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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
Ghosts, aliens, terrorists, criminals, sea monsters and female presidents are appearing this fall to exploit our deepest, darkest phobias. Is this the entertainment we want -- or deserve?
Sep 12, 2005 | "A feeble mind, conscious of its own feebleness, grows feeble under that very consciousness. As soon as the power of fear becomes known to it, there follows the fear of fear, and, on the first perturbation, reason abandons it." -- Hector Berlioz
"He who strikes terror into others is himself in continual fear." -- Claudian
"There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people." -- Robert Frost
Just as we're starting to get a handle on the terrifying specter of Hurricane Katrina, the creepiest, most fear-mongering season of TV ever is delivered straight to our living rooms. While it's obvious that Americans are now officially scared out of their minds like never before, why would we want to indulge our horrors on the small screen?
Hollywood dug up a handful of old phobias this summer with "War of the Worlds," "Batman Begins" and "Red Eye," and now TV producers offer us a bunch of shows that occupy that addictive territory between suspense thriller and horror flick. Whether it's the trickle-down effect of terror-alert levels, nuclear proliferation, and the wars abroad, or the success of shows like "24" and "Lost" that are to blame, never before have the networks served up so many dramas about frightening forces beyond our control. From terrorism ("E-Ring," "Sleeper Cell") to unearthly mysteries ("Supernatural," "The Night Stalker," "The Ghost Whisperer") to extraterrestrial visitors ("Invasion," "Threshold") to sea monsters ("Surface") to escaping prisoners ("Prison Break") to perhaps the scariest of all, the prospect of a female president ("Commander in Chief"), the current lineup manipulates our fears to a degree once reserved for blockbusters. Even the new procedural dramas, the latter-day "CSIs," are wandering into extremely dark territory with the specter of abusive fathers, serial killers, rapists armed with tarantulas, and murderous Capitol Hill insiders ("Close to Home," "Killer Instinct," "Bones," "Criminal Minds"). More than anything, the fall shows paint a picture of a world that's slipping out of our control. Around every turn are malevolent forces that seek to destroy us, forces that exist outside the scope of the civilized world or current science or human understanding (for a handy chart guide, click here.)
The monsters and ghosts and aliens that are suddenly intruding are obvious metaphors for terrorism and its uncanny ability to incite chaos and threaten the status quo. But what does an influx of such scare tactics say about the state of American culture? Are we merely seeing the migration of the dark thrills of the multiplex to the small screen, or does the apocalyptic mood on-screen mirror a feeling that we're losing our footing, given the tumultuous state of global affairs?
This fall's suspense dramas not only put a fresh face on terror, but they often suggest that the main thing we have to fear is fear itself. Of course, that makes sense, since the protagonists in question are up against forces far more daunting than those heretofore found on the boob tube (unless you count the last few weeks, of course) -- more daunting, it's suggested, than any normal human can or should be able to bear. Although our hero-experts (every drama has at least one of them) are courageous, idealistic, hardworking and alarmingly well-informed, if a little bit emotionally distant, the challenges they face, day in and day out, threaten to A) topple their faith in the system or the natural world, B) overwhelm them with fears and anxieties of the unknown, C) cause them to work long nights without sleep, D) challenge the strength of their marriages and/or E) cost them their sanity. In other words, this isn't just the latest gaggle of Sam Waterstons (who, for all his angst, always shows up to work on time); these are tragic heroes who, we suspect, will encounter more than a predictable set of wobbly obstacles en route to solving the season-long mystery at the center of the show.
In fact, if the dark tone and horror-movie antics are any indication, not only won't each show's central mystery get solved, but things might not work out so well for our hero-expert in the end. Remember, producers are taking their cues from "Lost" and "24" -- you know, the shows that ended last season, respectively, when the little boy was kidnapped by pirates, and our hero, Jack Bauer, was doomed to wander the earth as a wanted man. Apparently a new taste for the deeply disturbing and a new tolerance for unresolved action inhabits the modern suspense drama, and the tone of many of these pilots suggests that they're headed down the same haunted path.
Oddly enough, though, the dramas that focus on ghosts and things that go bump in the night are, by far, the worst of the lot. While the WB's "Supernatural" (premieres Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 9 p.m.) starts with a terrifying "Exorcist"-style bang and a pair of dreamy boy heroes (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) sure to draw in fans of shallow teen horror flicks, the ultimate premise -- something along the lines of "Hey bro, let's drift around the country hunting ghosts and looking for our lost daddy!" -- doesn't seem too promising, nor does the cool-guy dialogue. Still, as flat and robotic as the show may be, a teen "X-Files" meets "Red Eye" is likely to pull in high ratings.
