Ripper Street?

[kindkit]

Have any of you watched Ripper Street? I just watched the first episode on Netflix and I was honestly disgusted by it, but I've also read some strongly positive reviews that say it gets much better. I'd like to know if I should give it a chance.

I found the episode pornographic in the not-fun way, with a disturbing focus on women's naked and degraded bodies, plus that revolting, long, graphic rape-and-attempted-murder scene. It felt to me like the supposed condemnation of sexual violence was just a cover for showing sexual violence in a deliberately titillating manner.

Plus there was the violence generally--all the boxing scenes, the torture sequence, the dude setting himself on fire.

Also I don't like any of the characters so far.

Also the supposedly brilliant dialogue didn't impress me; to me it was moments of turgid pseudo-poetic wordiness amid long stretches of bland functionality.

. . . yeah, basically I hated everything about this show but I still want to know if I should keep watching. *facepalm* Because I also hate dropping something once I've started it. And I do think the premise--the return to what passes for normality after the Ripper murders--has possibilities.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

I've watched two seasons - the first episode is definitely the worst and the most graphic of the first season. I didn't know the dialogue was supposed to be brilliant? It's never awful, and it seems period-specific, but I wouldn't have recommended the show based on the dialogue. (On the prettiness of Matthew Macfadyen, yes.)

I liked it as a good filler show to watch while I was sick and hopped up on prednisolone. I liked some of the cases, some of the historical references, I liked the Victorian medicine/pathology which was very well researched. Also I have a phenomenal crush on the actress who plays Detective Reid's wife.

Season one >> Season two. It's never great but it's never as awful as the first episode.

I've been watching Black Sails, and it seems to have suddenly become relevant to your interests - would you like a précis? Or would that show be straight up too graphic before you got to the good bits? (Or are you the kind of person who doesn't mind checking out the good bits first?)

[kindkit]

I read a review of Ripper Street (season 5, I think) in the Guardian that talked about its amazing use of language. Maybe the writing gets better later, or maybe that reviewer is easily impressed.

Black Sails is probably more my kind of thing. Thanks for offering to tell me more. I've heard that it has good queer characters and queer relationships, but also that it's pretty rapey. Is there a lot of onscreen rape? Are the scenes lengthy and/or graphic? Is rape eroticized?

Other kinds of violence don't bother me so much, depending on how it's presented. Nothing in Hannibal ever bothered me as much as the scene in Ripper Street where the police torture the prisoner and we're supposed to believe it's both necessary and right.

I can take it on trust that good bits are coming--I think we have fairly similar ideas about what constitutes "good bits."

[st_aurafina]

I read a review of Ripper Street (season 5, I think) in the Guardian that talked about its amazing use of language.

The show jumped networks a couple of times - I wonder if they picked up better writers? Maybe start with S5 and report back? I'd be interested. The characters had potential.


Yay, Black Sails! I was not going to be sucked into the show, but I am now. I give in. It's a good show.

It does have a lot of queer content, but for a long, long time there was a suspicious lack of m/m action. Like, I'm always suspicious when there's a period drama brothel without boys, for one thing. On a pirate island, ffs. But from the first episode there's some solid, well-written f/f plot in there amongst the ladies on ladies stuff that's there for the male gaze.

There's one really nasty (and presented as such, not sexualised) rape scenario that is ongoing over a few episodes. It's not graphic, but it is unpleasant.

There's a couple of episodes involving a ship with slaves in the hold, but the slaves were given a voice in the story, and there was no rape.

The violence is of the blood-spurting, ohnoes-cannonball-shot-off-my-leg kind. There's a lot of cannonballs. There's a lot of hacking with swords. You see a lot of blood fountains.

The m/m stuff appears mid-S2, and I think it's worth waiting for - if I had an iota of trust in the show, I would have really enjoyed the build-up to it. I didn't trust the show, so the fact that it actually happened was stomach-droppingly awesome. One of the characters involved is, at the moment, presumed dead but I have a strong suspicion he will be back.

[halotolerant]

I never watched Ripper Street - I think I tried about half the first episode years back and noped out, and I've never been drawn to it since. I'd be interested if you do end deciding it's a good show.

I have been watching 'The Exorcist' tv show, as some Tumblr people in the Fannibal world have been enjoying it, and that is very much up my street, albeit with a bit of violence along the way. There are slashy, angsty priests who stand very close to each other and this apparently is all I need. Also I don't get squicked by demonic possession so I can take a certain level of violence for that reason which I couldn't tolerate if it was supposed to be the result of a human's actions, for some reason...

[st_aurafina]

Popping in to say that those priests certainly spend a lot of time carefully dressing each other in ceremonial vestments. A LOT of time.

[kindkit]

Okay, I was already convinced, but now I'm in MUST WATCH IMMEDIATELY mode.

[kindkit]

There are slashy, angsty priests who stand very close to each other and this apparently is all I need.

Apparently it's all I need, too. (I may have a little bit of a thing about slashy priests.)

I probably won't watch more of Ripper Street, at least not right away. You've sold me on The Exorcist, and today I watched the first episode of Black Sails and liked it a lot, so I'll try those first. Plus I still haven't watched the latest seasons of Endeavour or Broadchurch.