TV Tuesday: The Bold and the Beautiful

[feurioo]

It’s often been the case that the rich and powerful are shown on TV far more often than lower middle class, working class, or poor people, despite their actual percentages in most populations. Does this bother you as a viewer? Does genre play any role in that?

Comments

[flo_nelja]

When there is a series about very rich people, especially historical, my litmus is "are servants secondary characters with a personality, or just props?"
Because working class characters being badly written and caricatures bothers me more visibly than having none at all.

You know, now i'm wondering what are my fave shows about people who aren't rich :D We could have a constructive rec conversation about this. (Derry Girls <3 )

[author_by_night]

LOVE the question. It's something I think about a lot. I think there are a few factors.

Sometimes even shows that don't portray "the rich and powerful" still ultimately portray characters who are financially very comfortable (like in Modern Family), or who aren't necessarily meant to be "comfortable", but end up being written that way. I think there are a few factors.

A. The cost of living has gone up, so a show from 20, maybe even 10 years ago might portray a "poor" family as living in a house that would be more expensive now.

B. The shows might be written by more privileged people, so their perspective is skewed.

C. I think cost is often ignored for storytelling ease. If you want multiple vacation storylines, your characters need to be able to travel to Hawaii or Disney all the time without much thought. Teen characters almost never have to work to go to college, or join 40 activities for scholarship money, because if they're at work or various practices all the time, they can't get up to other stuff you might want them to do. If your character loses his job, it's more fun to have him make claymation figures and invent a game than it is for him to realize he's running out of money for rent. (Yes, I am talking about Ben from Parks and Recreation. Who canonically comes from a wealthy family, so presumably has a backup plan if all else fails.)

So if they're meant to have money, it works, but even if they're not meant to have a fair amount of money, they still operate in a way that would only work IRL if they did.

And of course, if you make characters truly rich and powerful, you have even fewer restrictions. I think this might be why so many drama characters are rich. They have more time to fly all around the world wreaking havoc.

Does it bother me? Not really, but I notice. I think I generally excuse it for the reasons I mentioned, but I appreciate shows that make sincere attempts at representing the rest of us.

Then we get into period dramas. I have to admit, I'm tired of dramas about sad rich white people. It's one of the reasons I love Our Flag Means Death. But again, I think the drama is more convenient, because Lord and Ladies don't have to work long days at the factory. They have time to have 20 million affairs with all the other Lords and Ladies.

[tinny]

I feel like since i mostly watch tv as a form of escapism, the characters not constantly having to worry about money is a relaxing factor for me.

I'm not a fan of watching the rich and powerful. i avoid those shows when i can, although there are exceptions that draw me in for other reasons (Bridgerton with its sex-positive attitude for example). I like shows about average people. I'm okay when those are then shown to have an "average" amount of money, and not a debilitating lack of it.