So Why Is the Golden Age of Television So Dark?

The Official Blog Spouse and I are nothing if not loyal members of our television-watching demographic. "The Wire" is our favorite show of all time. We watch "Boardwalk Empire," "Game of Thrones" and "Homeland" together; I also watch "Mad Men" by myself, as Peter finds it too dull. We are working our way through "Breaking Bad." I really do like all these shows, and yet, when I watch this list I have to ask myself: Why does almost everything we watch involve criminals and violence? No, not just involve them, but elevate them to the center of the story?

So Why Is the Golden Age of Television So Dark? I5VMrg8_gh0Y

So Why Is the Golden Age of Television So Dark? I5VMrg8_gh0Y

We are in a golden age of television, I am told, where television shows are taking the risks, doing the interesting things that are no longer possible in movies that need so many tens of millions of dollars to cover the cost of production and marketing. I largely agree with this assessment. So what does it say about modern society that it considers shows about meth cookers, crack dealers and gangsters to be the finest mass market entertainment we can produce?

Gangster art is not new, of course; it was one of the earliest staples of the talking picture. But the gangsters in those films were not allowed to be the heroes while continuing to be gangsters; the film was required by the code to cast judgment on them (and deliver a comeuppance, or a conversion, or preferably both, in the end). I’m not saying that Vince Gilligan approves of Walter White’s descent into sociopathy, but that’s not the main emotional action of the series. The main investment we have in this show is seeing whether -- and how -- Walter White will get himself out of his latest career-induced predicament. Where is the moral alternative effectively dramatized? His hapless wife? The endless, pointless dithering of Jesse? The latter became so annoying that I’d rather have seen him joyously return to cooking meth; that would have been more entertaining, and more plausible.

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-23/why-is-the-golden-age-of-television-so-dark-.html

Because it reflects the endarkenment....

Did you read the full thing?

No. Do you know where the term 'endarkenment' derives from?

Yes, from Billy's umbilical cord...

Now go and read it in full, it's very interesting...

Last edited by Nemo on Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:38 am; edited 1 time in total

Quote :: What will crime dramas look like 30 years hence?

Statists, after govts have collapsed globally, being tracked down and brought to justice by AnCap bounty hunters. Twisted Evil

LOL, yay, can we make them into blockbuster-maxi-series too?

So Why Is the Golden Age of Television So Dark?

So Why Is the Golden Age of Television So Dark?

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

More Via AnCaps: Culture, Art & Media