Over the past 75 or so years, movie and tv psychos have been so boringly Hollywood-stereotypical, cartoonish even: Raven (This Gun for Hire) Don Logan (Sexy Beast), Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction), Norman Bates (Psycho), among others. The writers of these clumsy characters were clueless about what makes a true psycho, let alone one who murders for cash.
Today’s writers pull out all the stops and paint characters right at the slicing edge of decency and acceptance, whatever a network or streaming service permits. And when writers are rebuffed, they save their murderous work for their own stories, in a novel or blog.
The New Writers: Victims of Dark Pop Culture
The New Writers (TNW) treat assassins as mundane professionals like accountants and librarians, which sets up the audience to expect a mild-mannered character. They paint the assassins as funny low-level soldiers who inject fun into their projects, thus shattering our expectations of banality.
TNW trivialize the horror and bloodletting of killing another human being. The effect? Viewers become insensitive to killing and murder, even accepting it as part of everyday life. The audience simply sees humor in everything, including shocking dismemberment and blood-gushing scenes.
Those of us who do not habituate to the violence see it as pure entertainment and are able to enjoy the darkness in a colorful light, then return to our normal lives as editors, barmaids and MMA fighters.
Today’s writers pull out all the stops and paint characters right at the slicing edge of decency and acceptance, whatever a network or streaming service permits.
Killing Eve: We Are Being Programmed By Dark Charm
In Killing Eve, Villanelle is a beautiful, very quirky, neuronally twisted young woman who works for a hidden group that controls all sides of this grand geopolitical chess match. ‘Nell has a bit too much self-awareness and it forges a cockiness over her effectiveness as a killer. She morphs into a legend in her own rock head and soon turns on her own handlers and old acquaintances. Lovers, too.
Her once-valuable self-awareness dissipates the better she gets, leaving her with that growing arrogance.
Still, her charm lies in a dark worldview, off-handed humor and clever retorts.
What’s not to like? Villanelle is the coolest psychobitch in the stream and I can’t wait to see what those twisty moonless TNW conjure up to best her.