A both dark and seductive metaphor, this is how this wonderful episode should be regarded as...
Following the general guidelines of the "Millennium" show, "A Room with No View" focuses, among others, on human nature; on one hand, the episode deals with the means of personality suppression, present in so many educational and social environments, means that people themselves imposed: generic numbers that have the role to synthetically express one's skills and knowledge; numbers that have become to be treated as universal standards and instruments of predicting who will be (or should be) successful in their future lives and careers and who will not. And those who, from whatever reasons, do not adhere to these "excelence" numeric standards, are looked upon as potential failures, as members of the society whose influence and significance are of little interest for the others. Therefore, one that does not have the ability to "beat" the numbers, must "make a deal with the devil".
The "devil"... this is where the beauty and the message of this episode's metaphor lie: choosing to live in mediocrity, in plain normality, without ever wanting or thinking about trying to make a difference. Simply be an ordinary, docile and uninquiring individual... for the "devil". Lucy Butler, one of the darkest and most mysterious characters of this show (and one of my favourites), has set her mind on leading on this path carefully chosen youths, by means of freedom deprivation and mental torture. One of Evil's greatest enemies has always been the unrested and incisive mind, which seeks Its roots and tries to abolish them. Systematically killing these minds would allow Evil, in all its forms (be them physical or non-physical), to be embraced with a "blue" (i.e. serene and docile) love... Speaking of which, the omnipresent melody of this episode, "Love is Blue", perfectly fits in the dark atmosphere, in my opinion, just like a haunting but at the same time superb oxymoron.
...One of my favourite episodes of all times and all TV series, together with "Somehow, Satan Got behind Me" and "The Curse of Frank Black". 10/10
Following the general guidelines of the "Millennium" show, "A Room with No View" focuses, among others, on human nature; on one hand, the episode deals with the means of personality suppression, present in so many educational and social environments, means that people themselves imposed: generic numbers that have the role to synthetically express one's skills and knowledge; numbers that have become to be treated as universal standards and instruments of predicting who will be (or should be) successful in their future lives and careers and who will not. And those who, from whatever reasons, do not adhere to these "excelence" numeric standards, are looked upon as potential failures, as members of the society whose influence and significance are of little interest for the others. Therefore, one that does not have the ability to "beat" the numbers, must "make a deal with the devil".
The "devil"... this is where the beauty and the message of this episode's metaphor lie: choosing to live in mediocrity, in plain normality, without ever wanting or thinking about trying to make a difference. Simply be an ordinary, docile and uninquiring individual... for the "devil". Lucy Butler, one of the darkest and most mysterious characters of this show (and one of my favourites), has set her mind on leading on this path carefully chosen youths, by means of freedom deprivation and mental torture. One of Evil's greatest enemies has always been the unrested and incisive mind, which seeks Its roots and tries to abolish them. Systematically killing these minds would allow Evil, in all its forms (be them physical or non-physical), to be embraced with a "blue" (i.e. serene and docile) love... Speaking of which, the omnipresent melody of this episode, "Love is Blue", perfectly fits in the dark atmosphere, in my opinion, just like a haunting but at the same time superb oxymoron.
...One of my favourite episodes of all times and all TV series, together with "Somehow, Satan Got behind Me" and "The Curse of Frank Black". 10/10