American TV has become very... French...

[Dark Jaguar]

Have you noticed that most of the best series on TV are all about, like they CENTER around, complete and utter despair and disappointment? It seems like the modern theme of TV is "Nothing in life ever goes the way you plan. You will DIE and every dream you ever had will dissolve in the wind! No one you ever loved actually truly understands you, and once they die you won't even be a footnote in history!"

Basically, it's all gone French... or Russian... yeah probably something between those.

[A Black Falcon]

Has it? I guess I haven't noticed, if this is true...

[Dark Jaguar]

Let's see... The Wire, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad... I can't think of any hit shows outside of sitcoms that actually end well for any of the protagonists.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, shows like those. You're right, they are very popular, and very dark... but aren't there still also plenty of more traditionally optimistic American shows out there? But it is true that Game of Thrones and such are very popular now.

[Dark Jaguar]

At the moment, bleakness is leading the charts. I just listed 3 examples, but it seems pretty much ALL the big dramas (another one: Walking Dead) are as dark as it gets. This includes the stuff exclusive to, say Netflix. House of Cards has a sociopathic murderous politician as it's protagonist, screwing everyone else around him over and WINNING (it is otherwise a pretty trashy show). Orange is the new Black, aside from it's very dumb name, is a show about prison where nothing goes right for anyone. Aside from the trash of television (like sitcoms and soap operas, also reality shows), the stuff that's doing extremely well is as bleak as possible. Heck, even the cartoons are getting bleak (the blame for this I place squarely on Family Guy).

Well forget it, I'll just watch some fairy tale stuff! *Watches "Once Upon a Time"* What the hell did they do to my fairy tales!? Why is everyone constantly having terrible things happen to them, not just as a plot device but as they seem to make explicit, BECAUSE they are doing the right thing? And look at all these Disney live-action remakes! Who keeps turning Snow White into an action star? Why is Maleficent the protagonist? Okay that's a somewhat different problem, but it seems related.

Nuts to this! I'm going to watch something from some other country! What's a popular anime right now? Oh, I suppose I'll check out this "Attack on Titan" show.

[alien space marine]

the trend is not new, it's been heading in that direction for 13 years since 911 , the wars, the recession, the ever worsening cluster fuck ect...
I wish star trek would return to tv set in with the optimistic tone of TOS and TNG , rather then doom and gloom.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I love the darkness and drama of Breaking Bad, but I didn't sympathize with Walt the way most people did. I think the goal of the show is to see how far you're willing to agree with his decisions, which ended pretty early on for me. Since he had a terminal illness, I kind of wished it had only lasted 1 or 2 seasons instead of 5. I guess we're lucky with what we got, I'd hate to see it drag on. Its very premise lends itself to a short story arc for the protagonist.

Uh, I don't watch any of the other stuff. I've heard great things about "Orange is the New Black", but I haven't gotten around to putting it on.