If the objective is to get people vaccinated, Netflix certainly isn’t helping to change anyone’s mind. Bating those on the other side of the aisle with insults and turning escapist shows into venues for the political issues de jour is a much better strategy for turning people away from your message, rather than towards it. The term "anti-vaxxer" has in many ways become a rhetorical device meant to delegitimize and stigmatize those who don’t subscribe to the approved narrative regarding vaccines as "crazy conspiracy theorists." Word games such as these make it difficult to talk about controversial subjects in a meaningful way, and instead provide fodder for insults and punchlines at the expense of those we disagree with. The term "anti-vaxxer" has been wildly reframed and broadened, even weaponized. The truth of the matter is that the term "anti-vaxxer" has been wildly reframed and broadened to include those who don't agree with vaccine mandates, are skeptical of vaccines due to past injury, those who might have had some vaccines in the past but are skeptical of others, parents who wish to spread out vaccines for their children over the course of many years, and parents who don’t want wish to have their children inoculated with all 70+ recommended vaccines. Netflix is eager to create content that aids and abets bias against so-called anti-vaxxers in order to service a current political narrative about vaccines. The point seems to be that even the most odious people still have the decency to get vaccinated, and those who don't have less respect for human life than actual serial killers. The delivery is clunky and condescending, and the messaging far too heavy-handed.īut the most appalling aspect of all is the self-righteous consternation that deems "anti-vaxxers" to be worse than literal murderers. For one thing, how do we know that Joe didn't get the baby sick? In fact, how do we know that Joe wasn't the one who got the other children sick rather than vice versa? Likewise, it’s never discussed where and how the other children got sick and who patient zero was, rather Gil's children are treated as though they contracted measles through spontaneous generation. While the messaging is clear, the storyline itself bears several logic gaps that play against the propaganda. The point seems to be that those who don't get vaccinated have less respect for human life than actual serial killers. When Love finds out that Henry was infected by two unvaccinated children they encountered at a birthday party, Love confronts the father, Gil, and proceeds to hit him over the head in a fit of rage (he later commits suicide, and Love and Joe frame him for another murder they committed). She’s subsequently described as a "bad" mother. Later on, we find out that her husband, Joe, also has the measles because his mother didn't have him vaccinated. At the hospital, a healthcare worker condemns the stupidity of those who don't get vaccinated, especially "in the era of Covid.” Love refers to anti-vaxxers as "brain dead" and can be seen reading an article on her phone regarding the "anti-logic" of anti-vaxxers. In episode 3 of season 3, Joe and his wife Love find out that their infant son, Henry, has measles and must be hospitalized. But the issue wasn't merely that Covid was a thing, but that it was used as a punchline against the "unvaccinated." Many viewers were dismayed to find that season 3 acknowledges the existence of Covid, something that most other TV shows and movies have been reluctant to do given that in general audiences want escapist entertainment that takes them out of the real world, rather than reminding them of it. While the show maintained the salacious quality that made the first season addictive and the second season tolerable, the writers weren’t afraid to cash in on the series’ success in order to branch into hot topics like vaccines. But the quiet life of the 'burbs ends up creating more problems when they encounter the vapid, narcissistic, wealthy residents of Madre Linda. In the third installment of the addictive thriller meets soap opera, Joe, his new wife, Love, and their baby boy move to the suburbs to get away from their past crimes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |