still drunk.

[ghanimasun]

I re-watched some episodes of season one of The Pretender tonight. Okay, I fast forwarded through a lot of it, because really I just wanted to watch the Miss Parker bits. She's still hella awesome by the way. (The show however, plot and structure are pretty predictable.)



One episode in particular Miss Parker sleeps with a married dude she used to know. She is shown to have fun, and be a sexual person. She ends it when she looks at a picture of his family and at the same time has to go back to work. When she finds out he's been working against her, she basically just gives him a kick in the balls (as she's holding her gun over him and he's on the ground) and walks away. She's totally fine.
I don't think the show portrays her as a villain really. I mean yeah she's out to get the main character, Jarod, but she is still a complex character who the show seems to have an affection for. (In another episode she finds out stuff about her dead mom, its very emotional and sympathetic towards her character.) My point is, she wasn't punished for having sex. She wasn't punished for having sex with a married man! Sure he was working against her, but after a quick interaction, she's over it. She doesn't ever think about that dude again, and she was really more upset that he was working as a competitor than anything else about him. (Although during their confrontation she also said she was "faking it" which is meh. But hey, this episode was aired in 1996.)

drunk ETA: Yet another episode showed Miss Parker at Christmas time in her nice house, with a fancy tree. She was dressed up, and was drinking a martini. She was obviously alone. She receives a call from Jarod while she is enjoying her drink. I'm not sure what the show was trying to convey to the audience in this scene but I interpreted it as a successful, somewhat wealthy (white) woman who is enjoying her wealth and herself on the holiday. While yes that is problematic in that it's a rich white lady drinking and having fun. But as far as network tv in the nineties is concerned I feel it's also a fairly feminist scene because it shows a single woman enjoying her time alone and in her own way in her own house. Granted I am also reading it as positively feminist because a) I like the character a lot and b) am drunk.   

Comments

[mechers.livejournal.com]

So it's like the opposite of Bond movie, where the evil woman sleeps with Bond and attempts to thwart him, but gets punished in the end while Bond walks away.

[ghanimasun]

Oooh good observation! I haven't really watched much Bond but it does sound like a bit like that.

Thanks for your feedback :)

[mechers.livejournal.com]

Anytime, m'dear. ;)

[mechers.livejournal.com]

P.S. I don't know why I'm up. I'm sitting here taking notes trying to work out a filing system for the business that fits how my brain works. If I don't really think about it, I'll end up with a bunch of folders and cabinets and shit that I won't use and paper will be everywhere and then I will probably get audited or something awful and not be able to find my receipts. Ahhhhhhhh.

But really I think I should go to bed.

[ghanimasun]

Hope you got some productive work done on this this weekend. And hope to watch some stuff with you this week!

[mechers.livejournal.com]

I totally did. I went to goodwill today and got a filing cabinet and some shelves for $20. On Friday I scavenged a bunch of stuff from my office building that was gonna be thrown out--chalkboard, corkboard, bunch of notebooks and folders. Today I organized! The hardware is mostly set up now, except for some expensive stuff I'm going to wait and see if I need (like the card scanner). Next up: writing business plan for meeting with business development lady. Then software trials and purchase b/c I need a program that will let me do invoices and billing. I'm sorry to be babbling. I'm, pretty stoked, though.

P.S. I haven't been on your journal in forever, but I love your layout.

[ghanimasun]

Wow! That is really productive, good for you! Very impressive. That sounds all very complicated and grown-up like. I don't know anything about that :)

Also how have you been responding to my posts without coming onto my journal??

[mechers.livejournal.com]

I have the option checked to display "old style" comment pages, so when I click through from my FL that's how they show up. I came to this via the link in the notification email, though, so it loaded in your journal style.

[ghanimasun]

Ahh yeah. That makes sense now.

And thanks for the compliment about the layout (which I didn't make!).

[vaguelenore.livejournal.com]

I love Miss Parker. I basically see everything she does as a positive (but I was so pissed at her when she wouldn't give Jarod the last vial for Angelo before it was too late). I recall this episode and I think this was when I probably fell "in love" with her as from that point on I assumed that she wasn't going to be stereotypical ice queen. I have Season 1 and 2 of Pretender on DVD - I only caught moments of it when it was on air - but I bought the series specifically to watch Miss Parker. I really couldn't care less about Jarod although he's the good guy who makes everything possible. Oh well. The issues that Miss Parker have in my opinion are more complex than Jarod's. Both based on a similar "theme" but I relate to Miss Parker better.

[ghanimasun]

I really need to do a full Pretender rewatch, because I just want to see Miss Parker again. I loved Jarod and Miss Parker the first time through, but now I'm sort of bored with Jarod, especially in the early episodes, where he's sort of dull I think.
But yeah - Miss Parker remains very compelling and awesome :)