Quote:
Originally Posted by taosaur
competency porn.
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I've never heard that term before. But it is a perfect description of the kind of tv show writing I can't stand. Where the lead character always makes the right call, always knows knows better than the other cops or doctors or whatever he is, always wins the bet.
Think Gibbs on NCIS, or, if I remember correctly, The Stainless Steel Rat, though I read it decades ago and have tried to forget it.
And the worst, the hardcore xxx competency porn, is when the writers can only manage to make the guy seem so super competent by making everyone else around him totally incompetent--his peers, his boss, everyone in his profession.
The Martian, on the other hand, is competency
literature!
Watney's competency is earned through education, training and hard work. It doesn't always work out and he occasionally screws thing up, and when it does work, we see how and why, not just 'Im the hero, and my gut tells me all your evidence is wrong.'