Give Hugh Laurie a #Chance

Reviews

Well, I binge watched this show that has now been canceled and I am not sure what to do next. I mean, shall I write a petition and ask Hulu.com to pay for another season or something? After all, if I have to tell the truth, I was watching it because Hugh Laurie was playing the part of a doctor, a different one from the one we used to know, not a new House M.D. style, so… maybe, the fact that I was not focusing on the plot that much, should suggest that it was time for the series to have a break. Or maybe not, I don’t know. What do you think?

The Coping Mechanism

In this series Laurie plays Eldon Chance, a forensic neuropsychiatrist from San Francisco, CA who treats his patients in an “alternative” way: he evaluates them from a psychiatric perspective to finally send them to other specialists depending on what he finds out about their lives, their habits and their -of course- mental problems, details that will eventually be passed to the police. Differently than Gregory House, Eldon has a family, although he’s going through divorce, he has a daughter who will get into trouble with the developing of the season, and he has some money issues that will force him to do some stupid things and to get into trouble as well. Father and daughter will eventually find out that they have more in common than what they have been thinking so far.

House-MD-Colore-Pillole-Spettacoli-TELEVISIVI-Classic-Silk-Poster-Art-Decorazione-Camera-Da-Letto-2141.jpg_640x640

Although there is no evidence that Chance was done considering Laurie’s previous works, I can’t help but find similarities in these two characters that are, at the same time, so different. The way Chance makes his reasonings, his mental speeches, the way he processes details, and how he evaluates situations considering all the information he can gather from not only his knowledge but his senses as well, resembles House in a striking way, at least to me. Also, in whatever way you want to put it, some actors can play roles that only fit to their appearance. I will always remember the shock I had when I watched the movie with Robin Williams, One Hour Photo (2005) where, instead of a cool character, he was playing a psychopath molester. No. Nope. No way. Uh, uh. There are actors and actresses who are flexible not only in their art but also in the way they look, and then there are others who simply cannot. Chance seems to fit Laurie’s predisposition to represent smart, wait… wise men, maybe tormented as well, and I believe he was the right fit for this role. (But who am I? I know, I know… ) Chance seems to be not only a well trained doctor, but a person with high values and wisdom. The torment seems to begin when his new patient, Jaclyn, comes into his life with her dark secrets and mental health issues. Moreover, it is not a chance -no pun intended- if this Chance is being accompanied by a sort of strange superhero, D., a huge bear-like man who looks a little isolated, asocial and probably a former mental health patient, who is above all, some sort of martial art skilled fellow, clearly bright but misunderstood, a calculator, with a baggage of knowledge about psychological reactions, combat and tools that make him survive in any case of potential scuffle. Eventually D. will become Chance’s reference point (I’d say a-real-friend) to fix his excruciating situation.

hugh-laurie-returns-as-a-doctor

Chance

Genre: they want to call it crime “drama”, I would go with psychological thriller
Based on: Chance by Kem Nunn
StarringHugh Laurie, Ethan Suplee, Greta Lee, Stefania LaVie Owen, Clarke Peters, Diane Farr
Watched on: HULU
Two Seasons, Twenty Episodes binge watched in: 4 nights

I almost said it all (about the plot) for the first season while trying to depict an image of this character, so please just take note that the second season will focus on Detective Hynes who will blackmail poor Chance and Darius (D.’s real name that will come out eventually) in order to find a serial killer, while they get into even more serious trouble and heavily dangerous situations. In fact, Chance’s life has gotten even more screwed up while he is trying to bring justice to his patients who had to go through abuses and bad management of their conditions under the lead of the authorities. Chance turns into a violent sort of “vigilante” after we found out that violence has maybe always been part of his DNA, because of some mental health issues he may have had as a young man. This features are later mirrored in his daughter who acts in weird violent ways to protect herself, scaring her mother to the point she believes her daughter has inherited some psychological deviation from her father.

636060266937973119-Chance-Laurie-Mol

I can’t tell, and actually I can’t even guess, how the series will or would end as it was interrupted after season two, and there is no word on the street about a new season coming anytime soon. For what is worth, it was great to see Hugh Laurie back in the game again and most of all, appreciating his usual way of portraying badass men. Knowledge is power people, never forget this! The more you know the better, oblivion keeps you numb but social, knowing more makes you a little isolated maybe… but again, who am I to judge, so make your choice. Take your chance to grow, if I can say so. Oh and please, give Laurie another chance to play another cool role, I mean do it for yesterday! But first go binge watch the series…

house_md_wallpaper_by_wolf13th-d3eua8o

The Future is here, but it is not what you think: #ThePath

Reviews

If I could describe this tv-show with one quote, I think the most fitting would be F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s “So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness” from All the Sad Young Men (1926). I am probably biased, as I’m only focusing on one character in particular (Eddie Lane), but I can stretch this a little and make it fit to some other members of this series and the religious movement it portrays. What is this series though? The Path. Yes, I am finally going through my to-do list and this tv-series has been finally ticked as “binge watched”. Moreover, the third season in up on Hulu.com now, so once my binge watching session was over, I continued watching it religiously (duh) every Wednesday, which is the day it airs on the platform. May I also say that, somehow, I felt drawn to it? Yes of course I can, who can stop me? So yeah, I did feel the urge to watch this show although the title was not really convincing. Eventually I fell in love. They got me at “Aaron Paul” and could not stop watching ever since.

thepath

The show is set in Upstate New York, no wonder something told me I had to watch it. I lived in Saratoga, NY and the surroundings you detect through the setting of some of the episodes were strangely familiar and strikingly real. In LA, one of my previous house windows opened above the parking lot of the big blue building belonging to Scientology: I was always curious to know more, just for the sake of it, so I started reading something about this cult. Later, when I read “bla bla bla the Meyerist movement, a sort of Scientology” going through the series synopsis, I couldn’t help but smile, and just yield to the excitement of watching… The Path. I have to be honest (as always after all): watching the first couple of episodes I actually wished this movement were real: the bliss on the serene faces of these Meyerists, these “real believers”, the philosophy they believe in, their lifestyle and their manners are as charming as the devil, but they could also be -unfortunately- a sort of utopia. You see right away that everywhere you go, even among the shiniest commune that may exist in this world, there is always something rotten hiding behind those who are in power. I’ll go straight to the A|R because the whole point of all this is to show you how interesting this TV-series may seem.

CdzZTPyXEAAWa_j

The Path

Genre: they want to call it just “drama” as cult drama would not be appropriate
Created by: Jessica Goldberg
StarringAaron PaulMichelle MonaghanEmma GreenwellRockmond Dunbar, Kyle Allen, Amy Forsyth, Sarah JonesHugh DancyPaul James
Watched on: HULU
Two Seasons, Twenty-three Episodes binge watched in: One week, plus season 3 airing now (13 episodes)

Transparency, honesty, and the research of The Light is the focus of this community, willing to fight negativity in order to receive enlightenment, and to be ready for The Future, which is near and apocalyptic, basically a sort of Judgement Day. In order to climb The Ladder in the sky -that is apparently made of fire and it goes from the Earth to The Garden, i.e. Heaven, the followers of the Meyerist movement have to go through 10 stages, each one represented by a Rung (of the Ladder) while following the Light and The Truth, which is a way to say God, in my humble opinion. Cute is the symbol of the movement: an eye with eyelashes that look like the rays of a shining sun. I mean, wouldn’t you think too that this is kind of cool? I would totally start believing in this Truth and I would totally be an adept of this cult. No wait, “it is not a cult, it’s a movement!” as they repeatedly say whenever someone accuses them of being another among the many religious cults in the world. And then Cal happens. And no, Cal does not stand for California. Cal is R10, the last stage of the climb and he is a charming fellow in disguise. Tormented by a past he cannot (or does not want to) recall, he seems to be acting weird and completely far from the movement’s directions: he drinks, he kills, he lies, he basically does everything wrong, but he preaches correctly. Duh.

the-path

The story takes a wrong turn when Eddie goes to Peru, where the founder of the movement eventually moved to pursue his final passage into the Light (he shouldn’t die as a normal mortal as far as they are concerned) and to look for answers and connections, in order to finish what appears to be a sort of Meyerist bible or book guidebook he personally wrote. In Peru, Eddie goes through a ritual practice which uses ayahuasca, referred to as the juice of “sacred herb,” and starts having visions: there is no Light, Steve is dying, the movement is based on mere lies. When he gets back home to Sarah and the other members, Eddie says nothing and tries to keep his secret, as he starts to not believe in anything, anymore. From now on, what once was a slightly slippery slope kind of situation, turns into a vortex of lies soaking up everybody’s life and basic certainties.

What happens then? Watch it yourself. I promise you though, that after a couple of episodes, you’ll start getting familiar with their verbiage, and I want to help you a little prior to your binge watching session: when they talk about The Ladder they are referring to their foundation. The reason why they want to be part of this movement can be found in the 10 different rungs of this Ladder, each one indicating the “level” of awareness and of “enlightenment” of its members. A Possible is someone who is interested in the Meyerist Movement and cannot be considered an IS -ignorant systemite- anymore. A Denier, as Eddie will be (no spoiler, you’ll see), is someone who decided to leave the movement because he or she does not believe any longer, and to the eyes of a Meyerist, this is really, really bad. To avoid and beat the deniers, basically. Then there’s what confused people at the beginning, making them believe the show was about Scientology: the Meyerists use a machine, similar to the Scientology’s E-meter, which is necessary to re-align the spirit of the believer after a damage (emotional trauma) or a sinful event, which is called Transgression. 

Liminal Twilight

Catholics have confessions, Meyerists have the Unburden: basically the same concept of purging and confess, in order to expiate your sins. You can resist to this practice, or you can offset, doing some good to overcome what you did wrong. Then something really funny (to me) comes up:  the IRP. What and why is so funny? Well, the IRP to me was the Independent Research Project I had to write in Graduate School to get my Master Degree. We “literally” did spit blood, it should have been our calling card to apply for a doctorate, long story short, it was a pain… in this show, IRP is the Infidelity Rehab Program. I don’t know, is it just me laughing? I bet this could be at least as painful as my IRP was. If you cheat, you may be forgiven (I’m sorry, but I’m still laughing…) but you have to go through counseling and purges and some other bla bla bla. I swear, I can’t stop laughing but …whatever. I would rather go through Realignment a thousand times then, at least you’re forced to eat fruits and vegetables (which is something that sounds pretty awesome to me!) and you are not allowed to leave your assigned room in the compound (the area assigned to the movement for its members and families to live in). Basically a vacation to realign with your soul. I’d take it anytime.

The Red WallI will totally skip on the fact that Kyle Allen, who plays Eddie and Sarah’s son, is the spitting image of my beloved Heath Ledger so it is definitely worth watching the show at least for his presence (and beauty), or on the fact that Prison Break‘s C-note, plays the role of an undercover FBI Agent who gets involved in the movement, let’s just say, on several levels… and we’ve already said that it is definitely worth watching because of the themes and the atmosphere in it, so I would only add the soundtrack for now -good old music-, oh and …did I mention Aaron Paul?

 

 

Time’s up Fred! The Handmaid’s Tale

Reviews

7643_the-handmaids-tale-lrg

2014-09-22-ATWOODLet’s start the new year with the Alternative Review of a series that I honestly loved, not only for its adaptation from a book I read, but because it took me back to my first year of graduate school (the first time I attended, not the second) when I took a class in Canadian Literature and I studied Margaret Atwood‘s artwork. Who would have thought I would meet her in person something like ten years later at a book festival held close to where I used to live? Well, it happened, and here I am now, talking about the TV-series they made out of her novel The Handmaid’s Tale: simply genius. Another book I loved from Atwood was The Edible Woman, so once you’re done watching the show and reading the book (because really, you have to!) I would recommend catching up with all of her works. So actual, so accurate, so powerful. Do it, you fools!

When I talked about the #metoo movement, I wanted to focus on the message that Annalise Keating from HTGAWM tried to pass, because reviewing The Handmaid’s Tale was not part of the plan, yet. Now, I am not here to write a paper on a novel and its relationship with culture, or language, or god knows what other connection I should have found if I still were in graduate school. Nevertheless, I would like to push a little on what lies beyond the mere watching of a show for the sake of it, and take out some food for thought, you know, just for conversation… Let’s just consider this statement: my body, my choice. I will not go deeper into it, I’m just leaving it here and you’ll see why.

The Haidmaid's Tale Review 1Many have talked about the novel as one of the most feminist of the eighties, why yes, people, Atwood wrote it in 1984 and her feminist views are kind of obvious back then, if you study her works, but what was outstanding about her ways of showing ideals (and it still is remarkable also now, after watching the show) is the fact that it does not feed your brain with concepts and beliefs, instead she raises questions, she wants her readers to reach their own conclusions by simply reporting a truth, although through fictional events, that are still too real, so far.

How can it be feminist, if in the episodes we see women tortured and subjugated? Women are the only victims in the society of the Republic of Gilead – the fictional community in the show, subdued by men to the point that they lose their identity, their name, and they become a property of their owners: Ofglen… Offred, literally of-someone. Despite their annihilation, we hear their thoughts, and if we can’t, we see it in their eyes, we perceive what they would like to express and they would definitely all be part of the #metoo movement now, I guess!

Elisabeth-Moss-OffredThe show begins with Offred (who is not Offred yet) and her husband, trying to escape from the police to save their child. Other details of her past are showed only through Offred’s memories and flashbacks, because from the moment they capture her, we only see her new life at Gilead. After a civil war, the United States have created a totalitarian government based on “Christian” rules. For some odd reasons, women are not fertile anymore, and they need to resort to a sort of surrogate mothers in order to have babies. What will happen though, is that these surrogate mothers are handmaids, they get impregnated by the most powerful men of the Gilead republic and they leave their children with the family that abused of them. They get assigned to their owners and they must undergo a treatment, a ritual, more easily said a f* rape, in order to give the family a child. Society is divided into classes (again?), handmaids are dressed in red (oh, by the way, read also The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne when you get a chance!),  marthas – housekeepers and cooks- wear green, and wives wear blue. Of course we could not miss the prostitutes for those elite men in need of … well, they’re men, so at Jezebel’s there are women who work in secret brothels to satisfy them. Not to be contentious (or am I) but what I saw through all the episodes does not deviate much from what I see everyday. Of course the story is exaggerated (I mean, it is first a novel and then a television adaptation of it, so it has to be a little fictional, don’t you think?) but, as I said before, it gives you hints to reason, to process your thoughts, and I would appreciate to know what this TV shows creates in your …guts. About the colors and the perfect contrast the filmmakers decided to create, well, I’ll touch this topic later, waiting for season two, and after I’ll get more experience on the field… eh-hem.

handmaidstale

The Handmaid’s Tale

Genre: they want to call it “dystopian fiction drama”
Created by: Bruce Miller
Based on: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
StarringElisabeth MossJoseph FiennesYvonne StrahovskiAlexis BledelMadeline BrewerAnn DowdO. T. FagbenleMax MinghellaSamira Wiley
Watched onHulu
One Season, Ten Episodes watched in: two mornings.

handmaids_wildposting_72x48_m1-6_moiraJune (name that in the novel is never mentioned but left for granted) played by the Emmy and Golden Globe winner Elisabeth Moss, is the Handmaid of the Waterford family. Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (the beautiful, amazing Yvonne Strahovski – Sarah in “Chuck“) want to have a baby and Offred has to go through the ritual in order to fulfill their desire. As all the handmaids she has to stick to rules or she will be punished. While she is a handmaid she remembers the past, when she was married, had a daughter, a best friend (who is later captured to be a handmaid first and at jezebel later), a life… all things that now have to be forgotten. Serena Joy was once a powerful businesswoman though a little conservative, and I will never understand how she gave in to this project, and she is actually part of the problem and one of the promoters (but I am not going to spoil the whole story, read the freaking book!); there is also Nick,  the Commander’s driver and part of the Eye, some sort of FBI who reports traitors to be captured and punished, or killed. Commander Waterford one night invites Offred into his office to play a game and talk, until he starts treating her differently, just to use a euphemism. She uses this to her advantage later asking for favors, but eventually Serena Joy finds it out and… of course everything is already messed up by then. In fact the Commander seems to be the one who is not fertile and Serena Joys plans sexual intercourses between Offred and Nick, until they eventually get emotionally attached. She finally gets pregnant pretending it is the Commander’s baby, as planned, but 100% it is Nick’s. A few other events happen in the meantime, such as suicides, murders, heavy punishments like “female genital mutilation surgery“, escape attempts and more, but I would suggest to just watch the whole series as I am not going to spoil it. Uh, uh. It is worth watching and most of all, worth reading, so get off the net and start doing your homework. You’re welcome.

9d6e991c-923c-42e0-a5cf-322f906dd05d

 

Golden Globes 2018: BWQ is back to black

Reviews

timesuppinI’m back. Well, I just spent a whole bunch of time binge watching shows, and actually, I also invested many hours catching up on movies I could find on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, any platform really… long story short, I had to be ready for the Golden Globes last night, and oh, I was so ready. Stating the obvious, no matter all the great winners that went up on the stage to thank their family, friends, co-workers, etcetera, I believe the actual winner was the pin everyone was wearing, the one showing the words: time’s up. The winner is not the pin itself, you fools, but the meaning it brings, because yes, the time is up. Time’s up on what? Anything. Anybody. As many posts on the world wide web show now, time’s up on silence, on waiting, on tolerating abuses, on lack of respect, on people of any gender having to say “me too” when someone else finally has the gut to speak up and say: this person has violated me. We are free to say what we need to say.

LetterOfSolidarity

It is not me, it is you crying. Sobbing at every word spoken last night by either a man or a woman (mostly women though), either on or off stage, winners or not of that Golden Globe’s Night that opens the awards’ season in the entertainment industry. On a side note, artists, or how I call them “people of a certain depth”, already have my respect, so please do not judge me if you’ll notice that I am totally “Hollywood team”. I cheered, I cheer and will always do, always. I had so many haters, so many “grounded” people -as they like to be called- disliking my particular predisposition to support this category and most of all this area of the world that apparently you can either hate or love, no in between. Ugh, who knows. I grew up imagining myself in a different world than my own, surrounding myself with alternative realities portrayed in motion pictures, so I am sorry but I am not sorry for taking a stand with and for them, for liking and sharing the same ideas and ideals.

big-little-lies-golden-globe-win-ht-jef-180107_12x5_992We are back to black. How? Black is one of my favorite colors. It is considered to be the absence of light, or better, the absorption of light that can no longer be reflected. To me, black is at the same time power, mystery, authority, fear, elegance, formality, death, evil, aggression, sophistication… rebellion. You need black to have depth and variation of hue in any other color. You all other painters over there, do you agree? You do, don’t you? Black is often given a negative connotation. As many said last night, when Natalie Portman and other goddesses of mine started sharing the hashtag #whywewearblack, black is for mourning, for the losses we had since these stories of abuses came to surface. No, to me black is strength, it means being serious when bright cheerful colors need to shut up for just a second. Of course then I need my beloved deep blood red and my relaxing smoke gray… but now is the time for black. This is why I wore black too, last night: I was not mourning, I was celebrating freedom, of speech, of choice, of being.

golden-globes-2017-1I won’t talk about the nominees, the winners, the host Seth Meyers who had a tremendous monologue, the series and the movies because these are basically details that turned out to be futile in such a night of revelation, of empowerment and awakening and, hopefully, this will last until it becomes normality. Not a movement, not a revolution. Normality. As for the reviews of movies and series that were competing for this year Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s award we’ll have to wait until Thursday, as the day of Thor is the designated weekday for the Binge Watching Queen’s Alternative Reviews. 

HTGAWM’s Annalise Keating and #metoo

Reviews

The reason I am here tonight is simple: after many years I realize I am not special, I am not “the unlucky one”, I am not different, I am not the only one, I am not #guilty. Since the Weinstein case came out on the news a few weeks ago, memories from the past -that never goes away- start playing in my head every time I stop to read about the testimonies of these women who, one by one, are finally denouncing the abuses and the sexual assaults they have been victim of, either in the past or in the current years.

harvey-weinstein3

I had the same feeling when, thanks to my savior –the music-, I coped with adolescence and its aftereffects, becoming aware of the sad reality that sees many of us undergo mistreatments and abuses, accepting that “a trouble shared is a trouble halved”, and that we are all in this together. Still, whilst the sense of impotence and helplessness you get by feeling wronged by the world, the human existence and the mortal condition belong to boys and girls indiscriminately, it appears that what is going on right now is a massive uprising of female voices that, for many (too many) years, have been silenced. Muted by fear, by abusers, by society itself.

metoo.jpg

Among the ones tweeting and sharing their “me too” message to make the world aware of a problem that has been smearing this sick sad society for centuries, there are not only women though. The oppressed, whether females, males, straight or gay, eventually felt they were strong enough and ready to speak up. There was no need to explain in detail, you only had to say “me too”, as if we were in school, the teacher asked a question and we had to raise our hands. Well, thank you Alyssa Milano for calling out to us victims of this broken system via social-media. Most of all, thank you Tarana Burke -credited by Alyssa, for creating this movement, more than 10 years ago, and that only now is coming to surface. Back then, Tarana wanted to help young women of color who were survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation, and who were not heard or believed. Today, everyone can be heard, we hope.

The picture is getting clearer, isn’t it? If you have been watching How to get away with murder these past few years, you can’t help but think of Annalise Keating, the protagonist of another great TV-show born from the magical mind of Shonda Rhimes. Let’s first have a look at the plot of the series:

htgawm.jpg

How to get away with murder

Genre: they want to call it “legal thriller drama”
Created byPeter Nowalk
StarringViola DavisBilly BrownAlfred EnochKatie FindlayJack FalaheeMatt McGorryAja Naomi KingKarla SouzaCharlie WeberLiza WeilConrad Ricamora
Watched on: Hulu and TV (FOX Italy)
Four Seasons, Sixty Episodes (48 aired so far) watched in: religious schedule of #TGIT.

Annalise Keating is a great lawyer, the best apparently, from what we understand, and also a Professor of Law at Middleton University in Philadelphia. Beyond her most trusted collaborators Frank and Bonnie, she picks five students to intern for her: Wes, Connor, Michaela, Asher, and Laurel. They work together to solve crimes that, through both flashbacks and flash-forwards, seem to be all related to one big homicide in which they are all involved: Sam, Annalise’s husband has been murdered because of his affair with Lila, a student at Middleton, who was killed before Sam, by someone unknown. One of the suspects, Rebecca, is a girl with whom Wes falls in love, and who turns everything into a big chaotic mess. Oh, Rebecca dies as well. Trust me, this is no spoiler alert as the rabbit hole has not even been crossed yet. By the end of season three, in fact, everything is literally screwed up and season four, which started almost three weeks ago, promises nothing but more troubles.

Screen-Shot-2016-09-18-at-2.34.43-PM

Going back to Annalise and the “me too” movement, it first needs to be said that sensitive topics in the TV-show are obviously present (it is a crime drama after all), rape is condemned, although kept hidden for years, and sexual assault can be analyzed following several procedures, but it is not up to me, right now, to go deep into this kind of digression.

We need to focus on Annalise, and in particular, her relationship with her mother. The most intense moment in the whole series, from my point of view, is in the episode where the mother appears in the show, and the spectator can finally connect a few dots of the complicated story behind who Annalise, called Anna Mae by her mother, really is. The two women seem to have a weird bond: a strong mother and a strong daughter, who is eventually weak and misunderstood, start talking about their past, with Anna Mae accusing her mother of ignoring the sexual abuses she suffered because of her uncle. This is revealed by the touching scene when Annalise shouts “Did you know what he did to me?” until her mom starts listing the names, through the history of rape in their family, of those who did it to her and her sister, with a teacher and a reverend included. What strikes the most, and what hurts like a stab wound right between the back of your shoulders is hearing her words when she adds “Men take things! They’ve been taking things from women since the beginning of time, and it ain’t no reason to talk about it and get all messy everywhere. Certainly no reason to go to a head shrink or for help.” Wrong. It is and it was necessary to say it. To denounce it. To protect those who will come after, because no more people have to become victims. No more.

enough-is-enough

Annalise’s self-worth, just like every victim’s confidence, was permanently scarred. Knowing her mother and her aunt had been violated did not make things easier, sharing the pain does not make it go away and it certainly does not cancel what caused the pain in the first place. Yet, by the end of the episode we realize that yes, silence has been reigning upon the family for years, the truth has been neglected for the quiet life, but eventually Annalise’s mother took care of her daughter’s abuser her own way: she burned the house while the uncle was drunk asleep on the couch, making it appear as if the fire started because of his cigarette falling. Being bright and kind of manipulative seems to be genetic in this family, although even the most dreadful action  is done for the greater good, sacrificing a person’s freedom for the sake of someone else’s life.

ITSONUS.org

Is it real then? Sexual harassment has been going on since the beginning of time so there is no need to make such a big deal out of it? Isn’t this like saying that if something has always been done that way, then there is no need to change it, although it is kind of obvious that it is deeply and terribly wrong? Eh, just think about it. Not a day, one.single.day passes by without having us (yes, I call myself in) molested, although we learned to just “accept” it, and move on. You walk down the street and that person approaches you “Hey pretty…” and you start walking faster to keep the distance. You stop at the traffic light waiting for the green light to cross, nobody is walking near you, and those people in their car start honking, at you, because there is no one else around; while they’re shouting obnoxious words you try to give them the evil stare, but they’re already mimicking oral sex right before your eyes. This to name just a few, of those moments that cannot be defined as “rare”, when you just “let it happen” because there is nothing that you can do. Sometimes you try to react, you shout back at these beasts, you show them the finger, always fearing a reaction, picturing yourself running because they could get mad or even overexcited because of what may seem like a fearless woman. Those other times though, you just shut up, with your blood boiling inside because you know that you can’t beat the pack if they attack, while going back from class, alone, on a Venetian day in spring, along a narrow calle that skirts the canal where four big men are unloading a boat. One points at you, so you look down: “ughhh, on that one I’d lie for hours pushing and pushing and pushing until she begs to stop”.

635773326201138131-330401728_Screen-Shot-2014-04-03-at-5.27.03-PM

Again, these are just a little part of the verbal assaults that we have to deal with since when we are born, with -let me say unfortunately for the time being-, a vagina. I won’t go over the actual physical assaults (and I am addressing only female victims for the sake of time and space in here, so allow me to focus on vagina owners for now) because those, as Annalise shows us, leave a mark on you that will never go away, and if you too can’t help but shed a tear while listening to Pink singing “that’s when dickhead put his hands on me” in U + UR hand during your morning run, giving a start to a list of flashbacks, well, just know that although this won’t change the past, you’re not the only one, you’re not alone, it is not your fault, you’re not wrong, you are a survivor.

See? I told you my reviews would be kind of alternative! All things considered, TV-series are fiction, but there is some truth in every fictional story.