Several of my LJ buddies who love the show have expressed similar discontent--not with the quality of the show, but with the grimness. One of them even went out as far as to say that she wouldn't watch S3 if the culprit turned out to be Beaver, because that'd be just too horrific for her.

I've been loving the second half of the season--it's gotten back to its noir roots with a vengeance, in which good guys and anti-heroes have their past misdeeds come bite them where they hurt the most, and the villains are left unpunished--but I think the finale has the potential to go too dark, even for me. I'm kind of dreading the finale, frankly, even as I'm panting to see the resolution.

VM isn't pushing my buttons that way, but I will say that the last two episodes of ER have. In that horribly guilty "I should be doing more about this" way when it comes to Darfur and all kinds of world problems.

Which is kind of true, on the one hand, since I could certainly do more than I'm doing now, but at the same time? Two hours of TV that made me literally ill with grief and despair. Kind of not the way I want to spend the evening.

Signed, learned that lesson, and will nevereverever watch The Inside as a result.

What Plei said.

Maybe I have been insufficiently traumatized, but I've never had those sorts of reactions. I tend to think of the stories in terms of the stories and how they affect the characters, mostly, and not the issues and messages it may be subtextually sending, intentionally or not.

The first season of VM bothered me that way with the rape. If I had been watching real time I probably would have stopped watching. Since I did a marathon of the whole season I got past it.

I'll hang in until the finale, but last night was upsetting. Not spoiled, so I don't know if I will be satisfied with the outcome or not.

One of the things I like about mysteries is the returning-order-to-the-universe conclusion, where the guilty are punished and the innocent vindicated. I didn't really realize until this last episode that VM doesn't necessarily follow that - as noir in general does not, I suppose.

I'm finding it not as much a problem as I might expect. It really bothers me in horror. Hugely. I've been trying to figure out why the noir genre doesn't bug me like horror does, and all I can figure is that even though the system/world/whatever is all fucked up in noir, at least there are some individuals who do strive for justice and order, even if they are rarely successful.

(edited for typos, but as long as I'm here, let me add that I had forgotten about Meg's little sister, and now taht I'm reminded I'm kind of disappointed that the show let me forget her so easily)

VM in five alternate dimensions.

And last year's installment. Actually, read last year's installment first, as they're the same shows.

Yep. Watching triggery things, no matter how good they are, is bad for you.

Signed, learned that lesson, and will nevereverever watch The Inside as a result.

I can't watch Hope Floats (that's so embarrassing to admit -- what a lame trigger movie) because it manages to push, I think, every single button I have.

And Mrs. Doubtfire just shatters me, though there are parts I can watch without losing it.

(The Inside wasn't triggery for me; I just thought every single character was 100% unlikeable and needed to be bitchslapped repeatedly.)

The Inside wasn't triggery for me; I just thought every single character was 100% unlikeable and needed to be bitchslapped repeatedly.

My subfunctional reproductive organs and new parent protectiveness took a look at the spoilers and fled, twitching and crying.

See also: didn't watch the last half of Smallville S2.

Spoilers keep me sane.

My subfunctional reproductive organs and new parent protectiveness took a look at the spoilers and fled, twitching and crying.

I didn't even bother to look at spoilers, because I hated all the characters anyway. Which is a damned shame, because I dig Minear's work, and Adam Baldwin is so fucking hot.