Is TV getting more brutal?

[Lark]

Do you think TV is getting more brutal?

I wondered this myself watching Outlander and Turn this morning, which I think are giving Game of Thrones a run for its money in terms of the main characters being mutilated or murdered one week to the next, although I also saw a nostalgic clip about 90s cartoons aswell suggesting that people are nostalgic for that content because 9/11 was such a watershed in world affairs (american centric I know but anyway).

 

[Kanra Jest]

I don't know about game of thrones. But when it comes to Horror it does. Looking back at a Friday the 13th dvd I was watching for nostalgic reasons. There were much less graphic limitations, and things they wouldn't allow. As described in the documentary. In terms of crossing a line. Observing now, however, things have drastically changed. With the introduction of "buckets of blood" as one of the newer producer's said. As if that makes the movie. Blood and guts. But it sells to some people as a form of sadism I believe. Not that I find it a problem. But it is something I have noticed regardless. How far they have come to pushing the envelope.

But the movies we have? It is still nothing compared to what some horror based anime have done.

Oh! Then there is videogames like Hatred which got a lot of fired up souls about it encouraging running out and gunning people down.

And there's Mortal Kombat(the one I played) which pushes the envelope on Fatalities for Shock Factor.

There is a clear evolution.

 

[/DG/]

Do you think TV is getting more brutal?

I wondered this myself watching Outlander and Turn this morning, which I think are giving Game of Thrones a run for its money in terms of the main characters being mutilated or murdered one week to the next, although I also saw a nostalgic clip about 90s cartoons aswell suggesting that people are nostalgic for that content because 9/11 was such a watershed in world affairs (american centric I know but anyway).

Correct me if I am wrong, but haven't shows on subscription services like HBO (and now Netflix, Hulu, and the like) always had more freedom to be more dramatic? Isn't there something about regular broadcast TV and cable that restricts this sort of thing?

Also, if you think things from the 90s couldn't be gory/shocking, perhaps you should check out Ren and Stimpy, a "children's show."

 

[Lark]

Correct me if I am wrong, but haven't shows on subscription services like HBO (and now Netflix, Hulu, and the like) always had more freedom to be more dramatic? Isn't there something about regular broadcast TV and cable that restricts this sort of thing?

Also, if you think things from the 90s couldn't be gory/shocking, perhaps you should check out Ren and Stimpy, a "children's show."

I've thought about the diffrent remits of the different broadcasters, traditional versus new media, but I wasnt sure if that was just a stereotyped kind of thinking, if that makes sense.

Ren and Stimpy was class, Rocko's Modern Life was similar in that respect too, dont know if the animators had anything to do with both shows or anything. I remember reading about the history of each of them and the ways in which Nicolodeon writers and animators were just set "off the leash" and really did take things places that it was not anticipated they would when they were given that direction in the first place.

I remember Ren and Stimpy going from an after dinner time slot on channel four to like a 4.00AM viewing slot but a lot of craziness of that kind did go on back then depending on the season and popularity, like Oz went from late viewing at around eleven or twelve to 4.00AM and then was used as filler for the small hours and didnt appear to follow any fixed scheduling.

 

[miss fortune]

[MENTION=6554]/DG/[/MENTION] has a point... Oz was pretty brutal and it ran '97-'03 and things like Deadwood, The Sopranos and Rome definitely had their moments... and Carnivale had one of the most disturbing ends of an episode that I've ever seen on anything... and that's just HBO in the 90s and early 2000s

I think you probably run across that more now because there is a bigger set of options as to what we can watch and what platforms we can watch them on now and mainstream television doesn't have nearly the control over content that it did in the past because it no longer controls all of the options

 

[ceecee]

[MENTION=6554]/DG/[/MENTION] has a point... Oz was pretty brutal and it ran '97-'03 and things like Deadwood, The Sopranos and Rome definitely had their moments... and Carnivale had one of the most disturbing ends of an episode that I've ever seen on anything... and that's just HBO in the 90s and early 2000s

I think you probably run across that more now because there is a bigger set of options as to what we can watch and what platforms we can watch them on now and mainstream television doesn't have nearly the control over content that it did in the past because it no longer controls all of the options

Right and this is why I don't think TV is becoming more brutal. It always was, it's just that no one has been able to see that until fairly recently.

 

[Thalassa]

Look at this Lark. I'm probably not as old as you,,and wish for Dance Hall Days. I truly wish the world could go prior 1984, I really wish it, everything was so dreamy, and so. ..whatever .

I caught on to this stuff, at 11-12-13, and said yeah, this modern world isn't for me.

 

[Thalassa]

Right and this is why I don't think TV is becoming more brutal. It always was, it's just that no one has been able to see that until fairly recently.

No, things really are more violent. Are you people asleep, or mentally challenged? You love to say oh hey haw haw, it's not more brutal...but it is. And I hate you for lying, Lord Hawhaw.

People are very intentionally stupid in the modern era. I love my childhood, the vague, slightly medieval, love there


They pretend the world isn't more brutal. People are desensitized, look into factory farming, if we were at 4 billion 40 years ago, we'd be doing well, it was a much kinder world, and it's all a mistake. I've felt from 8 years old, it's a mistake.

There are a lot if incredibly average stupid people on this website. [MENTION=7280]Lark[/MENTION], you're not one of them.
[MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION] you're principally defined by your arrogance, I find you ridiculous and average, there's nothing exceptional about you but your attitude, you've disgusted me for years, with your lame BDSM (COULD YOU BE MORE 90S) and just generally stupid attitude, like saying extreme vegans are stupid, when most are your masters intellectually, I've had about enough of your middle aged 90s garbage.

I'm sick of a lot of people on this website. There's an astounding number of stupid people here.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

[MENTION=6554]/DG/[/MENTION] has a point... Oz was pretty brutal and it ran '97-'03 and things like Deadwood, The Sopranos and Rome definitely had their moments... and Carnivale had one of the most disturbing ends of an episode that I've ever seen on anything... and that's just HBO in the 90s and early 2000s

I think you probably run across that more now because there is a bigger set of options as to what we can watch and what platforms we can watch them on now and mainstream television doesn't have nearly the control over content that it did in the past because it no longer controls all of the options

^^

When there were only 30 or so cable channels, I think networks had to tailor their material to a wider audience, so the most brutal shows were limited to HBO and similar channels.

Now there are so many channels that target markets have become split into enough sub-markets to allow more brutal series like Walking Dead acceptable on general cable networks.