Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Good vs Evil in TV

So many TV shows try to deal with popular "issues" that really are not issues, in that everyone knows the answers. We all know that child/animal/whatever abuse is wrong. We all know that murder is wrong. Oh wait...do we all know that? Abuse, murder, racism, etc... Those are repeatedly covered by popular media in the shallowest way: good guys versus bad guys, black and white. In particular a lot of cop/lawyer shows seem to be saying that the good guys are always right and the ends justify the means. After all, Jack Bauer is fighting the biggest threat the world will ever face, by any means necessary, and if he roughs up the bad guys, so what? They're bad guys.

Have you ever met anyone who is entirely good/evil? Do you really think there are such people? I believe that most, if not all, people are doing the best they know how. I don't think anyone has truly evil motives, but people are misguided, or just have different priorities, and all of us make mistakes. Some shows show this. In Battlestar Galactica, are the humans right, or are the cylons right? Maybe both are. I watched an episode of Boston Legal last night in which a young woman who had spent most of her life as a slave, and was pregnant with her owners child, protested against the owner's plans to sell the child. The owner beat her for it and she stabbed him with a knife. Was she right or wrong? I really don't know.

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