Have you ever wondered why TV audiences are drawn to series like Euphoria, The Walking Dead, and You? What is it about the horrific plotlines and despicable characters that we find so captivating?
The answer to that question is complicated, filled with many facets and caveats. Believe it or not, dark TV shows such as these can actually be good for our overall mental health and even help us to cope with the stresses of real life.
Characters like Jon Snow in Game of Thrones or Jack Reacher in Reacher are shining examples of moral fortitude. Like the time-honored fable "The Scorpion and the Frog," these characters will always do what's right — because it's in their nature.
Take Negan from The Walking Dead. He's easily one of the most amoral reprehensible characters in TV history, yet paradoxically one of the most beloved in the entire series. How can that be?
Fear, lust, anger, greed, and vengeance are powerful forces. Throughout history, we've been taught to quell and subdue these natural instincts because they are damaging and damning to society. But what if we could experience them vicariously in a safe and controlled manner?
These series, and many others like them, allow audiences to live out their darkest fantasies vicariously from the safety of their own home.
Freud theorized that human beings are driven toward death and destruction, famously declaring that "The aim of all life is death."
A person of sound mind, therefore, does not act upon their "Death Drive" as it is counterintuitive to their nature. Seeing horrific acts of violence play out on TV, in a controlled and fabricated environment, actually works to subdue our natural instincts to harm ourselves and others.
Human beings, left to their own devices, are nasty, brutish animals. We are only ever as good as our society allows us to be.
This is why we can't look away when we witness Negan mercilessly beating Glenn with a baseball bat in TWD; why for some sick and deranged reason, we empathize with Joe Goldberg in You.
Did you know that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most popular films streaming on Netflix was Contagion? Were you aware that Squid Game, a show whose whole purpose is to exploit society's most vulnerable and depraved individuals, became Netflix's most-watched series of all time?
It's not at all dissimilar to why we enjoy riding roller coasters or watching a scary TV show — because it allows us to experience these emotions without fear of self-harm or reprisal.
Nietzsche once famously wrote that "When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you." The abyss, therefore, reveals who we truly are, and can even allow us to discover our own heroism among monsters.
