The series premiere of Ugly Betty and the music video for Metallica's "One" have almost nothing in common -- except that they're things that in the past 24 hours I couldn't quite make it through.
(Getting the former out of the way: Zany fashion folk! Zanier Latinos! Kind-hearted girl caught in the middle (who apparently doesn't know what constitute work clothes). Oh, will she ever catch a break? The two main demographics for this show should get together and compare their taste in men.)
The video for "One" delayed my acquired taste for Metallica by at least five years. But despite what I'd remembered, the problem wasn't horror/gore/squickiness -- it was an outright political thing for me. I realized this when that hangdog guy with the mustache tells his son ("Dad, what is democracy?") that democracy must be when young men kill each other.
Yes, Lars, et al, that's exactly what democracy is all about. It's precisely why all these people who didn't have the good fortune to be born in one were risking their lives to get (e.g.) past the Berlin Wall.
Who needs freedom anyway? (And most of all, as we learned ten years later, heaven f'n forbid anyone try to steal Metallica's intellectual property.)
My outrage was palpable -- but not so palpable that I didn't thoroughly enjoy finding a live performance of "Master of Puppets."
Posted by Matt Bruce at January 9, 2008 04:37 PM