Tuesday, March 28, 2006

TV Themes Piss Me Off

I'm a big fan of the show "The Shield" on FX which is basically a show about a group of cops that steal from criminals and occassionally commit crimes themselves to cover their ass or close a case. This show has been on for 5 whole seasons now and not until the 5th season did they start to pay morally and criminally for their actions. Should I feel bad that this is, in my opinion, my least favorite of all the seasons?

Our culture now loves games like GTA 1 through GTA Cleveland (or whatever they have out now). We watch movies that glorify violence and crime. The Sopranos has been one of the most popular non-network shows. Our culture glorifies crime and illegality plain and simple. My point is, in stories like The Shield, Sopranos, or the upcoming Theif (on FX tonight) why is it that the "good guy" always has to win? People watch hours of these shows and become connected to the characters only to see them ultimately lose in the end. I'll continue with the Shield since it just rapped it's 5th season. Basically, IAD brought a huge case against the main characters in the show led by actor Forrest Whittaker (IAD prick) who I now vehemently hate. The whole season involved the protagonists being hounded by IAD and totally ruined the feel of the show for me. So, I go on message boards and see opinions split 50/50. Some people can't believe they have a show where cops murder people and steal etc; whereas, other people are upset like me that the good guy motif always wins in the end. If they all get arrested and thrown in jail at the end, what was the point of the show? If I want to watch that moral shit I'll just go out and buy a freaking Care Bear movie. I am an adult and I can decide if I want to rob a drug dealer or not, and I don't think it makes me any less a moral person to enjoy watching other FICTIONAL people do that.

Look at movies. Ocean's 11 was amazing because the "bad guys" got away with it by just being plain smarter than their opponent. Hollywood can't have this so they make that trash rag that was Ocean's 12 to make the thieves at least give back what they owed so everything is fair and square. Why make me empathize with a character if you are constantly going to make them lose in the end. I watched the movie "The Jackle" with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere and I felt like we were suppossed to root for Bruce Willis only to have that pussy Richard Gere win out in the end.

The show Thief starts tonight staring Andre Braugher (the black guy from Law and Order) and I'm debating watching that. I'll find the show ultimately entertaining while they are robbing banks etc. but if I wanted to watch what will happen in the latter seasons, I can just go buy the god damn OZ dvd's.

1 Comments:

At 1:51 PM, Blogger shimshamsean said...

good points all. i think that, personally, i like the bad guy to win in the movies cause it's my opportunity to see cool guys do cool stuff with no real moral or legal implications for myself. basically i'm unhappy with my life and will live vicariously through anybody. morally bankrupt or not.

 

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