(This post contains no grossness!)
First, a reassurance! I’ll keep this blog safe to read for those triggered or squicked by the show. I’ll tag everything, but as I don’t trust filtering plug-ins to always work or get everything right, I also prefer to put any pictures or discussion of the show’s disturbing themes and imagery behind a read-more. Likewise, I will include warning headers at the beginning of the text, because read-mores don’t always work on mobile devices.
Second, I haven’t seen anybody mention this, but this show’s treatment of women is actually KICKASS.
Of all shows to pass the Bechdel Test… But despite what you might expect from a show about serial killers, women are not framed as ‘natural prey’ or victims in this series. Furthermore, there’s a really good balance of men and women in this show—not only in terms of numbers, but also in terms of their agency in shaping the plot, and in the sense of them as human beings with their own lives. You can FEEL the personality of these women, their strength and weakness, joy and sorrow, compassion and anger, and the unfolding of their lives and concerns beyond the bounds of what we see in the story. Even the girl who’s been so terribly hurt and victimized is treated as a real PERSON. Her damage and fear aren’t presented as a prop to serve another character’s story, but as a real person’s suffering, survival, confusion and recovery, owned by her.
It startled me to discover what a terribly compassionate series this is. That is, I think, what makes it also so effectively horrific; there’s never any sense of callousness or fetishization about the monstrous things we and the characters see, no cheap shock value or gorn. We are asked at all times to approach the scene with great empathy and humanity, and to understand the evil of what we’re looking at, even when that evil is cloaked with horrifying artistry.