Monday, January 12, 2015

The Happy Couple Is Dead

I recently saw the cinematic masterpiece that is the film Gone Girl. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike star as a married couple that have long ago lost their wedded bliss. I won’t spoil it but I will say the words bitch, cunt, and asshole get thrown around quite a bit in this film. There is no love lost between them. And then I took a look at a lot of the shows I watch on television and realized that almost none of them feature happy couples. While I understand that Drama is born of conflict, it seems like not a single relationship can be portrayed on television these days without it being either hanging by a thread or deeply abusive.

In the past shows used to thrive on the concept of “will they/won’t they.” The idea that two characters who worked together or lived together would eventually give into the romantic tensions between them and fall into bed. Now most couples are shown already in bed and fighting each other so furiously you as an audience member are just wondering how the hell did they ever get together to begin with? And why? Honestly most relationships on TV and in movies have no right to exist. They feature people who would never have any sort of romantic chemistry if placed in a situation different from the confines of their story.


The Honeymooners would fight and argue but you never thought they would break up. Ricky and Lucy had the occasional row but were still in love (in the show, in real life there was all sorts of dark activities in their relationship). Even Al and Peg Bundy, who were miserable together, never seemed to indicate that they might break out in violence any second. There was no heartbreak in classic television.  Married couples stayed married and single people found love. This was considered the norm for many years.

Modern television has to have people either divorced and remarried, trapped in loveless marriages, constantly cheating, constantly fighting, and no end in sight. The moments of loving happiness have now become the anomaly that breaks up the action in a show when it used to be the fighting that was the anomaly. Three of my favorite shows (all created by the same writer) are Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and the brand new How To Get Away With Murder. Each of these shows feature damaged relationships. Usually more than one in a single episode.

There might be a brief tender moment to lure us into the story. Usually a kiss or some kind words, but just wait a few minutes and someone will say the wrong word or get seduced by the wrong person or learn their significant other put his or her genitals up against the wrong person. Seriously, watch the shows. I just described the plot of nearly every episode while the characters are treating a bizarre medical case or dealing with a political scandal or defending a convicted murderer. And amid all that there’s usually a lot of screaming and plotting between people who share a bed.

Current television is constantly trying to push the edge of what they can get away with. Since cable TV is not subject to any rules or regulations they are free to show as much violence and/or sex as the writers wish. But even though cable is where the best television tends to be found, Broadcast (the name for the major networks as a group) is the majority of Television viewers. The ratings numbers for Network always dwindles the numbers for cable. But that will not last if the quality of Network TV does not make the most basic of efforts to try and entertain its audience. And the people in charge of these channels have realized that.

Despite being under the shackle of the FCC, Network television has been pushing the envelope. So that means more sex, more violence, more what we like to call adult situations. It’s hard to keep a happy loving couple in a world where a writer feels the need to constantly screw with the products of their creation. The truth is most writers are a bit sadistic at heart (I am speaking for myself and the hand full of writers I know and am familiar with). We may feel like these characters are our children when others are writing them but when we are in charge of our own creations we feel free to visit horrible situations upon them.


In this new frontier of freedom for creative individuals, the idea to show the familiar and mundane to audiences is equal to ratings death. Couples fighting and scheming shall probably be the norm for TV from now on. Even sitcoms will see an end to loving kissy couples. No more Lucy and Ricky. Now it will be more like Lucy and Ricky as they were in real life (fighting and cheating on each other). If the Honeymooners were on today, Ralph wouldn’t just threaten to hit Alice, he would have sent her to the moon in the pilot episode. Conflict breeds drama and the people want drama.

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