Like many of us, I've had a bit more time these past few months to check out TV series - I picked up a couple of new video subscriptions so I could watch, for example, Succession. I had heard and read so much about this show from students who really enjoyed it and from critics who recommended it.
Succession fits into a category that many academics and media professionals would call "Quality Television." The designation, which is applied to series like HBO's The Sopranos, prioritizes complicated narratives, outstanding production values and "realistic" depictions of life. It seems also to prioritize all kinds of foul language and evil actions, generously peppering dialogue with the "f word" and highlighting vice rather than virtue.
This version of "quality" is most likely not for everyone...not even for a majority of TV viewers. Certainly not for me.
Sure, production values are excellent, and some of the acting is top notch. But the themes, characters and plots are light years away from "quality entertainment" in my book. The show isn't inspiring...or thought-provoking...or edifying...or even informative.
Succession, and many series like it, feature themes of infidelity, rape, narcissism, and the abuse of power. "Good" is pretty much defined as "what works to advance one's goals," and evil isn't something to overcome...unless, of course, it doesn't work to one's benefit. Main characters are liars and opportunists whose primary traits include selfishness, acquisitiveness, thirst for power, and manipulativeness.
Perhaps this is a high bar for "quality" - but the stories we tell, listen to, and watch become part of our culture. And it is up to each one of us whether we create and choose content that enriches and ennobles that culture or impoverishes and degrades it.
Thanks for this evaluation, so valuable as one seeks to find some truly quality tv showa!