Reading this, I couldn't help but notice all those psychic investigators are women - in The Inside as well as in Medium and Profiler. It reminds me of a discussion a long time ago on someone's LJ: how tv series were under the pressure to have "strong female characters," which I guess means female characters that aren't victims of crimes or otherwise in stereotypical feminine roles. That, however, led to other stereotype - a powerful, emotionless, uninteresting female character (according to the discussion, anyway), who was the one and only woman in the show, save the victims of crimes etc. These psychic abilities sound just like it. Someone decides to have a woman as a leading character, but what would an interesting, strong, female leading character be like? Of course, she should be special; she should have something anyone else doesn't have; she needs to be pretty, so lets not make her incredibly strong physically; how about a character who has visions and helps to solve very difficult crimes, practically unsolvable, with her special powers? Everyone else would be dependent on her. It's like a woman couldn't have a leading role if she isn't extraordinary.
Although I think in Profiler I don't think her abilities were meant to be very psychic, they were just instinct and she saw what she felt as images. It's been a long time since I watched that show, so I could be wrong. In Anne Holt's crime novels, the main character says she feels crimes have certain natures, that when you go to see a crime scene it can feel like a crime of passion, or something else. There's nothing psychic about the police work in those novels, but on the other hand, there's a fine line between instinct and psychic abilities.
I saw The Girl with a Pearl Earring last weekend and read what you had to say about it, and it links to this interestingly: the movie is about an intelligent but uneducated person instantly realizing or feeling what something is about, getting, in this example, painting. In the movie, it was shown to the viewer as Griet put her hand above the paint, blocking the curtain, the table or the chair from view. I thought the painting without the other chair looked more balanced, she said with the chair the woman behind it looked trapped. Some detective series on tv or in books have this kind of feeling or seeing what things look like, for example, in Profiler Sam could investigate a crime and they'd show her "vision" of the victim in a glass cube full of water. Later, Sam would say she felt the motive of the crime was to tame the victim, or something like that. The woman looked trapped.
no subject
Although I think in Profiler I don't think her abilities were meant to be very psychic, they were just instinct and she saw what she felt as images. It's been a long time since I watched that show, so I could be wrong. In Anne Holt's crime novels, the main character says she feels crimes have certain natures, that when you go to see a crime scene it can feel like a crime of passion, or something else. There's nothing psychic about the police work in those novels, but on the other hand, there's a fine line between instinct and psychic abilities.
I saw The Girl with a Pearl Earring last weekend and read what you had to say about it, and it links to this interestingly: the movie is about an intelligent but uneducated person instantly realizing or feeling what something is about, getting, in this example, painting. In the movie, it was shown to the viewer as Griet put her hand above the paint, blocking the curtain, the table or the chair from view. I thought the painting without the other chair looked more balanced, she said with the chair the woman behind it looked trapped. Some detective series on tv or in books have this kind of feeling or seeing what things look like, for example, in Profiler Sam could investigate a crime and they'd show her "vision" of the victim in a glass cube full of water. Later, Sam would say she felt the motive of the crime was to tame the victim, or something like that. The woman looked trapped.