Tried watching The Killing on AMC. Gave it a few episodes but having trouble getting past the dialogue pried into the mouths of all the working-class characters. Now, I can't honestly claim to be working-class myself (although thanks to Republican minority rule, I'm getting closer every day, thank you.) but I have hung with my share of honest hard working men and women who actually sweat for their paychecks. And I am here to tell you I find it offensive and sad when privileged college-educated writers who take great pains to know the difference between Rousseau and Rameau don't bother to stop and listen to the way working folks actually talk in this country. Here are just a few lines that caught my ear. (For those who aren't familiar with this show, it's set in Seattle, not Appalachia.)
"Cops called sayin' me and the guys gotta go to the station."
"I ain't got no clue."
"I didn't tell the boys nothin'."
"We ain't payin' you to stand 'round."
But these writers are, in a sense, equal opportunity offenders. In either the first or second episode (I can't recall which and don't have the patience to look it up) a preppy misogynist teenage boy says to a young woman about one of her friends:
"I'm not stickin' it to her anymore."
Now, I've known my share of these well-to-do cads and I can tell you, they may be woman-haters but they're also generally savvy enough to confine their ugly use of language to the locker room.
So what's at the root of all this short-hand? Because that's what it really is. This dialogue serves one function only: to broadcast class (or character) to the viewing audience, I suppose, just in case they weren't paying attention. But it's kind of hard to believe that this kind of writing lives on the same network that serves up Mad Men every week. I can't figure it. Can you?