Do you think tv dramas have become too dark and disturbing?

[Kratos]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I was thinking that most tv dramas nowadays are quite dark and disturbing to watch. The 100, Agents of Shield, Gotham, Mr. Mercedes, crime dramas etc. I prefer the old shows such as Buffy and The Fugitive (they got the right balance imo). Characters nowadays lack the idealism Buffy Summers and Richard Kimble had.

Thoughts?

 

[Skanky Vamp]

No. In most cases I don't think they are dark and disturbing enough. The shows you listed I would in no way call dark and disturbing.

 

[thrasherpix]

I don't keep up with them so can't say...but I HAVE seen iZombie (at least the first half of season 1), which I found surprisingly good...and idealistic without being all ruthless and bloody over it like the Walking Dead or Game of Thrones. My partner is watching Reign which I've seen a lot of as a result and though it gets dark, I wouldn't say it's too dark (it's kinda like Game of Thrones without HBO levels of sex and gore).

I've seen a few eps of The 100 as well and am not that familiar with it...but isn't that where kids (delinquents, meaning I'd be one of them in that series) got sent down to Earth as sort of canaries in a mineshaft? While I've seen very little of it, I do recall moral arguments and actions appealing to more idealistic tendencies being made on both the station and on the ground, and I doubt I saw the only scenes of that. I do recall a few brutal scenes as well, but is it worse than say The Sopranos?

 

[Kratos]

Couldn’t get into The Sopranos, but the morbid stuff is around the same level. Those shows just aren’t for me I guess.

 

[November]

tv dramas nowadays are quite dark and disturbing to watch.

I agree. I have had to be very careful about what I watch. I know I am very, very sensitive to that sort of content. I could blame it on being "OCD" but I think I am just a precious petal. The images used to get stuck in my head and play on repeat in situations I could not handle, even haunt the nightmares of real events. It is disturbing and I think contributes to the current prevalence of mental illness in fandoms.

In saying that, the shows you have listed are my 'comfort zone', admittedly the upper limit in some scenes. Stylised violence is fine for me. Shows like Sons of Anarchy, Vikings, American Gods, even Game of Thrones are WAY above my threshold. I only watch Game of thrones because I am already hooked and go into it prepared. Its not got quite as much shock violence now but I always have my sketch pad near by incase I need to escape by drawing flowers 😛

I also have a low tolerance to graphic sex scenes. I find the increase in pornographic material quite disturbing. I am starting now to rewatch things I know are "safe" instead of seeking too much new content. Its a shame that there are some great stories that feel the need to add sex and graphic violence to gain fans.

I've seen a few eps of The 100 as well and am not that familiar with it...but isn't that where kids (delinquents, meaning I'd be one of them in that series) got sent down to Earth as sort of canaries in a mineshaft?

That's the first episode. From there the story grows. At times a bit like GoT lite or even AoS heavy. Mostly a mix of done to death sci fi story lines presented by a very pretty cast with dramatic music. I have been binging it, love the actors cos I've been watching some of them as long as I have Buffy.

 

[Kratos]

Most violence on tv doesn’t bother me. It’s just when there’s so much torture and death in nearly every episode of the shows already mentioned, it starts to get old.

I couldn’t get into Game of Thrones, but it was because there are too many characters, not down to the show’s content.

 

[thrasherpix]

Couldn’t get into The Sopranos, but the morbid stuff is around the same level. Those shows just aren’t for me I guess.

Nothing wrong with that.

Lots of people wanted me to see The Sopranos. So I rented the first 4 eps. It was quite good in more ways than one (Tony's fascination with the ducks or whatever intrigued me, one of the few things I remember of it), but I got so furious with Tony and the others (which goes to show it felt a little too real to me rather than your typical crime show, and furthermore, this wasn't about the faux moral outrage that seems so common now over characters not being saints) that I wanted to see the Punisher make an appearance and start killing them off. And so I decided it wasn't for me and most have left me alone over that.

 

[Kratos]

Nothing wrong with that.

Lots of people wanted me to see The Sopranos. So I rented the first 4 eps. It was quite good in more ways than one (Tony's fascination with the ducks or whatever intrigued me, one of the few things I remember of it), but I got so furious with Tony and the others (which goes to show it felt a little too real to me rather than your typical crime show, and furthermore, this wasn't about the faux moral outrage that seems so common now over characters not being saints) that I wanted to see the Punisher make an appearance and start killing them off. And so I decided it wasn't for me and most have left me alone over that.

I had a similar experience with The Sopranos. The first episode I watched was from season 1 (called Isabella) and I liked it. I also was intrigued by the scenes with Tony and his psychiatrist and the other gangsters. james gandolfini was a great actor, but the show felt a little too real for me as well.

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

Could always watch The Good Witch 😀

 

[thrasherpix]

Could always watch The Good Witch 😀

Maybe. Sometimes I will watch something that's promised to be light and fun (though offhand I can't think of any Hallmark shows or films that fit the bill). But it's not so much the content but the story and the way it's shown. I can watch lots of violent shows, some are among my favorites, but they do it in a way that is more theatrical than realistic (which is how I like it, theatrical, even if that sometimes means so over the top that it's silly, like in Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness).

And then there are those who replace a lot of good storytelling (though some will include good storytelling) with "edgy" scenes that rub it in your face (but just trying to get a reaction as much as being overly PC or offensive or whatever). If the story is good or fantastic enough then I'll overlook a lot I normally wouldn't. It just depends. I don't think many people understand that, it's a black/white situation for them and think if say The Sopranos is too much then we should stick with My Little Pony, even if we're both fans of Joss Whedon's works. And I'd have probably watched a movie about the Sopranos, but not a series, and may have even liked it in that case (though probably not given it repeat viewings).

 

[Mylie]

Not really.

There are just more different types of shows now. You can easily avoid the disturbing ones if they are not your cup of tea.

 

[brinkster130]

I think darker shows are having a moment right now. Part of that is that more channels and streaming services aren't bound by FCC regulations so they have freedoms to try new and more disturbing things as they please. Also, as far as shock value goes, you always have one up the previous thing to get attention.

 

[sosa lola]

I also have a low tolerance to graphic sex scenes. I find the increase in pornographic material quite disturbing. I am starting now to rewatch things I know are "safe" instead of seeking too much new content. Its a shame that there are some great stories that feel the need to add sex and graphic violence to gain fans.

This is my main complaint about new shows. I have low tolerance to graphic sex scenes and torture scenes. I'm also not into gore and graphic violence.

Lately, I've started searching for 80s and 90s TV dramas that I've never watched before. They are more my style than the new shows. If I'm watching anything new, it's mostly family sitcoms like The Kids Are Alright. I also enjoy The Good Doctor. Though I haven't seen past S1.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I agree with the op that television shows have become more dark and disturbing. I feel like in an older television show, such as Buffy for instance, the violence is just implied and not graphic. So for example the hyena kids in season 1 eat principal flutie but we are spared the gratuitous details, whereas with many modern shows, such as Game of Thrones, when something violent happens in the story we are shown in specific detail the violence on screen, as opposed to just implying it. If Flutie had been a Game of Thrones character (or some similar show) we would have been shown explicitly all of the blood and gore and gratuitous violence in his death. This isn't just a problem specific to Game of Thrones either.
I also tend to find that we get less straight forward good people in television shows now. It seems like more modern television characters embody some dark side or pathology and in general the cast of characters in a modern television show occupy more of an equivocal moral grey area. Modern shows are less inclined to depict people and things in terms of moral black and whites, where the good guys and villains are easily defined. So I think @Kratos you definitely are on to something. In fact I have complained about this modern tendency to my friends as well. I can only take so much of the violence myself, and I also often find myself desiring more characters to root for, so to speak, because many modern shows I have seen problematize everyone and everything, to the point that I have a hard time identifying with characters anymore. The upshot being I care less if something bad happens to a character because I really didn't like he or she in the first place. I find I invest less emotional energy and support into the average modern television show cast of characters than I might have in an older television show with different sensibilities. Maybe this doesn't bother other people but it bothers me sometimes.

 

[Bluebird]

I honestly don't notice violence in tv shows or movies. My father would show me violent movies from a young age but explained how it was fake and just a way to make the story exciting, and really it just made me interested in special effects, rather than put off by gore. Maybe kids should be less coddled..

For examples, a good old fashioned eye gouge just makes me cringe. Not cos violence, but cos it looks silly when you know the actor is getting his eyes gently pressed. It's like when CPR is shown on screen and they are only recieveing a gentle chest massage over compressions.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

It's like when CPR is shown on screen and they are only recieveing a gentle chest massage over compressions.

Yeah, that always makes me laugh. I think the more realistic the movie or show, the more a RAOV can shock you, the more theatrical or fantastical, none of it really matters. There was only one movie that I can think of where I was really affected by a scene and that was The Power of One.

 

[The Bronze]

I think there's room for both on TV. Implied violence and shown violence. Different shows have different tones and it'll come down to whether the writer & director can get their vision across well whichever route they opt for. The 2 mentioned so far Buffy & Game of Thrones are my favourites and they handle things very differently but make it work.

A show just trying to be graphic for shock value is dull but similarly a show shying away from some realism to sneak an earlier time slot isn't great either.

Agree with @AnthonyCordova about the struggle to find good good characters. I don't really watch a show if I've got no one to route for at all.

 

[thrasherpix]

I honestly don't notice violence in tv shows or movies. My father would show me violent movies from a young age but explained how it was fake and just a way to make the story exciting, and really it just made me interested in special effects, rather than put off by gore. Maybe kids should be less coddled

Hey, I grew up on 80s movies, including R-rated ones. 😉

I know plenty, men and women, who have a problem with explicit violence, and they come from a background of violence (be it low grade but at least bloody chronic and/or intense violent episodes, and sometimes this is even when they were the ones to inflict most of it, as in former military). While such real life violence does make some cold (or I'd say with a superb ability to compartmentalize) so that such shows don't get a reaction out of them, it makes some not want to have things remind them of it as well. So I don't buy into it's that they just weren't desensitized enough as a kid to it.

My own theory is that some people either lack imagination and so need it explicitly shown to them in detail for them to "appreciate" the impact (and thus satisfy the bloodthirsty beast and sex id that exists in all of us), or their emotions are so dead that it has to be over the top graphic (which doubles as filler, meaning less story to write) just so their target audience feels anything at all.

 

[November]

Most violence on tv doesn’t bother me. It’s just when there’s so much torture and death in nearly every episode of the shows already mentioned, it starts to get old.

I couldn’t get into Game of Thrones, but it was because there are too many characters, not down to the show’s content.

Sorry, I slightly misunderstood. I think I get what you mean now. Like, when it got to s6 of Supernatural I went a bit off it because it became the "torture Dean show" and I was exhausted from feeling for him. I think that taught me to remove myself a bit from the characters in certain stories, so I could still appreciate the ride without being too drained by it. In saying that there are still times when I do let myself go along, no holds, but rarely on a first run/watch (because I don't know what to expect). Not suggesting it is the same for you, but as mentioned I am a sensitive little soul with no boundaries through most of my 20's. Everything got in and I let everything out. Still learning that balance 😛 And season 7 Supernatural was also more balanced, in its use of self aware jokes. I hope that other shows can learn from it, and lighten up despite the dark.

Have you tried Warehouse 13? That was a lot of fun. I had a whole list in mind earlier today for this thread and now I cant think of them! Legacies was pretty much Buffy 2.0 (season 1), young but still entertaining. The Librarians, Eureka are also the sort of shows with a good balance (I haven't finished either cos I own them on DVD so I am saving them for days the net is down).

I agree with @brinkster130 that the dark shows are having a moment right now, and as the fans of Buffy have got older their suggestions have gone into darker territory. Wait til they all have kids and the tastes will revert to Disney 😉

 

[Kratos]

@HoppyHippy I’m not a big sci-fi/fantasy fan in general, though I like Buffy, Angel, Heroes and Dollhouse. Couldn’t get into Supernatural, The X-Files or similar type shows maybe because I don’t like paranormal or unexplained stuff. I’ll try out some of the other shows you mentioned sometime. Thanks.