Bad TV: Escapism in the Age of Coronavirus

Every time an atrocious show is released, there are multiple reviews, critiquing its incompleteness. Regardless of this, audiences are glued to their televisions waiting for the next episode. Twitter becomes a spectacle of #X Show or #Y Show. At the moment, it seems like quality is the least of everyone’s concerns. It’s still quite baffling that thought-provoking shows are laid to rest, while lackluster ones garner the attention of millions.

Even though it may be hard to admit, bad shows manage to maintain our sanity.  Let's travel back to the beginning of the Trump Era. For many of us, his accession to power was quite concerning. But for white liberals, it was especially daunting. Many of them believed America had left its homophobia, misogyny, racism, and anti-Semitism in the past. Gay marriage was the rule of the land and Barack Obama became the first black President. Donald Trump’s election disrupted their post-racial consciousness. 

Thank God Freeform came to the rescue with The Bold Type. The series focuses on the lives of three women: Jane Sloan, Sutton Brady, and Kat Edison, as they work together at Scarlett Magazine. These women go through their unique experiences. For instance, Edison who works in social media, meets a Muslim lesbian woman, Adena El-Amin, and their pathways become intertwined. Jane Sloan gets mentored by the Scarlett editor, Jacqueline Cartlyne, and explores her own writing capabilities. Sutton Brady is figuring out the boundaries she must set up in a relationship. Each episode manages to talk about an important social issue, such as gun control, environmental degradation, and white privilege. 

Also, the formulation of Cartlyne’s character is fairly intentional. Viewers are finally given a female leader to look up to who is qualified for the job. While sexism and misogyny are still rampant in the publishing industry, she manages to stay on top. In the real world, this is quite different. Though Hilary Clinton had the knowledge and the experience for the Presidency, she still lost to Donald Trump. There are many valid criticisms of Clinton's role in imperialism, neoliberalism, and racial inequality but apart from these critiques, Clinton was also a victim of sexism and unlike Cartlyne, she never survived the onslaught.

In the show's effort to demonstrate intersectionality, these characters are reduced to their identities. It’s almost impossible to learn more about their personal hopes and dreams that are not presented superficially. The Bold Type inadvertently displays corporate activism. These three women are in a male-dominated industry and are still unapologetically themselves. Yet, when the show uses these women as outlets to talk about important issues, they never get to the root of the issue. This is quite similar to how companies like Amazon or Google operate. They will release an ad proclaiming “Black Lives Matter” but proceed to mistreat their Black employees and invest in the prison industrial complex.

Most recently, the Coronavirus pandemic completely disrupted American life. Schools, restaurants, bars, and other gathering spaces were forced to close down leaving people out of work and without company. With the absence of a strong public healthcare system, hospitals were flooded with patients. In the midst of all this chaos, essential workers were viewed as expendable by their employers even as they helped society function. It seems like this virus exasperated an already broken system, one which put profits over people. To make matters worse, Black people were far from safe in a pandemic. On May 25, 2020, a black man by the name of George Flyod was murdered by the police. A few months prior, Breonna Taylor, was shot by the cops in her own home. After their deaths, folks all across the country were filled with a sense of urgency. Black America could no longer be disrespected or disregarded; fundamental change needed to occur. 

Despite all the agitation, nothing seemed to change. The 2020 election provided the American people with two choices. Either endure four more years of Donald Trump's return to “excruciating normalcy” with Joe Biden. 

Therefore, Netflix has become the best way to escape with its unfailing catalogue. One show that gained much popularity over quarantine was Emily In Paris. It’s quite unbelievable how Emily in Paris attracted the eyes of over 70 million people. The show’s namesake is a flimsy, clueless, and stubborn person who is also the embodiment of American entitlement.  

However, Emily’s world provides an essence of simplicity which has been stripped away from our lives. Her mediocrity is rewarded with a nice job in Paris; her financial worries are nonexistent. Meanwhile, in the real world, most Zoomers and millennials have been denied economic prosperity. Since the beginning of the pandemic, people have only received $1,200 to survive which cannot even cover basic living costs. Besides that, most college graduates have little to no job opportunities. While the show lacks substance, people get to see a young woman whose life exists without the confines of a pandemic.  

In well-developed shows like Euphoria, Russian Doll, and High Fidelity, the characters must confront and live with their own flaws. Rue, from Euphoria, is a seventeen-year-old drug addict on the verge of collapse. When she manages to stay off the pills, she becomes codependent and self-centered, disregarding the feelings of those around her. In Russian Doll, Nadia Vulvokov’s traumatic experiences inform the interactions with those around her. While she is stuck in the maze, she has to grapple with her own selfishness. Even though High Fidelity is much more lighthearted than the two previously mentioned, Rob must realize how self-absorbed she is in regard to her relationships. 

These shows still maintain their fictionality, but there is a sense of reliability in every episode.  A person may spend time discussing the show with friends and family, being distraught about the decisions a character makes, or seeing themselves in them. Sometimes, that can be too antagonizing.  Bad Television is devoid of nuance and complexity. A viewer's ideals are not challenged and their traumas are not resurfaced. While this might seem lazy and unintuitive,  the world we are living in is quite painful and unpredictable. Escaping it is just fine.