G.K. Chesterton on why today’s TV shows are so boring

[Michie]

As I kept losing interest in "prestige" TV shows, I began to ask myself what particular quality I was missing from them. Chesterton showed me the answer.​

I’m just going to come out and say this. Sometimes, when you’re a writer, you simply have to grit your teeth and make a blunt statement. Prestige television — the high-toned, sophisticated dramas that win all the awards — is boring.



Not all of it, to be sure, but enough that I started to grow suspicious. Something is wrong with modern storytelling. For instance, that show about big city lawyers bending the law in clever ways while trying to justify the guilt of their moral complicity? I made it about halfway through the series and bailed.

And that show about the science teacher who becomes a drug dealer and slowly becomes corrupted? It was like watching paint dry. Or the anti-hero mobster in Jersey who is ruthless with his enemies but has a conflicted, soft side with his family and talks to his therapist about his feelings of guilt, as if that somehow makes him a sympathetic guy? Not interested.


Does this make me a philistine? Probably. Does it mean I have trouble appreciating modern-day art? Almost certainly. Perhaps the issue is entirely within me. Maybe I’m the one with the defective sensibilities. I prefer turning the television off to re-read Lord of the Rings or stories of the saints or old fairy tales — or even re-watch old sitcoms from the 80s.

For a long time, I would force myself to watch prestige television. After all, so many award committees couldn’t be wrong. But as I watched, I couldn’t help but to lose interest. After this happened enough times, I began to ask myself what it is, what particular quality I was failing to find compelling.

Stories that lead nowhere​

Continued below.

G.K. Chesterton on why today's TV shows are so boring

As I kept losing interest in "prestige" TV shows, I began to ask myself what particular quality I was missing from them. Chesterton showed me the answer.

aleteia.org

 

[WarriorAngel]

I watch:
DIY crafts, Old Testament movies, Prayer video's.
On occasion I watch tv. Not much worth it.
Sometimes sci fi.

 

[returntosender]

Try watching ALONE on the defy channel. Nits on right now.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I waste a lot of time on the computer but I don't watch a lot of television. When I do it's usually a British detective show eg. Midsomer Murders (there's nobody left in Midsomer County now - they're all dead!); Death in Paradise; Shakespeare & Hathaway (brilliant characters and it's not meant to be taken seriously - Patrick Walsh McBride as Sebastian hams it up brilliantly in his undercover role).

In those shows the baddie usually get caught even if the cops have their oddities at times.

I don't know how closely art imitates life, but since I have no experience with drug cartels, bikie gangs, or organised crime, I can only go by the televised versions. One thing that gets to me is the sheer self centredness of the television versed of the criminal classes - it's all about "them".

They're one dimensional characters.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I don't know how closely art imitates life,

I quoted this in my post above, but years ago I remember reading a quote by Phillip Adams, an atheist public figure in Australia (getting on now) which stated "Art imitates life imitates art".

He gave the example of James Cagney who often used to play underworld figures in Hollywood movies. He developed a trademark style of speaking thinking it might be how the criminal underworld talked.

They didn't of course, but what was interesting was that the criminals started imitating Cagney's style of speaking.

"Art imitates life imitates art", which makes me wonder what some modern entertainment is doing to the minds of those who watch it.