Book Expo America (or BEA) was in Los Angeles this year, and I attended for business. My job requires me to monitor the book biz not only to scout it for material that might work for our franchise but also to track trends. Know what the trend seems to be these days? Living on the fringe. The theme of most books tended towards the dark. Awful thing happens to person and person turns to drugs, sex, and alcohol to cope. It's an orgy of addiction, trashy living, and not taking personal responsibility for one's actions. Hmm, here I thought we went to books for escape from the drudgery of our own lives. Of course, escapism was offered too, only through fantasy fiction and magical surrealism.
It's no different in TV land. I was just perusing the June 6th issue of Entertainment Weekly in which they highlighted the summer preview. On AMC we have Breaking Bad starring the dad from Malcolm in the Middle who is now playing a high school science teacher who finds out he has cancer so to make a little extra money he uses his powers for evil instead of good by making crystal meth. Over on CBS, we have Swingtown in which they've corralled Mrs. Garrett from Deadwood, Jack Hanson from Melrose Place, and Capt. Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean into a suburb and into bed where everyone is wife-swapping and the name of the game is to entrap the new "square" neighbors into their risky little games. Showtime continues its descent into all sex, all the time by airing Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which is about -- well, a call girl -- and her many trials and tribulations while juggling her career and her personal life. As Scarlett O'Hara would say, "La!" ABC Family -- a Disney Channel for the love of all that's holy -- will be airing The Secret Life of the American Teenager which the creator calls "7th Heaven with sex" and EW calls "Juno goes TV...follows newly knocked up Amy, her baby's father, Ricky, and the guy she loves who isn't the dad." (Remember my rants about Juno? They'll never stop if this trend keeps up.) If you rather watch violence instead of sex or drugs, then maybe Generation Kill over on HBO is your cup of tea. Based on a nonfiction book and produced by the guys who brought you The Wire, it's about the first Marines in Iraq and what they faced. Namely, you know, war. The producer promises that they'll put you right there in the Humvee. Umm, great? Or, if reality shows are more your thing, you can flip to cable channel G4 to watch Hurl! A reality show that asks people to dog down a troth of food then subject themselves to nausea inducing activities and daring them not to puke.
I'm a prude. I've been a prude since I was a young girl. I blame my family and the crazy shenanigans I viewed growing up. Though it could have been Catholic school. Probably a combination of the both. And while I appreciate some of the more sexy shows that are currently on (The Tudors and Big Love come to mind), I find it kinda sad that we're currently in a climate where the more self-abusing a person is, the more entertaining we find them. I wonder if this is cynicism or Darwinism? Are we to a place where we don't expect anything good any more, or are we able to look to these characters in relief, noting that "at least I'm not that bad"? Don't know. What I do know is that my TiVo will get a break this summer. Because I will never be desperate enough to watch a show called Hurl! Seriously, that's just gross.
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