Misfits 103: all of the
Feb. 24th, 2013 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanFirst off, before I get into the Alisha/Curtis stuff: Kelly remains adorable. I love the scene with her and Jody where they sit and are bald. Also, the final scene where Simon suggests they go for a drink is one of my favourite Kelly moments: Alisha is the first to leave, Curtis eagerly follows her, Nathan mocks him, and then Kelly both gives a great reason for not going and apologises. She is really genuinely compassionate.
Also, the scene where they wait to see if Sally will look in the boot? I love it! Scary and tense and farcical at once.
Curtis, you continue to light up my life. Even when he's so angry and hurt, he refuses to do a high-five of manly bonding over 'bitches be crazy'. BECAUSE HE'S THE BEST.
The way Misfits deals with Alisha's power makes me squirm. Curtis obviously feels hugely violated by what Alisha did - “don't touch me!”, the way he flinches from her – and I like that that's shown. In retrospect – probably partly because I know that in a later series Curtis explicitly names it as rape – I'm less creeped out than I was the first time I watched this. Curtis' horror in the aftermath, Alisha's genuinely uncomprehending “but you were so up for it!”, and the fact that in a different scene we get confirmation that when Alisha uses her power on people, they can't remember having sex afterwards – I have more trust that Misfits at least knew this was rape when they wrote it. Especially thanks to the “you're so messed up” line, and because the opening montage shows Alisha seeming to enjoy the power she has as much as the sex itself.
But... yeah. There is so much assault in this episode, and sexual assault does not give or take away karma points: if you nearly get raped, it does not retroactively make your rape of someone else okay. I mean, I get how plot punishment works; often justice for characters' bad behaviour doesn't come from in-text justice but from plot consequences. (Aka, those sitcom episodes where someone gets in with the popular crowd, ignores their old friends and is mean, then gets humiliatingly rejected by the cool kids.) On that level, Alisha's rape of Curtis being followed by his near-rape of her when intoxicated by her powers makes sense. But rape is just not a subject AT ALL suited for that form on plot-punishment. The whole treatment of it is kind of horrible.
I just. Idk. I find Curtis and Alisha's scenes together really charming, and Alisha is very compelling to me in a fucked-up way, and obviously Curtis is my boo. I just. Why is the pain between them after Alisha's rape of Curtis fixed by the awfulness of Curtis nearly raping her? What? What is that scene? “You don't need to use your power on me – I'm already there” would have been a lovely line BEFORE ALL OF THIS.
Argh. The thing is, I always end up really enjoying their relationship after this. But that makes me feel massively creeped out by myself. I mean, fundamentally, this is falling in love with the rapist. Right?
I do wish we knew whether he recognised it for rape at the time/during their relationship, or only afterwards... it would really affect my reading of the whole thing. Does he recognise that Alisha has no idea what she's done, and since he rather fancies her and likes her as a person, decides to go for it? Or does he only realise later what happened? For some reason that really matters to me, particularly since I know more than one person who only realised much later that that thing their boyfriend did to them was rape.
Idkkkkkk. Misfits, I do not think you should have done something so painful and complicated because you just totally fail to follow it through.
Also, the scene where they wait to see if Sally will look in the boot? I love it! Scary and tense and farcical at once.
Curtis, you continue to light up my life. Even when he's so angry and hurt, he refuses to do a high-five of manly bonding over 'bitches be crazy'. BECAUSE HE'S THE BEST.
The way Misfits deals with Alisha's power makes me squirm. Curtis obviously feels hugely violated by what Alisha did - “don't touch me!”, the way he flinches from her – and I like that that's shown. In retrospect – probably partly because I know that in a later series Curtis explicitly names it as rape – I'm less creeped out than I was the first time I watched this. Curtis' horror in the aftermath, Alisha's genuinely uncomprehending “but you were so up for it!”, and the fact that in a different scene we get confirmation that when Alisha uses her power on people, they can't remember having sex afterwards – I have more trust that Misfits at least knew this was rape when they wrote it. Especially thanks to the “you're so messed up” line, and because the opening montage shows Alisha seeming to enjoy the power she has as much as the sex itself.
But... yeah. There is so much assault in this episode, and sexual assault does not give or take away karma points: if you nearly get raped, it does not retroactively make your rape of someone else okay. I mean, I get how plot punishment works; often justice for characters' bad behaviour doesn't come from in-text justice but from plot consequences. (Aka, those sitcom episodes where someone gets in with the popular crowd, ignores their old friends and is mean, then gets humiliatingly rejected by the cool kids.) On that level, Alisha's rape of Curtis being followed by his near-rape of her when intoxicated by her powers makes sense. But rape is just not a subject AT ALL suited for that form on plot-punishment. The whole treatment of it is kind of horrible.
I just. Idk. I find Curtis and Alisha's scenes together really charming, and Alisha is very compelling to me in a fucked-up way, and obviously Curtis is my boo. I just. Why is the pain between them after Alisha's rape of Curtis fixed by the awfulness of Curtis nearly raping her? What? What is that scene? “You don't need to use your power on me – I'm already there” would have been a lovely line BEFORE ALL OF THIS.
Argh. The thing is, I always end up really enjoying their relationship after this. But that makes me feel massively creeped out by myself. I mean, fundamentally, this is falling in love with the rapist. Right?
I do wish we knew whether he recognised it for rape at the time/during their relationship, or only afterwards... it would really affect my reading of the whole thing. Does he recognise that Alisha has no idea what she's done, and since he rather fancies her and likes her as a person, decides to go for it? Or does he only realise later what happened? For some reason that really matters to me, particularly since I know more than one person who only realised much later that that thing their boyfriend did to them was rape.
Idkkkkkk. Misfits, I do not think you should have done something so painful and complicated because you just totally fail to follow it through.
