Current TV

With no baseball yet, and the Vikings done, my wife and I have been sampling a variety of TV shows the last few weeks.

My conclusion: Most shows are too bleak to bother with. We watched USA Network's Mr. Robot  based on it winning Best Drama at the Golden Globe Awards. I'll never watch any more episodes of this show. Writers today don't seem to understand that you need someone to root for. That show only had villains and victims, and by the time it was all over, you weren't really sure which was which. The "heroes" solution to the problem was far worse than the status quo. And the writers were too dumb or too ignorant to even see that.

That's the same problem with most of the new shows. The Expanse, and Shades of Blue are other  examples of this ongoing problem. If the heroes are so flawed or compromised that you can't root for them, it leaves a totally unsatisfying taste in your mouth. If they are merely (maybe?) a little less villainous than those they are fighting, what's the point?

Agent Carter's second season debuted last night. It was such a breath of fresh air. There were protagonists and there were antagonists. And they had mature human relationships that didn't give them the personalities of spoiled twelve year-olds. You had a rooting interest.

I make fun of my brother for watching reruns of Dragnet all the time. But, I get it. Sometimes the characters have to choose between good and evil. They can't always be riding the fence or crossing the line. You need heroes.

There's enough bleakness in the world. Most modern day writers can't seem to figure out what mature, loving relationships look like. Perhaps they've never had one. It's no wonder their worldview is so dark and depressing.