Three Pines—the Verdict

We, Jen, Oni and I, have watched three whole episodes of Three Pines (based on the fabulous Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny) and are throwing in the towel.

Why? Narrowing our reasons down to one—it’s tragically sad and real. Particularly the ongoing discussions and scenes about Canada’s barbaric Indian boarding schools.

I’m well aware of the horrific history of the USA’s Indian ‘schools’ and the way those despicable institutions destroyed so many indigenous lives.

There were more than 350 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the US in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages. (source)

I was unaware that Canada had committed the same barbarous crimes. Canadians are much more civilized than feral white Americans or so I thought. Possibly the niceness, the humanity is a recent development? Or maybe, like in vast portions of the American south, that civility is nothing but a flimsy veneer?

Starting in the 1880's and for much of the 20th century, more than 150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government and sent to what were called Residential Schools. Funded by the state and run by churches, they were designed to assimilate and Christianize indigenous children by ripping them from their parents, their culture, and their community. The children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never made it home. (source)

I’ve got to face it, the human race, all around the world, is no more than syphilitic chum bags filled with broken cockroach brains who ‘think’ everyone else’s shit stinks but their own. (THIS, by the by, goes a long way toward explaining TFG, his henchfucks and fans as well as Putin and his murderous posse)

Jen, Oni and I are trying to escape reality during our weekend Tea Time teevee watching. Diving head first into the muck, the ferociously disgusting crimes of mankind is, pretty much, totally contrary to our goal.

The other reasons for calling it quits on Three Pines—the townsfolk:

• Most look alike. Seriously, with few exceptions they look like siblings and dress the same too (ultra limited color palette of L.L Bean and Vermont Country Store togs). 
  

• The men (with the exception of Gabri) simmer with insecurity and hostility. 
  

• The women are smilingly vapid (exceptions: the elderly poet, Ruth, Myrna, the bookstore owner and Bea, the gallery owner)—they're just one footfall away from rural Stepfordism.

I imagine these 2D characterizations will expand and evolve as the series goes on BUT we won’t be there to see it. At the end of the last ep, we were all in tears. For Oni, this is personal. For Jen and I? We’re sane and empathetic.

With TFG and his band of despicable, cartoonishly evil miscreant’s ‘border separations’ (AKA the kidnapping and caging of children), our vile history has been repeated.

Under the El Paso program, begun in mid-2017, adults who crossed the border without permission – a misdemeanor for a first-time offender – were detained and criminally charged. No exceptions were made for parents arriving with young children. The children were taken from them, and parents were unable to track or reunite with their children because the government failed to create a system to facilitate reunification. By late 2017, the government was separating families along the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, including families arriving through official ports of entry.
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Prior to the Trump administration, families were generally paroled into the country to await their immigration cases or detained together. (source)

If the Three Pines’ townspeople develop beyond their current, roughly drawn presentations, this could be a great, if depressing, show. For us though—too much reality. Bring on the spaceships and Wookies!