more on violence

I think I agree that there is a fascination with violence on television these days. One particular show that came to mind as I was reading Andrea’s blog was one of my favorites: Monk. It is a show about a detective with a severe OCD but it works to his advantage to solve crimes. The thing that stuck out to me was that if you watch it, when the murder scene happens there is often little if any intense music. I don’t know if this is simply desensitization to violence or simply playing the violence down. I think you could argue it both ways.

I think the trend will continue as long as these kinds of programs occupy most of the air time. Now that I think about it, if I were to turn the TV on right now there are virtually no programs on that do not incorporate some sort of violence. I can recall one time I was watching spongebob with my kid sister (yes I was watching spongebob) and it was an episode where he was trying to entertain a group of kids. Nothing worked until finally he accidentally hurt himself. The kids laughed and he said: “They seem to be amused by my pain.” He then proceeded to an afternoon of self inflicted torture to entertain the kids. Although this is just a kids show and this kind of violence doesn’t seem like a big deal, I think it tells us, like Andrea said, that there is a fascination of violence.