Okay, so it's a stupidly overstated thread title. I was going to call it High Production Values = Good? but, mulling it over, I decided my problem with US television drama is bigger than that. And it is my problem; I'm aware of that. This thread isn't intended simply as an exercise in whingeyness, but as an attempt to articulate something that's been bothering me for several years.
It's been bothering me because I'm aware that, when it comes to drama on the small screen, I seem to be at odds with many of my contemporaries, on Barbelith and in Real Life. Xoc will happily digest hours of ER, Buffy, Firefly, 4400, Roswell, Stargate, 24, The West Wing, Smallville, etc., etc. - the same stuff that's discussed here at length - but these shows leave me utterly cold. He sometimes accuses me of being superior or dismissive or a snob, but the truth is, I just find it near-impossible to engage with a lot of the stuff he likes. I can't maintain attention. Even Lost lost me after around three episodes.
There are exceptions, of course. I liked The Sopranos a lot. Latterly, though, even it stopped being must-see television. I could've missed an episode here and there without feeling especially bereft. Same with Six Feet Under, although I lost interest in it considerably sooner (Xoc informs me tonight's the grand finale of the whole shebang, and I've barely got a semi). The X-Files I stayed with for several seasons, back in the dayyy...
By contrast, the stuff that's really grabbed me, that's had me distraught at missing an episode and pining for the DVDs, seems barely to rate a thread here or, if it's mentioned, seems to attract a handful of posts - a page or two, if it's by Russell T - before drifting below the horizon. Clocking Off, Queer As Folk, Bob & Rose, This Life, Buried, Ultraviolet, Bodies, No Angels, Shameless, erm, The Tripods (okay, I've just watched it again on DVD): in contrast to the first list, I can (and do) pass a day watching episode after episode of any of these.
It really isn't a consciously anti-American or Brit-centric pose: most US drama really does turn me off. Why? I've been thinking about this a lot, and here's what I've come up with:
It's US-centric: well, duh. I suppose this is the nearest I get to to halfway thought-through 'political' objection, so let's deal with it firstoff. A lot of US drama annoys me for the same reasons the US media annoys me: it appears predicated on the implicit assumption that America Is The World, or at least, America Is That Part Of The World That Need Concern Us For Now. For me, this reaches its apogee in those serials involving supposedly 'alien' races - who invariably choose to land in America, abduct Americans, speak American English, appear as American teens.
I read a theory somewhere (in a post-9/11 'Why People Hate America' style polemic) that every US drama is, at heart, a western - or, at least, draws on the myths of the frontier. I think this overstates the case, but I do notice many of the same cultural memes cropping up again and again, particularly in adventure or space dramas: circling the wagons against an external foe; the desirability of 'can-do' go-getting over poncey intellectualising; problems solved by conflict (fists, firearms); the primacy of work relationships over personal; professional self-sacrifice; the importance of feeling; a vanilla-to-the-point-of-prudish, often angst-ridden approach to sexuality; God.
On a related note,
It's ubiquitous to the point that, on some channels, it's almost become the mainstream - in the same way (but not to nearly the same extent) as Hollywood has become the global cinematic mainstream. American cultural quirks - some of which are mentioned above - are, I think, seen as universals of the human condition. I think we don't realise the extent of this until we look at European or Asian film/television, and realise how alien it is. Those American memes are overfamiliar and limiting.
It's overly glossy: the ol' "high production values" thing. I'm sure it's a factor of me rather than the medium itself, but I actually find the super-articulate, groomed-to-perfection, gorgeously-lit approach quite distancing, particularly combined with what seems sometimes like a never-ending obsession with youth. Why does everything have to be experienced through the prism of preternaturally beautiful high-school teens, or perfectly-coiffed (yet fiercely dedicated) professionals? Why can't we see some physically unattractive over-30s who hate their jobs? (Okay, Tony Soprano.) Why always this alienating sheen of unusually articulate, quickfire-wisecracking, gleaming-toothed teen/twentysomething hardbodies? I mean, I like eye candy as much as the next man, but too much of it can get familiar to the point of deadening dullness.
I suppose I'm more drawn to stuff that looks real, in the warts 'n' all, shaky-camera sense (I love you, This Life). I'm well aware that this can be just as manipulative in its own way as visually slick, flicky-haired perfection, but somehow I just respond to it more warmly. I recognise it.
It's disproportionately feted in a 'why is American drama always so much better than British' way that never fails to irritate, as I think there's a tendency to conflate length with quality - so a show that's managed to maintain high viewing figures over several seasons is seen as several times better than a more self-contained gem lasting only one or two series'. I'm not sure I'm a fan of extending shows over several seasons, using a panel of writers: I think it can result in overreaching plotlines in which, as with a long-running DC/Marvel title, a core character or group of characters is more-or-less sacred, with events 'n' adventures essentially returning to the status quo at the end of each episode, so character development is slow or nonexistent, and almost no unsignposted surprises.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially:
It says nothing to me about my life. Well, almost nothing. There's precious little of my own life experience up on that screen. I'm not a beautiful-yet-troubled high school teen. I'm not a self-sacrificing-yet-sumptuously-lit professional without a personal life. I'm not an incredibly non-alien alien. I don't necessarily want to see programmes that completely reflect my background and life situation, but I want to be able to recognise some of what I see.
Hmm. I'm not sure how much of this is reasonable, defensible, arguable. Does any of it make sense to anyone? |
