Nihilism vs. Meaning
Jul. 14th, 2014 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI have been procrastinating by watching The Closer. I've seen most of the episodes in syndication already, but whatever, I like it, it's comforting and mindless.
Watching it, though, I was thinking about the fact that procedurals are one of the most popular and enduring genres of television. Ever since Dragnet, TV is littered with them. Why should that be? It could be because of the mystery, but honestly, most of these shows don't accomplish mystery very well. Some don't even particularly attempt it. And for those that do, there are so many procedurals, and so many steal each other's plots, if it were just the mystery, I don't think the genre would endure.
I said above it The Closer was comforting, and it is. But why should that be? It, like every other procedural, deals with one of the worst things that can happen, human violence against humans. Every single procedural has either a murder or a rape (or both) at its center. For some, a great deal of screen time is spent on it. These things are literally unthinkable to most of us. So why do we keep watching them?
I think it's because procedurals are, fundamentally, about nihilism versus meaning. The murder is the nihilism--meaningless tragedy. But the entire rest of the episode seeks to erase that nihilism by restoring balance. And not by restoring balance to the victim or the victim's family--in a lot of series, the victim's family barely shows up, and only in the first act. There are exceptions, like Cold Case, but catharsis for the grieving isn't generally the point. So if the show isn't about healing for the grieving, why do we find the endings of each episode satisfying? Because they're about healing for society. And in a society where we have chosen to have the machinery of the state deal with justice rather than it being personal vendetta, it makes sense that we watch this story play out over and over and over again--evil happens, and the state restores the balance.
I also find it interesting that a lot of these shows aren't terribly interested in the actual punishment given to the perpetrator--quite a few of them "resolve" in such a way that no case made by the DA could possibly stick. They almost all focus on one thing: confession. And in cases where the confession is denied, it's meant to leave threads deliberately hanging for the audience. I think this says something profound about us as a society and as humans, that what we feel really needs to happen to rebalance the scales after a horrible wrong is for someone to admit that they were at fault. It isn't even necessary that they repent; in most episodes of most shows, they don't. But even when we already know what happened, the episode isn't satisfying until someone confesses.
In pursuit of confession, a lot of shows routinely throw the constitution out the window. (Only Law & Order original flavor seemed particularly interested in examining and upholding constitutional values.) Over and over, we watch manipulated, coerced, and outright tortured confessions, enforcing the idea that the confession is the necessary element to setting things right, and everything that goes before it is unimportant.
If you think about procedurals as a way for us to look straight at our mortality and the randomness of life and then safely tuck that nihilism away within the framework of civilization, no wonder they're so popular. Medical shows follow this arc too, though they are dealing with nihilism caused by nature, not by humans. But they, too, seek to rebalance the scales against nature's tragedies through the work of our societal institutions.
Anyway. My anxiety level has gone up because of many things which means I'm having a hard time sleeping which means I end up thinking about stuff like this while lying awake in bed.
Watching it, though, I was thinking about the fact that procedurals are one of the most popular and enduring genres of television. Ever since Dragnet, TV is littered with them. Why should that be? It could be because of the mystery, but honestly, most of these shows don't accomplish mystery very well. Some don't even particularly attempt it. And for those that do, there are so many procedurals, and so many steal each other's plots, if it were just the mystery, I don't think the genre would endure.
I said above it The Closer was comforting, and it is. But why should that be? It, like every other procedural, deals with one of the worst things that can happen, human violence against humans. Every single procedural has either a murder or a rape (or both) at its center. For some, a great deal of screen time is spent on it. These things are literally unthinkable to most of us. So why do we keep watching them?
I think it's because procedurals are, fundamentally, about nihilism versus meaning. The murder is the nihilism--meaningless tragedy. But the entire rest of the episode seeks to erase that nihilism by restoring balance. And not by restoring balance to the victim or the victim's family--in a lot of series, the victim's family barely shows up, and only in the first act. There are exceptions, like Cold Case, but catharsis for the grieving isn't generally the point. So if the show isn't about healing for the grieving, why do we find the endings of each episode satisfying? Because they're about healing for society. And in a society where we have chosen to have the machinery of the state deal with justice rather than it being personal vendetta, it makes sense that we watch this story play out over and over and over again--evil happens, and the state restores the balance.
I also find it interesting that a lot of these shows aren't terribly interested in the actual punishment given to the perpetrator--quite a few of them "resolve" in such a way that no case made by the DA could possibly stick. They almost all focus on one thing: confession. And in cases where the confession is denied, it's meant to leave threads deliberately hanging for the audience. I think this says something profound about us as a society and as humans, that what we feel really needs to happen to rebalance the scales after a horrible wrong is for someone to admit that they were at fault. It isn't even necessary that they repent; in most episodes of most shows, they don't. But even when we already know what happened, the episode isn't satisfying until someone confesses.
In pursuit of confession, a lot of shows routinely throw the constitution out the window. (Only Law & Order original flavor seemed particularly interested in examining and upholding constitutional values.) Over and over, we watch manipulated, coerced, and outright tortured confessions, enforcing the idea that the confession is the necessary element to setting things right, and everything that goes before it is unimportant.
If you think about procedurals as a way for us to look straight at our mortality and the randomness of life and then safely tuck that nihilism away within the framework of civilization, no wonder they're so popular. Medical shows follow this arc too, though they are dealing with nihilism caused by nature, not by humans. But they, too, seek to rebalance the scales against nature's tragedies through the work of our societal institutions.
Anyway. My anxiety level has gone up because of many things which means I'm having a hard time sleeping which means I end up thinking about stuff like this while lying awake in bed.