I dunno. My take is that this is an adult reality TV show that has mostly been devoid of politics and gender wars shit for the most part.
There was an ethics debate from a lazy permantly stoned mexican with Jobe about usage of the word nigger for like 4 hours straight and that was great but it feels like it really isn't the place to get into the ethics of kiddy drag shows. I don't want to watch fishtank and hear about shit like that unless its like a 2 minute long discussion at the bar while a few of them are drunk and its a passing conversation - its fucking disgusting and gross and printing out shit and showing it to people and all of that just feels like its not going to go anywhere.
Niggas should've just booted brandon.
This is an adult reality TV show that hinges on you wanting to see a group of strangers tortured to various degrees for a prolonged period of time. Everyone cast in the show has a 'fatal flaw' and based on that flaw, each viewer gets to decide who they want to see suffer or redeemed or brought back or whatever. You've got:
- Slimeball, the self-centered creepy groping Indian with no social skills and a thick accent that reminds you of that one IT guy that smelled like rotting curry farts
- E-girls who have aged out/are aging out of the lifestyle they're trying to strive for, like Binx
- People who just want to be famous and popular so bad they're go on an untested reality show for a chance to make it big, like Mizzy
- Burt (one in a million)
- The quintessential SJW who is a quarter black and zero point zero two percent Native America so you cannot say that BAD WORD because it's BAD, like Smaack
- Slutty dried up moms desperate for attention and willing to abandon her kid for a chance at 'fame', like Alexis
- Homeless drug dealers
- The Gays (Hi Ron! Hi Peyton!)
- The Blacks (Hi Ron! Hi Sky!)
- Attractive women for the incels to dunk on
- Porn whores (a surprisingly large amount for one season of a show)
- And so it goes...
You might not have an issue with some of these assumed flaws but other viewers might. They all come in as underdogs and are given a chance to climb their way up and leave an impression on people, change their minds, make them do a double take on their beliefs.
Politics, gender shit, stereotypes, occupational hazards, any and every reason we have to tribe up and point at a different group as bad: this is the core of Fish Tank because without it, you don't have any reason to watch these people either exceed your expectations or confirm your biases about whatever group happens to piss you off the most.
The closest thing on that list to "Giving pedophiles access to children" is dealing drugs (and maybe being a bad mom but I don't know enough about Alexis' life outside the tank to make that assertion, though the underwear thing is fucking gross). Jeff got followed by a horny black man for several days and hassled by Frank, arguably more than some of the Fish he was hired to fuck with. He grew on a lot of people, annoyed pretty much everyone, and managed to leave with his head held high. If he downplayed the severity of his bullshit, he'd be suspect too, but there's always room for leeway: maybe he didn't deal to kids, maybe it wasn't impressionable youngsters (he could have mentioned it was and I missed it but follow with me for the point I'm trying to make here).
Brandon, however, is directly and is actively engaged in an activity that harms children. More than being a fame whore, more than being a flamboyant gay filled with who knows what in the face trying to pretend he's 10 years younger to (again) lure in younger men for sex, of which we have has two (honorary shoutout to Gay Ben),
that is Brandon's fatal flaw. He actively participates in an activity that has been proven to directly lead to the sexual, emotional, mental, and physical abuse of
children. All wrapped up in a doctrine that has parents thinking they can fuck up their children's lives by feeding them hormones before puberty and allowing young, often depressed or wayward youths to choke off their genitals with little to no pushback because "it just makes them feel so fucking valid!"
They are selling snake oil to children and then shipping those children off on a convey belt to hell. A hell that most of them will never fucking escape and if they do, it will be by their own hands before they even hit 30.
If he wants to be famous, he will be put under a telescope. Under Fishtank's telescope, some crimes deserve harsher punishments that others. Having this drag queen Big Bird, Alex-level sunglasses wearing bitch go out in a blaze of shame is the PERFECT way to get back at him. Just like Slimeball had his perfect foil in Luke.
Just as he tells those kids to dance, honey, dance, he was told the same, lied and cheated and minimized what he did and his involvement because it was DEEPER than probably what even we know officially, and then slinked off into the darkness only to act a bitch once he was out of Sam's vicinity.
I think, truly, this isn't politics. Smaack? Politically driven casting. Sky? If she's trans, politically driven casting. Having Luke, the former Big Brother contestant who said nigger and happens to be a straight white cis male? Politically driven casting.
If wanting to see Brandon eat fucking shit for being one of the gates into literal hell for CHILDREN is seen more as political than just, I don't know, common human decency and what should be the default stance of the majority of people walking this earth? We're cooked.
Yeah but this falls on production. Payton is a dike model/grooming victim and Binx is a wannabe twitch whore, being on an edgy internet show for three weeks isn’t enough to make them turn on the gay pride shit they grew up with. Jet and Sam shouldn’t have made them go against the herd like that on day one. How many times has Sam given someone an assignment like “target person X” and it just never works. If they want to direct the action they need to figure out a new way.
Luke seemed to understand his assignment considering Slimeball's exit (and his Day 1, Part 2: Drag Kids Boogaloo!) but I get you. Still, I think it's that hopeful
I've shown you a little, show us how much you've changed! attitude leading some of the decision making, which is fair, production is human too and their human flaws and attachments add to Fish Tank. Going through Fish Tank and then throwing the OGs back into Famous House was that assignment straight up. Binx was told prior to entering that she needed to make an enemy out of Brandon, and Slimeball knew the way, he just refused it because Luke rage.
And even if it wasn't for personal reasons or due to personal conviction, production brought all of them (save Burt) in to tell them the exact same shit. And instead of convening and playing the game in that moment, speculating like they would have and have done before, they defaulted to Muh Message, Muh Sad Gay, Muh Support. I don't think anyone knew the extent of Payton's involved until now (she just seemed like a girl who wanted to be a model, nothing super special) and people's opinions on Drag Kids isn't really something anyone except people in the drag kids community have blasted on their socials. I don't know how deeply they're meant to background check them at that point.
I've said multiple times Production needs to do a better job with some areas, Luke being a shining fucking example, but they can't feed the fish everything otherwise they lose their agency and we lose some of the 'authenticity' is watching fish make decisions for themselves. They gave them a hand and they bite off the arm. Usually they just ignore the hand and go off into the woods. Ignorance and stupidity can sometimes be easier to swallow but the wilfulness of their choices here is what leaves a back taste in my mouth.
