I have a confession.
I’m totally, utterly obsessed with Revenge, which may be the first television show I’ve bothered to watch from Episode 1 since … Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I gave up on TV during college when I gave up regular-people hours, and now that I’ve got this new addiction, I’m starting to seriously regret the decision to not install that newfangled technology necessary to get digital TV at home.*
I’ve got this whole theory on why Revenge is becoming an incredibly popular show. I mean, you have a cherub-faced Emily Van Camp fucking over the 1% one episode at a time, dysfunctional rich families and marriages unraveling, and Hamptonites facing off against (and fraternizing with) the “townies”. Talk about TV that speaks to the issues of our times. And given that everyone can relate to having an ax to grind and feeling scorned or wronged, the idea of having enough power and money to seek vengeance is super appealing. No wonder the masses adore this weekly hour of knife-twisty comeuppance.
I’m personally pretty pleased that the show’s already introduced two sexually ambiguous male characters, neither of whom have identified as gay. I like having sexuality — something that most people view as quite rigid — being left undefined and unlabeled. So rare to see that, even nowadays! That said, one of those characters seems to be a carbon copy of the Gay Sociopath trope The Talented Mr. Ripley-style. Hmph. I’ll let that slide given that everyone on this show is deranged…
* Also, I just discovered that you can’t watch live television (from the major networks) off your laptop. This is a travesty. I thought technology would have gotten us there by now.
