Jet Curtis
I'm watching.
My recent critique about the Longmire TV series ("Unintentionally Undercover," 4/25 issue), now in production around
Santa Fe
, has apparently ruffled quite a few feathers among its producers.
Who could blame them? ---
The appalling nerve of a recruited short-term crew member who writes a scathing critique of the show's content after only two days on the set would bring up feelings of betrayal, indignation and unfairness in anyone. Yet it brings up a broader discussion of why I am critical: the flooding of American culture with virtual graphic violence and sexual titillation by the TV and movie industry who cash in on it big-time.
Though I had no idea what the production was about upon arrival, I was at first indifferent then dismayed by the use, yet again, of violence as a means of keeping an increasing violence-hungry culture glued to the TV, particularly young males who find this type of action fascinating. It is apparent that Katee Sackhoff as sheriff’s deputy on the show was most likely chosen for her looks, attractive to a mostly male audience (not to disparage her acting skills, but most female cops I’ve seen tend not to be bombshells). There was also plenty of skin from a female extra included in the promo. To me, Longmire, like most cop shows, clearly promotes the unquestionable status of cop as hero and the use of violent force through the use of firearms as a means of achieving justice for all. The good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the gun is the arbiter.
The justifying defense I hear most often is that, because there is a mass demand for sex and violence, the industry, innocently, continues the supply. Which causes one to ask: How is this “demand” measured and what would happen if it’s not met? Could the supply be creating the demand TV and film producers, like journalists, have an increasing responsibility for what a viewer is exposed to and how they will analyze.
Is there no other way to depict resolutions to societal ills? If I was “irresponsible” for taking advantage of an unexpected insider look at a TV production shoot, I am “guilty.” But will industry producers also take responsibility for indirectly contributing to our culture’s violence obsession and police adulation and aggrandizement?
I truly ask producers, especially for mainstream audiences, to consider this question and find ways to contribute to a society that eschews violence and the use of women as objects of the male gaze. There are clear consequences for continuing to pervade the American mind with such imagery; ask any educated media literacy analyst.
Funny how favorable articles don't seem to garner such attention.
"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." – Oscar Wilde
