MovieChat Forums > Search Party (2016) Discussion > Make domestic violence into a joke

Make domestic violence into a joke


I thought this show had a real potential. Dory's a feminist who's in a controlling relationship with a complete loser who doesn't value her and expects her to do everything for him (this happens to feminists, too).

Then the domestic violence going on in their apartment building is played for laughs. I have a real problem with this. The audience is either supposed to think the woman gives as well as she gets or she's got a foul mouth so she deserves to be violated.

I'm sick of this.

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I agree with you, I'm just wondering when it was specified that Dory was a feminist? I don't remember her ever saying it.

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Drew is a controlling bf ? Are we watching the same show ? lol
She dragged him all over the city and to Canada to find a girl she barely knows, she had him follow a guy and get in trouble almost losing his job, she had him blackmail the same guy later and she had him lie to his family and she had him kill a guy she cheated on him with and all was for nothing.

Aya A.R

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That's not to mention how she flipped out at him in the middle of the street.

If anything, if Drew had any self-respect, he would not have stayed with her after that.


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Drew does so much for her against his better judgment. He even cleaned up the vomit. He is a gem of a boyfriend. His character in the first five minutes of the show, however, is really off from how he was the rest of the show, so it makes him seem worse that he actually turned out to be.

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[deleted]

Drew is amazing, he's *beep* patient as hell dealing with all of Dory's crap.
And who cares if the ONE time he did something *beep* up (leaving the note on the wall)
because if she listened to him, they wouldn't have ended up killing Keith in self defense.

Cause I ride like Kelly Bundy, Yo I keep that *beep* nasty~ (Spank Rock)

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Why do you think the boyfriend is a loser or controlling? It's Dory who is a cheating slut and does not deserve a caring boyfriend. Is that what feminism has become? A justification for female cheaters?

And why do you assume the woman was the victim in the domestic violence? Given that she is completely crazy, why do you not think that she was probably the abuser? Are you making the sexist assumption that in domestic violence men are always the guilty party?

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I'm genuinely not sure if this is supposed to be serious or you're a troll. This isn't what happened at all in this scene. I completely support feminism, but this is a totally dangerous misread of this scene that drags this show through the mud of being misogynistic for no legitimate reason. In that scene, the domestic violence wasn't supposed to be a joke or played for laughs. The comedy in the scene was that the two characters -- Drew and Dory -- are two 20-something millennials who don't know how to deal with conflict and are too scared of confrontation to investigate what is possibly domestic abuse going on. They're both socially conscious enough to know that they should probably do something, but they're cowards and are too scared to actually act. Thus is the paradox of the modern millennial -- all concept and no execution. The dark comedy in this moment lies in the fact that a lot of us can relate to those characters. How many times have some of us overheard something like this and just didn't know what to do because we were unsure about how to handle conflict? Or were too apprehensive because we didn't want to accuse someone of doing something wrong in case it was a misunderstanding and we might embarrass them and ourselves. It's a common issue in a society that has slowly bred out the ability to manage conflict, and THAT was what was supposed to be darkly comedic about the scene. It's absurd that we're so scared of embarrassing ourselves that we'll avoid speaking up about overhearing a violent fight going on in the next room. Nobody was supposed to laugh at domestic abuse.

Also, once again I think you completely misread the narrative intention with the neighbor character. We weren't intended to think that the neighbor was a foul mouth and therefore deserved domestic abuse, or that it was ok that she was getting hit because she was hitting back. That's ridiculous. The whole point was that Drew attempted to "do the right thing" and be brave, but he couldn't really back it up when she started freaking out on him. He had good intentions, but he's still an awkward, emotionally stunted hipster. So when the neighbor started freaking out on him -- because she doesn't want or need his help -- he backs down. If anything, the moment was feminist. It set up a typical cliche moment where a concerned male neighbor would swoop in and save a woman from being abused, punch out the *beep* boyfriend, and come out the hero, but quickly subverted it and revealed that, despite his best intentions, the girl didn't need a white knight to come and save her. She could handle herself.

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1. How's Dory a feminist? What made you assume that?

2. The only instance in which Drew was a total douche was when they were having sex. Apart from that, he abstained from cheating and was supporting Dory in her quest even when he was so against it. She ended up cheating on him, yelling at him then going to her ex's house, putting everyone in danger and finally making him murder a man. Drew, although somewhat unlikeable was a way less *beep* person than Dory.

3. UGH. "Make missing persons into a joke", "make vigils into a joke", "make mental diseases into a joke", "make murder into a joke", "make cancer into a joke". It's a comedy show. And a dark comedy. Every subject should be up for grabs for comedy purposes if the content is aimed at adults. They were a couple of *beep* up people in a toxic relationship, she ends up kicking him out. And the punchline was never the abuse itself.
This bullsh*t fragile snowflake PC attitude is what got Trump elected.
I'm sick of this

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You're an idiot. Her boyfriend is the one morally good person and he is far from a loser.
He's a total catch, she's the loser. She's the one who's bored and unsatisfied even though he does pretty much everything for her. Typical projection. I feel bad for your boyfriend.

Cause I ride like Kelly Bundy, Yo I keep that *beep* nasty~ (Spank Rock)

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