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#because this sort of half ACAB half cop apologism half 'lol it's not even a big deal. it's funny!' thing they have going on
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Teen Wolf 1x01
Starting with cops. Not auspicious. ACAB.
Pretty house.
Obligatory shirtless dude.
Gross, dude, clean your sink.
He got dressed really fast. Multiple layers and shoes and everything.
Cop’s kid is a douche. People who come to my house when it’s not an emergency just because I didn’t answer my phone can get fucked, number one. Number two, he’s so fucking perky about it being half a body. Like, she’s not even a person to him. Which, I guess tracks since he’s a cop’s kid.
Wow, cop’s kid is like a super douche. He’s put the other kid down like three times in less than a minute. Why is red hoodie kid (real subtle with the imagery on that one) even friends with this guy? More importantly, why is he going along with all of this? Teenage boys are weird.
Lol, red hoodie guy asking the pertinent questions while douchebag’s like, huh, didn’t think of that. Why am I getting the impression that red hoodie guy is the brains behind this whole thing?
Oh, man, okay, severe asthmatic trying out for lacrosse does seem to be a pie in the sky dream, but cop’s kid was still a dick about it.
Also, as someone with both a severe asthmatic friend in high school, and someone who hangs around a lot with physically disabled people as an adult, cop’s kid is still being a dick. Fucker didn’t even slow down when his friend started wheezing, the absolute shitstain. Like, dude, that shit’s deadly.
Fucking hell, and then he starts running?! Oh boy, this kid is selfish with a severe lack of impulse control. I may actually hate him. Some of the worst kind of people to be around, tbh.
Red hoodie kid is the enabler who’s about to kill himself from an asthma attack. Not smart, red hoodie kid. You are better off without him.
Oof, second not smart move by Scott. Clearly the Sheriff has no control over his kid the punishment is going to amount to a lecture and do absolutely nothing to change his kid’s behavior (typical). Scott would have been better off getting a lecture and escort back to the car.
Now he’s soaking wet in the woods, where he doesn’t want to be, fresh off of an asthma attack, with no guarantee that cop’s kid will even wait for him the selfish fuck.
And now he’s lost his inhaler. Oh boy. 
And now he’s found a body. This just keeps going from bad to worse. Man, I really feel for him, as I too was the kid who got dragged into things and often had harsher consequences than the people who dragged me into them.
Shit, did he lose his phone too?
And there would be the wolf. And the bite. And red hoodie guy is the teen wolf, lol.
Okay, so Scott bikes to school. Which means his asthma might be more managed than I thought. Probably the attack the night before was due to the cold and the fear.
And we have another douchebag. Oh goodie.
Okay, but, like, nothing about cop’s kid trying to go back and find him? Nothing like an apology? Just, like, implying he’s either lying or stupid about the wolf and then getting weirdly excited about the dead body again?
THIS KID IS TERRIBLE SCOTT, WHY DO YOU HANG OUT WITH HIM?
As an aside, that’s a pretty comprehensive bandage. Like, do most parents stock large gauze pads and medical tape? I mean, my mom did, but she’s a nurse. I know for certain my dad didn’t.
So, like, quick question: is cop’s kid just borderline gross about all women?
Because on its own, his sort of but not quite catcall of Lydia is mostly fine. But…uh, they fucking linked Lydia to the dead woman’s body through the dialogue and the kid got super giddy about half the body and now all I can think of is that cop’s kid is into necrophilia and is imagining Lydia in the place of the random women. Like, wtf is going on here? Why are we characterizing this kid like this? Is he going to be a future villain because he’s giving me all sorts of bad vibes.
Did kids still pass physical notes in the 2010s? I feel like it all would have been texting by then. 
Lol. Kafka Metamorphosis. Oh boy.
So, Scott is going to see himself as monstrous and is going to struggle with his change and his humanity. Understandable.
But, like, Metamorphosis can easily be used as an allegory for the breadwinner of the family going through a catastrophic illness - either mental or physical - and becoming a burden to their family and eventually being cast aside.
It can also easily be read as someone who is treated as monstrous begins to believe that they are monstrous and thus becomes a monster.
I wonder if the show is actually going to explore either of these themes or was this just used as MTV shorthand.
Allison is very pretty and very tall. Also, new girl feels. I moved twelve times by the times I was twelve and hated it.
Scott, bro, you are not smooth. But you are cute, so you’re forgiven.
“Beautiful people herd together,” says cop’s kid to a gorgeous girl implying that she is not gorgeous. Why is he like this?
Douchebag Captain is still a douche. And Lydia’s 100% Cordelia Chase. Like, that conversation was so close to the initial conversation between Buffy and Cordelia it’s ridiculous.
Cop’s kid still being selfish, I see.
Also, interesting that Scott said he’s tired of sitting on the sidelines when it’s only two scenes after the Kafka thing. Because Gregor’s whole deal was being passive: things kept happening to him instead of him making things happen. If Scott is being the opposite of Gregor here, I wonder if instead of the being treated as a burden and cast aside this is going to go more with the original Teen Wolf story and he’s going to be the town hero somehow? Though with probably more of a Buffy vibe.
I know they’re showing that he can’t control it with him listening in on all of these conversations, but, like, I’m just imagining the first sense being smell and it’s hilarious.
The music choice is killing me right now.
Also, is lacrosse like hockey in that the ball needs to go across the goal line to count? Because, like, he took it in the face but it didn’t look like it crossed the line. Hockey goalies get hit in the face all the time and it’s totally normal.
Okay, cop’s kid got points back for cheering for Scott, but then immediately lost them because he instantly tried to ride his coattails. Ugh. This kid is terrible.
Captain douchecanoe doesn’t look at his Coach, just looks straight to his girlfriend. Like, bro, is her dick-game that good?
Ha! There is a smell thing. You’d think that would have kicked in when he was in the locker room.
Once again cop’s kid is being a dick.
If that is the right spot, I’m seriously impressed with Scott being able to find it again. There was a lot of fumbling and turning around in the dark and then falling down and getting chased. Like, I got lost because a house got painted once so the whole intersection looked different.
Lol, the music cue there is hilarious.
What a weird freakin dude. All aggressive and shit but then tosses over the inhaler. Mixed signals much?
“Only like a few years older” Uh, that man is clearly in his twenties. How old are these kids supposed to be? Are they seniors? I was thinking younger.
Of course cop’s kid recognizes random guy on sight from a violent crime from ten years ago. Yikes.
Okay, vet clinic letting a teenager close is a little weird. Maybe the vet’s on an emergency call? Also, maybe this is where Scott got his bandages the first time around.
Uh, like, is this the first time that day that Scott went back there? Why are the cats freaking out now?
I wonder how Allison got the dog in the car in the first place if it’s so aggressive.
Oooh, we have eye change.
Splint and painkiller seems reasonable, but, uh, usually they have an on call vet, and I feel like that might be an option.
Lol. The dog is judging you hard.
Aww, Scott making her feel better for her reaction. That’s sweet. It’s also interesting that he did it by feminizing himself instead of trying to convince her that her response was totally normal or that there was nothing wrong with being a girly girl. Not the usual take for a teenage boy.
“I hear this breed is very litigious.” That’s right, Scott says, I’m throwing out them big words because I got brains and brawn and compassion, pretty lady.
Oh my god, eyelash on the cheek too! How many tropes can we fit in this scene?
Scott is not your passive protagonist! Boy is shooting his shot!
BUT THE FULL MOON IS ON FRIDAY. Just in case you, like, missed it.
I dig the practical effect there.
No, but these music cues are still killing me. Also, how much was Scott shirtless in this episode? Like a good 50%, right?
The CGI wolf is bad.
I didn’t know lycanthropy came with sleepwalking. Well that’s terrifying.
Also, like, it’s interesting that the change is coming on slowly. It wasn’t immediate that night nor is it only going to happen during the full moon. It’s a bunch of little things and some are harder to deal with than others.
Honestly, that makes lycanthropy feel much more like an illness. A chronic illness that has weird symptoms and no one believes you? That sounds exactly like women and/or people of color trying to navigate healthcare.
“My mom does all the grocery shopping.” Oh. My. God. Baby boy, that was hilarious. He looked truly baffled, which does fit his character, but also his bff is a cop’s kid so like, I feel like he knows some drug lingo.
Scott flailing around trying to tell people the truth and nobody believes him.
Oh, yeah, clearly that boundaries lecture worked on cop’s kid.
Cop’s kid has ADHD, huh? That explains the impulsiveness without thinking things through, I guess. Doesn’t explain why he’s a dick though.
Like, here’s the thing. Cop’s kid isn’t wrong that people just can’t do that kind of thing overnight (and obviously isn’t wrong in this story). But, like, Scott’s been telling multiple people things like this for three days and literally everyone’s blown his concerns off. And now you’re coming to him with oh actually there is a wolf in California so now it must be werewolves and you expect him to believe you? Make it make sense.
Is this the first time we’ve heard cop kid’s name?
It’s funny that Stiles is like, this is totally true and factual information about werewolves that I looked up in this random book in my town’s library. Like, buddy. What? How would you know if any of it is actually true?
Stiles “the change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your plus.” Lol. The first physical werewolf change that we saw was Scott trying to calm a hurt dog down to help her. I mean, obviously it was the hearing thing first, but the show has made it seem like the hearing and smelling thing is an all the time deal whereas the eye color seemed like something different.
The almost punch was scary because it came out of nowhere. Scott has really been pretty even keeled this whole time. Also Scott apologized twice for the shove and the almost hit even though Stiles never did apologize for abandoning him in the woods. Still a dick.
Shirtless again.
All of these kids live in really nice houses. Which, like, is weird. Like, are we rural? Are we affluent suburb? What is the deal here?
Okay, creepy Derek who is clearly also a werewolf. Are you the biter in this scenario or just part of the pack?
Okay, what the fuck is Lydia’s deal? Like, do you just have no loyalty whatsoever? Every man and woman for themselves?
Was Stiles actually at the party totally chill or was that a hallucination of Scott’s? I can’t imagine the guy flailing earlier about werewolves and almost being punched just casually asking, “Yo, Scott, you good?”
Creepy Derek being creepier. Allison, girl, you better run.
Oh man, I feel so bad for Scott. This looks painful and terrifying.
Okay, Stiles gets points back again for going to check on Scott. But that does mean it was him at the party and not a hallucination, and that interaction still strikes me as weird.
Scott’s first thought being to have Stiles check on Allison even though he’s going through this painful, terrifying experience makes me feel things. 
Protection mode activated.
“She’s safe from you.”
Uh…bud? At the first sign of something wrong he left her and the only reason he’s out here is because you lured him with her jacket? Needlessly convoluted way of ‘helping’ does not instill confidence.
And then he attacks Scott. Great. A replay of the first night.
What. The. Fuck.
Did you luring him out there into a trap, asshole?
Ahh, lure him into a trap so that you can ‘save’ him. So you’re not just an asshole, but a manipulative asshole.
Is it really so bad, Scott? To be attacked and changed without your consent? To have no one ever believe you? To have people hunting you? To know that you can never be just a kid again?
The bite is a gift? A gift? Oh. Wow. Derek Hale, creepy stalker likes forcing things on people without their consent and then tells them that they should be grateful for it. Absolutely terrible garbage fire of a person (derogatory).
Okay, nope, I seriously hate this guy. Kick him in the balls, Scott.
Oh, hey, Stiles actually came back for Scott this time. Fine. That scene was kind of cute. And Stiles is clearly loyal. I guess he can stay, but he’s on thin ice.
Ugh, Scott who doesn’t want to lie, but won’t tell the truth is strangely endearing. Allison, I get you, girl.
Lol. Allison’s dad is the hunter, of course. 
So like, let’s think this through. Allison said her family moved around a lot, clearly tracking werewolf activity. So why Beacon Hills? The severed body being found and the wolf attack on Scott was literally the night before Allison showed up. So like, it had to be something else that pulled them there. I wonder what it was.
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I wish Prodigal Son had concentrated more on some of the things established in the pilot episode. By which I mean, I wish they had brought up police brutality as a real issue before current events made it impossible to avoid.
The show started with a police officer shooting an unarmed man right after Malcolm had convinced the guy to put down his weapon. Throughout the show, Malcolm continues to do this - tries to talk people into surrendering nonviolently - and every time a cop is also there he begs them not to shoot.
It could have been so easy for the show to explicitly make that man's murder the catalyst of Malcolm's declining mental health.
He was a good enough FBI agent to be the lead agent on that serial killer case, after he had been with them for 10 years: he was not nearly as reckless/impulsive as he is now. Seeing a man murdered in front of him, hearing the cop brag about killing the guy (and losing his job as punishment for punching the murderer) is what made him spiral. Knowing a person who he was trying to help - trying to save - was killed anyway is what most of his trauma is about, so that's just another thing to have PTSD over.... The events of the show after that are just making it worse and worse.
Also in the pilot, Malcolm had a nightmare at the police station, and he tried to run away from it. He was terrified, he accidentally knocked down Dani, but he never tried to hurt anyone. And the officers all drew their weapons and pointed their guns at him... And season 2 decided to reference this by once more giving him a nightmare at the police station and once more having officers ready to shoot him, even though he was once again not trying to hurt anyone. Dani makes a joke about his nightmares being intense, because the audience is supposed to find this whole thing funny I guess? It's framed as a comedic scene, a breath of fresh air after the heavy emotions of his nightmare. And it would be, if the officers in the background didn't have their hands hovering over their guns, ready to draw their weapons and shoot if Bright moves wrong even though he's just sitting behind his desk.
The way the show treated that vs JT is weird. Are we criticizing police brutality - which includes how the police treat people who are mentally ill (and other marginalized groups) - or are we not?
Because the show had a police brutality plotline in the pilot episode, if they had bothered to actually do anything with what they established there. It had the potential for commentary on how law enforcement protects their corrupt officers and fires the ones who speak out against them, and how police discriminated against the mentally ill. That isn't to say we should ignore race when it comes to police discrimination! And adding in a plotline that addresses that is important as well, if you're trying to address police brutality as a whole! Because racism is definitely a huge problem! But it is not the only problem, and adding in that plotline while also making a joke out of the discrimination your mentally ill character faces when his emotional outbursts are met with officers ready to draw their weapons and shoot him (when he's never been violent towards them and they have no reason to believe he would hurt someone there)? Yikes.
It just doesn't feel like the writers really care about these issues. It feels like they're only doing this so their show looks good compared to other cop drama shows.
#prodigal son#Malcolm was fired from the FBI for trying to do something about police corruption. and also for his PTSD. but mostly the first reason#because they were willing to overlook his PTSD for 10 years until then. and i have no doubt that the officers exaggerated his faults#when they filed a complaint about him#and idk i just think that could have been an interesting thread to do literally anything with. literally anything.#once more i will talk into the tags since I'm not sure what to say and the tags are less formal than the actual post so i can be messy here#but. it really feels like the show's police brutality arc is doing the... 'a few bad apples' defense? and that the end goal of the arc#will be to clear the precinct of those few bad racist cops and say 'we did it! police brutality is over 💖' and it's fixed as fast as Covid#(the show's Covid. not ours obviously)#and so! in order to address this in the neatest way possible! they ignore every other instance of brutally and corruption#or they treat it as a joke and expect you to not think too hard about it and just laugh#........ you know I've never called a show copaganda before but. 'yes Black Lives Matter 💖' the cop show says#while turning the discrimination its mentally ill protag faces into a joke... I don't think it's propaganda i think they're just dumb#but boy oh boy does it leave a very bad taste in my mouth#i just. i would like it better if they either addressed all the on-show examples of discrimination. or addressed *none* of them directly#because this sort of half ACAB half cop apologism half 'lol it's not even a big deal. it's funny!' thing they have going on#makes about as much sense as my math skills trying to add up three halves into a whole morality message#maybe they'll bring it up later! i can hope! i don't have high expectations though#long post#dang actually this is so long. I'm trying to read over this the next morning and adhd brain says no. not sure how i actually typed it all#@ all my followers who don't know what prodigal son is: i swear it's actually a good show okay don't let me turn you off from it#I'm still gonna watch it I'm just going to judge it while i do. but it's fine it's fun. it's a crime drama show they all have many faults#also i said half of this on Discord already so like. rip to anyone seeing it twice#i was trying to get my thoughts together and they still aren't together. but that's everyone else's problem now#Prodigal Son criticism
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