Greetings good citizen, many times I have pointed to the Corporate Owned Media and denounced them for, er, 'coloring the truth/facts' and the latest thing to strike a nerve is the whole premise of Billions.
Watched the season finale on demand last night. While I enjoy the, er, 'drama' the rest of the premise doesn't line up very well with 'reality'.
For dramatic purposes the show's 'antagonist' is portrayed as a sharp, ruthless 'bootstrapper' who made a fortune when the towers collapsed on 9/11.
Left purposefully vague is whether or not he was just a trader of if he was sitting on a pile of his own cash that he parlayed into a fortune.
Now the 'protagonist' is a US attorney whose wife works for the legend in his own mind/founder of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund.
What you can't quite suss out is why this self-made guttersnipe is targeted zealously for doing what every other Wall Street firm does? Is it his 'lowly origins' that make him such a juicy target?
Because MY PROBLEM with this 'premise' is it leaves less sophisticated viewers with the impression that 'normal' billionaires are 'okay', that they are 'better bred' and wouldn't 'stoop' to the 'underhanded tactics' of guttersnipes like Axe.
The Donald is a billionaire and he pulls some pretty crazy crap even on his made for TV 'reality show'...and The Donald WAS BORN with silver spoons sticking out of pretty much EVERY ORRIFICE he has!
You see, one of the shows 'sub-plots' is how Axe and his rough & tumble bride 'struggle to blend in' with a stratum of society they weren't born into. [And if you ask me, that is where the 'real story' is!]
Now, Mitt Romney, CEO of Bain Capital is another Billionaire and he too is a 'child of privilege'...in fact, most billionaires are! [Thus my problem with the premise of the TV show.] He sort of 'threw' his bid to become POTUS out the window by being caught on tape expressing his (and that of his peers) opinion of the 'average working class American'.
W. came out on NATIONAL TELEVISION and told the world his 'constituency' was 'THE HAVES AND THE HAVE MORES!'
Naturally his didn't pull that boner until AFTER he had been re-elected to his second term.
[Yet there are still 'flakes' out there who claim W as 'their president' (and some of 'em have nuthin'!) Which only makes my point, we are neck deep in 'stupid' around here!]
So, while I have been open regarding my opinion that 'Hollywood is 'bankrupt' [they have been reduced to mining the 'unsympathetic' for 'fresh perspectives' to present to the audience.]
Am I making 'too much' out of this play to make the heartless raider the product of a boring, working class background?
Because what you believe dictates what you are and more importantly, what you'll tolerate.
We have far more serious issues facing our society but this 'manufactured perception' problem happens to be front & center at the moment and we really can't afford the distractions.
For the first time in presidential history, the media is playing off the 'fear' that either of the two undesirable candidates will become the ONLY choice...and it's working like a charm.
I belabor the obvious when I point out that characters like Bobby Axelrod are rarer than hen's teeth in the real world and it could be successfully argued that an 'ethical Bobby Axelrod' would be a mathematical impossibility but hey, it's all in fun, right? That's why they call it 'fiction', right?
Probably quibbling but I think the character would be 'more interesting' is he were portrayed as the privileged, miserable, unappreciative SOB's most of them really are!
The evidence of their hubris surrounds us...so this 'portrayal' of the 'ruthless, money-obsessed outsider' as the cause of all of our problems sort of rankles somewhat because they are so rare and we live with the evidence that the 'well-heeled' are NOT 'demonstratively better/more sympathetic' to the working family's plight.
I'm sure this occurred to most of you and like me, you brushed it aside as 'the price of entertainment'
Perhaps the thing to keep in mind here is it's a 'work of fiction' NONE of it is TRUE!
Sort of feel compelled to apologize for wasting your time but it's one of those things that was eating at me and lessons come in all shapes and sizes.
There is something to be learned here even if, on the surface, it looks like 'mental masturbation'.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
Watched the season finale on demand last night. While I enjoy the, er, 'drama' the rest of the premise doesn't line up very well with 'reality'.
For dramatic purposes the show's 'antagonist' is portrayed as a sharp, ruthless 'bootstrapper' who made a fortune when the towers collapsed on 9/11.
Left purposefully vague is whether or not he was just a trader of if he was sitting on a pile of his own cash that he parlayed into a fortune.
Now the 'protagonist' is a US attorney whose wife works for the legend in his own mind/founder of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund.
What you can't quite suss out is why this self-made guttersnipe is targeted zealously for doing what every other Wall Street firm does? Is it his 'lowly origins' that make him such a juicy target?
Because MY PROBLEM with this 'premise' is it leaves less sophisticated viewers with the impression that 'normal' billionaires are 'okay', that they are 'better bred' and wouldn't 'stoop' to the 'underhanded tactics' of guttersnipes like Axe.
The Donald is a billionaire and he pulls some pretty crazy crap even on his made for TV 'reality show'...and The Donald WAS BORN with silver spoons sticking out of pretty much EVERY ORRIFICE he has!
You see, one of the shows 'sub-plots' is how Axe and his rough & tumble bride 'struggle to blend in' with a stratum of society they weren't born into. [And if you ask me, that is where the 'real story' is!]
Now, Mitt Romney, CEO of Bain Capital is another Billionaire and he too is a 'child of privilege'...in fact, most billionaires are! [Thus my problem with the premise of the TV show.] He sort of 'threw' his bid to become POTUS out the window by being caught on tape expressing his (and that of his peers) opinion of the 'average working class American'.
W. came out on NATIONAL TELEVISION and told the world his 'constituency' was 'THE HAVES AND THE HAVE MORES!'
Naturally his didn't pull that boner until AFTER he had been re-elected to his second term.
[Yet there are still 'flakes' out there who claim W as 'their president' (and some of 'em have nuthin'!) Which only makes my point, we are neck deep in 'stupid' around here!]
So, while I have been open regarding my opinion that 'Hollywood is 'bankrupt' [they have been reduced to mining the 'unsympathetic' for 'fresh perspectives' to present to the audience.]
Am I making 'too much' out of this play to make the heartless raider the product of a boring, working class background?
Because what you believe dictates what you are and more importantly, what you'll tolerate.
We have far more serious issues facing our society but this 'manufactured perception' problem happens to be front & center at the moment and we really can't afford the distractions.
For the first time in presidential history, the media is playing off the 'fear' that either of the two undesirable candidates will become the ONLY choice...and it's working like a charm.
I belabor the obvious when I point out that characters like Bobby Axelrod are rarer than hen's teeth in the real world and it could be successfully argued that an 'ethical Bobby Axelrod' would be a mathematical impossibility but hey, it's all in fun, right? That's why they call it 'fiction', right?
Probably quibbling but I think the character would be 'more interesting' is he were portrayed as the privileged, miserable, unappreciative SOB's most of them really are!
The evidence of their hubris surrounds us...so this 'portrayal' of the 'ruthless, money-obsessed outsider' as the cause of all of our problems sort of rankles somewhat because they are so rare and we live with the evidence that the 'well-heeled' are NOT 'demonstratively better/more sympathetic' to the working family's plight.
I'm sure this occurred to most of you and like me, you brushed it aside as 'the price of entertainment'
Perhaps the thing to keep in mind here is it's a 'work of fiction' NONE of it is TRUE!
Sort of feel compelled to apologize for wasting your time but it's one of those things that was eating at me and lessons come in all shapes and sizes.
There is something to be learned here even if, on the surface, it looks like 'mental masturbation'.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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