TV Therapy

~ Clarissa

My husband is so sensitive that I can’t watch my favorite show Law & Order: SVU with him in the room.

Now, however, he discovered Dexter and it’s his favorite show. His explanation is that SVU is realistic while Dexter is plainly comedic. So now we watch Dexter.

I’m not into this show a whole lot but as long as N is happy, I don’t care what we watch. I watched a Russian series titled The Bandits of St Petersburg with him 4 times because it means so much to him.

I dislike Dexter for two reasons:

1. The actor who plays Dexter is so ugly it hurts my aesthetic sensibilities to look at him.

2. The Rita character is awakening murderous impulses in me. I have a visceral rejection of such pathetic, self-infantilizing, breathy creatures whose only goal in life is to have a pair of pants in their useless lives.

The reason why N likes the show so much is because there is a character who is a loving parent (Dexter ‘ s adoptive father) and N has never seen somebody like this. So the show is therapeutic for him.

Only a person who grew up in the USSR, with its extraordinarily messed up familial relationships, can experience a show about serial killers as healing.

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Published by Clarissa

10 thoughts on “TV Therapy”

  2. If you watched more “Law & Order,” you’d have a better understanding of how the bail bond process works. 🙂

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      1. Well, the reruns are more-or-less constantly on at least two national cable channels (SUNDANCE and WE), so upgrade to a DVR that will let you record two channels simultaneously, and then go to town!

        If you know of a third channel that also has marathons of the ORIGINAL “Law & Order” series (not the multiple inferior spin-offs, please let me know. Thanks! 🙂

        (Twenty years ago I had too much of a life to watch the original broadcasts!)

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  3. Law & Order :SVU is not realistic because cops and police departments generally aren’t that empathetic and competent when it comes to sexual assault. Or as well coiffed. There’s a huge backlog.

    The actor who plays Dexter is so ugly it hurts my aesthetic sensibilities to look at him.
    It’s the giant forehead and the eyebrows, right? Something tells me Matt Damon would make you hurl.

    Only a person who grew up in the USSR, with its extraordinarily messed up familial relationships, can experience a show about serial killers as healing.
    Poor N. From what little you’ve said about his parents, they sound absolutely awful.

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    1. Yes, the cops on SVU are like the ideal all cops should aspire to: super progressive, sensitive, etc.

      And N’s parents are not even that bad by Soviet standards. They’ve let him go which is rare. His mother is not even interested in being in touch, and that’s a rare blessing. Usually, they cannibalize their children’s lives until they die.

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        1. Yes, that’s the best one can hope for. Which is very tragic. 😦 But gosh, I know people whose lives were completely devoured. There’s this man of my age who’s never had any personal or social life because his life belongs to his mother. It’s horrifying to watch.

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