Life 1x06 Powerless

[oyceter]

Dani Reese is TEH AWESOME.

Hrm, maybe I will watch some more. Crews is still somewhat annoying in here, but nowhere near the levels of "Agggh! Hit it! Hit it with a big stick!" I was a little annoyed with him talking to the rape victim and being all "Oh I totally grok it," until the slip about prison, which made it less him-as-savior and more him-as-messed-up-dude. I am also more and more disturbed by the use of Zen Buddhism in the show; it feels like they're adopting it as a philosophy and forgetting that it's an actual religion people practice.

I wouldn't have that much of a problem with this, given that it's pretty clear Crews' take on Zen Buddhism is taken from a book, if only I thought that a) the writers were more aware of this, b) Reese's brief take on it in the end of this episode, and c) the fact that I don't think there are competing takes on Zen Buddhism in the US. I am wary that most people watching will have gotten most of their knowledge of Zen and Zen Buddhism from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the 1960s, and the fetish for all things Asian and "spiritual." And I can't think of a good example of a conflicting view of Zen Buddhism as a living religion, not an enlightened philosophy, in pop culture, at least not off the top of my head.

I also had some qualms about the big Dani episode being all about rape. But I'm very glad that it wasn't about Dani's hidden sexual trauma and extremely glad that it ended up examining not her sexuality, but rather, her addiction and her strength and how she scraped herself off the bottom.

I especially love that Dani basically got to take out Skanky Evil Guy by herself before backup came in. Yeah, Crews had a part in it, which was great, but I love love love that it wasn't them saving her. She was definitely in charge the whole time, and it was ten kinds of awesome that Crews had no problem with following her lead.

I am completely bored by white-collar crime guy and his angst.

Maybe I will hang in there for a few more episodes and just knit and ignore all the times Reese and the Lt. are not on screen.

Comments

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

There an episode involving a quantum physicist, and what he said, and Charlie's intepretation and repetition of it seemed pretty garbled. I suspect something similar is happening with the Zen Buddhism. On the other hand, it seems to serve Charlie pretty well, keeping him sane in prison and calm now that he is out.

[oyceter]

Yeeeah. And I know quantum physics is generally not represented well in pop culture, but the whole spirituality aspect tends to bug me in particular, especially because it goes into the whole "mystical East" thing.