justdrew wrote:It seems like the sort of punishment program that would appeal to angry folks looking for justice, possibly after a period of heightened awareness (verging on or perhaps fully into neo-PTSD) about the quantity of senseless violence in society, but that no one could actually have the nerve to start.
but then, COPS is now in it's 25th season. so what do I know about what's acceptable?
Yeah, I didn't find the concept very convincing, but the style was just surreal enough to carry it, and I have to admit that real life becomes less believable every day.
justdrew wrote:It all hinges on the very conveniently selective memory eraser device, yet it didn't make clear that they ALSO had to erase the criminals memory of having heard about, seen, etc the very punishment program they've been put into.
I
think the White Bear Park was unique, rather than being a part of a larger justice system programme, but the episode itself gave me no reason to think this. I just do. There's no doubt that the larger justice system was complicit though, or Victoria (the criminal) would never have been handed over to them.
It seems to have been set up not by the government, or the standard greedy media corporation, but by the friends and family of the little girl herself. Perhaps the money for it was raised through charitable contributions from the outraged British public, until it became a going concern in it's own right. It might be a peculiarly British thing - or a peculiarly
me thing - but I was reminded of the McCanns, and their (to me) inexplicable political power after the abduction of Madeleine. All of a sudden Gerry was appearing at the Edinburgh TV festival, they were lecturing the European Parliament, and planning a concert with Elton John, all the while calling for massive changes in the law all over the continent. The public, the press, and the Brit police seemed fully behind them every step of the way.
If an abductor had been caught in the early, frenzied days of that case, I don't think there is much that would've prevented "Team McCann" from setting up a White Bear Park equivalent.
Well, okay, yeah, there are things that would've stopped it, but I think Brooker caught the atmosphere of self-exonerating and self-aggrandising hysteria very well. And in the quieter moments you could see that the family and staff of White Bear Park were devastated by their involvement too - worn out, tired, heartbroken.
The real evil people - in both the murder and it's punishment - were those who just stood and filmed it all on their phones. "They also serve who only stand and wait."
Since Victoria's memory was wiped each night, turning her into a blank slate, those people were technically more guilty than she was - watching and filming the torture of a person who was every bit as innocent (in her own mind) as the original child victim. And weren't we watching it too? Ah, Charlie Brooker, you devil you!
Also, Lenora Crichlow is hot. Not so much in White Bear, I admit, where she spends the whole runtime screaming and traumatised with snot all over her face. But in a general sense. Which nobody can deny.
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."