and all copaganda shows, and military propaganda
I am sick of seeing the rich and powerful on my screen. Where are all the TV shows about normal people?
Submitted 1 day ago by Skavau@lemm.ee to Television@lemm.ee
Comments
Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 day ago
egrets@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Atlanta, Black Mirror, Severance, Silo, The Terror: Infamy, Slow Horses, The Bear, Black Bird. Most of what I’ve seen recently has been primarily about people who are not wealthy or privileged.
LavaPlanet@lemm.ee 1 day ago
I read some article the other day, how they had noticed a heavy attempt, by Hollywood, to glamorise and humanise ultra rich, like Yellowstone. Is that so we just sit back and shut up and let the billionaires be. Fk that.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Same way that tv shows glorify cops who break the rules and disregard suspects rights. It’s so that we cheer for cops who break the rules and excuse them for “doing what you need to do to catch the bad guy”.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They did it for cops so why not billionaires next!
MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
Normal people are boring. I want to watch TV shows about wizards.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 hours ago
But not the kkk wizards. And if so, be Rick and Morty chopping them into little pieces like the trash they are.
blarghly@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I’d be down to watch a dark comedy about kkk wizards.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
I don’t keep up with current shows but here are my favorites from the last 20 years or so, not exactly about “normal” people but they aren’t rich:
Raising Hope
Trailer Park Boys
Malcolm in the Middle
The Middle
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The New GirlTbh there really are a shit ton more TV shows about normal people than about rich people. Not sure how you are even having trouble finding them. And of course there are always game shows.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Raising Hope was great, especially the first couple seasons.
altphoto@lemmy.today 16 hours ago
The wonder years?
VagueAnodyneComments@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
lmfao
“why doesn’t my compliance drivel feature class consciousness”
blarghly@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Right. Like, first of all, stop watching tv.
Second of all, there is tons of TV about normal people. Like, most of it.
Third, yes, the rich and powerful are overrepresented on tv. Why? Because people like to watch that shit. They know what their own lives are like, and they are boring - people want to watch a show that is interesting. Being rich and/or powerful is an easy way to make a story compelling, and gives writers an obvious way to make up ludicrous plot points.
papertowels@mander.xyz 22 hours ago
Bob’s burgers.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Bob’s Burgers breathes class consciousness. There’s an episode where the kids are forced to volunteer through school, and the rich landlord makes no secret that he’s exploiting their free child labor to clean up his beach. The concept of collective bargaining is played with when the kids decide they don’t want to do that work for free. That episode also includes the lesson that the rich will absolutely use you and screw you over to further their own desires.
The rich landlord is frequently shown dicking around as if the people around him are playthings. In another episode, his tenants decide to hold a rent strike. The landlord uses classic divide and conquer strategy to turn the other tenants against Bob, the leader of the strike, via a water balloon contest (it makes sense in context.)
That’s not even touching the realistic struggles that Bob, Linda, and their family have to live with day-to-day. Despite characters sometimes being, well, completely wackadoo, it’s probably the most relatable animated show I know of.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Well put and I agree, for that same reason I really didn’t like the movie though. Its message is basically summed up as “you can commit murder but only if you’re rich enough.”
The brothers should have drowned in that submarine is all I’m sayin
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
abdominable@lemm.ee 16 hours ago
Skills issue.
veeesix@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
New Taskmaster series just dropped with Jason Mantzoukas for us plebs.
Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Maximum Derek!
Tautvydaxx@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Game changer new season first 2 episodes just droped and its 1000% better than task master. Thats how a game show for us normal people looks like.
HeyMrDeadMan@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“How long can you keep a cat on your lap?” 0.02s
oldfart@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Speaking of, Plebs was a great comedy series
Cossty@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
The biggest reason I dropped Succession during first season. I have no interest in watching some rich fucks and on top of that there is not one likable character in that show.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
You missed the point of the show, they are all unlikable for a reason, and contrary to what you might think, none of them come out on top the way they wanted to. It’s a great show that highlights their petty, callous, empty little lives
Cossty@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I know they are unlikable for a reason. I just don’t feel a need to watch a show about petty, callous empty little lives of rich idiots.
mjhelto@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Shameless: “am I a fucking joke to you?”
Since the wealthy fund the shit, anything to do with the commoner is portrayed as trashy, just above literal refuse with regard to usefulness, while the wealthy are portrayed as the righteous and just, with money to fix all the problems they face and any moral failings related to them is the result of something outside their wealth.
Rustic_Fry@literature.cafe 1 day ago
Are we due for a new fat man, hot wife sitcom?
Ulrich@feddit.org 1 day ago
Roseanne reboot?
workerONE@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Do you think Roseanne was a fat man hot wife sitcom?
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
If we redistributed all excess wealth perpetually they wouldn’t exist anymore and we would stop treating them like kings and gods.
blarghly@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Then we’d find another way to identify the top of the social heirarchy and watch shows about them
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
It would be about the smart people who forward the human race and they would get credit for it.
figjam@midwest.social 1 day ago
Judge Judy, Hoarders, and Cops
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I dunno if you’re being sarcastic here but wow, what a low opinion of normal people!
figjam@midwest.social 14 hours ago
I cast no judgment but these shows are where you can find regular people and not professional actors.
MimicJar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What really resonated with me was watching shows like Roseanne.
The article then goes on to ignore The Connors which aired from October 2018 to April 2025.
Yes, if you ignore all of the shows about “normal people”, you’ll suddenly find no shows about “normal people”.
Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
The Connors went on that long? I’ll have to check it out. I figured with Roseanne having gone off the deep end it wouldn’t hold up much longer.
figjam@midwest.social 1 day ago
mope, they killed her off with fent, made suing the drug company a storyline, and then did like 5 more seasons.
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Also Young Sheldon and the spin-off that’s still going on
OldSoulHippie@hexbear.net 23 hours ago
They have to show rich people because it’s what most people aspire to be.
If they show working class people, then they end up telling on themselves. Homer Simpson was able to pay for a house, three kids and two cars all while being the sole income. All the working class sitcoms of the 90’s seem unrealistic because the characters all work dead end jobs but can still afford those nice TV houses.
It looks unrealistic anymore because we’re out here having to grind so hard just to keep a roof over our heads. Nevermind paying for kids! People won’t watch something that doesn’t reflect their life in some way. At least with the rich people on tv, you can project yourself into that life and not be reminded that you are more broken than the characters of Roseanne and you’re working harder.
Obviously this isn’t a defense, it’s just one read on why they don’t show “normal” people.
01011@monero.town 21 hours ago
Shameless was a great show (the US version). That was very much a show about the working class.
XaetaCore@lemmy.xaetacore.net 1 day ago
Japan has an incredible wealth of entertainment in their TV shows. I highly reccomend KASSO! Its ninja warrior but with skating they have English guests and translations on their YT channel.
Usually non US shows and Movies are alot better imho. Another something you should not sleep on are UK TV shows. Like: The Responder a show about a first responder who is struggling with mental illness and the pressure of his work.
So broaden your horizon, The industry is not as bad as you think
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 23 hours ago
an incredible wealth of entertainment
That is a wild way to write “a few bright spots in a sea of absolute garbage”
XaetaCore@lemmy.xaetacore.net 22 hours ago
Am I honest opinion most things that come out of the United States are shit, so if you exclude the United States from your entertainment library you get left with some pretty good stuff. Just stop watching from sources that reliably produce bad content
Neverbeaten@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Detectorists Northern Exposure Abbott Elementary All Creatures Great and Small Black Books Bored to Death Bridget & Eamon The Cafe Cheers The Cleaner The IT Crowd King of the Hill Letterkenny Peep Show Shameless Spaced Tacoma FD Taxi
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Such content already exists.
There’s a Streisand Effect that occurs when writing about what you don’t want instead of lifting up what you do want.
Tiger@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
The cool irony of this thread complaining about it is that it’s promoting tons of great shows many of us would have not known.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Watch Andor, if you wanna see ordinary people fight the power
lobut@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I haven’t seen it but I’ve heard good things about Adolescence?
I was gonna say that British TV has more realistic or normal people. However I haven’t seen much of that recently. It’s mainly Taskmaster and Black Mirror.
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Why do you need a show about normal people?
You’re surrounded by normal people
DreamAccountant@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We want to see a show about normal people that just happen to be more interesting than the normal person you are.
Money doesn’t make people more interesting, it usually makes them far less interesting.
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The life stories of the people around you are likely more interesting than anything a Hollywood screenwriter can come up with
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 1 day ago
Yeah. Enough of celebrities going on and on about their introspections, how this experience will grow their personality. Show the guy that spend years building a model train track in his garage.
peteyestee@feddit.org 1 day ago
Exactly… Fuck that lifestyle.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Married with Children was super fun and about normal people.
Phen@lemmy.eco.br 1 day ago
Here it is:
That was a joke due to the English name, but Brazil is actually pretty good at making shows and movies about normal, ordinary people.
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 1 day ago
Brazilian show.
All cast is white.Check out.
faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 1 day ago
Depends on how you define white then, is it just skin color? Maybe you’re right, but I know plenty of Brazilians that are indistinguishable from white people. We can’t call them less Brazilian because they’re fairer than the averagei guess real crime is choosing entire cast that is fairer than average and the show being promoted about average people.
vogo13@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I am sick of “history” shows and movies that are completely inaccurate. There are so many unbelievable stories that fiction always takes a backseat for me if I were to choose between a history or sci-fi book for example. Shogun is extremely guilty of this, it had great production but the details were sickeningly incorrect, in Japan people were pissed because it’s an opportunity to teach about culture and every Japanese knows the real story and details of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Americans have already been propagandizing and whitewashing history in many ways since decades past, there is much change to be done.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I tried to watch Shogun, but couldn’t really get into it. I was really hoping I’d like it. Instead I just be watching The Seven Samurai on repeat
Skavau@lemm.ee 1 day ago
To be fair, I don’t know that Shogun ever purported to 100% totally accurate. It is a fictionalisation of events.
LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee 23 hours ago
Shogun was adapted from a book by the same name written by James Clavell who wrote a series of historical fiction books that took place in different times in history.
The series stayed pretty faithful to the novel from what I remember, so the person your replying to’s complaint doesn’t really make much sense in that context.
morphballganon@lemmynsfw.com 1 day ago
Check out the cartoon Aggretsuko. Not from this year but from this decade.
Yeah, it’s a cartoon about anthropomorphic animals, but the characters are all very normal people, personality-wise. So normal, I got sick of watching how normal they were.
RamenDame@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think they portrait (Japanese) work Culture quite well. It seems over the top cause it is an animation but you are right. They have the most normal drama I have seen on TV in quite a while.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I love Aggretsuko! Good recommendation
limonade@jlai.lu 18 hours ago
Bob <3 (hearts) Abishola
CompostMaterial@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
I get it, but look at it this way, most of those shows do not show the rich and powerful in a flattering light E.g. Succession. So you could interpret it as Hollywood trying to shatter the glitz and glamor persona that the rich have always enjoyed.
BillMurray@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Give yourself a favour and watch Son of a Critch…
Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Fuck that shit, I want to watch sci fi
arakhis_@feddit.org 1 day ago
im currently binging orville, its perfect to just forget everything and be entertained in on a silly level
can recommend
wuzzlewoggle@feddit.org 1 day ago
I’m sooo hyped that it’s coming back with another season! Just the show we need these days.
Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Ooh that sounds perfect right now. Lost my pup recently and really need just some good distraction. I’ll check that out today, thank you! And with that username, I’m very excited by your suggestion :)
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
I’ve been rewatching the Expanse. God it’s good.
Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
I just read the summary for that and it sounds awesome, I’ll check that out, thank you!