The Pain & Pleasure of Toxic TV Couples - Carrie Bradshaw & Mr. Big

Sex & the City

The Pain & Pleasure of Toxic TV Couples - Nate Fisher & Brenda Chenowith

The Liar and his Whore

Where to start with these two...

The relationship between the leading couple on Six Feet Under (sorry David and Keith) couldn't be more of a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. This statement could be more evident as we see the two hooking up in the first episode in an airport supply closest after having met a few short hours on a plane bound for L.A.

In fact, according to this site that discusses the color symbolism of the show, there are a frequent number of times where the two are shown wearing polar colored clothing, Nate's style is usually brown (which symbolizes the ground/earth), while Brenda's trademark color is blue (symbolic of water or the airy sky) these two couldn't be more disparate.

The relationship hits several snags throughout the five seasons.

Nate, an idealist with high expectations with the women he typically goes after

Brenda, an atheist with usually low expectations in her love pursuits.

The Pain & Pleasure of Toxic TV Couples - Tom Wambsgans & Shiv Roy

Succession's "power" couple

Having finally caught up on both seasons 1 & 2 of Succession, I wanted to write a review on what makes this show such a fascinating binge-watch and why viewers might enjoy a show that celebrates truly despicable characters. Let's focus on breaking down Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) and Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfayden), and what makes their relationship so intoxicatingly complex, a common theme in the show.

In the first episode we are introduced to Siobhan Roy, "Shiv" as the youngest child and only daughter of media tycoon, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), who is helping her boyfriend, Tom, shop for the "best" present for her father's 80th birthday, though Shiv warns that her father doesn't like gifts. As we come to see over the first hour, Tom couldn't be more of doormat trying to whoo Shiv's father with a ridiculously expensive watch he bought, despite Logan's lack of interest once he shows it to him and later gives away as a constellation to a local family involved in an incident at the Family's softball game.

The following episode takes place during the aftermath of Logan's near-fatal brain aneurysm. In spite of the Roy family crisis at hand, Tom impulsively proposes to Shiv while her father's in a coma in order to, in his words, "make all of this go away." The timing could not be more terribly off. Shiv, however reluctantly accepts after giving the matter short thought. We also get a glimpse of Tom turning the other way when he walks in on Shiv and Roman having a physical confrontation. Ouch.

The rest of the season follows their engagement plans (Tom even gladly signs a prenup for Shiv) mostly on the sidelines as we get to know more about the two along with the other main characters. Through Tom we mostly see his interactions with Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), Logan's great-nephew, whom Tom bullies through psychological and verbal mind games as he views Cousin Greg as an inferior target compared to himself. Ironically, Tom is usually treated as an easy target in the Roy family clan. Shiv's story shows her doing her job as a political strategist and has many interactions with a former beau/colleague, Nate, with whom she has an affair with behind Tom's back.

In episode 7, Logan (furious with his daughter's latest political pursuit), bluntly calls her out for being a coward by marrying the type of man who, in his words, "fathoms beneath [her]" due to not only her fear of commitment but also the thought of being betrayed or even stood up to by someone with integrity. Tom, as we've gotten to know him better, is the type of lover Shiv can easily keep under her thumb and could likely throw away if something better were to come along. 

As we get closer to the big wedding at the end of the first season, Shiv and Tom have separate bachelor/bachelorette parties. Before arriving at the cool underground club to which Roman escorts Tom and the rest of the male characters, Tom checks in with Shiv re strippers, Shiv gives him the green light to do whatever he chooses to do without any clues of her own indiscretions with Nate.

The unbalanced couple tie the knot at the end of the first season. However, right before the big day Tom finally picks up on Shiv's indiscretions with Nate. In a vulnerable, dramatic scene, Tom confronts Shiv in a private room asking her if the rumors about her and Nate are true, and whether she actually wants to go through with their wedding or not. Despite giving her a way out, Shiv denies having an affair and reassures Tom that she wants to get married. However, Greg later spots Nate with Shiv and tries to warn Tom the morning of his wedding day while jogging. Tom chooses to deny the truth, beats up Greg, and then literally and theoretically runs away from his problems. Once Tom and Shiv are married and have made their speeches for everyone, we come to another pivotal and heartbreaking scene. Before consummating their marriage Shiv 


The tragedy of Tom is that he claims to love the woman he's married to, but he also resents for how much power she has over him. 

TV Characters you love to hate

Why I hate Nate Fisher of Six Feet Under 

The lead character of Six Feet Under (2001-2005) is the type of 
character who portrays all the things that I despise about people in real life. I do not idolize him nor would I wish to become or know someone like him. The more you come to understand his character, you realize what an infuriatingly arrogant person and a total ass he makes himself out to be throughout most episodes of the beloved HBO show. 

We are meant to relate to Nate as the archetypical white-male protagonist who is searching for some kind of meaning in life, and yet whenever anything appears to actually be working out for him, he takes literally everything he has for granted. For some reason he can never be happy, at least not for too long, with whatever isn't broken in his life and looks for excuses to doubt the things that are reasonably working. He is constantly whining and complaining about the awful/traumatic things that have happened in his life and instead of being able to move on and let it go, or even consider seeking serious therapy for that matter, he holds onto his pain by taking his severe frustrations out on other people, including those who inexplicably love him. 

He is always obnoxious when it comes to preaching how he knows better about life than others do, including the concept of love when in reality he knows nothing and has no authority whatsoever going around telling people what love is and what it's not. David got it right in the pilot by calling him a "sanctimonious prick!"

He is a goddamn narcissistic, immoral, disrespectful coward who'll take whatever pleases him and does not give a single care about whom he hurts in the process. As long as he's able to find some kind of "safety raft" whenever the situation he's currently gotten himself into looks like a "sinking ship," he'll easily let it sink given the chance to do so and avoid any responsibility to try and work things out.

If I knew a person like that in real life, who was constantly getting on my nerves and never taking my opinions and thoughts into validation, I would drop that person without another moment's thought, because nobody should be treated like someone else's prop. 

Crazy No More: Why the finale of Crazy-Ex Girlfriend croaked

Recently this year I decided to check out Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, a musical-parody/ romantic dramedy, CW series following main character, Rebecca Bunch's (Rachel Bloom) quest to find happiness and true love in West Covina, California. While I hadn't been interested in the show throughout its four season run on television I wanted to catch up on past episodes before the series' conclusion earlier this month. After streaming several episodes on Netflix and listening to an endless number of earworm songs, I found myself drawn to the show's quirky, flawed protagonist as well as the supporting cast (Heather is the funniest and coolest character, and I am so in love with Dr. Akopian). Speaking as a millennial, I totally understand what makes this show appealing to young people my age. The way it addresses stigmatized mental illnesses (BPD, depression, and anxiety) is compelling. It also rings a lot of universal truths about gender relationships in contemporary culture. 

However, the fourth season had a lot of inconsistencies in the writing as well as the character's motives. Every episode building to the end was sort of half-baked. If Rebecca was going to choose herself over any of her romantic love interests all along, the writers certainly could have arrived at this conclusion a lot sooner instead of dragging the story out with filler episodes in-between. Her journey to self-love throughout the season did not have any believable conflict either.  

As I watched the finale head towards its heavy-handed conclusion, I found myself cringing watching filler moments such as George showing off his new ponytail to his co-workers, and the part about White Josh's house being destroyed in a fire felt random and harsh.

As soon as Rebecca turned to Nathaniel in the audience to give him her "pity speech" I immediately shouted F**k! Although I was glad to see Nathaniel stand up to his sadistic father and quit working for his law firm to work as an attorney for zoo animals (this was a logical narrative), I still felt incredibly sorry for the guy. While Nathaniel's development from a bad person to someone trying to be better was arguably inconsistent this season (I blame the writers) I was really hoping he and Rebecca could have found a way to get past their issues together and become better people in a healthy relationship. The chemistry between the two is something I really enjoyed. The scene where she is turning him down gently shows how mature he is to let her go. However, Nathaniel also mentions that he had already rented them a pair of horses, bought champagne, and a giant diamond. Did he mean a "diamond" ring? If so, again F**k.  He appears visibly despondent while listening to her speech at the end of the episode, indicating that he hasn't completely moved on from her. It doesn't get more tragic than that. Something I found interesting about Nathaniel accepting Rebecca's rejection is how it contrasts with her rejecting Greg. Greg's immediate response is this: "You just got to know that I'm not gonna wait, not anymore." This coming from the guy who told her that "[she'll] always be the love of [his] life" just one episode ago. It's bad writing like this that feels contrived and manipulative! 

This pseudo-Feminist ending makes me think of a finale about another quirky female protagonist from the BBC series, Miranda. Not only does the titular character learn to love herself in the end, but she still gets the guy who loves and accepts her for who she is. A finale like that would have given me better closure. 

Project #3 Moving Through Space

Final Media Project #3_new from Daniel Plastrik on Vimeo.

Whitney Museum: Blog #4

Media 160, Spring 2018

I chose to visit the Whitney Museum as an alternative assignment and toured the exhibit on the fifth floor celebrating the artwork of the contemporary American artist Zoe Leonard. The display consisted of the artist’s photography and installations reflecting the use of compositional techniques of Leonard herself. One of the works was of a stack of suitcases presented in a color-coded pattern, evocatively conveying a somewhat bleak motif symbolizing the burden of one’s departmentalized past, serving to convey how human beings carry baggage of diverse hues and sizes. Another display involved a photograph of an aerial view shot depicting an urban landscape from a plane window, created by using an analog camera. It grabbed my attention because of the dramatic use of shadows Leonard uses to control what is and isn’t seen in the shot. Specifically, there is a shadow on the right side of the frame that prevents the viewer from seeing the whole content. The photograph conveys a sense of mystery and incompleteness, where you cannot discern all the details and either have to accept the shadowy blanks or imagine for yourself how to complete the image.  

Another eye-catching piece was a sculpture of a female figure, atomically laid out like the goddess Venus, only enclosed in a see-through coffin-like box and depicted nude but cut open at the torso. The tour guide explained how this presentation of the female represents an ideal of the female body while conveying deep ambiguity: the figure is both an object to be studied and an object of desire. The sculpture looked almost robotic to me, evoking fascination and repulsion. There was also a series of photographs, each depicting a severed human head in a bell jar, shown in a particular sequence. According to the tour guide, the centerline of each shot was positioned at the artist's eye level, so that the viewer is drawn to the eyes in the bell jar, picture to picture. One was drawn to the lifeless eyes, creating a chilly connection with the grotesque images. 

For the latter half of the tour, we were told about Leonard’s sociopolitical views, especially during the 1990s. Leonard is a feminist who feels deeply about climate change throughout the world and is committed social change. Her installation “Analogue” movingly depicts her concern about global warming in America, in Pakistan, and in Poland. In depicting ads for Coco Cola in her posters, she shows how the negative impact of corporate conglomerates and capitalism in general has manifested on culture and society, dictating the goods and services used that poison our bodies and our earth. Another installation, seen at the end of the exhibit, consisted of a myriad of postcards showing different shots of Niagara Falls. The tour guide pointed out that approximately 350 shots of this iconic location were used make up the totality of “Niagara Falls Landscapes.” To experience these posters as a whole transcends any single photograph, adding to the immense sense of beauty and natural wonder of the Falls. It transports one into a magical world, as all art should.