In the ninth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>, Britt takes a solo case while Hank recuperates, and Hank finds out that Jason has a scary past. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of pedophilia\/child molestation, transphobia and transmisogyny.<\/b><\/p>\n
Man, a lot of uncomfortable topics were shoved into the same episode, weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DISCUSS.<\/p>\n
Jason<\/b>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Secret<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking that the show deliberately chose such a polarizing and rage-inducing past for Jason so it could set us up for Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure. My knee-jerk reaction? Get everyone and everything away from Jason. The very idea that he could have assisted his parents in molesting dozens of children is horrifying to me, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of the point. The show puts Hank closer and closer to some kind of truth. Yet as Hank feels like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s found the bombshell to ruin Gretchen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s marriage, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unaware that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for her isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same as it is for him.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the complication that comes from this. Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions backfire because he pursues this with his own interests in mind. In the end, Jason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicity in his parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 abuse isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really the conflict, and we never find out what actually happened when he was a teenager. Instead, Gretchen angrily rejects Hank because he tried to shock her and derail her wedding when\u00c2\u00a0she knew about Jason<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past and name change the entire time<\/i>. Hank did not talk to her about any of this, nor did he even think to ask her if she needed his help. He just assumed that she did. As I said on video, I was surprised (in a good way) that the script addressed this dynamic. Hank comes off as the ex who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t move on and who paternalistically invades someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and privacy.<\/p>\n
Yeah, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of a huge trainwreck. And\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is consistently willing to portray that. I also mentioned on video that\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>this show seemed to come out right on the cusp of television turning darker and grittier, yet it never got the same sort of attention as shows like\u00c2\u00a0Breaking Bad<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0or\u00c2\u00a0Mad Men<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0did. Why is that???<\/p>\n
Michela<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a challenge to watch things years after they come out and try to write about them in a way that respects the time when they were released and who I am in the present time. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t claim to have been as knowledgable about transphobia or trans issues of representation in 2010 as I am now. Yet that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that large parts of this episode are fun to watch. The language here is appalling at times, both in the consistent use of slurs\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0in the constant misgendering of trans characters. The show can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to figure out if these characters are trans women, genderqueer people, or cis men who like to wear women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing.<\/p>\n
And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the problem. There\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0a stark sympathy offered to Michela and Crystal throughout this episode, and Britt even has a moment where he insists that parents who reject their gay or gender-nonconforming children are completely are absurd. (Sort of.) In one breath,\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0tries to tell us that toleration is a beautiful thing, that we should accept people from all walks of life. Like, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that I teared up during the scene where Britt and Michela confront Crystal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents! That moment felt so real and visceral and sad. But my relationship with that scene is different from the one the writers seem to have intended. It made me sad because I\u00c2\u00a0know<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0what it is like to feel rejected because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not straight, because you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit the gender roles assigned to you. I ran away from home at sixteen, just like Crystal, and I was homeless off and on for years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a subtle element of a plot; it was my life.<\/p>\n
Yet this ultimately isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really about me, even if I felt close to Crystal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an element to representation politics that often goes ignored, and this episode is a prime example of that. Yes, Shangela does a fine job with this character, but the script is so openly flawed that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to count it as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153diverse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d representation. This is now the second show that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve watched this year where DJ Pierce played a sassy trans sex worker. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less of a criticism of their acting choices and more of a condemnation of the fact that people can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to write trans people in anything but the sex worker trope. And even worse, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hooker with a Heart of Gold\u00e2\u20ac\u009d trope. And even worse, the only\u00c2\u00a0other<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0trans character, Crystal, is dead. And misgendered. And not even on-screen.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what bugs me about all of this. Toleration is not a good thing. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want people to tolerate me for being mentally ill, for being latinx, for being queer. Toleration means that I can still exist out of sight, out of mind, and as a political notion, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty fucking terrible. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking for liberation and empathy. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need people to know every detail of my life, but I certainly need folks to understand why marriage equality might matter, why we should be spending time, money, and energy on homeless queer and LGBT youth, and why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to use the proper pronouns for people. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pimp Daddy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has a sweetness to it that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect, yes. Britt could easily become friends with Michela, and I bet that would be entertaining on some level. But the same script that tries to portray these characters sympathetically cannot figure out what to call them, nor what identity they actually are. It cannot give us a reality for trans women that shows that they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all sex workers, that their lives are not all full of heartbreak and suffering, and that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re part of the fabric of human existence instead of a bizarre Other. Try as they might, the writers of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0missed the mark on this one, loaded the script with their preconceived notions of trans and gender-nonconforming individuals instead of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well,\u00c2\u00a0asking\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>them how to tell their stories.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pimp Daddy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the ninth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers, Britt takes a solo case while Hank recuperates, and Hank finds out that Jason has a scary past. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[659],"tags":[660],"class_list":["post-5735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terriers","tag-mark-watches-terriers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"