Holy Ethics Violations, Batman!

[netgirl_y2k]

I suspect I might not be the only person who saw the reviews for Netflix's Gypsy, and thought that sounds terrible, I must watch it at once! Well, if you want to know how bad it is before watching, then pull up a pew.



Quick summary: Naomi Watts plays a possibly sociopathic therapist who has never met an ethics rule she didn't immediately violate, and is having a mid-life crisis fuelled affair with a manic pixie dream girl. It is incrementally less rubbish than a married dude having an affair with a manic pixie dream girl, but, you know, faint praise...

Good things about the show:

-Naomi Watts' character has an adorable little maybe trans child, and if they'd excised, like, 90% of the script then Netflix would have been left with a perfectly lovely little show about an adorable little trans boy getting to play Peter Pan in a school play. I do not know why they didn't do this.

-There was a dog in a couple of scenes. That was neat.

And now the bad:

-I genuinely do not know what I have just watched. Was it bad prestige telly? Was it an overproduced ten hour Lifetime movie? WHO KNOWS.

-Naomi Watts and the manic pixie dream girl spent five episodes breathing near each other's mouths in what was clearly meant to be a sexually charged slow burn, but was even more clearly two heterosexual women breathing heavily at each other.

-Then in the back five they were making out all over the place, and I couldn't figure out why it was so uncomfortable to watch, and then it hit me, it's like bad porn! It's the exact feeling you get watching two straight women feign lesbianism, badly.

-Naomi Watts' character spends half the season basically stalking manic pixie dream girl. She'll show up, deliver a monologue that I'd guess was meant to be enigmatic*, almost kiss her, freak out and run away; repeat forever, or at least for five hours. And for some reason manic pixie dream girl doesn't go: I know you look a bit like Naomi Watts and once gave me a cheap lighter, but fuck off, weirdo, before I call the police.

-*Which brings me to: NO ONE ON THIS SHOW SOUNDS LIKE ANY HUMAN I HAVE EVER HEARD SPEAK EVER.

-Naomi Watts' character is too stupid to be living a double life. For example: when called upon to make up a fake job for her fake life, she says she's a freelance journalist. A freelance journalist, quite possibly the only job in the world where it would be impossible to explain away not having an internet presence.

-Also, while keeping a secret apartment in NYC for manic pixie dream girls and general skullduggery, Naomi Watts' character is actually living out in Connecticut with her husband and kid, and while I don't know how far apart those places are, I live in the suburbs myself, and the reason I don't have a secret second life in the city is the geographical inconvenience. I mean, how is she finding the time?

-ALSO, WHO IS PARENTING YOUR ADORABLE POSSIBLY TRANS CHILD WHILE ALL THIS IS GOING ON?

-I can not overstate how badly this is paced. For nine and and three quarter episodes nothing happens, then in the last ten minutes everything happens: one of Naomi Watts' character's patients finds out about her double life, a mystery patient from her past reappears, and manic pixie dream girl finds out she's married with a kid. THE END. Which is mad, because I cannot imagine anyone thing it's a good idea to make any more of these.

Comments

[shopfront]

was clearly meant to be a sexually charged slow burn, but was even more clearly two heterosexual women breathing heavily at each other

I am having conniptions of laughter right now. Thank you so much for removing even the slightest need I might have found to watch this. Seriously. I am genuinely grateful as well as epically amused.

[netgirl_y2k]

Oh, God, yeah. It's too late for me but save yourself.

[slemslempike]

Me too!

[netgirl_y2k]

I did not enjoy watching Gypsy. I am massively enjoying telling people about the experience of watching Gypsy.

[adafrog]

That sounds horrible.

[netgirl_y2k]

It was bad. And, like, often with bad telly you can see what they were going for and where it fell down in execution, but I don't even know what this was trying to be.

[adafrog]

Dang.

[saturnofthemoon]

Naomi Watts' character is actually living out in Connecticut with her husband and kid, and while I don't know how far apart those places are, I live in the suburbs myself, and the reason I don't have a secret second life in the city is the geographical inconvenience

That's about four hours apart, driving distance.

I'll remember to only watch this when I'm really drunk.

[netgirl_y2k]

And the characters seem to be on trains a lot, which google has just informed me takes in excess of five hours.

How do time and space work on this show? Who is parenting that child? Was everyone involved in making this on drugs? I guess we'll never know.

[merryghoul]

Earlier tonight (my time) I stumbled across people complaining about the show's title and how, because of the show's content, the title is offensive to Roma people, but reading up on this show sounds more cringeworthy than the idea of the title being offensive.

[netgirl_y2k]

The title is one of many weird-ass things about this show. It's not the name of a character, it's got fuck all to do with the plot; I had assumed that if you were going to insist on naming your show something that you had to know people would take exception to it was because it was related to something actually in the show, but apparently not.

[st_aurafina]

was even more clearly two heterosexual women breathing heavily at each other.

Omg, that's just. Ugh. And I know what you mean about that male gazey kind of porn. Just nasty.

[netgirl_y2k]

Between the male gaze-y direction, and the palpable discomfort of the actresses, all that was missing was a close up of some long sharp fingernails.

[commoncomitatus]

Oh dear lord. Thank you for this review. I'd had it on my to-watch list for ages because Melanie Liburd is in it, but I've not heard a single positive thing about it. Sad, but I think I'll stick to the hilarious commentary reviews instead.

[netgirl_y2k]

If it helps Melanie Liburd isn't in it all that much, and she's the sexy secretary there to tempt her middle aged boss. Because no one on this show was allowed to be a character, they all have to be terrible, tissue paper thin archetypes.

Yeah, the show's not funny, not intentionally but also not even really unintentionally, but talking about it is funny.

[dhampyresa]

Sounds like a shitshow.

[netgirl_y2k]

It was a total and complete shitshow. And yet I watched ten hours of it over two evenings because, like, Netflix gave people millions of dollars to make this, on purpose.

[batmarg]

lol. I'd added this to my to-watch list, but am definitely reconsidering.

-There was a dog in a couple of scenes. That was neat.
I love dogs but I also love how you were clearly gripping at straws for a positive.

[netgirl_y2k]

Heh. If you are ever looking to damn something with faint prise "that was neat" is a handy phrase.