Whats with TV shows so heavily focused on Death?

[DudeistBelieve]

Theres no hope for the Starks is there? They are NEVER going to get back what they had originally.

Of course not. It's not loss if you get it back. It's not change if it gets reverted.

Stories rarely end with the protagonist(s) in the same situation that they started in. With good reason. That would be lame.

As for "no hope", one Stark has gone from bastard son to commander of the Night's Watch. Another has gone from tomboy daughter to cultist assassin. A third has gone from middle child to cripple to, err... magic druid prophet... thing.

The bastard's son is dead.

Arya's basically only friend is dead... maybe... I think. And she's blind.

Not the same situation, but I just don't feel it'll ever get to like... "and everything was okay" for a while.

...And even like The Walking Dead, things will NEVER go back to normal. There will never NOT be walkers. There will never be a cure and Humanity probably will never surpass the feudal society it finds it's self in.

 

[NiPah]

I've always noticed the gore filled murder anime with lots of death seem to always be the super popular ones in America, Death Note, Attack in Titan, Akami Ga Kill, Parasyte, pretty much if it's popular in America it's filled with death, at least with your otaku markets.
Honestly I'd rather watch a cute healing anime where goofy girls do silly things for 25 minutes and not die horrible sickening deaths, but to each their own.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

It's kinda been that way for a good while if you knew where to look. Premium cable channels let that stuff on home TV, but does no one remember Charles Bronson made a long series of movies that boil down to "show up in a town and shoot muggers until everyone likes him"?

 

[Remus]

If you ever want a show that acknowledges bad things happen to people, but is totally upbeat and a little wacky about the whole thing, watch Pushing Daisies.

Don't get me wrong, Pushing Daisies is a decent show, but I still find Dead Like Me to be superior if for nothing else but Pushing Daisies just being another murder mystery show.

It explores similar themes, but actually has a really fascinating world going on in the background(unfortunately it only got two seasons and a movie I've been trying to find a copy of for years, though at least it ended on a GOOD note). Basic premise though is that death can be hilarious, depressing, or just another part of life that you don't need to be afraid of. Also they somehow managed to make disgusting murderous gremlins the funniest and cutest part of it. Also being cynical kills your inner child and you come back looking like a meth addict.

Gonna be honest here, I almost forgot Dead Like Me. My mom loved that show

Last I saw, the movie was available on Netflix.

Yeah I saw it, just looking to own a copy of it. Shit's nearly as difficult to find as Yellowbeard.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GT2TEPU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2OVS8QHVJWK3O&coliid=I282VH4N56X5YZ
$26.61 for the full series and the movie. Dead Like Me was a special kind of gem. It's crazy to think that the producer went on to helm Hannibal for NBC - a show equally as obsessed with death, but with a far more serious, cynical overtone. Bryan Fuller really knows how to make death fun.

It's kinda been that way for a good while if you knew where to look. Premium cable channels let that stuff on home TV, but does no one remember Charles Bronson made a long series of movies that boil down to "show up in a town and shoot muggers until everyone likes him"?

Ahhh the 80s, when Hollywood wasn't afraid to make rated R movies - I miss those days.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

snip

It's kinda been that way for a good while if you knew where to look. Premium cable channels let that stuff on home TV, but does no one remember Charles Bronson made a long series of movies that boil down to "show up in a town and shoot muggers until everyone likes him"?

Ahhh the 80s, when Hollywood wasn't afraid to make rated R movies - I miss those days.

Psh, that was the 70's. Or at least the first one was.

 

[Zhukov]

The bastard's son is dead.

I will bet you right now that he doesn't stay dead.

Loser gifts the winner a game on Steam or similar service at value of no greater than $100 USD. Winner's choice of game.

Deal?

Arya's basically only friend is dead... maybe... I think. And she's blind.

Not permanently blind.

I'll make that a bet too if you like. Same terms as above.

Not the same situation, but I just don't feel it'll ever get to like... "and everything was okay" for a while.

That I cannot guess.

In most stories things only gt to "everything is okay" at or near the end. Given that GoT has a ways to go, it would follow that it'll be a while before everything is okay.

There will never NOT be walkers. There will never be a cure and Humanity probably will never surpass the feudal society it finds it's self in.

On that I cannot comment since I didn't watch TWD beyond the first... three episodes I think? Mostly because it was bad.

 

[CaitSeith]

Why focus on TV? Games, movies, music - obsession with death. I used to be into it so I can't blame people, but am rather curious as to why it's happening.

There is a theory about how the country economy and the popular media trends are related. In good times, there are more songs and shows about how good life is, very colourful (in a positive way), lots positivity and shameless ridicule ideas (Rocky IV has a musical number, a world peace speech and a freaking robot!). And in bad times, gritty depressive tones are much more prevalent in popular media. We recently had a world crisis, and during that time, there several TV shows that started at that time were about struggling with circumstances out of our control (like seeing your family and friends die in a zombie apocalypse, or how being diagnosed with terminal cancer while being broke and with a crippled son starts your drug-manufacturer career).

 

[Redryhno]

Why focus on TV? Games, movies, music - obsession with death. I used to be into it so I can't blame people, but am rather curious as to why it's happening.

There is a theory about how the country economy and the popular media trends are related. In good times, there are more songs and shows about how good life is, very colourful (in a positive way), lots positivity and shameless ridicule ideas (Rocky IV has a musical number, a world peace speech and a freaking robot!). And in bad times, gritty depressive tones are much more prevalent in popular media. We recently had a world crisis, and during that time, there several TV shows that started at that time were about struggling with circumstances out of our control (like seeing your family and friends die in a zombie apocalypse, or how being diagnosed with terminal cancer while being broke and with a crippled son starts your drug-manufacturer career).

Problem is that 1985 also had Witness, the second Rambo, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Thunderdome, etc. None of which are about how good life is, all that terribly colorful, or even have musical numbers in them...Hell, you've also got Elmo's Fire and Breakfast Club too, which both have characters seriously contemplating(and/or attempting) suicide because of how shitty they perceive their lives to be.

 

[CaitSeith]

Why focus on TV? Games, movies, music - obsession with death. I used to be into it so I can't blame people, but am rather curious as to why it's happening.

There is a theory about how the country economy and the popular media trends are related. In good times, there are more songs and shows about how good life is, very colourful (in a positive way), lots positivity and shameless ridicule ideas (Rocky IV has a musical number, a world peace speech and a freaking robot!). And in bad times, gritty depressive tones are much more prevalent in popular media. We recently had a world crisis, and during that time, there several TV shows that started at that time were about struggling with circumstances out of our control (like seeing your family and friends die in a zombie apocalypse, or how being diagnosed with terminal cancer while being broke and with a crippled son starts your drug-manufacturer career).

Problem is that 1985 also had Witness, the second Rambo, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Thunderdome, etc. None of which are about how good life is, all that terribly colorful, or even have musical numbers in them...Hell, you've also got Elmo's Fire and Breakfast Club too, which both have characters seriously contemplating(and/or attempting) suicide because of how shitty they perceive their lives to be.

If it isn't about how good the life is, it was about overcoming obstacles and ending with a bright future ahead.

Spoiler

Rambo 2 is about rescuing POWs and Rambo ends up pardoned after disobeying direct orders. Enemy Mine is about overcoming distrust in order to cooperate and survive. Ladyhawke is about successfully breaking a curse. Yeah, a lot of bad stuff happened. But they had either a message of hope, or a happy ending. Heck, in Rocky IV, Rocky's friend and rival dies in the ring!

Going back to, Rambo 2. It has a less grim ending than Rambo: First Blood. The later is about Rambo being bullied by the local police until breaking point, things get way out of hand and Rambo ends up in a maximum-security prison (sadly, the only place where he feels confortable since the war). Not much of a bright future in there.

And what about the countless TV family sitcoms? Alf, Home Improvement, Step by Step, Full House, Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince in Belair, The Simpsons, Dinosaurs, etc... They were far more numerous than serious grim shows.

 

[Nachtwens]

Because death and destruction are entertaining, more so than happy things. Even when the drama is real, like on the news, I'm more likely to watch when awful things have happened. I think this has to do with our survival instinct. Dangerous and terrible situations are exciting because our body reacts to them, putting us in a state of alertness, even when the danger is fictious or far away. This allows us to be sucked into the story more easily. That's my theory.

 

[Worgen]

It's a natural reaction to the plot armor that main characters have traditionally possessed. Since a show had to return to the status quo after each episode you could only kill bit characters. So now that we can have easier continuity for shows, they are over compensating by trying to be extra killy with main characters.

 

[happyninja42]

Sorry OP, but listing 2 shows and saying all of television is dark and death obsessed is kind of silly.

There are tons of shows that aren't at all serious, and in fact embrace the opposite of serious as hard as they can.

And some of them are even still good!

 

[flying_whimsy]

I see where the OP is coming from, though a better list and maybe a slightly broader view would have helped this topic a lot more. In other words, it's not just tv that's suffering from this problem, and a lot of it probably goes back to the fact that for some reason sex has become such a taboo over the last 30 years or so. It's something of a resurgence of the dark and gritty bend in western culture that happened during the 80s.

There are basically 2 human drives: sex/love and survival/death. For whatever reason, things can't be about love anymore, so everything we get is going to be about the other genetic imperative: death.

Also, death is always good with the teenager crowd, and right now the group with the most disposable income were teenagers raised on death shows. So now even more things with death as the central focus are coming around. To make matters worse, the newer stuff usually doesn't even try to be funny anymore.

 

[SKBPinkie]

I feel like TV shows these days are just like "Here's cute little puppy dog, it's yours. Love it." and then "Okay, it's been 3 months. Sit right there, I'm going to beat your dog to death with this ball point hammer. Oh don't cry, heres another Puppy." and then theres another hammer.

This right here is why I stopped watching GoT.

"Any character could die at any moment."

Great, means I don't need to waste my time caring about an interesting character cause they almost invariably die.