Like many college students, I have binge watched a lot of TV shows. These were shows that I really enjoyed, and that I think are well done. TV can be a great way to escape our reality. These shows open a tangible window into the realities of fictional characters. These realities are often over-dramatized, and can be really funny or really suspenseful. However, these fictional realities started to become my reality. I was suddenly OK with things that I never would have been in my real life. Here are some shows that I decided to stop watching and why.
1. "Grey’s Anatomy"
I have always loved hospitals, and medicine has always been super interesting to me. I really liked this show, and I have watched probably seven seasons of it. However, as I was watching episode after episode, I suddenly found myself being less repulsed at some of the decisions the characters made. Now all bioethical issues aside, my main concerns with this show were in the relationships. For one, the show glorifies Dr. Mark Sloan, even though he is a serial womanizer. In real life, any doctor that carried on with a whole floor of nurses would be considered disgusting. However, with this show, you find yourself really liking his character. Another huge issue is that most of the characters cheat on their spouses/long-term significant others. I never was OK with that issue, but the show tries to push the affairs under the rug, and make it seem like what happened is fine. This normalization of the fragmenting of a sacred bond is not acceptable, yet it happens time and time again in "Grey’s Anatomy."
2. "Friends"
I love this show, a lot, but there are some underlying themes that are just not acceptable. By the end of the show, you wonder how they don’t all have STDs. Seriously, the amount of sleeping around in this show is disgusting. This show definitely played a huge role in normalizing hook up culture. It’s a subtle, yet dangerous undercurrent in this show.
3. "Scandal"
I think Shonda Rhimes is a very talented writer, her shows are captivating, and she obviously does really well. However, like "Grey’s," "Scandal" promotes lifestyles that are far from noble. For one, the whole show is about Olivia Pope’s ongoing extramarital affair with the POTUS. They paint the FLOTUS as some sort of awful woman, and glorify Olivia and the President’s relationship. I watched a few seasons of this, and then all of the sudden I found myself subconsciously being OK with this relationship. This show is also just very dark, lots of graphic torture scenes and murders. Overall, just not a good show to subject yourself to.
4. "Bate’s Motel"
I wasn’t really aware of the whole Oedipus complex in this show when I started watching it, and honestly, for the first couple of seasons, it didn’t seem that weird. You have a mother and son who need a fresh start, but can’t seem to find a break. It’s a rather sad show, but Norma Bates’ constant perseverance is really inspiring. However, you eventually become aware of the Oedipus complex, and it’s just not something you really want to be watching. That’s really weird and perverted. While I do recognize the importance of having compassion for those who have psychological issues, condoning those behaviors is not OK.
5. "Criminal Minds"
I have always loved mysteries. I read most of the Nancy Drew books as a little kid, and in high school, I loved "Monk." This show is really well done. It’s super suspenseful, and the acting is exquisite. However, as you’re watching these episodes, you start to realize that the themes for these episodes have been headlines in recent news. One of the themes behind the show is that the criminals have severe psychological issues. Now like I just said, compassion in those situations is key. However, a TV show that retells these stories over and over again, glorifying these criminals — that’s not cool. People who do awful things to other people shouldn’t have a TV show made after them, even if the names and situations are changed. I stopped watching this show because I felt like it glorified severe criminal activity.
6. "New Girl"
This is basically a rip off of "Friends." It’s one woman living in a building with four men in a big city. This show is really funny, but has a lot of casual sex and cheating. A lot of the dialogue is also very perverse in nature. I think that "New Girl" is more ruthless than "Friends." Very few of the conversations leave you not wanting to cringe.
My main reason in not watching these shows is that I saw them as a glorification of a lot of things that are wrong in society. Like I said, I really enjoyed each of these shows, but, my enjoyment comes second to my conscience.
