TV Trains You To Expect The Worst

I was watching an episode of United States of Tara the other day when I had something of a realisation.

In case you don't know the show, here's the back story. Tara is a woman with dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple personalities). For the sake of TV, they are 5 (or 6) very distinct & endlessly trouble making identities. A key part of the show, of course, is the actual woman herself (played by the incredibly talented Toni Collette) trying desperately to keep her life together despite the chaos sown by her sub personalities.

In the episode I watched, she'd been taking her drugs regularly, & all her sub-identities had disappeared for several months. The family declared her life permanently changed, and everything was wonderful… for the first 15 minutes of the 22 minute show.

I sat there through this wondering why my entire body was tense. As far as everything on the screen, the family was getting on well, things were humming along, and life was normal.

So why was I stressed?

pic by james good

Then I realised. I was waiting for something to go wrong. Which eventually, of course, it did.

Stepping back from this particular show, I realised a deeper (yet in hindsight obvious) truth: TV Drama thrives on.. well.. drama.

If something isn't going wrong, there's no story.

Stepping back again, this applies to comedy, horror, thriller, reality TV… in fact, every genre other than educational or documentary TV.

Why? Because drama of some form is a critical part of telling a story, any story.

If the hero/protagonist doesn't have something to overcome, how can they prove they are (or become) a hero?

Jack Bauer of 24 is the perfect (& thus oft caricatured) example of this, of course.

In other words, something must necessarily always go wrong. No matter how great things seem, something bad is always about to happen.

pic by rock creek

The real issue here is this. Time watching TV is, in a very real sense, time spent training our brains to operate in a certain way.

For example, we take it for granted, but when multiple camera TV first appeared, people had to retrain their brains to understand that shots from different angles were all telling the same story, & how to piece it all together into one linear narrative. Seeing things from multiple angles at once isn't something that happens to our brains normally (let alone fades, swipes, crabbing, zooms, etc).

Why is this suddenly all so clear to me? Because I have been wondering recently why my entire life I've always been expecting things to go wrong.

Thanks TV!

At this point, I am undecided about movies — their one-off nature & longer running times have more opportunity for  flexibility & depth in story telling (eg, starting with something bad having already happened & climbing out of it from there — eg Shipping News), but I think it's safe to say my days of watching a lot of TV are over (except maybe Doctor Who, heh).

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16/Jun/2010 | life
self-improvement |
  • http://rawfoodswitch.com Nathalie Lussier

    Ooh this is such a great realization! I think I've definitely been programmed… I watched far too much television as a teen. I think we need to go out there and "be alive" to realize that good things happen, it's not all drama.

    I've cut way down on my TV watching (the perk of not having a TV!) but movies still get me sometimes. I find really dramatic/strong movies like the new Batman movies really leave me feeling tense. Though that might just be the genre. ;)

  • Jack M.

    Of course, most books should be out as well — they're not very entertaining if the characters aren't going through their hero-arc… :)

    Tensing your body doesn' thave to be a bad thing though, as long as you also ease the tension at the end — perhaps that's why movies are better than TV, since the tv series will try to draw you into the next epsode, often with cliffhangers, while movies tend to end (and have the prerequisite happy ending usually).

    The other good thing about getting rid of your TV is the amazing amount of free time you suddenly get back, as I'm sure you can testify to as well.

    On a slightly related note, I have one game on my iPod Touch that I play occasionally, one of those "throw the raggdoll over the cliff and inflict maximum damage" type of games (it's called "MaxInjury"). I've noticed that I just can't stay relaxed while its little body is falling, hitting various obstacles along the way. My physical body only relaxes (and noticibly so!) when the game's virtual body comes to a standstill again. I haven't figured out why that game is so intensive… would you care to download the free version and report your findings to me? It's an amazing realisation, the sheer amount it affects your body.

    — Jack M.

  • http://www.ihatemymessageboard.com/ Tracy O'Connor

    Hmmm, this does explain my love of absurd situations and unlikely coincidences.

    I think TV gives us unrealistic expectations of lots of things, really, not just bad things that can happen. For awhile, after we bought our first home I was watching a lot of a channel we have in the States called HGTV (home and garden tv) to get ideas.

    Well it turns out that it made me quite anxious that we were the only people in America who couldn't afford and all granite and stainless kitchen and had only 2500 square feet for 6–7 people and no jacuzzis. None! Heh, I exaggerate a little but it was jarring when I realized how out of touch with the reality that I saw every day I was and how I was constantly upgrading my wishlists based on what I was now seeing as "normal" and therefore "should haves" for average middle class families like our own.

    I do love a good drama or thriller, but moderation is the key.

    Side note: I've found that certain people I've met also have give me the same sort of on edge, shoe ready to drop feeling. Now, I've no idea why they are so doom and gloom about everything but I know I feel much better if I limit my contact with them.

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    Oh yeah, particularly TV in the states (where everyone is better dressed, better looking, richer & has a better vocabulary than you.. no matter WHO you are). Unrealistic expectations is a whole other post :)

    Yep, definitely a smart move to limit time around certain types of people — no matter how well shielded you are, it's almost inevitable they will affect you & how you are/behave/feel.

    ps. you don't have two jacuzzis? The shame!

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    I think thrillers are specifically designed to raise tension — in order to offset the relief felt when the challenge is overcome.

    I think there's another thing — how often does one watch movies, vs watching TV? you can happily watch TV every day of the week.. but movies tend to be a rarer thing, because of the time requirement/hassle. So that by itself works in their favour.

    Of course, there are also a ton of movies that just shamelessly rip the standard TV format too — so no benefit there.

    & yeah, I'm specifically thinking in terms of — how have I been making my life more difficult, with this belief? (bashing my head against a wall again, see). All positive little steps in the right direction.

  • tatjna

    Basic pattern of storytelling — background –> crisis –> resolution.

    Pretty much every story does this, including movies and novels — they just take longer than TV.

    I think on TV it's more noticeable, especially within series, because it happens over and over again. Soaps are the worst, they have multiple crises at once, and there's never a point where all of them are resolved at the same time and viewers get to relax.

    And yet people enjoy it.

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    I think books are a little more subtle — because it's very much you, your mind that is creating the story. You're not having 30 frames a second of multi megs of information, plus music, all pumped into your brain for extended periods of time. It's much easier to avoid things that aren't necessarily beneficial (skip a para of gore, etc)

    & yeah, I hear you re free time.. although oddly, the internet seems to soak up a lot. What's with that, exactly?

    No, as delightful as downloading an iphone based self-torture device sounds? I'm really not that keen to. Thanks for the offer though! *laugh*

    Sounds to me like simple empathy — you anthropomorphize & associate with the character on the screen (same as FPSs, & RPGs, right?) so then, in a weird but real way, you feel the pain they would be experiencing. But yeah, the impact of these things is scarily disproportionate at times, no question about that. Hence my thinking deeply about how much I'm associating with TV. I know I'm heavily affected by the things in my immediate environment.

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    Yep, you're exactly right.

    I think a huge part of the enjoyment comes down to escapism (like so many things). It's a way to avoid an unpleasant feeling in one's life — rather than, say, welcoming up that feeling, healing it & thus removing it permanently.

    I know for me that's been a HUGE life pattern, that I'm only recently starting to seriously shift.

    But yeah, soap operas. Oh man. I had a friend once who pointed out that you could time 20 seconds MAX between someone on Eastenders etc getting upset, shouting or crying. Watching it with that in mind it's disturbing just how accurate that is.

  • http://www.ihatemymessageboard.com/ Tracy O'Connor

    You know, I was honestly surprised when I lived in Dublin how normalm
    a lot of the actors on tv looked. Granted they were still very
    attractive people but not at all as perfect as on American shows. The
    interiors of places on tv looked more like regular homes, too. It was
    a bit jarring to be honest but I perservered and grew to love
    Eastenders. ;)

    It's scary to me as a parent how all of this anxiety plays out in how
    we raise or children. Not just what they are watching but how it seems
    they are growing up in a world where parents are taught to be fearful
    of outsiders and other adults are wary of interacting with children
    for fear of accusations.

    I guess people do respond very strongly to stories centered on danger
    and fear. Obviously it's in our best interests to learn what should be
    avoided so I can see why it's a very effective story telling
    technique, marketing tool, etc. but when it's so magnified and so
    constant it becomes incredibly limiting and reinforces a lot of
    negative ideas.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner Heather E. Sedlock

    I banned television for awhile when my son was going over his schedule (to pick a time for homework and a "play date" for a pal to come over) and he went according to what SHOWS were on when. He didn't want to miss the shows. I didn't allow TV for homework time (music with no words is okay), and he was worried his pal wouldn't want to watch the same show… I realize just how important TV had become to him and it was time to make a change.

    I was surprised recently how many children, from as young as a year old, have a television set in their bedrooms in America. 72%. I wish I still had that link because they had similar things to say about TV training or "raising" children and the negative effects. The sense of waiting for the shoe to drop was mentioned. You're on to something, Si ;)

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    Yep, that scheduling thing is definitely an eye opener.

    See, I've known for a while that "TV is bad" — blah blah.. but it's the details. WHY. & not some lame assed study that barely applies.

    Now, the escapism thing I figured (using it to avoid life) — but that's not really about TV, you can escape tons of different ways. That's about what you're escaping from.

    This though, well, this is the first time I've had a specific realisation (other than, duh, it wastes time) about TV in particular, not just escaping etc in general.

    & yeah, TV in children's bedrooms = scary.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner Heather E. Sedlock

    I tried to find the link to the lame assed study but still can't find it. It did have some salient points to make but I think this is better for you because you were able to attribute a negative effect to your personal self and lifestyle. We (humans) always tend to accept things when we see how it relates to us. The "What's in it for me" effect of learning :)

  • http://sidawson.org Si Dawson

    Oh man, I just read today how some 14 year old kid helped a 3 yr old find his mother, then ended up getting arrested for it. Ridiculous.

    Fear in general. It's so bullshit. Who wants to live in a world like that?