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brightknightie) wrote2021-04-25 11:06 am
brightknightie) wrote2021-04-25 11:06 am
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"Tophy Girl" is my new least-favorite episode of FK
When brainstorming for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fkficfest converged with certain real-world events, I discovered that while I remembered that Tracy shooting someone in the line of duty was the impetus for the "Trophy Girl" plot, I did not remember whom she'd shot, or why, or what happened to that person. That was unsettling! Why couldn't I remember? I determined to re-watch "Trophy Girl."
So, after putting it off for a while, I tried -- tried! -- to re-watch "Trophy Girl" last night. Um. "Trophy Girl" is now my least-favorite episode in the entire series. Good grief. To fulfill my purpose, I did re-watch every Tracy scene. But I had to skip the scenes in the prison. And I could barely cringe through some of the other scenes. There are bits of this episode that do good things! But they are swamped by two wrongheaded tides poorly overlaid, and not helped by the conventions of '90s syndicated television and the expectations of the USA network. Ick.
You can take for granted that I find the flashback thematically hollow and aggravating. Apparently, its story purpose is to further parallel Nick -- Nick, as much or more than Lacroix -- with the present-day villains. Why? What's the point of that? A first-season episode would let Nick learn a lesson from that; this third-season episode's text offers no learning to the character, only disgust to the viewer. Sure, we can build a thematic subtext ourselves; we're very good at that! But the filmed version fails. What did Nick learn from that past event? A better story would have fit in an impact on the character.
More importantly, we have Tracy, who by the end of this episode has ended two human lives in service of the "she really is a good cop; believe us as we tell you this over and over in so many words" effort.
Having Tracy deal with the psychological impact of killing -- even in the line of duty, even as indisputable necessity in the moment to save lives -- could have been a spectacular episode, could have paralleled with Nick not wanting to kill, could have explored and built character! Did it? No. She claims killing didn't phase her. No one tells her that it should phase her, that she should need a pause for reflection. Reese or Nick should have told her that, but they didn't. Maybe her relatives or friends, but no. Instead, she throws herself into an unauthorized dangerous situation in a foolish way without backup -- attempting to prove herself, pushing back on what she mistakenly sees as a suspension, which misperception could have been a powerful pivot, more important and interesting than the prison scenes -- and then she ends up killing again. And what lesson does the character take from all of this? How does she get to grow or develop? None. She doesn't. In the end, Natalie tells us that Tracy was taken to the hospital -- off screen -- and that's that, never again do we hear about any of this. What was the story deliverable? That Tracy can shoot and is oversensitive to thinking she is being treated differently than others? We already knew those things. How was repeating them like this worth this set-up?
Oh, the person killed at the start of the episode? We learn that he was a drug dealer. We don't learn anything else about him. Not even his name. Not even the specific crime. The episode opens with Nick and Tracy chasing him and another man. Nick manages to apprehend his guy unharmed. Tracy ends up in an alley with hers. He shoots at her; she shoots back; he dies.
fkficfest converged with certain real-world events, I discovered that while I remembered that Tracy shooting someone in the line of duty was the impetus for the "Trophy Girl" plot, I did not remember whom she'd shot, or why, or what happened to that person. That was unsettling! Why couldn't I remember? I determined to re-watch "Trophy Girl."So, after putting it off for a while, I tried -- tried! -- to re-watch "Trophy Girl" last night. Um. "Trophy Girl" is now my least-favorite episode in the entire series. Good grief. To fulfill my purpose, I did re-watch every Tracy scene. But I had to skip the scenes in the prison. And I could barely cringe through some of the other scenes. There are bits of this episode that do good things! But they are swamped by two wrongheaded tides poorly overlaid, and not helped by the conventions of '90s syndicated television and the expectations of the USA network. Ick.
You can take for granted that I find the flashback thematically hollow and aggravating. Apparently, its story purpose is to further parallel Nick -- Nick, as much or more than Lacroix -- with the present-day villains. Why? What's the point of that? A first-season episode would let Nick learn a lesson from that; this third-season episode's text offers no learning to the character, only disgust to the viewer. Sure, we can build a thematic subtext ourselves; we're very good at that! But the filmed version fails. What did Nick learn from that past event? A better story would have fit in an impact on the character.
More importantly, we have Tracy, who by the end of this episode has ended two human lives in service of the "she really is a good cop; believe us as we tell you this over and over in so many words" effort.
Having Tracy deal with the psychological impact of killing -- even in the line of duty, even as indisputable necessity in the moment to save lives -- could have been a spectacular episode, could have paralleled with Nick not wanting to kill, could have explored and built character! Did it? No. She claims killing didn't phase her. No one tells her that it should phase her, that she should need a pause for reflection. Reese or Nick should have told her that, but they didn't. Maybe her relatives or friends, but no. Instead, she throws herself into an unauthorized dangerous situation in a foolish way without backup -- attempting to prove herself, pushing back on what she mistakenly sees as a suspension, which misperception could have been a powerful pivot, more important and interesting than the prison scenes -- and then she ends up killing again. And what lesson does the character take from all of this? How does she get to grow or develop? None. She doesn't. In the end, Natalie tells us that Tracy was taken to the hospital -- off screen -- and that's that, never again do we hear about any of this. What was the story deliverable? That Tracy can shoot and is oversensitive to thinking she is being treated differently than others? We already knew those things. How was repeating them like this worth this set-up?
Oh, the person killed at the start of the episode? We learn that he was a drug dealer. We don't learn anything else about him. Not even his name. Not even the specific crime. The episode opens with Nick and Tracy chasing him and another man. Nick manages to apprehend his guy unharmed. Tracy ends up in an alley with hers. He shoots at her; she shoots back; he dies.
no subject
There's a lovely follow-up fanfiction on the UF list called "Trophy Boy". But I do not recommend that you read it. Others, more UF-inclined might be interested though.
You ask what Nick learned from the past event. Well, in the past his attempt to save the girl fails miserably. In the present he manages to save the girl without killing her himself. Isn't that some form of progress?
Of course the intentional parallel to "Silence of the Lambs", which the THE shocking movie at the time, is a bit too obvious.
no subject
No, frankly, I don't think that Nick refraining from murdering Tracy in the present is sufficient to validate the existence of that flashback in this episode (or the prison scenes). I don't think it is character development at all. By definition, Nick already does refrain from murdering people in the present, and has been doing so for a very long time. And, goodness, surely especially his coworkers? This flashback provides no change or lesson for the character in the present day, in the episode presently happening. It's hollow voyeurism for those who enjoy it, and hollow disgust for those who don't.
And it's unnecessarily poor storytelling. FK's structure should ideally have all its plots converge toward a lesson that provides a pivot or development for a character, and the pivot or development should show itself in the final act, as bringing the character somewhere other than where he or she began; neither Tracy nor Nick learned anything on-screen in this episode. Neither of them do anything different in the final act of the episode because of something learned in the middle act; everything is the same at the end as it was at the beginning, character-wise.
no subject
no subject
FK always wanted to be sexy, edgy, late-night fare. But first season delivered that edge, for example, in the female-subject "If Looks Could Kill" while third season sunk to the female-object "Trophy Girl."
Third season tumbled so far from the rich first season writing, the fullness of its entwined threads, the depth of its shifting metaphors. I feel that first season FK can still stand proudly up the the best of even today's TV offerings; it's that good. But third season was embarrassing even as it aired in '95-'96.
I imagine that when the USA network ordered that Nick must have a young, attractive, female partner, the crew was initially baffled as to what to do with her. That wasn't the show's template. By the time they figured out that, given the choice to let her know about vampires, and the set-up with her father, they had to parallel her with Nick (instead of standing opposite, as Schanke had stood)... cancellation had been announced.
SIGH.