The original post: /r/television by /u/fabiusjmaximus on 2025-09-24 15:57:26+00:00.
If you browse this subreddit frequently you’ve probably encountered the term “competency porn”, used to describe shows like The Pitt. The basic idea is that certain shows scratch an itch for some people by showcasing its cast of characters performing their job very well. Maybe there’s some subconscious element to it, like we hope that the people staffing our key institutions are really that good, or that we could manifest that kind of attitude for ourselves, or something. But it’s clear that there’s some kind of deep-seated appeal in seeing people excel.
In contrast there seems to be a rival genre appearing: anti-competent TV. I don’t think it’s quite right to call it “incompetence porn”, given that the appeal of these shows is not meant to be the viewer relishing in the characters fucking up; that sort of is a type of television already, and is quite distinctly separate in tone and content. Rather, anti-competent TV is characterized by the centrality of inexplicable incompetence to the narrative. It is not necessary for incompetence to be an intended feature or theme of the show, and often it is the opposite in that the characters or organizations are meant to be portrayed as powerful and capable, but the writers still need them to make incomprehensible decisions to advance the plot.
The two central examples I’m thinking of are Severance and Alien: Earth. These are both shows with extraordinarily powerful, resource-rich, and supposedly capable corporations at their core, who comprehensively fail repeatedly at every level in order to allow the plot to advance. It is not merely that their leadership is greedy, or suffering from hubris, or overestimates their own intelligence, or suffers some either classic tragic flaw; that is not the point of anti-competence. Nor are they overcome by particularly inventive, or intelligent, or determined actors. They and their employees simply fail at the most basic tasks, and do so repeatedly.
Take for example this scene from Alien: Earth. This character, who is supposedly some kind of biologist with advanced education, is doing about a million things wrong in a lab environment, the kind of things that get stamped out of you before you are even let into the lab in Chem 101 at the shittiest university. Eating and drinking in the lab, no quarantine, no safety mechanisms, no protective equipment, no mandatory safety procedures, etc. (I pity this actress for being stereotyped as the bad-at-science woman, appearing both this and Severance in awfully-written roles). Following that there are a series of four or five separate terrible, idiotic, incompetent decisions that have to be made in order for the plot to progress.
If this was one or only a few of the scenes of this kind, it would be easier to swallow. Yeah, I get it, stories have to happen, no one wants to see a show where everyone does the right thing and nothing bad occurs as a result. The problem is that this kind of thing happens repeatedly in anti-competent TV, because the writers are apparently not intelligent enough to figure out a way to advance things without the characters being incredibly, incredibly, immersion-breakingly stupid. Yes, I can understand it when the little kid in an adult body does something stupid because he wants to impress his mentor, that’s totally believable. But when that kind of thing is leaned on over and over again, you start to think it might be the only trick the writers have up their sleeve.
The other thing that sucks about this kind of TV is it tends to create bitter fan discussions. Fandom for media in general has become increasingly like that of sports teams in the social media age, where you doggedly defend or attack things based on your arbitrary affiliation. So people will claim that this kind of general incompetence is “satirical”, saying that it’s some kind of wry commentary about corporations and late-stage capitalism or whatever. First of all, I’m not buying that in shows coming from Disney and Apple. Secondly, it’s an awfully big coincidence that what defenders claim is social commentary is also indistinguishable from bad and unimaginative writing.
Thirdly, this is of course not how companies or other large organizations actually work. I’m aware that television writers are increasingly of the sheltered-rich type, and I wonder how many of them have actually had the misfortune of having to step into an office. (You see a similar phenomenon in current depictions of the military or other hierarchical organizations, where you would swear none of them have ever served based on how they write characters’ dismissiveness of discipline or deference). Yes, corporations hire stupid people sometimes. Yes, companies are greedy and driven by profit. No, that does not translate into them being perpetually incompetent and unable to protect their most basic interests. In fact this usually is what leads companies to devise boring, repetitive, redundant safety mechanisms and procedures to prevent dumb people from fucking up.
Ah, but that one guy in Alien: Earth said that even smart people do stupid things! So that makes it a sort of theme or something! OK, but he was referring specifically to an act of hubris like bringing incredibly deadly organisms back to Earth, not that smart people deliberately tie their shoelaces together than try to walk. Both shows I give as examples want you to believe their central antagonists are smart and able, but at the same time has to render them incredibly short-sighted in order for the required crises to occur. In this respect the shows often end up undermining themselves when they reveal more information; if you look at early season speculation for Severance or Alien: Earth you will see lots of theorizing that what merely appears to be tremendous oversights are in fact part of nefarious secret plans! Only for it to eventually be revealed that no, they’re actually just really really dumb. (My favourite example of this was various speculation as to why the Innies were never monitored in Severance, only for it to turn out they were actually always being watched by doppelgangers who nevertheless decided not to intervene when something plot-critical was about to happen).
All of this as a viewer is just tremendously unsatisfying. I think there’s a principle in realist mediums like most television where you as a viewer don’t want to see the strings. Yes you might be aware that there are logistical, contractual, and practical concerns that shape the creative direction of the show but you don’t actually want to be reminded of any of that when you watch because it very rudely breaks immersion. When writers are unable to move the plot forward without requiring people to be staggering incompetent – especially those who are otherwise characterized as being smart and capable – it becomes too obvious what the trick is and you see the manipulation for what it is. People resent that, not just because people don’t like feeling like they’re being emotionally manipulated, but also because it makes them think the writer thinks the viewer is stupid too.