DC TV and tiny cells

[Janx]

We don't see the entirety of the Batcave, and it's not 5' across, though. There's one thing not showing the parts of the spaceship where the toilet is; it's another to clearly show that there is no toilet.

But that wasn't really my point; it wasn't just the toilet I was raising, and like you say, that's explainable. It appears that these people are kept there for years at a time, and there's not so much as a blanket, a chair, or a book. Nothing. And this is done so casually to them - and even the prisoners seem to think it's perfectly normal!



I can't speak to what they expect; I can only speak to the fact that *I* noticed it and considered the implications. Maybe I'm the only one! I don't think I'm that special though.

Which again, I think it partly due to the folks doing the visuals, that they just didn't think of it/wanted this small box to display the prisoner in, and didn't think about the logistics of actually keeping a person in there.

My wife is watching NCIS now, and I notice on that show, they re-use a jail cell over different episodes that clearly has a bed and a toilet, and is actually larger than real jail cells I bet. So somebody on THAT show has thought about it.

 

[Umbran]

I can't speak to what they expect;

Actually, I think we can. Authors and audiences rely on implicit and explicit expectations *all the time*. Meeting and violating these expectations are part of the art.

You ever heard of "Checkov's Gun"? That's about expectations. Ask yourself - was this a Checkov's Toilet?

I can only speak to the fact that *I* noticed it and considered the implications. Maybe I'm the only one! I don't think I'm that special though.

Dude, you run a gaming website. That, in and of itself, makes you at least a tad abnormal

I'm mostly saying that, whether or not you thought of it, whether you should worry about it depends on whether you think it was an intentional point they were making. If you take their depiction to be literal, then, yes, in that world they treat these prisoners horribly, and you should the also expect that to be relevant. If you figure that the details of the cell are not really important, then the observation can be discarded as just one of those things in the making of television, without real implications.

The discussion can then move to whether or not they *should* be using such details more literally of not, which is actually a meaty one, I think.

 

[Umbran]

My wife is watching NCIS now, and I notice on that show, they re-use a jail cell over different episodes that clearly has a bed and a toilet, and is actually larger than real jail cells I bet. So somebody on THAT show has thought about it.

NCIS is trying to have the more plausible case that they are depicting reality, I would think.

It is also a set they re-use, and my understanding of TV sets is that things they plan to re-use get a bit more consideration when created. They want to cover everything plausible the writers of later seasons *might* want to do, and not get in the way of that. For example, it is likely larger than a real cell, because they may need to fit a camera rig inside the cell at some point, even if they don't put one in the first time the set is used...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I've wondered about this before. In Supergirl's case - usually the prisoners are illegal aliens from outer space. Their biology could maybe not require toilets, blankets or water.*

But Flash? Some of these very at the basis human. I suppose a living tar pit that was enclosed in tar for 2 years might not need a toilet, but the turtle or some teleporter seem like they could still have the usual needs.
I think anything that can totally shapeshift (be it tar or gas) might really be excused from any of this, because their energy might not come from food anyway.


*) mostly because they have so unrealistic and illogical capabilities that trying to have realistic considerations about toilets and food, we would just be very unreasonable selectively trying to apply those considerations.

 

[Tonguez]

Which again, I think it partly due to the folks doing the visuals, that they just didn't think of it/wanted this small box to display the prisoner in, and didn't think about the logistics of actually keeping a person in there.

My wife is watching NCIS now, and I notice on that show, they re-use a jail cell over different episodes that clearly has a bed and a toilet, and is actually larger than real jail cells I bet. So somebody on THAT show has thought about it.

I wonder if its a throw back to Western movies. Perhaps in the standard motifs of heroic fiction we are inspired by "the heroic Sheriff throwing the bad guy into a cell with nothing but a bucket in the corner" - it would be interesting if such motifs do have influence.

 

[Scott DeWar]

I do know that Hawaii 5-oh gives toilets and beds even to the super max prisoners as there was an episode where the BBEG escapes because he was hiding something in the toilet.

Alright [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]s, I might as well tell you: Here in the colonies we practice barbaric treatment of our prisoners in most places where we make them live in their own sewage with out even a bed and observable 24-7. So be careful when you are here that you don't even break the speed limit . . . . . OR ELSE!!!

 

[Nytmare]

I've only watched Flash, but it's been "yet one more of those things that keeps bothering me about this show that I still can't stop watching." Not only is it inhumane and unjust, but they've got like psychotic murderers that can turn into poison gas, and a girl who can whose only crime (I think?) was busting her boyfriend out of jail.

I don't know if another super hero show I've watched didn't end with them capturing the bad guys, and then handing them over to the authorities to be judged, sentenced, and dealt with. I think that the fact that they have a police detective and journalist complicit in all of it is what bugs me the most. Or that they're complicit in it but they've never bothered to take three minutes to have either Joe or Olive mention that it bothers them and then have someone/something change their mind. Also, Barry's dad was wrongfully imprisoned for however many years, you'd figure that the writers would have at least touched on his moral quandries.

Though...I guess it's better than letting the bad guys escape at the end of every episode.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, committing a jailbreak IS a felony.

 

[Janx]

I've only watched Flash, but it's been "yet one more of those things that keeps bothering me about this show that I still can't stop watching." Not only is it inhumane and unjust, but they've got like psychotic murderers that can turn into poison gas, and a girl who can whose only crime (I think?) was busting her boyfriend out of jail.

I don't know if another super hero show I've watched didn't end with them capturing the bad guys, and then handing them over to the authorities to be judged, sentenced, and dealt with. I think that the fact that they have a police detective and journalist complicit in all of it is what bugs me the most. Or that they're complicit in it but they've never bothered to take three minutes to have either Joe or Olive mention that it bothers them and then have someone/something change their mind. Also, Barry's dad was wrongfully imprisoned for however many years, you'd figure that the writers would have at least touched on his moral quandries.

Though...I guess it's better than letting the bad guys escape at the end of every episode.

I haven't seen that show, but I would imagine that to folks who were actively capturing somebody in the act of doing something bad, the concept of needing a trial may be illogical to a vigilante. You just saw and caught the bad guy doing bad things. Guilt has been established. Therefore, the only thing to do next is decide on how to deal with the bad guy. Apparently on the flash, they have a bunch of small cells.

Now to a society as a whole, the point of a justice system is because you don't intrinisically trust the cop saying, "yes, this is the right bad guy and he did it."

But to an individual who just experienced a crime directly or apprehended a criminal? Those steps are ludicrous as the facts were established by you, the direct witness.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Certainly, comic book justice is rarely congruent with RW justice.