I got sufficiently distracted by the relevance to real world politics (I agree with the narrator’s point of view), that I became less concerned about what happened to the characters. I’m not sure if this counts as an artistic failure or not.
However, since I’ve read the comments at ffn as of last night and at least skimmed the comments here, I’m not sure whether I’m the only one who noticed real world politics, or whether it’s generally a breach of manners to mention them.
The wizengamot isnt remotely like any extant political institution at all. The line of Merlin is reminicient of the 5 good emperors of imperial rome more than anything else, and the wizengamot itself is both largely hereditary and scarily unlimited by either law or custom. Politicians going into a frenzy of popular rage? That is a paralel. Other than that, not seeing it so much.
Speaking only for the US, there are pervasive problems with police behavior, plea bargaining, and handling of evidence. I don’t have time to go into detail, but I strongly recommend reading The Agitator for at least a few weeks.
One of the background horrifying details is the extent to which the criminal justice system resists exonerating innocent people when DNA evidence turns up. An example.
For what it’s worth, I’ve asked about whether there are other countries which have better criminal justice policies, and not gotten any answers. Other governments do less damage, but this may be because of a less punitive attitude rather than better systems for accurately identifying criminals.
I got sufficiently distracted by the relevance to real world politics (I agree with the narrator’s point of view), that I became less concerned about what happened to the characters. I’m not sure if this counts as an artistic failure or not.
However, since I’ve read the comments at ffn as of last night and at least skimmed the comments here, I’m not sure whether I’m the only one who noticed real world politics, or whether it’s generally a breach of manners to mention them.
The wizengamot isnt remotely like any extant political institution at all. The line of Merlin is reminicient of the 5 good emperors of imperial rome more than anything else, and the wizengamot itself is both largely hereditary and scarily unlimited by either law or custom. Politicians going into a frenzy of popular rage? That is a paralel. Other than that, not seeing it so much.
Combination of politicians going into self-amplifying rage and an irresponsible legal system that gives too much weight to self-amplifying rage.
You mean Amanda Knox?
Speaking only for the US, there are pervasive problems with police behavior, plea bargaining, and handling of evidence. I don’t have time to go into detail, but I strongly recommend reading The Agitator for at least a few weeks.
One of the background horrifying details is the extent to which the criminal justice system resists exonerating innocent people when DNA evidence turns up. An example.
For what it’s worth, I’ve asked about whether there are other countries which have better criminal justice policies, and not gotten any answers. Other governments do less damage, but this may be because of a less punitive attitude rather than better systems for accurately identifying criminals.