How did TV/movies become so risque and dark?

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This applies particularly to TV. I am not saying that we should ban all the risque stuff and watch reruns of "7th Heaven" (not denying that and others are classics in some ways). I want a serious answer.

When, and how, did shows on TV become so risque and dark? I know this possibly didn't happen overnight. What might have happened to cause it to begin? I'm wondering why TV has to be so dark today. Even in shows marketed to kids, you can't escape from the darkness.

By the way, I am not using "dark" as in a religious context.

TV became risque because it could- at least on cable. Sex sells. The more interesting part of your question is why did it become so dark?

I googled that question and found that many people have wondered that too. So I present a compendium of theories. I think all of them are different angles of the reason.

{Note: because I am an American, I am writing about American shows. I have no idea if the state of shows in other coubntries is taking a particular artistic direction. When it comes to shows from other countries, I see them out of their context and floating on Netflix.}

1)It got dark because the U.S. got dark.

http://acculturated.com/when-did-tv-get ... d-twisted/

2)It got dark because the writers and directors had always wanted to explore complex, dark characters ( many artists of any genre often want that and always have) but really couldn't because it wasn't previously economically workable. Cable made it possible to get darker than network TV. DVR made it possible to really explore characters because people didn't miss anything so characters no longer had to be written so broadly that missing a few or many episodes would make them incomprehensible.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainmen ... rk/277696/

3)It got dark because the situations that used to drive drama have become commonplace. There is no longer much dramatic punch in adultery or somebody coming out of the closet as gay. But a chemistry teacher using his knowledge to become a meth dealer is still pretty shocking.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... n-so-dark-


edited to add; you also mentioned kid shows and all those articles and theories address shows for adults. But as I googled this question just in reference to shows for kids, I found a curious thing: that apparently entertainment for children has always been dark. And once I read it, I realized it was true. Sitcoms were aimed at adults. But fairy tales were aimed at kids. And you can't get much darker than Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood. For modern kids, killing Mom is how the story almost always starts.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ad/372270/

This is not a new development. Bambi is the iconic dead-Mom kids' movie. So although Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are new for adults, apparently we've always started stories for children by killing Mom.

Last edited by Janissy on 04 Aug 2014, 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why is it risqué? Because it's what people want--myself included.

It's all about marketing.

i would rather someone focus on the violence than the sex. It is only eroticism, maybe exploitation, but the violence is way over the top. I just went to see the Lego Movie and it was very violent. That is the age group being influenced by this garbage.

Good point, and agree 100%.

I think something important is lost by these shows incessant desire to break taboos which exist for good reason. I thought the glorification of a serial killers represented in Dexter was the nadir of this trend, until Hannibal came along... Come to think of it, 24 is probably the most insidious of these heroic psychopath shows. The show promotes torture as a necessary function of security agencies. It would be great if some of these show runners would start to reflect on the real impact they have in socialising norms of behaviour.

Risque stuff is a separate issue. I have no problem with it if there's a narrative point. I can do without Game of Thrones creating anymore story lines about Pod in LF's brothel, though. It's stupid.

Last edited by Stannis on 05 Aug 2014, 12:58 am, edited 2 times in total.

If you think modern kid shows are dark, you clearly don't know about 70s and 80s anime. There was some pretty dark stuff back then. A good example are World Masterpiece Theater. There were generaly anime adapted from classics of western literature, and some of them were very dark dealing with life conditions from 19th century and early 20th century. The directors of the early ones had know WW2 or it's aftermath, so they were familiar about hard life conditions.

For example, 3000 leagues in search of mother is about a late 19th century italian little boy who in Argentina in search of his mother. There is some pretty dark moments during his journey, like in this episode. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xr8625_3000-leagues-in-search-of-mother-23_news
And yes, this is made for kids. (And their parents.)
There is also A dog of flanders, which is a really sad story, or Nobody's boy Remi, while not a World Masterpiece Theater (As it was not made by Nippon Animation) is still greatly inspired by them and got some very sad moments.

It do not stop to the things that western civilisation kids were reading in 19th century early 20th century either. Things like Captain Harlock and Galaxy Expresse 999 also get a pretty dark outlock of human condition. This is also the time that had seen the emergence of "kill them all" Yoshiyuki Tomino and the Gundam serie. (He did worked on the storyboard of 3000 leagues of search of mother by the way.)

A lot of those anime were back then exported through the world (Though not much in the US.), and some were VERY popular with kids pretty much everywhere. It don't seem to have made much bad psychological impact. Maybe it even prepared kids for this cruel world rather better than US cartoon did.


One reason I prefer old anime to most modern television series, is that I prefer idealists with golden heart for the main character(s). If they don't find dramatic inspiration in modern developped countries writers can always displace the action in more dramatic places like Africa or Middle East. Or maybe even go in other worlds or times, using animation if the setting is too costly to make. ( I guess it wouldn't work though. )

I have yet to see a rerun of a kids show from the 70s or 80s that had scenes that went beyond what is considered polite conversation.

I believe in freedom of expression but deep down I just want to see less dark stuff on TV.

Sometimes there is darkness in the light.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20380_5- ... toons.html





Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_20380_5- ... z39X0YLVnt

There was a period in early Hollywood where they made darker stuff. Then the code came in and everything was toned down for decades. By the 70s we had gritty movies again but tv was still constrained. There are only so many plots available and exploring the darker side of characters and stories was a previously untapped resource that is now providing some novelty. Who wants to watch the same 12 characters deal with the same 30 plots all the time?

With the freedom of cable you get more good writers doing long form on tv and more actors willing to work in tv. Most of it is still **** but it's better than the restricted *** Americans were fed for almost a century. I think all of that code stuff left people with a very strange view of the 40s and 50s. It smacks of dishonesty to me.

People have always been fascinated by dark stories, particularly horror. Just look at the story of Frankenstein - can't get a much darker plot than that. Going back further, there were dark and spooky tales around the camp fire and these evolved into horror books and comics and then black and white cinema and radio stories and finally to TV and big movies. Little has really changed in the plots so much as now there are realistic grizzly special effects rather than leaving such details to the viewers imagination. There is something about such dark tales that fascinates and frightens us then we can heave a big sigh of relief at the end of the tale that the monster/serial killer is dead and we are safe to sleep in our beds.

While the US didn't had kid shows that went beyond a polite conversation, the rest of the world kids were watching this: http://www.animeplus.tv/ie-naki-ko-episode-23-online
And I think this is a good thing. It raise concern for social issues, show kids of middle and higher class that they should be content for what they have, prepare them to a cruel world where there is injustice and that peoples they love can die, and most of all, it's not boring.

I watched this as a kid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jodocus_Kwak
It's a Dutch/Japanese cartoon, but not really anime. It has very cheerful moments and the main character is incredibly cheerful too, but some really bad stuff happens. They killed off what I thought would be the main characters too. And the series deals with bigotry and racism. As a kid I felt so sad for all the bad stuff that happens to the cheerful ducks.

Amen to that, bro' TalllyMan! I must admit, I love dark stuff on TV, like The Strain, and The Walking Dead, both which are outstanding examples of horror. If someone doesn't want their kids to see something like that on TV, then tell them not to watch it- problem solved.

I'm a horror buff and an unapologetic fan of "dark stuff."

If you don't want to see "dark stuff" on TV, change the channel, or, better yet, pick up a book.

My kinda girl! You remind me a lot of my wife.