.... oh god. The needles. I hadn't thought to warn people with a needle squick about this show. Because yes, it's ... not good for that. I'm impressed you managed to stick it out! (Needles will continue to be a thing, I'm afraid.)
At first it was less creepy than I expected it to be. After Darien demanded the gland be taken out, no one said that he'd have to go back to prison. On the other hand, was Kevin telling him the truth when he said it was necessary to wait? Arnaud said Keven was lying, but are we really going to trust Arnaud? But Kevin did experiment on Darien without Darien's knowledge. No one's looking particularly trustworthy.
I seem to recall that later episodes imply, or possibly state outright, that he was pardoned in return for undergoing the experiment, so if they had taken the gland out, he would probably have been home free. Probably. Possibly. Given how incredibly shady the government is on this show, though ... possibly not. I could see them revoking it if he didn't cooperate.
But any idea that this might be less than completely creepy and coercive went out the window at the end. Darien has to work for them or completely lose his mind.
Yeah. Darien's situation is awful. On White Collar they semi-joked about the government owning Neal, but the government literally does own Darien, and keeps him dependent on them for regular hits of a drug he can't live without.
Not to derail the discussion too much, but I was not expecting this show to remind me so much of my psychic Neal AU in White Collar. It really, really does, though. Darien's situation is far more analogous to psychic!Neal's than I'd remembered, even right down to the experiment's side effects causing him regular pain/distress.
It's generic "violent psycho" problem.
Yeah, it is. And while it's not something that bothers me personally, I know this could be a dealbreaker for some people, or at least a major downside to the show, and I think that'd be totally fair. (Because I go for what I go for, I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of the concept of an otherwise kind character who is sometimes involuntarily driven to hurt people by circumstances beyond their control. The angst! But I get why people might have problems with it.)
Although the fact that it's apparently id driven says some unfortunate things about Darien.
I thought about this while I was watching the episode, too. I think it's more an accidental case of unfortunate implications than a statement on Darien himself, though, if that makes any sense? I mean, I could be wrong but I don't think the show is trying to imply that Darien is a latent rapist/killer. alessandriana points out in the comment below this one that Darien himself conceptualizes it as something outside himself -- that it feels like something trying to take him over, rather than something that comes from inside him. The scientist characters on the show explain it as unlocked id, but I'm not entirely sure if the way it plays out on the show actually feels that way to me. I don't know, maybe I'm just trying to justify it to myself, but it seems like it's far more akin to Darien temporarily/reversibly turning evil because of the gland, than Darien having latent evil and the gland allowing him to express it.
Like I said, though, maybe that's just me justifying things for a character I like.
And yeah, the show is funny! Actually, looking back on it, I remembered much more of the humor than the darkness, so the sheer amount of darkness in the show came as something of a surprise to me. I remembered it being (mostly) a light spy-parody show. It's really, really not! It definitely has aspects of that, but it can also be Dark with a capital "D", and the overall premise is incredibly dark -- not just the specifics of Darien's situation, but also the sheer amount of amorality that the government, in-universe, is willing to indulge in. (I am certainly not going to say the government wouldn't do things like this, given things like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment IRL, but the show does not tiptoe around the fact that the government is up to some scary creepy shit and really doesn't give a damn ...)
no subject
At first it was less creepy than I expected it to be. After Darien demanded the gland be taken out, no one said that he'd have to go back to prison. On the other hand, was Kevin telling him the truth when he said it was necessary to wait? Arnaud said Keven was lying, but are we really going to trust Arnaud? But Kevin did experiment on Darien without Darien's knowledge. No one's looking particularly trustworthy.
I seem to recall that later episodes imply, or possibly state outright, that he was pardoned in return for undergoing the experiment, so if they had taken the gland out, he would probably have been home free. Probably. Possibly. Given how incredibly shady the government is on this show, though ... possibly not. I could see them revoking it if he didn't cooperate.
But any idea that this might be less than completely creepy and coercive went out the window at the end. Darien has to work for them or completely lose his mind.
Yeah. Darien's situation is awful. On White Collar they semi-joked about the government owning Neal, but the government literally does own Darien, and keeps him dependent on them for regular hits of a drug he can't live without.
Not to derail the discussion too much, but I was not expecting this show to remind me so much of my psychic Neal AU in White Collar. It really, really does, though. Darien's situation is far more analogous to psychic!Neal's than I'd remembered, even right down to the experiment's side effects causing him regular pain/distress.
It's generic "violent psycho" problem.
Yeah, it is. And while it's not something that bothers me personally, I know this could be a dealbreaker for some people, or at least a major downside to the show, and I think that'd be totally fair. (Because I go for what I go for, I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of the concept of an otherwise kind character who is sometimes involuntarily driven to hurt people by circumstances beyond their control. The angst! But I get why people might have problems with it.)
Although the fact that it's apparently id driven says some unfortunate things about Darien.
I thought about this while I was watching the episode, too. I think it's more an accidental case of unfortunate implications than a statement on Darien himself, though, if that makes any sense? I mean, I could be wrong but I don't think the show is trying to imply that Darien is a latent rapist/killer.
Like I said, though, maybe that's just me justifying things for a character I like.
And yeah, the show is funny! Actually, looking back on it, I remembered much more of the humor than the darkness, so the sheer amount of darkness in the show came as something of a surprise to me. I remembered it being (mostly) a light spy-parody show. It's really, really not! It definitely has aspects of that, but it can also be Dark with a capital "D", and the overall premise is incredibly dark -- not just the specifics of Darien's situation, but also the sheer amount of amorality that the government, in-universe, is willing to indulge in. (I am certainly not going to say the government wouldn't do things like this, given things like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment IRL, but the show does not tiptoe around the fact that the government is up to some scary creepy shit and really doesn't give a damn ...)