r/mobydick • u/Jolly-Cause-5018 • 10d ago

Primetime is Moby Dick

This movie is a modern retelling of Moby Dick. They referred to the attorney as “the whale” repeatedly and the plot follows the exact same structure, the characters all have exact parallels, and the overall message is even the same. If anyone has seen it lmk what you think.

31 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

13

u/Go_Plate_326 9d ago

I'm so glad they cut out the middle section that goes into exhaustive clinical details about all the different kinds of pedos.

8

u/maengdaddy 10d ago

It’s actually Dracula

1

u/Jolly-Cause-5018 10d ago

literally next book i’m gonna read but you don’t find the moby dick parallels interesting?

8

u/maengdaddy 10d ago

You think as a man who posts in the Moby Dick subreddit i didn’t get excited when they started referring to the prized pedophile as “the whale”?? Definitely intentional moby dick parallels and i loved it. But the story lines up better with Dracula. And look at the poster with the M’s fashioned into fangs

5

u/Lennnybruce 10d ago

Have you seen The Whale? They call him the whale. Just like in Moby Dick, which features a whale.

6

u/huistheleaderofchina 10d ago

There's a whale in Moby Dick? I might have to re-read it.

2

u/Lennnybruce 10d ago

It requires a close reading to catch the reference

1

u/Super_Direction498 9d ago

They made a book out of that?

6

u/Lennnybruce 10d ago

The overall message of Moby Dick is letting your desire for fame and tv ratings overpower the proper administration of criminal justice?

2

u/Jolly-Cause-5018 9d ago

the structure of the story and the characters parallel moby dick and the theme of obsession plays out the same. the closing scene of chris watching the evil disappear into the forest while the da kills himself and his show ends parallels ahab when the pequod sinks

3

u/Budget-Poem-2052 10d ago

Well that settles it. Lol.

3

u/Suspicious-Room-3812 10d ago

I agree. The epilogue with Decoy Dan really stood out to me. He's Ishmael. Along for the ride on a doomed voyage. Making what he can out of it.

1

u/Jolly-Cause-5018 10d ago

honestly that was the clincher for me

5

u/zenerat 10d ago

Digger is King Lear

2

u/DreCapitanoII 9d ago

Is there a part in the movie where Hansen gives a ten minute encyclopedic lecture on all the different kinds of known pedophiles?

2

u/boostergold76 10d ago

Not sure why this sub still shows up on my feed. I stopped following it when the mods changed the rules to allow postings other than Moby Dick. Guess I just mute or block?

3

u/MyChickenSucks 9d ago

Thou spit thy last breath!

1

u/Alyssapolis 9d ago

If you turn off homepage recommendations in your settings, it should stop showing you subs you don’t follow. If you used to follow this group, your algorithm probably recognizes your interest and is trying to re-recommend it to you. If you do t want to turn off all recommendations, I think it disappears on its own if you stop engaging with it

1

u/-Odontodactylus- 8d ago

Very strongly disagree. The use of "Whale" is much more likely evoking the term as used in the gambling industry, where the majority of money made by casinos comes from rich chronic addicts who dump all their savings into it. Similarly, in order for Predator to survive, they have to aim at "juicy" predators, the interesting, high-profile, or especially depraved ones. Both casinos and TCAP survive off of a few big targets, rather than many small ones. If we imagine that by whale they meant white whale, the metaphor breaks down, because moby dick is a very specific individual whale that Ahab was familiar with personally. Also, in Moby Dick, Ahab's hunt for the whale comes at the cost of the regular duties of a whaling ship, in contrast with Primetime, where the success of the show is meant to hinge on catching the whale- much more like a casino than the pequod

1

u/Jolly-Cause-5018 8d ago

But the goal of the show should be to catch predators but it falls into being for ratings in the same way as the pequod’s voyage should be about making money but it becomes about Ahab’s revenge. It’s not exact but it still parallels it I definitely think the plot similarity along with the themes and the characters is close enough to call it a retelling. The ending scene where Hansen watches the DA kill himself thus ending his career while that symbol of evil disappears into the woods does parallel the sinking of the pequod scene. And then after that there is even an epilogue with Dan who witnessed the end of to catch a predator but walked away with a path forward in his career in my opinion parallels Ishmael’s ending.