This past weekend I swapped Law & Order for Criminal Minds on A&E. If you've never seen it, it's a totally unrealistic, but really satisfying, show about the FBI Behavorial Analysis Unit. They hunt down serial killers! Think of it as The Clarece Starling show. So, imagine my surprise when one of the episodes, actually a two-parter, involves a man who sends teasing quotes to the FBI citing a plethora of Arthuriana. Specifically, he referred mostly to the story of the Fisher King. The killer himself is physically scarred places himself in the role of the Fisher King. In this retelling the grail that he insists belongs to him is, actually, a girl he had abducted and chained in the basement. Isn't it always so?
The most interesting aspect of this modern retelling of the Fisher King was that seemed to be, to a degree, an emphasis on instruction and knowledge. The youngest of the FBI Agents is referred to by the murderer as Perceval. He is told that he has the key to finding the grail. The clue that would lead to the abducted girl is squirreled away by the serial killer with, get this, the Agent's mother. The Agent's former Lit professor mother who used to read Arthuriana out loud to the Agent when he was just a little Agent. I find it interesting that I spent so much time harping on the abandonment of knowledge bestowed by the mother to Perceval in Chretien's telling of the story only to find this episode of Criminal Minds where, seemingly, a reversal takes place. An emphasis is placed on the Agent, this story's Perceval, returning to his mother and her teachings in order to solve the case and succeed in finding the abducted girl.
I wanted to include here a clip of the episode, but youtube has disabled embedding for this video. So, if you're interested at all in seeing a clip, follow this link to the climax of the episode, a scene where our FBI Agent/Perceval confronts the murderer/Fisher King.
I find the characterization of the Fisher King as the villain to be particularly interesting. While he is portrayed rather tragically in the original medieval texts, its works surprisingly well to cast him as the bad guy.
ReplyDeleteObviously, in the context of the stories, the Asking of the Question had to be something Perceval/Parzifal did of his own volition. These are stories about mystical and celestial matters, so logic and reason do not always come into play. Nevertheless, it is impossible to read either story without feeling some frustration and anger with the Fisher King. "JUST TELL HIM TO ASK THE QUESTION!" one wants to shout at him.
I also think its interesting to make Perceval's struggle an intellectual one. Perhaps this is simply because the show is about the intellectual pursuit of forensics and psychology, but thinking has never really been Perceval's strong suit. Rather than having the Perceval character succeed from martial prowess or spiritual fortitude, it is a nice change of pace to have them think their way out of a problem.
I think too, Kevin, that Criminal Minds made a slightly smarter call in constructing their own Grail myth in internalizing some of the journy or questing and making it intellectual. I think to make the questing too external, in for example the same vein of Indiana Jones and his quest for the Grail, would have been laughable given the setting and specifics of the show. As is, they were pushing it with the giant explosion/fire at the end, there. By turning the quest into an elaborate puzzle, I think they succeeded to some degree in modernizing the Grail story.
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