#bbc lotf

What I like about it is that it implements an element of childhood psychology that lets you see another side of the characters and…hypothetically…understand their actions better. Simon did not have the words to formulate it, but what he meant by the fact that he and Jack are both cowards is that they both had shame inflicted on them and internalized it. Shame in children can create a number of responses and Simon and Jack play them out very well here. One is to shame others before you yourself can be shamed, making for unnecessarily defensive behavior. Another is to not make yourself seen at all so that shame won't get to you anyways. These are both traits of Simon and Jack that can be drawn from the book (both are very sensitive to humiliation), so it is intriguing that they expanded upon it in the show and made a connection between the characters because of it. Maybe it's because I have personal experience with this phenomenon so I connect to it but I like it as a concept.

The execution of it however is where it falls hard. One thing is that their backgrounds are now made unambiguous which is especially a pitfall for Jack since now you blame parents for his actions instead of something broader (or Golding's hypothesis of nature over nurture). Of course, realistically, parents Do have a lot to do with this kind of behavior but it feels kind of jarring/simplifying to focus on that relation so much in an interpretation of Lord of the Flies. They still could have done this psychological analysis while making an abstract idea of humanity be the reason and also not TELLING the audience!!! Both Jack and Simon fall short of what the world, their country, their school, their family, what they themselves or their peers expect them to be, etc. and these factors should all be ambiguous. What should be focused on is instead their responses: Jack is interested in conformity and control, so he responds to these faults much more aggressively than Simon whose desires are entirely selfless, hence his more passive response.

The biggest thing though is that this could have expanded upon not only Simon & Jack's relationship, but in the grand scheme of things it should have MAINLY been used to define Ralph's relationship to both Jack and Simon??? But instead they barely get there and are stuck focusing on Simon and Jack??? Which makes Ralph feel like less of a main character when it SHOULD HAVE been used to contextualize HIM and these two VERY IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS IN THE STORY??? If you're going to focus on the characters of lord of the flies in this interpretation why didn't you get smarter…

This is also not even mentioning all the other relationships/characters that got sidelined (thinking about you Roger… and somewhat Maurice (I would have wanted more Maurice but Im not gonna pretend like he wasn't the least relevant of the relevant characters(But I mean if the bbc was focused on character expansion then like they shoudlve worked on their backgroudn hcaracters too yada yada yada SHUT UP!!!!))) 😭😭😭