I generally hate how shows deal with abortion since it's usually some sort of copout or becomes the most Emotionally Devastating Thing Ever for the character.
What I thought was interesting about the way Six Feet Under handled it is that it was emotionally devestating for the character until she had that dream, which set her mind at ease. There was no agonizing debate beforehand, though. She found out she was pregnant and there was no question in her mind from the start that she was not going to have the baby. Her sadness afterwards was real and could probably be qualified as "emotionally devestating," but it was clearly explained also that a great deal of this was due to hormones.
But Nip/Tuck surprised me, as it did several times that episode, by not doing the usual thing, there was no agonizing debate beforehand, we just see the character get the procedure and then deal with the fallout. And the fallout turns out to be less about how the characters feel about abortion but about how they feel about themselves, so it was pretty interesting.
Although I can't say for sure, since I didn't see it, the situations do sound relatively similar...not the reasons behind the abortions, but how they were handled non-moralistically and focused more on character than on issue. I am looking forward to seeing this Nip/Tuck ep, though. I started watching the first season on DVD recently and am still very early on, but the show is so addictive, it shouldn't take me too long to get through the episodes and up to this one!
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branchandroot
Re: Nip/Tuck
Date: 2004-08-13 07:56 am (UTC)What I thought was interesting about the way Six Feet Under handled it is that it was emotionally devestating for the character until she had that dream, which set her mind at ease. There was no agonizing debate beforehand, though. She found out she was pregnant and there was no question in her mind from the start that she was not going to have the baby. Her sadness afterwards was real and could probably be qualified as "emotionally devestating," but it was clearly explained also that a great deal of this was due to hormones.
But Nip/Tuck surprised me, as it did several times that episode, by not doing the usual thing, there was no agonizing debate beforehand, we just see the character get the procedure and then deal with the fallout. And the fallout turns out to be less about how the characters feel about abortion but about how they feel about themselves, so it was pretty interesting.
Although I can't say for sure, since I didn't see it, the situations do sound relatively similar...not the reasons behind the abortions, but how they were handled non-moralistically and focused more on character than on issue. I am looking forward to seeing this Nip/Tuck ep, though. I started watching the first season on DVD recently and am still very early on, but the show is so addictive, it shouldn't take me too long to get through the episodes and up to this one!