dolorosa_12 | (Reply)

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I think the fourth episode is about why as well: it's full of non-verbal signals about the kind of family in which Jamie grew up, and the things he will have learnt by osmosis. Throughout the episode, the father is the only person in the family who is allowed to have emotions, his inability to regulate these emotions spills over everything, and his wife and daughter twist themselves into knots trying to pacify and accommodate those emotions, to the detriment of their own feelings, being dismissed by him constantly while all this is going on. It doesn't mean that any of them are bad, irredeemable people — I know so many versions of this specific family dynamic — but it's another piece in the puzzle, the ambient background cultural noise that contributed to Jamie doing what he did.

The criticisms that fail to notice this, as well as failing to notice what was being said in episodes two and three, seem to come from people who want everything spelt out in blazing letters. It's as if they wanted a courtroom scene in which Jamie suddenly admitted his guilt and motives like a comic book villain speech, or for some other character (the psychologist, or perhaps one of the two police officers) to almost turn to the camera and tell viewers the motives in unambiguous terms.

I understand where that criticism re: Katie is coming from, but I also fundamentally feel that it's criticising the show for not doing something it was never trying to do to begin with. I'm also not sure I agree with the timeline (the writer seems to be arguing that Katie's Instagram comments came before Jamie's abortive attempt to ask her out, and radicalised him, whereas I think he was already somewhat stewing in incel culture before that; the timeline I recall from the show is: her topless photos get spread around the school, Jamie thinks she'll consequently be feeling vulnerable and asks her out (i.e. classic manosphere attitudes towards women and relationships), she rejects him and then writes the stuff on Instagram).

Anyay, definitely a show that has provoked a lot of discussion (especially here in the UK).