Almost Famous and the daunting question of Villainy

On Monday, we talked about Fiske's "Television Culture" and how heroes and villains are
portrayed in TV shows and movies. In the scene Fiske provides of the the hero and
heroine talking, Fiske argues that the "representational convention by which women are
shown to lack knowledge which men possess and give to them is an example of the
ideological code of patriarchy" (Fiske, 1090). Because the heroine was asking the hero a
few questions, this automatically shows women as lacking knowledge. Some TV shows
may try to incorporate this "representation convention", but newer TV shows are showing
the opposite. Joss Whedon's shows always depict strong lead female characters. Two of
Whedon's shows, for example, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly", show female
characters that are self sufficient and are more often smarter than the male characters in
the show.
Fiske's article also discusses editing. Usually the heroes are given more time than the
villains (Fiske, 1091). However, if a movie or a show depicts what is known as an "anti-
hero", as we discussed in class, how does the editing indicate which character is the
villain or hero? Watchmen, for example, is full of ambiguous heroes. The most notorious
would, in my opinion, have to be the Comedian. He was supposedly a hero, but he was
almost just as lawless and corrupt as the criminals he put in jail. He got just as much film
time as Rorschach (probably the purest and lawful hero in the group) and Ozymandias
(the villain).
On Monday, we also started watching "Almost Famous". I had seen the movie a long
time ago and watching it again in class reminded me of how much I liked the movie.
Even though Fiske does not talk much about music playing a role in TV shows and
movies, I believe that music plays an integral part of a movie or show. In Almost
Famous, the soundtrack was able to portray William's emotions at a certain time, which
helps to pull in the viewer to really connect with the movie.