I am Tep, I am Kat; I think I'm in pretty good company there. It's absolutely not a male or female thing, either -- the mindwipe business is about as close as I get to something I really, truly just can't watch. (Well, that and miscarriages of convenience.)

And yeah, I get that the whole point is Echo pushing through the mindwipe and starting to put things together, which is what will make me at least try it.

I read the "they volunteered" sequence much the way Tep did. It's strongly implied that they didn't, or at least they they did under duress and/or bad information.

(The falling in love plot? Really doesn't even register as an issue. It's like the embarrassment-comedy throwaway-ep-for-laffs version of the basic mindwipey plot.)

I'm reminded of that movie The Condemned which seemed to be saying, "violence as a form of entertainment is morally wrong". While at the same time being one of the most violently entertaining movies ever made. Is it possible to take a stand against exploitation within such a seemingly exploitave premise?

I guess I don't get it. I thought the show was about these dolls in an illegal operation getting mindwiped and that the people doing the mindwiping were supposed to be the bad guys. Isn't it about Echo trying to figure things out and the FBI guy trying to shut them down.

So people are squicked about the thing they are supposed to be squicked about. Right?

Some people who were seeking trailers may want to check their e-mail.

Re: squick...

Yes, we haven't seen any of it, but this far away from broadcast, having both male and female Actives doesn't lessen the squick. For the time being, Eliza Dushku is the 'face' of the series, and the experience the audience expects her to have as a young female that can be programmed as whomever or whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay for, that experience is what people expect the show will be about. As the show gets closer to broadcast and the other cast members I assume get featured more heavily, that may change. But at the moment, as the highest profile actor/actress associated with the show, that will be the first thing will think of, simply because it is the easiest and most obvious.

What can change that? Probably not much, but having promo's feature Actives being other than arm ornaments, to show that these folks have uses beyond the obvious, and Actives that are not young/attractive probably will mitigate it. If the show concept is that these are people that can be programmed to do anything, that would mean that they are needs for Actives are not not young and attractive, and even if those characters are just in the background it would dispel the idea that this environment is merely a sex shop...

Of course, asking for any TV marketing dept not to focus on the "sexy" aspects of the show, such attractive leads and romantic entanglements, is probably an exercise in futility.

If I'm reading other folks right, it's that the squick is exponential for them to the point of not being watchable. Which I grok, there are things out there I can't watch/listen to. Right now, this isn't hitting my squick buttons.

Oh, hell yeah. There's stuff that might be brilliant art that hits my buttons and I can't go near. I won't cast aspersions on the quality of the stuff, but squicks can be powerful things, and is it really worth going up against all that for an hour's worth of TV?

Very big thanks for the try, Gris, but for whatever reason, I'm only getting the soundtrack.

it's that the squick is exponential for them to the point of not being watchable.

BINGBINGBINGBING

I mean, of course I get that this is supposed to be something squicky, and that the abusers are supposed to be bad guys. That's kinda the whole point. But after watching the trailer, I'm feeling less "I have some issues" and more "would like to take a bath now".

Also, if the show is trying to balance done-in-one episodes and an arc, I assume there is probably some in-show mechanism that limits the amount of time the characters can stay in any one ID. Otherwise, since the Actives cater to the rich, there are enough mega-rich out there that it would seem logical for one to simply buyout one of the Actives for months if not years at a time. But that would be boring fiction if a character went off to Dubai for six months putting the arc story into a holding pattern.

If there is an inherent limit to what any one Active could do, that would mitigate some of the squick, because then there are some mechanisms to safeguard them, rather than being completely at their client's mercy. Not much mitigation, but some...