Carol Sturka is My Friend
Excellent, good satire of how people in online spaces engage with various types of brands. I have to bear this in mind when certain topics of discussion come up. Right now everyone is talking about Pluribus, so I'll hold this talisman close to remind me to stay calm and normal. It's just a show, after all.
I've got Carol Sturka's back. She has done nothing wrong, really*. I can see being neutral to her, personality-wise, but most of her outbursts are justified, or at least understandable given the extreme circumstances. Vince Gilligan is superb at creating a character and showing his side of things in a way that inspires sympathy--and all the while everyone who shares a world with the character never knows the full story and heaps on a lot scorn. Carol splits the audience more than Saul Goodman, or season one Walter White, and the main reason is not her understandable surliness, or because she's a woman.
The main reason that certain people are short on understanding for Carol is, I think, the show dazzles us with this peculiar world building that plays into a strong wish fulfillment aspect to the premise. It is hard to imagine suddenly having all of your needs met, never mind access to jets, cars, and every luxury known to man. People that don't understand her predicament will judge her harshly for her having a hard time. The "Hive" is ostensibly so friendly, like an overindulgent grandmother. Everything is so cool, and everyone is so nice, except for Miss Debby Downer Carol Sturka. The show invites you to put yourself in this situation and imagine what you will do, and no doubt, if you are like me, something in the back of your mind is telling you that this is not going in a fraught direction; even as you imagine fun vacations, private concerts, or fabulous prizes.
*For real. I'm not counting the drunk driving which is simply lore.
I keep thinking about what it is about Carol that makes me not like her that much, because I am pretty into misanthropic characters and I loved loved loved the opening scenes where we see her doing her book tour stuff and being a hater about it. Part of it for me is that there is something that feels too generic about her hater spirit - she's like one step away from posting passive aggressive minions memes on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteBUT then again, if that was explored more thoroughly (the minioncore energies), I think I would love it. So I think really, MY problem is more that the writer's don't give her enough texture, enough stuff to respond to, enough space to have some crunchy, nuanced behaviours, at least as much as I'd be satisfied by. She seems to flip so quickly and unthinkingly into the relationship with the plurb (a thing she HATES!) but I don't think it's a problem with the character as much as a problem with letting us into her head, letting us noodle around in there more seriously.
I could never hate Carol more than the plurb though. Impale that thang imo
Yeah. They used very little of the show's limited runtime to establish her character in a non plurb context. Gilligan likes to reveal things slowly through flashbacks and dialogue. I guess in the long run it will help a bit with the pacing which people are struggling with as it is.
DeleteThanks for the comment and for reading.