"Good Drama Bad Drama" Topic

I've been enjoying the first few episodes of 'Turn' which I regard as a high quality and superb historically based drama (AWI setting for those of you unfamiliar). I've been enjoying New Worlds, Davinci's Demons, Vikings, Game of Thrones and the mini-series 37 Days (honest attempt but myopic) and I can no longer say that there is no TV out there for me. I am now officially spoilt. All of them have their 'faults' depending on how you obsess about production features but it's safe to say none of the various subject matters have been as well dealt with before.

BUT

It occurs to me how my children cannot watch any of them. In the 70s when I was growing up (work in progress) broadcasting and motion pictures were censored. If anyone wanted to make anything for television (and cable didn't exist) it needed to be 'sanitized'. Now I love today's violence (even when I wince), sexuality and broad language but I had to give up on Deadwood with two nine year olds in the house. I love Rome (both series) but I can't show it to my kids. When I was a boy I thrived on Ladybird books, Action Transfers, Commando comics and the English made TV dramas of Rob Roy, Kidnapped, Last of the Mohicans, Eagle of the Ninth, Black Arrow, Arthur and the Britons, Warrior Queen and others besides and I was able to fuel my growing fascination for history and historical drama because of censorship.

What have our kids got today? If media fuels reading, which leads to research and resulting in miniature armies and wargaming (my responsive cycle) then little wonder historical wargaming is largely for my middle-aged generation.

I suspect it's our generation (X) which had closed the door behind us. I suspect we are the writers, producers and directors of products of exclusive drama. What is to be done?

It is the coarsening of our culture. I find that I really enjoy some movies on TV because they're edited and the curse words don't get in. If I were to see them as produced I'd be too disgusted to watch.

It boils down to writers who aren't very good using shocking language/violence/nudity to make up for lack of skill. I mean c'mon, Transformers is PG-13? Really?

Heck, that's not a new phenomenon, Let's set the Wayback machine to 1934, when "Anything Goes" was written, including such lines as:

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking.
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose.
Anything goes.

Sung by geek idol John Barrowman, for your enjoyment:
YouTube link

What we grew up with was shocking to our Grandparents parents (or Great-Grandparents),

Not to say that nudity, swear-words or graphic violence are good, just that ladies wearing skirts at (or above) the knee, men not wearing hats (and not ball-caps; proper hats) or hair styles from the 50's and on were just as scandalous.

Society swings from extreme to extreme – when Hollywood movies of the '20's got too graphic, the movie studios created the Motion Picture Production Code (mostly to forestall Government censorship). We'll probably see something like that again inside of 20 years.

Frankly, I prefer more open society with little or no censorship, but I also don't have kids.

Thank goodness for Downton Abbey, Sherlock Holmes, Foyle's War, NOVA, and the like.

I get a chuckle occasionally from Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, but I can't believe they air those shows in the early afternoon when the kids get home from school.

Yeah, there are some good shows out there. dB mentions a few good ones above.

I've not been much for extreme TV, but even I have also found myself having to censor alot of my TV viewing. With a 3 year old boy running around, I can't afford to have anything like that on b/c 3 year olds repeat and remember erratically, but what they remember, they remember!

I watch alot of Top Gear, which is is just barely acceptable for language, and Parks and rec is fun, but none of that is terribly educational. I think I may go back to old movies and TV (as flawed historically as they often are) as he gets older. As a kid alot of the "historical' stuff I saw was 30+ years old already and it will probably be equally suitable for my kid when it's 50 years older than him.

Dear Unlucky General

When you abandon your dreams and aspirations to the gutter of the ghetto you reap the consequences. We get what we get because the people in charge of Hollywood and the creative department are criminal moral degenerates who portray a reality that they want to force everyone else to live in. What you see in the movies and television is that group's heaven.

Watching their productions give them sanction and approval.

Quick, run and hide! It's a moral panic!!

Turn, New Worlds, Crossbones, all lacked action. A good dose of Errol Flynn was required.

Haha Martin, luv it.

Kids today ( in the west ) have far greater access to knowledge than at any earlier time in history – hurray!