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Round Up: The Omega Factor & District 9
Dec. 17th, 2009 07:54 pmThe Omega Factor: it is the My Dinner with Andre of paranormal science fantasy--and I mean that as a compliment. It consists largely of people sitting in rooms having deep, very naturalistic conversations... about ghosts and psychic murder. I have only seen the first two episodes, but I am enjoying it. It's nice that in 1979, the BBC was able to make shows that have 5-minute long conversation scenes and dwell for a full minute over a guy going into his flat, putting on quiet music, and sitting there doing absolutely nothing. For all it is supposed to be spooky, I find it very restful. In fact, it may well be a cure for ADHD.
And I do find our hero, Tom, compelling. I'm glad that his wife's death is not just a ploy to make him look sympathetic but actually has long-term meaning in the series (including the presence of her ghost). Louise Jameson scored a better role with Leela, but if she has to play sidekick again, she could have done much worse.
District 9: After Joel (a.k.a. Elek) praised this film to high heaven, I got Boyfriend to kindly show it to me. It is very depressing--and I mean that as a compliment too. As an allegory of the treatment of refugees (and other undesirables, and, indeed, anyone who can be exploited for profit or stands in the way of it), it rings brutally true. The way you can't find a single "good" person, the pervasiveness of the "dehumanizing"; it's all common. And it's not, of course, because the individuals involved aren't "good" at home with their friends and families or in a myriad other circumstances. It's just that power corrupts, and when you routinely give someone the power of life and death over someone else (whether that power stems from directly from a gun or from "national security protocols"), they will treat that someone as a slave. It's such basic human nature that it's rather amazing that thousands of years of civilization haven't taught us to avoid those social constructions. And yet, what else can you do, for example, with a large influx of refugees who don't speak the language, don't know the culture, don't have money, don't have jobs or relevant skills? You can't immediately assimilate them. What an you do but place them in a camp? Place them in several camps? Maybe look for volunteers to put them up as individual families. (That's the best solution I can think of, and indeed, one that was used when our family's Afghan friends fled to the US in 1980.) Scary movie.
And I do find our hero, Tom, compelling. I'm glad that his wife's death is not just a ploy to make him look sympathetic but actually has long-term meaning in the series (including the presence of her ghost). Louise Jameson scored a better role with Leela, but if she has to play sidekick again, she could have done much worse.
District 9: After Joel (a.k.a. Elek) praised this film to high heaven, I got Boyfriend to kindly show it to me. It is very depressing--and I mean that as a compliment too. As an allegory of the treatment of refugees (and other undesirables, and, indeed, anyone who can be exploited for profit or stands in the way of it), it rings brutally true. The way you can't find a single "good" person, the pervasiveness of the "dehumanizing"; it's all common. And it's not, of course, because the individuals involved aren't "good" at home with their friends and families or in a myriad other circumstances. It's just that power corrupts, and when you routinely give someone the power of life and death over someone else (whether that power stems from directly from a gun or from "national security protocols"), they will treat that someone as a slave. It's such basic human nature that it's rather amazing that thousands of years of civilization haven't taught us to avoid those social constructions. And yet, what else can you do, for example, with a large influx of refugees who don't speak the language, don't know the culture, don't have money, don't have jobs or relevant skills? You can't immediately assimilate them. What an you do but place them in a camp? Place them in several camps? Maybe look for volunteers to put them up as individual families. (That's the best solution I can think of, and indeed, one that was used when our family's Afghan friends fled to the US in 1980.) Scary movie.
