TheUnhinged
so-called Australia
Another crime drama uses women as voyeuristic collateral damage
I'll preface this review by saying that I don't normally watch crime dramas because they're copaganda and certain shows revel in gratuitous violence as a form of voyeuristic titillation. I made an exception for Copycat Killer because of the stellar cast.
As far as the twists and turns and pacing of the plot goes, that was all fairly enjoyable. But I was disappointed with three things.
1) The drama follows the tired old trope of unhinged men killing young women. These perpetrators of gendered violence are depicted as social anomalies – as if gendered violence were the result of just a 'few bad apples' – when we know that isn't true. And yes, while this is a work of fiction, I draw a line at gratuitous displays of gendered violence. This drama offers sadistic voyeurism and no critique.
2) I think there was an attempt at some kind of commentary on the spectacularisation of media. It was superficial at best – possibly a very confused take on Baudrillard's Simulacrum – and was ultimately undermined by the drama's own spectacularisation of violence at the meta level anyway (see above).
3) Despite an amazing cast, the actors weren't given a lot to work with. The characters were written in such a way that they were all easily identifiable crime drama 'types' that had each been customised slightly to fit the storyline. I'm not just talking about the unhinged misogynist trope. Male lead as man-turned-judicial-warrior because his family was murdered is a tired old trope. Journalist struggling for justice is a tired old trope. Woman psychologist who serves as a love interest and to give emotional substance to the male lead is a tired old trope. I was even hoping they might do something with Ruby Lin's anchor character but, alas, no.
This very much sucks because these are incredible actors we're talking about. This is the 4th drama I've seen with Chris Wu, 3rd with Ruby Lin, 2nd with Ko Chia Yen, and 2nd with Cammy Chiang. I know they're all excellent actors but because of how their characters were written, they just didn't have room to show off their full ability. That said, they did wonderfully with what they'd been given.
Just to end on a positive note – special mention to the lighting crew and director of photography. There were some beautifully lit and coloured scenes as well as a couple of choice angles used in shots. Nice work.
As far as the twists and turns and pacing of the plot goes, that was all fairly enjoyable. But I was disappointed with three things.
1) The drama follows the tired old trope of unhinged men killing young women. These perpetrators of gendered violence are depicted as social anomalies – as if gendered violence were the result of just a 'few bad apples' – when we know that isn't true. And yes, while this is a work of fiction, I draw a line at gratuitous displays of gendered violence. This drama offers sadistic voyeurism and no critique.
2) I think there was an attempt at some kind of commentary on the spectacularisation of media. It was superficial at best – possibly a very confused take on Baudrillard's Simulacrum – and was ultimately undermined by the drama's own spectacularisation of violence at the meta level anyway (see above).
3) Despite an amazing cast, the actors weren't given a lot to work with. The characters were written in such a way that they were all easily identifiable crime drama 'types' that had each been customised slightly to fit the storyline. I'm not just talking about the unhinged misogynist trope. Male lead as man-turned-judicial-warrior because his family was murdered is a tired old trope. Journalist struggling for justice is a tired old trope. Woman psychologist who serves as a love interest and to give emotional substance to the male lead is a tired old trope. I was even hoping they might do something with Ruby Lin's anchor character but, alas, no.
This very much sucks because these are incredible actors we're talking about. This is the 4th drama I've seen with Chris Wu, 3rd with Ruby Lin, 2nd with Ko Chia Yen, and 2nd with Cammy Chiang. I know they're all excellent actors but because of how their characters were written, they just didn't have room to show off their full ability. That said, they did wonderfully with what they'd been given.
Just to end on a positive note – special mention to the lighting crew and director of photography. There were some beautifully lit and coloured scenes as well as a couple of choice angles used in shots. Nice work.
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