#Midnight watches ARSFG

[midnightsgift]

I love a good revenge show so when this popped up into my recommendations a few days ago i knew i had to watch it. I’m not gonna say it was the best show I've watched this year or that it had the best writing, but i didn’t need it to. It knew that it wanted to convey. I also went into it knowing it was a short series and would probably not go into depth of certain actions and decisions but i made peace with that before I even pressed play. I discovered half way through that it’s a limited series which means it’s ending was written as an ending and is  very unlikely to get a second season.

With that all being said I should probably explain what i did want from the show. Before i had even started the one thing i wanted was for the main character to stick with the ‘revenge’ plan in whatever it would be. You often see in these types of  revenge shows that they often back-paddle and never commit in the end and I've seen that plenty of times before and I'd rather see something different. This also feels like an appropriate time to state that irl I'm definitely more of a cut-people-out-of-my-life and move-on type of person, and generally don’t believe in “getting people back”. 

That being said OMG did she commit and was it uncomfortably satisfying to watch at times. As a woman I'm so aware of how little it takes to tarnish our reputations, and how our image is weaponised against us so watching the ‘plans’ it really was like oh shit... Mariam is out for blood. I’d also like to state I’m not defending the trio in any way, I feel like ppl tend to hear ‘I feel some sort of pity for character A,’ and run with it till it becomes, ‘Character A is a saint/had tragic circumstance and therefore doesn’t deserve anything bad to happen to them.’ NO! No amount of shitty backstory allows a free pass to be a dick, ik so many ppl that become nicer people because of it, it ain’t justifiable. 

You then also have to acknowledge the same applies to Mariam. As audience member i’m aware of the fact these shows tend to be created for two reasons. ONE) we’ve probably all been wronged in our lives and most of us will chose to be the ‘better’ person and not do anything TWO) it to highlight the fact that it is in revenge that we lose ourselves and stoop to their level. Mariam at the end of the show is no longer the innocent victim she was at the start, in the same way the trio do not become innocent victims at the end. Yes, they become/remain ‘victims’ but what they are, or what i believe is a better category for all four of them is the ‘villain’. It’s the bad guy. 

Yes Rania becomes the victim of abuse by her dad, and Layah by her brother, and Mariam by the girls but that doesn’t erase they preformed shitty actions. Also not stating they are all equally the villains i think that’s a personal thing for you to decide. But yh that sums up my thought on that aspect of the show