On Being Dissatisfied with Dark Television

Let me start off this post by saying that this last year or so has been a dark tv-viewing year for me. Between last year and this year, I've watched all of Sons of Anarchy and Dexter, AHS: Coven, House of Cards, The Walking Dead, and, most recently, True Detective and House of Cards season two, and I am getting really tired of all the bull shit, so tired, in fact, that I would rather watch reruns of Gilmore Girls and 30 Rock than watch new episodes of True Detective or House of Cards, and here is why:

It seems like all of these "serious" shows that are met with such positive critical acclaim are all about how much shocking violence and human suffering they can pack into a 50-minute episode. These shows are filled with rapes, graphic murders ranging from dismemberment to shoving girls in front of trains, torture of animals and people, and any other means of making the characters miserable and the viewers uncomfortable. At one point in this season of House of Cards I had to leave the room so I could not hear the squealing of a guinea pig about to be crushed underfoot. It has gotten so bad in all of these shows that Matt and I have begun to identify which characters--human and animal--are introduced solely so they can be brutally tortured or murdered on camera later in the season. 

Now, I am not necessarily prudish about violence. I understand that rape is a reality and that people lie, cheat, murder, and rape every day. My issue with these shows is that it has reached the point where that is all these shows are doing. In Slate's defense of the misogyny in True Detective (which is blatant and atrocious), the author concludes that it is okay because the message of the show is that men do bad things. No shit. Men do bad things? Men do bad things sums up the messages of Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, and House of Cards. Imagine that. AHS:Coven would like to add that women do bad things, too. Yes, I get it. It's true. People suck. Nihilism is cool. But I am looking for something with more substance. 

I am also suspicious of this message. We have a million shows telling us that people suck, we are all depraved, the world is shitty, and there is nothing we can do about it. That message seems to me to be a cop out. It invites us to ignore social realities. It allows the privileged viewers of the show to get desensitized to violence and human suffering, and it ignores the fact that there are real problems in this world that can be helped by human action. It glosses over the fact that much of the suffering in this world occurs as a result of racism, sexism, and wealth disparity. And the fact that most of these shows are about white men and their problems only strengthens my suspicions. 

So, I am sick of this trend in television. I want something with character development, something in which female characters exist as something more than plot devices, something with a real message, something that doesn't leave me feeling both violated and implicit when I finish an episode. Sadly, some of these shows began with promise. I think American Horror Story's first two seasons are great and I much prefer them to this last season in which each new episode depicts women finding a new way to torture each other. I am probably most upset by the demise of Sons of Anarchy, which I thought was going somewhere in the first few seasons, but the last season made it clear that the show is only about violence and suffering and the female characters that I became so invested in are simply there to facilitate more gratuitous violence and human suffering. 

That being said, I am looking to season two of The Americans to restore my faith in television and provide me with the smart show with substance that I am looking for. Until then, I will continue to rewatch Gilmore Girls, Buffy, and 30 Rock. 

I owe this post to Netflix; without it I never would have been able to binge watch all these shows and reach the dark, frustrating place that led me to write this.  

The Awesome Bitch on Television

Recently, I have been on a Jezebel kick, which is probably better than my Sons of Anarchy binge. During my perusal of their publications yesterday, I found "Breaking Bitch: Admit You Have a Problem with Women." In this article, the author grapples with Anna Gunn's claims in her New York Times piece, "I Have a Character Issue." Basically, Anna Gunn argues that the mass hatred of her character, Skyler White on Breaking Bad, is gendered. She explains that most of the problems with her character come from the misguided notion that a woman should "stand by her man" even when her man is a homicidal meth-cooking psychopath (my words, not hers). I immediately felt vindicated, because I have had quite a few debates about this with my husband. They go something like this:

"Skyler is such a bitch."
"Why?"
"She's just awful, and she's always undermining Walt or getting angry for no reason."
"You mean she undermines her husband who is putting her family in constant danger by cooking meth, and gets angry at him for violating federal law and risking his own life? That sounds unreasonable."

While I don't have a good leg to stand on because I have never seen more than a few episodes of Breaking Bad, the same misogynistic phenomenon affects Betty Draper. Betty is constantly criticized for being a dumb bitch because she cheats on Don or because she is, yes, bitchy to the man who repeatedly cheated on her for their entire marriage. Does Betty have problems? Yes. Are Don's problems worse? Yes. Who is hated more? Betty. And I think that is ridiculous. However, while my defense of Skyler and Betty makes me feel like a good little feminist, I am guilty of the same treatment of Lori on Walking Dead.

Oh my goodness, do I hate Lori. Not only do I hate her, but I actually was rooting for her gruesome death. And while, like the author of "Breaking Bitch," I do feel justified in saying that she is an awful character, I also cannot honestly say that my gendered expectations did not play a role in my hatred. She was an unfaithful wife, she was a negligent mother, she made Rick kill his best friend! But, Rick is no more attentive to Carl than she is, and Shane is as much to blame for the affair and his own murder as she is, and I do not feel the same guttural hatred for them that I feel for Lori. The same goes for Cersei Lannister (boo! hiss). Every time I read a Game of Thrones book, I have this internal debate: should I like Cersei? Stand behind her as a strong woman who thwarts patriarchal power? But at the end of the day, I can't. I mean, she's the worst, right? But is she any worse than Jaime, who I sometimes find myself crushing on? How is it that when a woman is maniacal, deceptive, conniving, she is an evil bitch, but when a man is the same thing, he is a sexy genius?

Needless to say, this idea has been percolating in my head for a day now, and it has fueled many conversations between me and Matt. We both come to the same conclusion that our hatred of certain female characters stems from differentiated expectations of what makes a good male character and what makes a good female character. The issue is that the flawed, immoral, but somehow redeemable male hero is a staple of literature; he is the Byronic hero. Think of Dracula, Heathcliff, the Joker. Traditionally, men can get away with more and still be considered heroic or a dark protagonist in film and literature. The examples in modern television are prolific: Jax Teller (Sons of Anarchy), Rick Grimes (Walking Dead), Dexter, Don Draper (Mad Men), Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones), Walter White (Breaking Bad), etc. These men can kill, cheat, lie, and break the law, and yet maintain a positive impression on male and female audiences, which made me wonder...is there a female equivalent of the Byronic hero?

If there is a female Byronic hero, I think she is the Awesome Bitch. The best example I can think of is Julie Cooper from The OC. She does some truly awful things--sleeps with her daughter's ex boyfriend, frames her daughter's boyfriend for murder, plots to kill her husband, starts a prostitution ring, etc--but at the end of the day I root for her success. Not only that, but she is also one of my favorite characters on the show. Julie Cooper is an Awesome Bitch. The problem is when I try to think of more examples, I draw a blank. I think that it is important that fictional female characters be allowed the same moral ambiguity as their male counterparts, but I cannot come up with a decent list of Awesome Bitches like I can for the male dark hero. I think Olivia Pope from Scandal is a candidate, but I actually think Mellie is the better candidate. She does not stand by her man because he does not deserve to be stood by. She thwarts his plans and undermines his authority. Sadly, I pretty much stand alone in my love of Mellie, so she falls more in the category of the unfairly hated women like Betty Draper.

So this long and rambling post had a point, and that is to ask some questions. Do you (male or female) find yourself hating female characters for qualities you would excuse in male protagonists? If so, who are these fictional women that you suspect you might unfairly hate. Also, can you think of further examples of Awesome Bitches in film or literature, women who make morally despicable decisions but still end up being liked?