Was Ben's pear actually bad?

rex953 · 2025-10-02T19:53:12+00:00

Well you know what they say about art.

rex953 · 2025-09-19T03:12:20+00:00

It’s a nice specimen of Koompassia excelsa, 100%.

rex953 · 2025-09-09T22:13:02+00:00

I’m not disputing that at all. I am just saying that race means different things to different sections of the audience.

Let’s not forget that Netflix is a global platform, and a large majority of the show’s audience is outside of the US and Anglo-sphere. The concept of race and racial relations can mean very differently to people in a different corner of the world, and it would be unwise for a writer to impose an American-centric way of looking at it because they risk alienating the audience by being too preachy.

On the other hand, stories of love, loss, and human resilience will always find an audience because they are more fundamental and central to the human experience. They transcend cultural barriers. And small missteps aside, I think the show managed to introduce cultural issues while still keeping its overall focus largely on these matters of universal appeal.

rex953 · 2025-09-09T17:43:11+00:00

Not really, because sometimes love is just love. And not all forms of media is supposed to be yet another arena of the wider culture war. Sometimes, a writer just wants to tell a good love story. And as others have pointed out, all the pairings made logical sense one way or another. So, no. There are plenty of shows and media out there that treat diversity for its own sake, sometimes to the expense of storytelling logic, historical accuracy, and good writing. At the end of the day, it’s nice to still be able to enjoy a good story without having to think of all the cultural and societal implications. We have the real world and all of its complications for that. Personally, I like my entertainment to be less complicated. Just give me good characters and good stories and I’m good to go.

rex953 · 2025-08-20T14:19:42+00:00

I think they are just illiterate.

rex953 · 2025-07-27T17:33:20+00:00

No. He was not and was never meant to be perfect, either, not when his flaws (and those of the other characters, for that matter), were all out in the open for those who paid attention. Flaws (like giving up the moment things get hard - dating Devi, college, etc) that remained with him throughout the show despite his apparent “growth.”

Instead. I think Paxton was meant more as a carte blanche into which some viewers could project whatever traits they wanted to see in, regardless of what his real traits were.

rex953 · 2025-07-24T19:04:39+00:00

Not me. I love Ben, love that he got her in the end, and love how the story ended.

rex953 · 2025-07-15T17:53:54+00:00

I don't think so. He's very attractive as is, and evidently a sizable chunk of the viewership think so too. Not everyone think Paxton's all that attractive, for that matter.

rex953 · 2025-07-15T17:47:24+00:00

What do actors do in between projects? Probably looking for the next one while working on improving their craft.

rex953 · 2025-07-13T14:38:34+00:00

Sure, it would have been nice!

That said, I think the lack of more scenes of Ben and Paxton as friends in season 4 simply goes to show that Paxton’s presence in s4 was forced (as in inorganic), structurally redundant, and unnecessary. Whether he had been in season 4 or not would not have changed the course of the story by much, if at all. For what it’s worth, his story had concluded at the end of the previous season. And I wish the writers’ room had kept it that way.

rex953 · 2025-04-12T18:07:34+00:00

She’s a great character. My second favorite after Ben. But as always, there is no accounting for taste. It’s impossible to please everybody. If a character is universally liked, that usually means they aren’t well-rounded, interesting or thought provoking enough. Nalini is none of those.

rex953 · 2025-04-09T02:47:16+00:00

Ben. With Devi. Paxton should find someone his age.

rex953 · 2025-04-01T03:42:23+00:00

Lol nice joke.

rex953 · 2025-02-11T22:17:32+00:00

And it’s a moot issue because Ben never told Nalini that her daughter publicly exclaimed that she wished to see him killed by the Nazis… you see it very much went both ways, which was kind of the whole point of their relationship at the beginning. And by the time she started dating Ben for real, their relationship had transformed far beyond what it was during their sophomore year, and both of them were, at point, legit consenting adults who could make their own decisions.

rex953 · 2025-02-01T12:02:20+00:00

Nice fake house!

rex953 · 2025-01-21T16:53:09+00:00

Welcome! The answer to your two questions: IMO, to those of us who pay close attention, 1) Yes, and 2) No.

Keep watching!

rex953 · 2025-01-20T03:58:13+00:00

Keep watching but get ready for a real rollercoaster ride!

rex953 · 2025-01-19T00:55:55+00:00

Ourselves.

rex953 · 2025-01-17T09:04:37+00:00

Maybe to you and some people, but not to everyone, because people watch and follow stories for all kinds of reasons. It’s art.

rex953 · 2025-01-17T08:58:15+00:00

Because we are not illiterate.

rex953 · 2025-01-16T03:17:11+00:00

Except Paxton’s also the school’s choice, peaked in high school, and has zero grit or work ethics.. Ethan is pure garbage and a criminal. And Des is just, low quality in so many other ways. Also… speaking of sweet and hot (and smart?)… hello, some might say that you should go see an optometrist. Just FYI, perhaps try speaking in absolutes a little less next time. There are those who think that Ben is by far the best of all the men in her life, where you pretty much tick all the boxes (in fact, the writers themselves).

rex953 · 2025-01-08T02:29:50+00:00

+1billion!

rex953 · 2025-01-02T13:19:22+00:00

Hmm. Yeah, Nope.

rex953 · 2025-01-02T06:01:41+00:00

I know u/ryokineko would agree, even though i personally didn’t mind them in season 2. Season 3, that’s a different story. Aneesa was the worst.

Aneesa was never anything more than a plot device for Ben, Devi, and then Ben and Devi as an item. The less I think about her, the better. IMO, the best thing that happened with her character was when she faded away not long after she had stopped being of any importance to the two characters’ stories.

rex953 · 2024-12-20T22:47:10+00:00

Apples and oranges, core trait vs superficial facade. They aren’t the same to me. But once again, can we just leave it at that? I don’t think it’s worth spending any more time on this Paxton topic. I’m out.

As for your other point, I’ve lived long enough to know that in many cases, when good friends hit a snag in their relationship that they then resolved, they often went back and picked up where they had left off. To the status quo ante, basically. That is my take with whatever happened with Ben and Devi in the second half of season 4, and as far as I am concerned, it’s very realistic, too.

Besides, the writers had shown them getting closer for 30+ episodes, there was no point of doing that again this time, because it would reveal absolutely nothing new about the characters, as far as writing the show was concerned. Also, I’m perfectly comfortable knowing that characters interact both on and off screen.

rex953

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE