You may have gathered from the few shows and movies I've written about that we watch a lot of basic cable around here. And it's true. We have not yet bothered with any streaming services, and I don't think we will anytime soon.
I hear a lot about the amazing shows that are available now, and I'm certain that the quality is mind-blowing, especially compared to the shows I watched growing up.
But it all looks so damn dark.
No soul, no hope, no wonder, no human dignity, no respect for fellows, nothing but despair. The shows may be deep but the human spirit on display is shallow.
It's not just TV -- movies, books, comics, everything. Even when something is adapted from a source with genuine heart, the heart and meaning is torn out of it. (Looking at you, Grinch.)
No wonder everyone is so insane. We're living on a diet of despair. And make no mistake, the crazy was there before the Chinese Death Virus blew into town.
A few years back I remember a rainy Saturday when my wife was binge watching House; after a full afternoon of Dr. House and his brilliant hatred I wanted to kill myself. My wife has a higher tolerance for this stuff than I do. She loves Criminal Minds, which looked to me like television's #1 show for guys who like to see scared women shivering in chain-link cages. Every audition went like this:
Director: "Okay, read the line."
Blonde: "Is... is anybody there? H-hello?"
The intention of today's entertainment is to create a premise and story line so dark that even a positive ending cannot erase the misery and despair in which the viewer has been immersed. Like yeah, we won the war, but now we all have awful PTSD. I find this unhealthy. Maybe that makes me a Philistine. There has to be some place to escape from menace and dread.
Am I wrong? Are there any shows that have genuine heart, that don't get their dramatic tension by hating others (like everything on Freeform)? Convince me!
Adam 12 has generally positive endings, and the stories are true (names changed to protect the innocent).
ReplyDeleteBut it's 50 years old, and today we're supposed to hate everyone and everything in shows like that, so I guess it doesn't count.
I think you're a little off re: "House", Fred. Yes, it may seem "dark" in a lot of ways, but (in addition to Hugh Laurie's astounding work) there's another reason to watch; there's a message there, & it's not what you'd think. House is right about just about every diagnosis, saves a lot of people, some of whom don't deserve to be saved...but IMHO the message is: HOUSE IS TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN LIFE. Love, friendship, motivations...these things & their various reasons for being flummox him, confuse him. And he secretly envies "regular people" who have these things in their lives & sometimes take them for granted.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents about one show. ;>
OK, Stiiv, I accept your interpretation. It sounds fair. As a character he's kind of hard to take in large doses for the reasons you mention. The Robert Downey version of Holmes is rather the same way.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad I got to use the word "flummox". ;>
ReplyDeleteThey aren't making the show anymore but Discovery Family is rerunning episodes of Too Cute at 5 pm. They are mostly tales of the first 10 weeks of kittens and puppies. Very inventive stories.
ReplyDeleterbj