ivko

The title of this review is heavily sarcastic. All shows age, and eventually even shows that were considered liberal in their time will find themselves on the wrong side of social change. M*A*S*H, one of the most popular television shows in the history of the medium, is no exception to this rule, and this episode in particular is a stunning example of just how different social norms were when the show launched in 1972.

One of the recurring plot elements on the show was that the doctors and nurses of the 4077 unit engaged in heavy fraternization with one another, even when they had husbands and wives back home. It's presented as a coping mechanism for the horrors of war, usually with the unspoken assumption that whatever romance took place would remain a secret from spouses and boyfriends/girlfriends, and would end when their tours ended. It also helps to keep in mind that the show was created in an historically unusual time period between the start of mass produced penicillin, which cured many sexually transmitted diseases for the first time, and before diseases like AIDS had entered into the public consciousness, meaning that sex, rightly or wrongly, was often perceived at the time as a harmless diversion with few consequences.

Anyhow, the basic plot is that one of the nurses named Edwina was being sent home in a few weeks and confesses her sadness to another nurse that she hadn't experienced any intimacy during her time in the unit. The nurses decide to band together and deny the men their usual sport unless one of the guys gives Edwina the experience she longs for.

The plot isn't that extraordinary. What is unusual is the behavior of the main characters, and the fact that it's presented as expected behavior for the shows protagonists. Married men are having affairs with the nurses, not even bothering to be coy about it; in fact, during a party scene Hawkeye even makes a joke about how many of them are cheating on their spouses. Officers are also seen carrying on with women who are in their chain of command, which is largely regarded as rape today even if it's consensual. When the nurses cut off the men they become enraged, as though they were being denied something that rightly belonged to them, even going so far as to storm into the C. O'.s office and demand that he order the nurses back on their backs, as it were.

One scene in particular that shocked me involved Radar, the shy young man that is presented as the shows archetypal 'nice guy', emerging from behind a tent rubbing his eye. Seems Radar was doing his usual thing of peering through a hole he made to watch the nurses bathe, but because of the embargo the girls thumped him in the eye this morning instead of, I guess, just letting some perv watch them naked. Hawkeye spots him and laughs about it, joking that he may have to settle for spying on the men showering for a while. In any show or movie made in the last decade a character spying on girls showering would usually be portrayed as the creepiest of creepy weirdos. And even in the rare situation where it's played for laughs (Rick & Morty, American Dad!) it's usually in some kind of over-the-top scenario that's meant to feel zany or silly, like they're trying to recreate a scene from an 80's movie or something. The idea that a well-liked character like Radar would do something like that and that the shows main character would find it funny instead of creepy is pretty mind blowing from a contemporary perspective.

I was too young to watch M*A*S*H on its first run, but the show was still heavily syndicated more than a decade after it ended and I watched it then, becoming a fan. But it's been over two decades since even my late arrival to the show, and re-watching it now via streaming has been pretty eye opening as to just how much our culture today differs after 50 years. So much so that I actually think younger viewers will need a historical primer to appreciate what might seem like monstrous behavior. Not all episodes are as blatant as this one, but it serves to highlight quite a few major changes to cultural norms.

Zone 414 desperately wants to be Blade Runner. It outright copies numerous elements including the dystopian view of a future where humans can build intelligence but cage it to service our darker passions, the gloomy atmosphere where civilization seems trapped in perpetual night, even the anachronistic use of outdated machinery alongside futuristic technology that suggests a kind of sociological stasis despite wonderous scientific achievement. But for all it mimics, Zone 414 fails to recreate the moody, thoughtful experience of Blade Runner.

Part of that is in the casting, as the Blade Runner franchise benefited from some of the top talent in Hollywood. Part of it is from the lower budget of Zone 414 that doesn't allow for the same level of set design and special affects. But the biggest part of it comes down to the fact that Zone 414 doesn't tread any new ground. When Blade Runner was released it struggled to find an audience because it presented an unusual take on the future: it presented a world where mankind had accomplished feats we can only dream of, but instead of Han Solo and Princess Leia it presented only a world of broken and unhappy people desperate for something that their society seemed to have lost. Instead of science making our dreams come true, it had instead stagnated and isolated us.

Zone 414 very much implies a similar future, but instead of a fresh take it feels trapped by its inspiration to recreate the same dynamics, right down to the leads being a broken couple who ultimately find the only solution is to run away together hoping to find something better together than what life handed them individually. The problem this created for me is that if the movie is so directly copying another, better creation, what is the point of it?

Anyway, that's my impression of the movie. I found it mildly interesting at parts but mostly kind of dull. The basic plot, for those who are interested, is a future in which hyper-realistic human androids have been developed. Their cost makes personal ownership prohibitive for all except the one percent of the one percent, but a city entirely populated by androids, Zone 414, has been created where the merely rich, as opposed to the filthy rich, can visit to live out their personal fantasies. The inventor and industrial tycoon who owns the city hires former detective David Carmichael to find his daughter who has disappeared in the city, and connects him with the most advanced android model, Jane, that lives in the zone, to assist in the search.

David is a salt of the earth type who doesn't care for androids and doesn't see them as sentient beings while Jane is so advanced that she finds herself tortured by her existence as a disposable object of entertainment for humans. It's not quite a love story, but each of them seem drawn to the other by qualities they possess. The movie follows the pair as they solve the mystery of the missing girl, which has a very anti-climactic and unsatisfying conclusion, and gradually open up to one another about their tortured pasts.

The movie ends on kind of a 'meh' note, technically sewing up loose ends but in a very minimal fashion. If sci-fi interests you you might find it an interesting diversion for an hour or two, but probably don't count on it becoming a favorite.