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than it did a decade or two ago.
Whatever you think of the results
of this trend, there are quite a few
logical factors behind it:
Every day, an ever-expanding
array of networks flood the market with all kinds of programming,
and new-media companies like
Netflix and Hulu are stepping into
the fray as well. So how does a
network stand out in a cluttered
media landscape? One way to get
eyeballs is to gouge them out, apparently. January’s moderately
successful debut of Fox’s The Following not only showed or mentioned a couple dozen murders,
but also featured a disturbing
scene with a mutilated dog. Not
one to be left behind, NBC debuts Hannibal later this season;
the drama tells the backstory of
the serial killer from The Silence
of the Lambs. Gone are the days
when a posse of good-looking doctors, lawyers or cops were enough
to garner a reasonable audience
— at least that’s what network
executives concerned about audience erosion appear to be thinking. Take Do No Harm, a shortlived doctor drama on NBC about
a physician who moonlighted as
— wait for it — a murderer.
Television isn’t competing only
TV
with other networks and the internet; it’s also competing with
other leisure pursuits, including
video games and movies. Television executives are well aware that
the video-game and film industries
are peeling off potential viewers,
and they have responded accordingly. Whatever we may think of
the bleed-through among media
platforms, it’s not surprising that
certain sequences in The Walking
Dead resemble challenging levels
on Call of Duty and that Game of
Thrones makes the body count of
The Hobbit look quaint.
Television audiences have seen
a lot over the years, and television writers know that heeding the
HUFFINGTON
03.03.13
David
Morrissey
as “The
Governor”
in AMC’s
The Walking
Dead.