Undead Blogging: Misfits, Series 3, Episode 2

I said I’d never do it again, and yet here I am, watching an episode and bursting with things to say that it’ll spoil the ep if I don’t get them out. For those who missed it last time, undead blogging is like live blogging, but when you’re watching on a catch-up service, so can pause. It’s neither truly live blogging, nor is it entirely not live blogging. It’s undead blogging.

To the blog mobile!

Thoughts up to 8:10:

Well, I called it on Curtis’s power. He’s using it to get around his drugs ban on racing. He, or rather, she, says she doesn’t want to race competitively, but you can see where this is going.

That necklace thing is going to be a thing. WAY too much fuss being made about her gripping it with her lips before pelting it.

Ugh, and the obligatory ‘girl takes her top off in the changing room, making a guy uncomfortable without realising it because she assumes he’s not interested’. Usually it’s because he’s pretending to be gay, or she assumes he’s gay and he doesn’t correct her. This time it’s because the guy is actually a girl at the time, but the results are the same. Guys, I’m going to let you into a secret here: this does not happen. Your fantasy about the girls’ changing room is false, please stop projecting it as a reality in what is meant to be a heterosexual-male free moment.

OK, because someone will comment to point out an exception: in my experience it has only happened to me once. Once, only, as an adult (kids undress in front of anyone and rarely give a shit). I’ll confess that it is almost certainly a cultural thing. My friend who thought I was weird to be so self-conscious is did not grow up in the UK, and she told me it was quite the norm where she’s from. But Misfits is set in the UK; whilst it’s not impossible that a Brit girl would feel relaxed about flashing her boobs to another girl, it’s awfully, tiresomely convenient.

Then there are cringe-worthy ‘of course everyone now fancies female-Curtis and is overtly perving over him’ moments. I guess it’s nice to show a man coming to see what it’s like for a girl, but, honestly, most of the men I know aren’t that diskish. Some are, but it would be a really weird day if every guy I met treated me like I was a piece of meat. And the ‘showing it from the other side’ message isn’t that new or original, so I’m not going to let the over-doing it slide, because following on from the ridiculousness of the previous scene it unnecessarily prolongs the time for which I’m watching something that makes me feel objectified. So nerr.

Moving on to Curtis’s bar, and the unusually-at-ease-with-her-own-skin girl is coming on to boy-Curtis just as I sort of suspected she was coming on to girl-Curtis (Melissa? I didn’t quite catch the name). And Curtis is still wearing the necklace. Yup, I can see where this plot is going: girl flirts with Curtis in both guises, eventually realises he is the same person because of the necklace (and the fact that she’s been obsessing over him as an athlete for years and will notice similarities), possibly doesn’t tell him at first, playing it out to wait and see if he says something (she’s cocky, I can see her doing this), something will happen to mean he’s caught doing something that reveals his secret, he’ll be very embarrassed, but she’ll laugh and say it’s OK, she knew all along. I hate this plot; it treads all over my embarrassment squick.

C’mon, Misfits prove me wrong.

***

8:23 – ho ho! Power trader dude’s car has broken down just as Kelly walks past. Betcha her new power can fix that!

8:46 – heh – what’d I say? This will be a start of a beautiful friendship relationship.

9:24 Heh, heh – flirty eyes.

10:30 ARGH – it has begun. He uses his disguise to find out what the girl really thinks of her. He’ll learn something he doesn’t like. Just wait…

11:10 What did I say? She thinks he’s self-obsessed and whiny, and bad at sex. (OK, maybe this part was kind of given away by the trailer, but it’s also very predictable.) Girl-Curtis will now foolishly react in a way that’s really weird for a disinterested party.

12:50 OK, Rudy is being a bit too much of a Nathan-substitute this episode, but I’m gald he broke up that moment.

14:18 OK, I love how it’s now turned into how awesome Simon is in bed rather than how shit Curtis is. Nice it praise the shy, awkward guy for actually caring about a lady.

14:37 Mwahahaha – OK, that mime was priceless.

Loving the Council Estate architecture, by the way. Yes, you heard me: concrete nineteen-sixties shitholes all the way.

15:35 Right. So I guess this bit is supposed to be daring and modern, right? And feminist, because he’s finding out about how lady-parts work, and how to please a woman? Your boom-chaca-chaca music isn’t helping to convince me it’s not an excuse to perve. Nice try, but you missed.

15:58 Yeah, new girl already knows. She guessed last time they talked.

16:29 Surely knowing that girls usually sit down to pee isn’t that much of a revelation to Curtis.

18:26 Right, speculations on power trader dude: he’s looking for a power that will bring back his girlfriend. Ouch, bad luck Kelly.

20:58 What did I say?

This part of the plot isn’t bad. It’s nice to see some representation of bisexual people on TV. And maybe I was a bit harsh on the ‘Curtis explores herself’ scene, but they are wobbling all ove rthe place on the execution of this one, and at the end of the day it’s all a bit predictable.

21:46 Possitive portrayal of gay sex for the win! Earth-mother music and ‘girls are all soft and lovely and know how to treat each other like delicate flowers’ is a bit familiar and predictable. I’m OK with Willow and Tara sex being that way, but Willow and Tara were earthy, gentle people, and they were breaking ground. Misfits sells itself on being ground-breaking – why not mix it up a little and show fem/fem sex that is considerate but racy?

22:31 Yup, *sigh* Curtis thinks being a woman makes him gentler.

24:08 Yeah, she knows…

24:27 The actor they have playing girl-Curtis is great, though. She feels like the same character. And the transgender angle is still pretty awesome. I just wish they weren’t making assumptions about how different ‘women’ relly are, as opposed to how differently women are treated.

26:31Right. Of course. The trainer is a creep. There are a surprising number of creeps in their part of London.

26:53 Better quality of ads for this than Downton Abbey.

28:14 Somehow, Rudy’s still sort of lovely. Not that I wouldn’t yell his face off if he acted like that around me, but you know.

28:44 Oh god – no! Rudy just threw-up in some girl’s hoody. (I did lol.)

30:31 Aw, bless, him, Rudy’s sort of a gentlemen ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea? It’s just ’cause you seem a bit out of it’. Yes. The right response.

30:40 Oh god no! I take it back. You need to put up MUCH more than a token effort [Rudy, that is, not Mel. Realised this was a very important clarification. Mel’s out of it and has every rght to expect not to be molested.] That’s not OK. NOT OK to represent as supposed to be funny. NOT funny.

31:46 And now ANOTHER rape scene? You do know the first was a rape scene, too, right? JFC – this is a low I never thought Misfits would hit.

NOT OK. Not lighthearted fun anymore. And if the ‘and now he has a cock’ moment was supposed to lighten the mood you’re badly mistake. Bring back the cliches, plz.

35:00 So she didn’t know. Oh well. Trying to enjoy this undead blogging again, but the magic is gone. Jesus.

38:15 What happened in this scene? Everyone shows up at once to accuse Mel/Curtis, including Mel’s girlfriend? (Who was going to cheat on Mel anyway, but seems to have forgotten that, and was remarkably heartless about finding her obviously out-of-it girlfriend being molested.) And then she gets her period? What? Who wrote this episode? It feels like they thought they’d go for a modern take on a Shakespearean comedy and badly missed the mark.

Tell you no lies, folks, this is not want I wanted when I set down for a bit of cheery undead blogging. Probably would have avoided reviewing this episode at all if I’d watched it from start to finish first.

44:28 I’ve decided to forget the disturbing parts of this episode happened. Pretend the original cheesy plot I anticipated is how they got together, and enjoy what is hopefully going to be a nice gay/transgender relationship. That and hope that the next episode is rather more concerned with Kelly (who is unrelentingly awesome) and the power trading dude.

End of Episode thoughts The final ‘no means no’ speach would have been an awful lot more convincing if we weren’t being encouraged to regard Rudy as still being a loveable, but stupid, rogue. Sorry this got so depressing, folks. I didn’t expect this. This is not the sort of subject I would have chosen to tackle in this way on my blog. Not even sure I’m comfortable with keeping this post up here. Hope you’ll forgive me for locking the comments. Hope I’ll want to come back and watch Misfits next week, but I don’t know if I will. And considering how much I loved this program, that should be shocking. Looks like it’ll be Simon and Alisha instead of Kelly and power trader dude. Still better than focusing on Curtis, more.

This episode could have been wonderful. Could have presented a positive image of gay and transgender people whilst also dealing with the challenging issue of date rape. I’m beyond disappointment. Going to go watch Dexter. I need to watch something violent.