Taking A Deeper Look At What Is Shown On Television
WARNING
This article contains mentions of addiction, death, eating disorders, and other similar things.
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From light hearted comedies to powerful action films, what screens on TV has changed drastically throughout the years. In the late 1920’s to early 1930’ the first television statement came to life. Everything was in black and white and what was being shown were comedies and drama in one acts. However, times have changed and now there are so many new genres and new audiences that have been discovered. The first teen drama to ever come out in America was in between 1965 – 1966. Ever since that moment, younger viewers started watching more shows like these because they found them relatable. On January 25 of 2007 the show Skins came out. It was about English students living through high school and college. But what made this show more different than others was that instead of Skins ending every episode with a happy ending, it showed the dark sad truth about things that go on in the real world. Skins was not sugar coated at all. The show talked about heavy topics that society or the public did not want to shine light on.Eating disorders, death, addiction, self harm, and many more dark topics were talked about and that started a lot of controversy because parents and commentators thought depressing subject matter isn’t something that should be shown on TV, especially not for young audiences. Yet Skins became very popular around the world.
And after that more shows talking about these topics were being shown more on TV and they became very popular. Those shows were shows like Euphoria, 13 Reasons Why, and The Vampire Diaries. But if these shows talked about heavy and serious topics, why did they become more popular?
On an article by Culture Trip, 13 mental health professionals were asked how they felt about the popular teen drama 13 Reasons Why. Some of the experts said they thought the show was a great way to inform teens on these topics, and it was a great way to tell them to reach out and that help is out there. However, some experts thought the show shouldn’t have come out or showed the heavy scenes found in its plot.
Yet on the Culture Trip article, mental health expert David Ezel said that the show 13 Reasons Why is more likely to save a life than take one. The show talks about the aftermath of a young girl taking her own life . This professional says that the show is a possible way to help kids decide not to do it. He says the show shows more awareness than anything.
On the other hand, another professional from the same article says that teenagers are impulsive and impressionable and they might pick up the bad or harmful things that are talked about in this show.
When asked about the shows Euphoria, 13 R reasons Why , and skins sophomore Isable Hackett said that she agreed with shows talking about harsh topics. he thinks it’s important for shows to spread awareness about these things. She also thinks that in the future there should be more shows like these.
Sophomore Chloe Railsback says that these types of shows are not her favorite, but she finds them interesting. Railsback said that she read 13 Reasons Why And watched it, too. But she could not finish it because there was too much to unpack.
