Unbelievable TV Show Propaganda

There's this TV Show I recently heard about, it's called "Continuum". It's a Canadian production about a woman cop who lives in a corporation-ruled future. Some revolutionaries find a way to travel back in present time to change the course the world will take. Vigilant as she is, the cop follows them, and with the help of another present-day cop tries to stop the revolutionaries, who by the way are depicted as pot-smoking criminals.
We are supposed to cheer for the oppressor.

This show was really maddening to me, and how it got a 7.6 rating on ImDb is beyond me.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/

Thoughts?

 

Aren't all anti-corporate time travelling terrorists pot smokers and criminals?

You'd think that in a corporatocracy pot smoking would a legit commoditized product. The profit margins are just way to big to be ignored due to prudish meddling in consumer liberty.

 

Why is stopping revolutionaries a bad thing? Maybe the revolutionaries are bad people.

 

I hope you're being sarcastic.

 

You say "heard about" which implies you've not watched any of it. I haven't either but this kind of show often depicts a much more grey-area morality, where the protagonist and/or antagonist is forced question the certainties of their starting position (you can't really get away with white-hat/black-hat TV these days).

In fact, the top rated user-review on IMDB is suggesting exactly that.

 

I think I saw the pilot of this program. It was actually pretty good. I of course was rooting against the corporate cop, only because the future scene depicted was well....chip implant government mind control stuff.... and a way too obedient and controlled population.

 

I've seen the first season of the show (the second season starts this Friday in the US) and the problem with the revolutionaries is that the show has not really made clear what their overall ideology is. Sometimes they sound a little OWS, sometimes a little Tea Party, but one thing we know about them, is that they are terrorists. They were given the death penalty in the future for a terrorist attack that killed 20,000 people. Since they've been back in the "past (the current day)" they've committed multiple acts of terrorism, including a biggie during the season finale.

So yes, they're bad guys.

 

That's my point. They've been made to look like the bad guys. That's why I said "we are supposed to cheer for the oppressor."
But still, I could never be able to support the corporation-backed cop.
The way the show is going would you say she might change sides?

 

You would really support terrorists who've killed thousands of people because the cop was "corporate?"

 

Let me see if I understand your problem. You don't mind that the bad guys are terrorists. You just don't like that they are your kind of terrorists. You don't want to root for the cops trying to stop the Liberal Terrorists. I bet you were really heart broken when you found out that the Boston Bombing suspects weren't homegrown Conservative Terrorists like MSNBC and CNN kept claiming.

You also say that you don't like the idea of corporate controlled cops. Maybe you would prefer the KGB. They were socialist controlled cops.

 

You've not established that we're "supposed" to cheer for anyone in the show. I suspect there is a difference (possibly a growing one) between the lead character and the future government she worked for, not least because it would make a really boring drama otherwise.

You have demonstrated that if it were propaganda, it'd be really bad propaganda.

 

That's not the point, my question is; why would freedom fighters be portrayed as terrorists?

That last part of your comment is just a false dilemma, and a quite irrelevant one I shall add. My problem is simple, it is that freedom fighters/revolutionaries (call them as you may) are made to look like terrorists, and the oppressors are the supposed "good guys" trying to stop the "criminals." It's a simple concept; it isn't about political affiliations, it's about political propaganda, wherever it may come from.

 

Since she's the main character on the show, I presume we are "supposed" to cheer for her.

I don't see how you could logically end up to that conclusion based on a suspicion.

 

Because they are killing innocents for a political agenda?

We've no evidence that they are in fact "freedom fighters." Just because they don't like corporate dominance of their governments doesn't mean they don't want something just as bad or worse.

 

Exactly. I kind of like the show, and yet I find it hard to cheer for either side. She's a cop who relishes violating the liberties of innocent human beings on behalf of a corporate dominated state; they are murderers who take the lives of innocent human beings to further their agenda. She may destroy the lives of fewer people, and that doesn't make her a better person.

The premise that the government will fall and be replaced by a corporation is ludicrous anyway. The corporation just becomes another government, since it maintains a monopoly on the legal use of force. That makes it more of a fascist state. Corporations cannot dominate without the help of government as they cannot prevent competition without government to protect them through regulation.

 

I think the background story is that the world's governments went broke (again) and had to be bailed out by corporations. I assume these same corporations extracted some sort of benefits as a condition of the loan.

 

I love time travel movies and was excited to get this on netflix---but couldn't watch all of it. A show has to have some REALITY for me to be drawn in. And frankly----creating a premise that corporations in the private sector are more powerful then the government---a government that controls the (military), can regulate a business to death, and has the ability to take money from the private sector legally and by force---seemed off-putting.

 

You're not answering my question. This is fiction, so they've been created to "kill innocents." Why not just fight for freedom? Because then they would be the "good guys" and the protagonist would not be likable.
But why should we like the corporate dog who is fighting for control?

 

Like I said, we don't really know the ideology of the terrorists. You called them freedom fighters for some reason so you are defining them based on their opposition, the corporate controlled government of the future, not on what they actually believe or support. So without that, I disagree with your entire premise that this show is some sort of corporate propaganda.

Anyway, the "corporate dog" is in our time now. She is working with the Vancouver PD, not the General Motors Police Department.

 

So, you have freedom fighters go back in time to change the future. How would you have them operate? Buy stocks in the companies that will be in control, and change them from the inside? Do you really think that would be a very entertaining program? That story line would have never made it becoming a pilot much less a series. People want sensationalism. So, my suggestion to you is just stop worrying about it.

The fact is that Muslim Extremists considered themselves to be freedom fighters, but I am sure that even you would agree that they are terrorists. They are defined by what they do, not what they claim that they are. Further, you do realize that there have been far more Liberal Terrorists incidents in the US over the last twenty years then can be attributed to Conservative groups. So, you can say that the concept of Pot Smoking Liberal Terrorists kind of fits the facts.

As far as that last part, it was right on topic. You referred to the cop as the "oppressor." By your post you considered equated the term to being Conservative. So, I countered with a Liberal Government's cops that were far more oppressive then those in the show.

 

Tell that to Luke Skywalker.

 

I wouldn't have them kill needlessly when they're on a specific mission.

Muslim extremists generally accept way too much collateral damage (if they even call it that), which negates their purpose in the eye of the beholder, I also don't believe in their purpose. Since this is fiction, I can't possibly criticize the actors, so I ask the writers why they made them the way they did when their purpose was legitimate.

An oppressor is an oppressor, regardless of what he's labeled. So I'd be against any of them. And by the way, you assumed that I meant Conservatives by saying oppressors without me even saying it, which means that you know what Conservatism is really about.

 

And what would that specific mission be? To change the past right? The problem is that in order to change the past, you have to know it. Unfortunately Liberals have their own version of history. Their version is not dependent on facts. They prefer legislating history. I am sure the writers knew that. The terrorists came back and did not know who they needed to kill. So, they started killing everyone. Typical Liberals.

That is the only thing that you see that is wrong with Muslim Extremists? The fact that they want to force every nation to submit to Sharia law, or to have everyone face Mecca to pray five times a day. In case you haven't thought it through, that includes you. You want to see an oppressive government, spend some time in a Islamic nation.

Okay, what kind of Government did the North Americans have in the future? Corporatocracy? I am sure you are not going to say that is a Liberal Government.

 

This is going to be a dead-end conversation

You're right, and neither did you.

 

Someone got brainwashed by the Mountain Dew/Cheetos/Red Bull addicted game designers!

*snicker*