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Apocalypse and Patriarchy in USA Network’s Archaeological Thriller ‘Dig’

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Her body you may recognize, because it’s the poster art for the show. “Dig” is literally written on this young woman’s naked back, along with a bleeding hieroglyph that’s been carved into the back of her neck, and I bet it won’t shock you to learn that something bad happens to her later in the episode — after her manic pixie dream archaeologist sheds her clothes and goes skinny-dipping with him in the middle of a sacred dig site near the Temple Mount. (I’m not going to make a Mount pun, but I could.)

Surrounding these female characters are: a group of Jewish men planning to bring a storied red calf from the frozen wilds of Norway to Jerusalem and murder its owner in the process; another man who’s stolen a sacred artifact in Jerusalem and escapes from the police via his violent male accomplices; and two men (one from the New Mexico compound, and one from the Jewish red calf faction) planning to somehow orchestrate the beginning of “the prophecy,” which sounds an awful lot like the Bible’s end of days. “We are small men, we mean nothing,” says the theft suspect to the police, in the kind of gender-singular language that, to my amazement, is still the norm.

So, basically, just another day in the history of organized religion’s relationship to women, right? I stand more than ready to be corrected; maybe Anne Heche’s character will turn out to be more at the center of this show than she seems. Maybe the “Fifth Element” girl will have some higher significance that counteracts all the ritualistic, patriarchal baloney I’ve seen so far. Maybe Lauren Ambrose busts out of the compound and goes on an awesome road trip. THAT I would dig.


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