Depressing dramas and the opportunity for the really creative tv folks.
There is a great correlation between economic circumstances and the kind of art people consume. Economic booms bring out the dark arts. Tragedies are loved by trophy wives who can feel vain about their privileges. The Sopranos is a product of times that felt more materially comfortable and secure, the sort of times in which fictions about humanity's darker side can be more easily enjoyed. But recessions bring out happy, super-movie kind of movies. The whole Marvel series and DC's attempts are working because people need an escape from their depressing work-life conditions. But too many TV shows now are going against the trend. Is this further evidence of widening of the gap between haves and have-nots?
Today's TV shows glorify a culture unable to have a discussion about virtue. Instead of talking about virtue and morality, it plumbs the dark depth of humanity through ugly television. We can call this The Lost Effect. Lost won many critics and awards for its mysteriousness,brooding tone and nothing else. These critics reach into their grab bag and pull out terms like moral complexity, sophistication, antiheroism, or a withering reproach to the primary-coloured banality of mainstream TV. It satisfies the desire for Schadenfruede for all the privileged critics. Lost’s creators surely did not care about clearing all the mysteries they dumped on the viewers. All fans can stop trying to apply logic to every single weird thing that happened on the island.
What lost has led to is a series of these depressing TV shows. Dark and Grimy have become lazy excuses for violence-oriented, Gothic (as in heavy use of eyeliners) broodiness, and ultimately one that bears little relationship to reality. All these dark, grimy time wasters have some points in common.
Today's TV shows glorify a culture unable to have a discussion about virtue. Instead of talking about virtue and morality, it plumbs the dark depth of humanity through ugly television. We can call this The Lost Effect. Lost won many critics and awards for its mysteriousness,brooding tone and nothing else. These critics reach into their grab bag and pull out terms like moral complexity, sophistication, antiheroism, or a withering reproach to the primary-coloured banality of mainstream TV. It satisfies the desire for Schadenfruede for all the privileged critics. Lost’s creators surely did not care about clearing all the mysteries they dumped on the viewers. All fans can stop trying to apply logic to every single weird thing that happened on the island.
What lost has led to is a series of these depressing TV shows. Dark and Grimy have become lazy excuses for violence-oriented, Gothic (as in heavy use of eyeliners) broodiness, and ultimately one that bears little relationship to reality. All these dark, grimy time wasters have some points in common.
- Unrealistic characters, silly premises, endless mystery boxes, insane logistics
- Organizations in the show can afford a ridiculous huge Star trek command room, but are stuck with 10-watt bulbs. practically, this hides the penny pinching of the production design team to pad the pockets of the producers
- All conversations exist exclusively on a hate spectrum between veiled threats and screaming tantrums. It is as if the bullies running the show want to see confirmation of their behavior as normal
- A villain or neutral character spends most of the season building a new project he enigmatically hides from everyone else in the show.
- Episodes of multiple time-lines and vague conundrums to establish the bare minimum of character motivations and relatability.
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