Tuesday, August 23, 2011

ABC and the New Television Season

As I sit and home tonight, working on my teacher goals, I do it in front of the television.  Always curious about popular culture, I gave Take the Money and Run.  On it, a pair of regular folks gets $100,000 to hide for 48 hours.  If they succeed, with two detectives on their tail, they win the money.  If they detectives find the money, the cops get the money.  In this episode, it is two male domestic partners.  What makes this episode so interesting is the very real reactions of the two characters who seemingly prepared in advance for the event.  When the jail doors shut, everything changed for them.  Watching the the supposed stronger character fall to pieces  and (spoiler alert!) quit the game early, we learn a lot about te role of prison and solitary.  This ties nicely with the Stanford Prison Experiment. 

Combat Hospital is set in Afghanistan, with mixed Canadian, Australian and American military medical personnel.  The scenery is very good, the emphasis on the stresses of combat and hospital trauma.  What set Tuesday night's episode (August 23) apart was a nice discussion of the role of a woman in the world.  Two Western women spoke of the concept of wearing the burka and protecting oneself from the thoughts of men.  It povides an important opening for a discussion of gender relations and agency that is overdue.  Let's have it. .  .

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