1.03 - House of Cards

[Frankymole]

I love that scene because she magically produces a towel from nowhere and proceeds to dry her hair while she interrogates the guy. Multi-tasking at its finest.

"Hey, you sass that hoopy Emma Peel? There's a frood who really knows where her towel is."

[Timeless A-Peel]

I love that scene because she magically produces a towel from nowhere and proceeds to dry her hair while she interrogates the guy. Multi-tasking at its finest.

"Hey, you sass that hoopy Emma Peel? There's a frood who really knows where her towel is."

That's brilliant! Emma was so ahead of her time, she even foresaw the wisdom of good old DNA. And she was a woman who knew where her towel was.

(I wonder if that towel had a corner laced with vitamins? Or perhaps with champagne? )

[Frankymole]

Champagne, definitely. It'd have to be something more classy than Barbeque Sauce and anti-depressants, or whatever it was Roosta had

[darren]

In Bird she holds Robin between her feet whilst drying her hair.

[Lhbizness]

The mix-up with the horse pictures is a highlight, and done in good fun. The whole point is for it to get progressively more and more outrageous and unbelievable given what we know about the characters. Joanna gets wound up along with us until Steed clears up the confusion for us all. Obviously we know that none of the women would tolerate such fates, and the punchline is that we actually believe it for a second. They pull the same wrongfooting trick later on when Steed talks about his "one and only marriage." None of characters are affected by it. The people really having fun poked at them are the viewers who were gullible enough to believe that any of it was true. We fall for it, then realise we should have known better

It's a very effective way of making three women into the butt of an elaborate joke. The characters might not be affected by it, but the attitude of the show is: it establishes a crass mentality in which each women is conflated with a horse, and the descriptions are, in some ways, meant to be reflections of their characters (given that the show assumes that viewer knows who these women are). It's a way of having your cake and eating it too - allowing for a demeaning treatment of three major female characters, essentially dismissing them from view, and then begging off with the excuse that Steed didn't know what was being referred to. So the writers got to make a poor, sexist joke and then giggle about not being serious.

Sorry, I just watched again, and this scene really gets to me.

[Frankymole]

It's a very effective way of making three women into the butt of an elaborate joke. The characters might not be affected by it, but the attitude of the show is: it establishes a crass mentality in which each women is conflated with a horse, and the descriptions are, in some ways, meant to be reflections of their characters

Nope, that didn't come across at all. The hilarity is in how incongruous the descriptions are, and Steed's girlfriend Jo's increasing bewilderment at the incongruent descriptions.

[Lhbizness]

It's a very effective way of making three women into the butt of an elaborate joke. The characters might not be affected by it, but the attitude of the show is: it establishes a crass mentality in which each women is conflated with a horse, and the descriptions are, in some ways, meant to be reflections of their characters

Nope, that didn't come across at all. The hilarity is in how incongruous the descriptions are, and Steed's girlfriend Jo's increasing bewilderment at the incongruent descriptions.

Well, that's what I see, and it is part of the joke that the viewer thinks Steed is talking about his partners. We don't know he's confused until he actually turns around and explains himself. I mean, they ARE being conflated with horses. They're being directly compared to horses, with shots of each of them as Steed describes their merits. That it turns out to be an elaborate misunderstanding does not change the impression or underlying sentiment.

At best, it's a tasteless joke. At the worst, it demonstrates an underlying belittling, even disrespect, of the show's past female leads; and this in a tv show that's trading on that very past. One of those moments in TNA that makes me cringe and still really bothers me.

[Frankymole]

It's a very effective way of making three women into the butt of an elaborate joke. The characters might not be affected by it, but the attitude of the show is: it establishes a crass mentality in which each women is conflated with a horse, and the descriptions are, in some ways, meant to be reflections of their characters

Nope, that didn't come across at all. The hilarity is in how incongruous the descriptions are, and Steed's girlfriend Jo's increasing bewilderment at the incongruent descriptions.

Well, that's what I see, and it is part of the joke that the viewer thinks Steed is talking about his partners. We don't know he's confused until he actually turns around and explains himself. I mean, they ARE being conflated with horses. They're being directly compared to horses, with shots of each of them as Steed describes their merits.

If we're not meant to be confused, the joke doesn't work. I really think you're overreaching on this one.

[Lhbizness]

No, the joke, I think, is that "women are like horses." That's the joke. We're not meant to be confused, no until Steed's final sentence about selling Tara to an Arab Prince who tried to shoot her. Then we realize what he's actually talking about.

Sorry, this one is incredibly blatant. The dialogue compares them to horses - the camera shots compare them to horses. The joke is not a subtle piece of humor. The whole thing is a bad sexist joke that ends with the writers going "oh, just kidding!" And my problem with it is that it's unsubtle and laughed off as a totally light scene.

[Frankymole]

No, the joke, I think, is that "women are like horses." That's the joke. We're not meant to be confused, no until Steed's final sentence about selling Tara to an Arab Prince who tried to shoot her. Then we realize what he's actually talking about.

Can't you even see there's an alternative interpretation (one that actually makes the joke funny) - a misunderstanding?

What do you mean when you say "the camera shots compare them to horses"?

(Btw Steed is often compared to a horse - not least in your sig!)