Vampires, werewolves, witches, hybrids, and...New Orleans? For anyone addicted to CW’s show The Originals (a fan demanded spinoff of the hit show The Vampire Diaries), like me, hearing all those supernatural creatures in one sentence causes major stress. This new but exciting and hot show focuses on the original family of vampires and their struggle to take back what once was theirs and keep their family together. With a thousand years behind them, the originals have many problems, enemies, and friends to keep up with, not to mention their own family members that after so long can’t stand each other anymore, but still want to hold on to their family bond. How could a show about the supernatural be oppressive? Here’s some thoughts:
- Exploitation: In the city of New Orleans, power means everything. If the vampires are in charge of the Quarter (the part of the city where all supernatural beings are able to live without bothering the unaware humans next door), then the witches and werewolves are under their control and do whatever the vampires ask. In the beginning of the show, Marcel (the vampire king of the Quarter) terrorizes the witches to not practice magic and live to serve the wants of the vampires. They are not allowed to do anything witchy unless Marcel allows it. And the consequences of breaking the rules are extremely harsh and most likely lead to death. While watching this show, tyranny becomes very apparent and somewhat promoted. Whoever holds the power calls the shots. In a sense, this show seems to be teaching viewers that if one has power or status it’s okay to use it to exploit the people below you.
- Marginalization: Throughout the show, the role of women is tricky to pinpoint. While there are very strong female leads and a lot of girl power, there are some parts where women are looked down upon. For example take the role of the witches. In the show, the witches are the bad guys (or girls in this case). They are the enemy plotting against everyone. But, every time they come up with a plan, it doesn’t always work and the witches become dependent on another character or characters (usually a male) to help them out. Like the whole plan to use Klaus( the original hybrid, a werewolf plus vampire) as their protector against the ruling vampire Marcel and his whole vampire gang. The witches are dependent on Klaus’s protection, even though they have to blackmail him to help them. Though witches are the oldest and most powerful supernatural beings in history, they are not seen as a threat to the vampires in control and are living on the protection of an untrusted character. The witches are seen as no threat and not important. Even though witches and vampires aren’t real, if you take the message from the role of the witches and apply to today’s real world, there are many similarities. For example, is it really a coincidence that there are no warlocks in the show while the witches have no power? Maybe, or maybe not? But one could see how many people may take the witches having no power and being dependent as a way to marginalize women.
- Cultural Imperialism: While many people take one look at a T.V. show about supernatural beings and dismiss it as a waste of time, many others live off the creativity and imagination of such unreal beings. And as one can notice by looking at the popular movies and books of this time, supernatural themes are rising in popularity. So, it might be important to pay attention to what kind of ideas and standards these characters are promoting. Take the use of violence. In all supernatural media the use of supernatural strength it very prevalent and The Originals is no exception. The blood and gore in this show is unfathomable. But viewers find themselves getting used seeing snapping necks and ripping hearts out of chests and soon it doesn’t bother them as much. How is it socially acceptable to get people so used to such terrible violence that it soon provokes no negative reactions. Becoming so desensitized to violence may be why we as people today are able to detach ourselves from the horrible violence going around the world to a point where we don’t even talk about it anymore.
Picture: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-originals/images/36025099/title/originals-wallpaper
: Family is power, even that has a sour ring to it. When I consider how you note that the family is fractured due to their history, it leads me to the idea that if Family equates to power, then this is a tale of family for the sake of power. Oppression is built around the balances of power in the world, in this case it seems this oppression is also a part of their power. It is possible that power for the sake of family could be redeemed, but both the opposite as well as power for the sake of power are dangerous paths to tread. It is very possible if such lessons are taken to heart that they could muddle our decisions in this already gray world.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very interesting how you bring up our desensitization to violence. I've noticed that although people openly fault video games and sports for making violence normal, a lot of the time there are TV shows we are watching as well that we would never directly connect violence to, such as Grey's Anatomy. Every episode is based on a bloody, gory, or upsetting case of illness, yet millions of viewers can sit and watch the surgeries performed on the show, but fail to acknowledge the underlying important message that follows every episode, whether it be about appreciating family, or living with your imperfections. It's terrible that we can watch this unbelievable scenes on TV and in movies, yet not discuss the real-life terrible "scenes" that are happening across the oceans because we've managed to detach ourselves from the situation. Sometimes I think people see these events happening outside their lives as equal to a television show, solely because they aren't experiencing it themselves.
ReplyDelete