Television drama controllers are getting away with murder - Bruce Whitehead
Last week I noticed that Channel Four's on demand streaming service is infested with shows including the word “murder” in the title or subtext.
Here's a list:
Murder Case
Outback Murder Highway
Never Ending Murder
The Summerdahl Murders
Murder in Paris
Murder Trial
Murder in Suburbia
Billionaire Murders
Meet, Marry, Murder
The Marnow Murders (Two detectives enter murderous moral mazes)
The Marlow Murder Club
Nordic Murders
How to get away with murder... etc ad nauseam.
Granted many of these are older shows – I lost count. A glance at the other platforms suggests the same obsession among commissioning executives at our national broadcast and streaming media outlets. I've often wondered if there's sociological research into the possible harmful effects of saturated killing-themed "entertainment"? I mean, is it not possible that when a vulnerable person especially, consumes hours and hours of maudlin, graphic depictions of procedural homicides, that they might gradually change for the worse in their behaviour? And that one day, faced with a stressful situation, they could react in a way partly "pre-programmed" into their subconscious, because of their almost total immersion in elaborate, realistic violence acted out by trusted and worshipped screen idols? Perhaps murders are not just committed by people with identified schizophrenia and delusional mental illnesses, but also more directly conditioned by the killing content they absorb day after day.
Even without any causal link, what the hell's wrong with drama commissioners? Where's the quality narratives about ordinary lives, exciting in their own way, about social and climate issues, and upheaval in so many lives from tech and so-called artificial "intelligence"? Instead Scottish TV output seems stuck in a perpetual glut of dull documentaries about our lochs and rivers and islands. Yes, they're beautiful; but what's really going on in people lives? Where's the new Scottish Play For Today? Who's the next Tony Garnett or Ken Loach? Ali Smith, Ian Rankin and Jackie Kay are well able to produce appointment TV again. Let's see it soon!