Re:Be critical or be corrupted
by woodruffw on Friday September 23, 2022 @03:25PM
(#32956016)
It is indeed: American audiences love characters that are basically just conduits for "does the ends justify the means"-type plots.
I think The Wire is a bit better than that, though: the moral ambiguity in The Wire seldom boils down to justifying the means: plenty of characters are just bad in an individual capacity while doing good in their professional capacity, or vice versa.
The Omar character is probably the most straightforward in terms of the trope, but even he does not act for the sake of the ends: he does it because it's all he knows.
I think The Wire is a bit better than that, though: the moral ambiguity in The Wire seldom boils down to justifying the means: plenty of characters are just bad in an individual capacity while doing good in their professional capacity, or vice versa.
The Omar character is probably the most straightforward in terms of the trope, but even he does not act for the sake of the ends: he does it because it's all he knows.