The Ick

 I've been trying various movies and television shows for entertainment while using the treadmill. It's all a little hit or miss -- some things are worth watching all the way through, and some things do not capture my interest for long. I feel a bit as though I have the attention span of a gnat these days, which does not help in the choosing of shows. I keep searching. 

I watched Extraction 2.  (Action movies are generally safe - no unrequited love subplots, which I generally avoid; generally a satisfactory resolution by the end; nothing too political or serious.) It was well done, I think -- a little gory for my tastes, but otherwise paced well, with solid action sequences. 

By the time it was over, though, I realized that I need to add another type of movie to the genres I avoid: I will not be watching movies that have as a subplot, some kind of "rescue". There are a lot of them out there, as it's a common theme -- the daughter/wife/female relative of the male protagonist (or of someone important to the protagonist) is kidnapped/missing/lost, and the protagonist must go save/rescue her as part of his overall inherently 'rescue-y' persona (or, in more complex movies, as part of his emotional redemptive arc). 

No thank you. This gives me The Ick. 

I think that at this stage in my life, I am All Done with certain Fairy Tales, and the Knight In Shining Armor Fairy Tale is one of them. That just doesn't happen anywhere except in stories. This is not to negate or detract from the actual existence of Very Good Men -- I know several of them in Real Life. Good Men, Solid Men, Hardworking Men. They are real people, though, and not mythical knights.  

The reality is that we need to be our own Knights. 

We must learn to save ourselves.