Donovan
beer, I want beer
One of the fun things about my new netflix toy is the discovery of programming I might never have seen. In the last week or so I've been watching an excellent british "Lost" style drama called "Survivors" about the last of humanity following a superflu extinction event. The show itself is solid and well written, and the multiple characters show facets American characters often lack. Characters are good and bad all at once, favorites make horrible selfish decisions, and bad guys occasionally act with compassion and depth.
But one striking difference occurs to me with regard to British programming: the aversion to any form of violence. There is a badass character who secretly was a robber/murderer before the flu; in American tv that'd barely be a footnote, and might actually make him cooler. But for the Brits it's this huge social stigma that they spend endless amounts of time worrying about.
At another point, this same badass is called on to defend the little group from attacking thugs. He does so, then after the others leave he gets the upper hand and shoots one of them, then tells the other to go back and let the baddies know that any other attackers will get shot.
In British tv this is a major arc that takes up two seasons, while his compatriots are all angsty and conflicted, the baddies are obsessed with revenge, and there is a huge uproar over whether or not the attacking thug deserved to die once the badass character had him beaten. Two. Seasons.
You know what they call a thug getting capped by a badass in American tv? Opening credits. Seriously. Hell, they should be glad I wasn't in that show, there was a whole list of people I would have shot. Even a couple of the good guys, just because they were annoying. By the end of the first commercial break it would've been a show about just me, wandering around the British countryside shooting street signs. And the occasional stray dog.
The funny thing is, I have no idea if I should be disturbed by my violent mindset or not; it is after all how my country works. I'm considered peaceful here...but it's a good show anyway.
But one striking difference occurs to me with regard to British programming: the aversion to any form of violence. There is a badass character who secretly was a robber/murderer before the flu; in American tv that'd barely be a footnote, and might actually make him cooler. But for the Brits it's this huge social stigma that they spend endless amounts of time worrying about.
At another point, this same badass is called on to defend the little group from attacking thugs. He does so, then after the others leave he gets the upper hand and shoots one of them, then tells the other to go back and let the baddies know that any other attackers will get shot.
In British tv this is a major arc that takes up two seasons, while his compatriots are all angsty and conflicted, the baddies are obsessed with revenge, and there is a huge uproar over whether or not the attacking thug deserved to die once the badass character had him beaten. Two. Seasons.
You know what they call a thug getting capped by a badass in American tv? Opening credits. Seriously. Hell, they should be glad I wasn't in that show, there was a whole list of people I would have shot. Even a couple of the good guys, just because they were annoying. By the end of the first commercial break it would've been a show about just me, wandering around the British countryside shooting street signs. And the occasional stray dog.
The funny thing is, I have no idea if I should be disturbed by my violent mindset or not; it is after all how my country works. I'm considered peaceful here...but it's a good show anyway.
