Oh, for sure. You nailed it.As carrie Bradshaw must renounce tabagism for romantic love's sake, and Xena renounce Gabrielle for the Greater Good's, so Gibson's Christ must willingly embrace the most senseless torture in order to redeem Mankind (remember, by the way, that there were some very popular early heresies who, opposedly, made the Passion a sham by proposing that what had been crucified was Christ's ghost, and not the real Christ, as God cannot possibly suffer physical pain). It's in this pedagogy of suffering, perhaps, that reside the most obnoxiously reactionary traits of Mass Culture; as there is something akin in it to the acceptance of Taylorism and Henry Ford's social experiments by the working classes...
My favorite part of xena was the Gabrielle stuff. As for SATC, the first couple of seasons were OK, but you're so right about the stultifying happy endings. I mean "radical" solutions included 1) an interfaith marriage, 2) an interclass marriage, 3) an older woman/younger man "marriage", and 4) a cinderella marriage. Marriage, marriage, marriage, marriage. Yawn.
As for the Christ blood gore. That's truly scary. Because essentially what it says is "if they could do this to god, what have you got to complain about? How far will you go to prove your righteousness? How many of your children will you sacrifice?"
This is bad, bad, bad. The horror before the horror. I hate to think what that might be.
Joanna
