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I noticed another Thing while watching the TV shows - and once again, it's NCIS:LA that makes something in my mind go poit!
Setting aside the almost callous disregard that both it and regular NCIS have for the requirement that one get a warrant before searching things like systems or places (at least Timothy mentions concerns or the fact that things are illegal before doing them. He should know, of course, that "Just following orders" doesn't work as a defense.), this particular poit! involves what looks like a bit of...the trope of the Buddy Cop show where any hint of possible non-macho behavior is a point of either ridicule or uncomfortable shiftyeyes. I'm sure there's a name for it - and it's probably on TVTropes. (Something like HomOhNoBro)
Anyway, the situation is thus - in the "rec room" area, Deeks (combination of street cop, surfer boy, and wanna-be-playboy tropes, almost always negative) and Kenzi (The Chick Cop and Action Girl) are learning the Vienese Waltz, with the problems that Deeks in Uncultured and Kenzi is Uncomfortable In Heels getting in the way of anything resembling competence (We're all Trope-Tastic here at NCIS:LA), when Hettie (The Boss, who is a Four Foot Nothing Deadly Zen Monk) suggests to the other two in the room, G. Callen and Sam Hannah, that they should learn how to waltz as well, with each other as partners, as the coordination and training would be excellent for them.
Sam blows it off as Hettie joking - to which G. rejoins that she is not. Based on her character, Sam should know that she's not kidding, really. It looks like Sam and G will have to get intimately close and learn how to waltz, and the looks on both of their faces indicates that they will find this awkward at best and traumatic at worst. Eric, the tech person, appears in the nick of time to indicate that the next phase of their plan can go forward, thus allowing Sam and G to avoid having to be close.
And I said, "Convenient excuse. Also, that seemed a lot like 'look at how we're playing this potentially gay situation for laughs.' I think this is what the people on the Interwebs mean when they talk about seeing things through different lenses." The episode did not end with Hettie requiring Sam and G to go back to the rec room and learn how to properly waltz, which is a departure from other episodes - when Hettie wants something, she gets it, regardless of the feelings of the people involved. Yet when it comes to something that could be interpreted as de-machoing the main characters, Hettie's remarkable abilitiy is not put to work.
Truthfully, if football players can learn the grace required to perform ballet dancing, even those two ultramacho characters can pick up a waltz. And I'm not sure I like the Unfortunate Implications of a show that insists that even the smallest hint of two men dancing together, even in a nonromantic context, is something to be played for uncomfortable comedy.
Setting aside the almost callous disregard that both it and regular NCIS have for the requirement that one get a warrant before searching things like systems or places (at least Timothy mentions concerns or the fact that things are illegal before doing them. He should know, of course, that "Just following orders" doesn't work as a defense.), this particular poit! involves what looks like a bit of...the trope of the Buddy Cop show where any hint of possible non-macho behavior is a point of either ridicule or uncomfortable shiftyeyes. I'm sure there's a name for it - and it's probably on TVTropes. (Something like HomOhNoBro)
Anyway, the situation is thus - in the "rec room" area, Deeks (combination of street cop, surfer boy, and wanna-be-playboy tropes, almost always negative) and Kenzi (The Chick Cop and Action Girl) are learning the Vienese Waltz, with the problems that Deeks in Uncultured and Kenzi is Uncomfortable In Heels getting in the way of anything resembling competence (We're all Trope-Tastic here at NCIS:LA), when Hettie (The Boss, who is a Four Foot Nothing Deadly Zen Monk) suggests to the other two in the room, G. Callen and Sam Hannah, that they should learn how to waltz as well, with each other as partners, as the coordination and training would be excellent for them.
Sam blows it off as Hettie joking - to which G. rejoins that she is not. Based on her character, Sam should know that she's not kidding, really. It looks like Sam and G will have to get intimately close and learn how to waltz, and the looks on both of their faces indicates that they will find this awkward at best and traumatic at worst. Eric, the tech person, appears in the nick of time to indicate that the next phase of their plan can go forward, thus allowing Sam and G to avoid having to be close.
And I said, "Convenient excuse. Also, that seemed a lot like 'look at how we're playing this potentially gay situation for laughs.' I think this is what the people on the Interwebs mean when they talk about seeing things through different lenses." The episode did not end with Hettie requiring Sam and G to go back to the rec room and learn how to properly waltz, which is a departure from other episodes - when Hettie wants something, she gets it, regardless of the feelings of the people involved. Yet when it comes to something that could be interpreted as de-machoing the main characters, Hettie's remarkable abilitiy is not put to work.
Truthfully, if football players can learn the grace required to perform ballet dancing, even those two ultramacho characters can pick up a waltz. And I'm not sure I like the Unfortunate Implications of a show that insists that even the smallest hint of two men dancing together, even in a nonromantic context, is something to be played for uncomfortable comedy.
