One of the most important functions of a story is to transport you into it. Like it or not, a story is a kind of trance. Every good story triggers you, draws you in and fixates you until it’s over. A good storyteller removes any obstructions from this process, making it as clean and simple as possible. A bad storyteller interferes with the story so that you’re distracted from it instead. Political correctness can do just that. When people feel like they’re being preached to, they don’t get into the story. Case in point: Netflix‘s Another Life starring Katie Sackoffe.
Ladies and gentleman, The Gillette Man hath fallen. The Gillette Man being that difficult male from the Gillette commercial that many – especially feminists – have grown to hate. These men fight all the time or just don’t work well with others. They come off as belligerent assholes or massive man-babies that can’t be trusted to work let alone behave responsibly in social situations. No surprise that feminists decry this man as being their natural enemy. But it’s also sad to be obsessed with them too. Especially if it ruins a good science fiction story.
To be honest, I can’t say I like these guys either. But I don’t dislike them like feminists do. For instance, I don’t think violent, belligerent or aggressive behaviour is always bad. Anyone who pays attention to life knows better. I mean, it’s not a pretty place out here and sometimes you can’t just talk it out as hard as you may try – especially with hostile extraterrestrials. Anyone claiming to be pure on this point is probably the Know-It-All Western Moralist who thinks she or he knows the world better by having taken university courses on it.
To make matters worse, I’m finding this feminist theme in my science fiction too – and what a pain in the ass it is! A good case in point is Another Life with Katie Sackoffe. Sackoffe plays Niko who kills the Salvatore Captain, Ian Xerxes, for his ignorant, belligerent behaviour. You see, Ian is a dinosaur who has no place in a civil world that follows the feminist example. Ian has issues with Niko whose just replaced him as captain, so he tries to mutiny her because she won’t take a major command risk that could save them a ton of time. But the mutiny fails and being the more mature adult on the ship, Niko decides to forgives him. Later, while in “the basement” doing repairs, Ian tries to kill Niko again. It’s really a contrived plot sequence, as if Niko is set up to be the righteous captain saving her hide. So Ian gets killed and the Gillette Man falleth. Okay, the belligerent asshole is gone for good – but so is a major amount of conflict too.
Meanwhile, Salvatore‘s chief engineer falls in love with one of her subordinates. But the second male subordinate is jealous. So, she fucks them both at the same time. Really. I’m not really impressed, but if that’s women’s empowerment for you, then I’m a little disappointed. Being an astronaut in space is great, but doing what sleazy guys did in an 80s porn isn’t so satisfying to watch. Being in a position of authority and fucking both your employees at the same time is just a role reversal game often found in the feminist movement. I’m not sure what to make out of it as it was bad for men to objective women as sex objects and so it is for women. If that’s what they were doing. Perhaps it was a “coincidence” of sorts. But oppression does mean they can “punch up”. Too bad we can’t just not punch at all.
But there’s more feminist teaching to be had. I think. Yet, another woman in charge, General Dubois, is replaced by a Trump-like politician who, once again, is a belligerent asshole who wants to use firepower on the aliens. Which is dumb as aliens of higher intelligence (since they’re the ones with the teach savvy to land) are probably dangerous. So, guys, please, don’t use violence. Or, at least, don’t let the Gillette Man get to them. Anyway, this guy gets killed off. The enlightened woman remains. I hate smug moralists. Really I do.
So Another Life seems like a bad feminists rant. It makes me look at the male characters on the Salvatore a little more closely. I mean, the survivours. What kind of men are they? How strong are they? Do they cry? Sure enough, they’re weak people who can’t fight. They’re insecure men who need reassurance from female superiors. They’re snotty man-babies who are given janitorial work because they can’t do anything right on the ship. Literally. They’re two subordinates who get laid by the same female boss. And, worse of all, they’re scientists who stupidly ignore ship protocol and bring a dangerous but cute species on board that nearly gets everyone killed in the process. What an idiot. Then he goes off and does it again for an alien form of weed that he just can’t resist. All of the strong, smart men are killed off for being Gillette Men or, even better, there are no sensible men in this show and even they get killed off eventually. It’s really hard not to notice.
So you’ve got four strong female leads who are strong, smart but amiably flawed. They’re not bad characters although Niko cries in a way that just looks pretentious. The other female character is smart and strong, but for some reason has major self-esteem issues. Regardless, I’ve got a bunch of women babysitting boys and girls who can’t get their job done right despite being on the most important flight in human history. You could even excuse all of these macho-men deaths, but it’s kinda dumb to see all of them die nonethelss. But the two other guys that come after kinda puts more nails in this coffin even more. Why? They’re not Gillette Men! They’re just confident men who get killed.
To combat the infection from the dumb scientist who broke protocol, a smart and responsible male scientist is awakened from cryo-sleep. He’s on the ball, doing a great job, but, in the end, gets thrown out of the airlock when he becomes terminally infected. The other guy awakened from cryo-sleep, Beauchamp, takes over as second-in-command. He’s smart and strong and responsible, but the women-in-command blatantly hate him. He’s too cocky and arrogant. Worse, he’s not an belligerent asshole or anything. He just does his job well. Not even bragging about it. This seems like a great show with embittered women. I’m not paying for this. I’ve got my own problems and didn’t want to listen to yours while watching TV.
Another Life is not a bad show in terms of plot and story. Although the last episode really killed it for me. Katie Sackoffe does a good job. The critics hated it but many fans find it “okay”. I agree that it’s “okay” too, but I couldn’t help notice the whining sound in the background. And it was loud enough for me. I just didn’t feel like coming along for the ride. I’m not in the “camp”. Maybe they should label is feminist science fiction so that people know what kind of narrative they’re getting. Or rather propaganda. And I hate this kind of propaganda. Really I do. I’m more about equality and partnership. Let me know when you’re done competing with me anymore. You might even win, but I don’t care. We tried and found the whole ordeal stupid. We thought you did too. Oh well.