so much, esp bc he has less screentime to work with, so mad respect for making me feel things other than anger & morbid curiosity. Making a ruthless Nazi officer and the head of the Kenpeitai look human and occasionally sympathetic despite all the atrocities we can witness them commit is no small feat. Great characters, superb actors. I don’t know where Smith’s story is headed but Abendsen was def trying to sway him by reminding him of the time he fought against the very ppl he now serves, so I hope they continue down that path next season. His back is against a wall now, so they must show him another way out if they want to flip him (the films & the fact that only “good guys” have managed to travel successfully to the place his son is still alive & happy may be just the way). I also hope we can see more shading on Kido bc this season was very good in that regard, too. I think it says a lot how a show handles its baddies and this one is A+++++ all around.

+

Still same anon here, sorry. Just remembered one thing that really annoyed me. Way too many 30-60 seconds scenes, jumping around incessantly. Made my head spin. Did they change the crew or something, do you know?

I’m not at all well-informed when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff like that, but my best guess rn is that maybe this was done to try and visually connect those many threads I mentioned above. There are many moving parts in play now and they all affect each other either directly or indirectly. a favorite example of mine is when they juxtapose Frank’s secret bar mitzvah where he’s surrounded by friends/family who are willing to die for each other w/ Smith’s grand celebratory appointment to Reichsmarschall where he’s surrounded by ppl who will eradicate him & his family the second he wavers. There’s a lot of symbolism packed into this “one moment slicing into the other” image which can only be done via quickly jumping back and forth.

[roominthecastle]

Hi! Am I the only one who finds it quite distrubing that aidan was playing a main role in a gay porn serie? I mean licking a young boy's ass and having gay orgy in front of the cameras while he was married and was a father of a newborn baby.. Please, do not misunderstand me, but I think everything has a limit and those things he had done in that porn serie were far beyond normal acting. I feel I can't talk about it with the other fans, and you seem to be a great person who doesn't judge, part2

Part2. I’m not homophobic, I had a gay english teacher and a friend, but they understood it that their unique sexual life is their own private thing if you know what I mean, and behind that thing there is usually a traumatic experience.. Anyway what aidan was doing in that serie was fucking disgusting. You know it’s not a big surprise that her daughter, berry has become a man, maybe she was uncomfortable with her father’s roles? She keeps making photos ofbher beeding nose and scars and things li

So there is cleraly something wrong with his “daughter”. Idk I just don’t understand this man, unfortunately when I like somebody as an actor becausw of his her incredible talent I cant help but looking for infos of her his life. And I was in shock what I have found in aidan’s early career. What are your thoughts about it? Or are these things so natural to the others?

Wow, there’s a *lot* crammed into these messages, anon. I don’t think you’re reacting from a place of malice here, so please take my response below not as judgment but more like a series of observations and suggestions.

re: Queer as Folk (UK)I’ve seen the show and I liked it. It’s not for everybody, I give you that. It does have parts that undoubtedly veer into soft porn territory, but overall it isn’t porn, imo. To me it’s a story about a guy who’s 1st sexual experience was getting raped by a gym teacher at age 11-12(?) and, as a result, he’s become someone who only connects to others via sex. Him being gay is *not* the issue, it is *not* the problem, it is *not* a symptom. His unaddressed trauma which he tries to pass off as sth “cool” and tries to retroactively “normalize” via aggressive hypersexuality *is* the problem, and the show gradually brings this point home, imo. He cannot be intimate unless it’s physical & meaningless, but he starts to learn to modify this behavior w/ the help of his best friend who’s also the one he’s been in love with (and thus has been avoiding having sex with). I’m not saying it doesn’t contain provocative or even potentially triggering material, or that it’s flawless family fun (I know it’s been bashed for stereotypical portrayal of “sex-crazed” gay culture), but again, to me, it is about so much more than the sex scenes. I don’t think straight ppl should be in the business of judging the merits of shows like this one + I don’t know much about how it was received, so I really don’t want to get into all that. All I can say is that I found a very human story underneath all the steaminess, and if sb asked me to give a “disturbing” example from his body of work (that I’ve seen), it’s not QaF but Wake Wood or Blackout that would come to mind (and he plays a straight dude in both).

re: Aidan’s “taste” in rolesI think it’s always leaned away from “normal” and “conventional”. Pain & its varied, often aberrant, manifestations seem to be one big common theme in his projects, and I find that really intriguing. He’s interested in outcasts, in all forms of “otherness”, traumas, dysfunctions, and assorted fucked up things. I share this interest and I don’t think it’s wrong at all or an automatic sign of some pathology. It’s curiosity that’s labeled “morbid” only bc we live in a world that teaches us that automatically fearing, hating, and attacking everything “different” is “normal”. But if art confined itself to artificial “norms” and boundaries, depicting only what is deemed “accepted” in any given time period, it wouldn’t be art anymore. He said that nothing deeply scarring has ever happened to him, and that these roles let him explore things he would never do and be someone he never was or will be in real life. That’s it. It’s an exploration. Not everybody is an “explorer” tho. Most ppl shun and/or reject what/who they find “different” and/or “disturbing”. Others step closer, dig deeper, and maybe even try to find some familiarity in strangeness. Aidan is like that, too, imo. But I highly doubt he brought these projects home w/ him to screen it to his children and “scar” them for life. He strikes me as someone who’s v self-aware and who wouldn’t force his R-rated interests on others, esp. his kids, but I don’t think he would forcibly shield them once they are old enough and curious. But that’s just my impression. Truth is, I don’t know him. His private life, his methods of parenting are none of my business, and I don’t seek any info or picture he himself doesn’t provide voluntarily. Also, I don’t know anything about his family members, but I know enough to refrain from “diagnosing” or labeling anyone anything simply based on what they post online (esp if they are young), so I’ll leave it at that.

re: homophobiaLet’s do a thought experiment here (not the best one but hopefully it still works). Imagine a person who has cats and has never had any interest in keeping dogs. It’s completely fine being a cat person, so no issues so far. This person also assures you that they have no problem w/ those who keep dogs. After all, they had a friend who had dogs and this friend understood that keeping dogs was “different”, a likely sign of sth bad, and so always kept the dogs hidden. Now, do we really believe that the cat person has no issue w/ those who keep dogs? Keeping cats is not the only “healthy” or “default” option. It is just one of several equally legitimate options out there. Some brave folks even keep birds. Or both cats and dogs. In other words, I think you do have an issue with gay people, anon. Being tolerant when they are not “obviously” gay is still homophobic, and Aidan’s role in QaF is tame compared to, e.g. his straight serial killer/rapist role in Blackout yet you zeroed in on the former as the most objectionable one of his career bc it depicts his character having (a lot of) consensual gay sex. Good news is that while being gay is not a problem to be corrected, being a homophobe is, and you can always choose to improve. I grew up in a homophobic environment, so I know it takes time and effort to un-learn things, but I also know it is doable and v important. I’m not saying you should start binging on gay porn ofc, but keep on educating yourself. For example, BBC Four rolled out a great miniseries this year called Queers. I highly recommend it.