LJ Topic: Reprobate
Reprobate: A morally unprincipled person.
The first thing I thought of was the television show "Dexter." Mind you, I have only seen about half an episode of it. However, I read the entire show premise on Wiki a while back when I thought I might be interested. The basic premise is that a sociopathic serial killer with no morals or scruples (but a set of rules for who to kill) could be both a hero and a bad guy all rolled into one. The show, which is on showtime, is a hit, and almost made a transition to prime time network TV on CBS.
Now, television is just entertainment, but the question here is, how did a show about a serial killer who kills other serial killers become such a hit? Why did it even get picked up in the first place? Since when is killing another human being (even pretend) a quality to admire and cheer for? Dexter really is a show that shows how far our society has come. Violence has been a part of mainstream entertainment for centuries, but still I have to wonder if we crossed the line somewhere.
Its not just Dexter though, even something as funny and "family friendly" as The Simpsons plays into the mentality of doing the wrong thing (and getting away with it) can get you rewarded. Bart's most famous and oft-spoken line is, after all, "I didn't do it." It seems that in this day and age we, as a society, seldom hold ourselves responsible for what we do. We're always looking for someone or something else to get us out of trouble. Always looking for a place to lay the blame. And our "heroes" in TV entertainment reflect that.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's not that TV has brought out the "reprobate" in all of us, or that it's at fault for society's ills, but that the "reprobate" mentality in all of us has found its way into television. So no matter how big of a reprobate one TV character or one "hero" might be, society is the biggest reprobate of them all. And it saddens me.
The first thing I thought of was the television show "Dexter." Mind you, I have only seen about half an episode of it. However, I read the entire show premise on Wiki a while back when I thought I might be interested. The basic premise is that a sociopathic serial killer with no morals or scruples (but a set of rules for who to kill) could be both a hero and a bad guy all rolled into one. The show, which is on showtime, is a hit, and almost made a transition to prime time network TV on CBS.
Now, television is just entertainment, but the question here is, how did a show about a serial killer who kills other serial killers become such a hit? Why did it even get picked up in the first place? Since when is killing another human being (even pretend) a quality to admire and cheer for? Dexter really is a show that shows how far our society has come. Violence has been a part of mainstream entertainment for centuries, but still I have to wonder if we crossed the line somewhere.
Its not just Dexter though, even something as funny and "family friendly" as The Simpsons plays into the mentality of doing the wrong thing (and getting away with it) can get you rewarded. Bart's most famous and oft-spoken line is, after all, "I didn't do it." It seems that in this day and age we, as a society, seldom hold ourselves responsible for what we do. We're always looking for someone or something else to get us out of trouble. Always looking for a place to lay the blame. And our "heroes" in TV entertainment reflect that.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's not that TV has brought out the "reprobate" in all of us, or that it's at fault for society's ills, but that the "reprobate" mentality in all of us has found its way into television. So no matter how big of a reprobate one TV character or one "hero" might be, society is the biggest reprobate of them all. And it saddens me.