The original post: /r/television by /u/thatswhatthemoneys4 on 2025-03-07 18:30:49.
I feel like there is a problem with numerous new tv shows that come out these days. Yes, they are gritier, more mature. They may deal with more serious themes and show more violence and intense subject matter. However, they continually fall into the same cheesy character tropes and bad writing that your average network shows do.
Take American Primeval for example, major spoilers below: I really wanted to like this show, and I guess I sort of do still. However, it started out so strong and by the end had fallen into what I mentioned earlier, bad tropes and bad writing. For example, the lady who witnessed the native americans slit the throat of all of her friends somehow by the end of the story is willing to fight and give her life for them? She just forgot about them ruthlessly murdering her friends? All was forgiven? Also in a battle scene towards the end of the series two fairly prominent characters throughout the series just so happen to find each other to have a showdown in the middle of a large chaotic battle? We also see wolves somehow biting through wood boards and jumping through them to get inside a cabin in order to attach the people inside, what?!?!? Finally, towards the end we see a main character, one who by the way survived numerous encounters where he single handedly defeated groups of enemies, being taken out and killed by one man. Why? I guess the series is ending so he needs a dramatic send off.
It’s this sort of bad writing that just seems to plague most shows these days. They are going for gritty realism, but there is nothing real about them. Gritty maybe, but certainly not real. It’s the sort of thing that can really take you out of show and why when every once in a while you come across a show that doesn’t do this, it really shines. Anyway, rant over. Thanks for reading.