Things I Learned From Television
Written By: jonny.gotham
Date: December 05, 2007
Comments: 0
As filled with clichés as they are, there is a lot to draw insight from if you’re looking hard enough. Television shows deal with reality in their own small ways, doing as best they can to highlight aspects we take for granted, and bringing excitement and wonder to the most menial of day to day tasks. We can be certain that most are not so naïve to believe that television is a mirror, but perhaps we’re willing to stretch enough to see it as a magnifying glass… The details are majestic, the imperfections glaring, and the view is so close that it’s hard to recognize the larger picture, the greater scheme… the reality of it all.
Few of us can claim lives filled with epic spy missions, murder mysteries, or medical mayhem, but we can empathize and take comfort in these shows through their shared, underlying backbone… the characters are just people. These people have lives, relationships, families, insecurities, specialties, love, hate, and sex.
Most of the time, people dismiss the events as pure folly because the microcosm on screen is so fantastic that it defies reality… but what if that was just a self imposed narrow–mindedness? Why are we so quick to jump to the world of impossibility, failing to recognize the embellishments as story telling devices, and failing to recognize a potentially shocking perspective? The writers are people too. While the stories you watch unfold may be a series of grand gestures, you should be open to the possibility that those broad strokes are covering up more realistic detail — you might actually be watching an evolved form of wisdom attempting to pass itself down… to you.
Every story has some basis in humanity, no matter how out–there or crazy it may seem. When you’re watching or hearing a tale, you may very well be listening to that author’s hopes, their dreams, and most importantly, their failures. It’s a compilation of life experiences they drew upon to create those stories, letting you connect through a shared human experience of living life. We can only write good stories about things we have some idea about, and that’s the crux of it all. You can dress it up as a smoldering 30–something doctor, a cartoon rat, or a strange alien, but in the end, we can only write stories that are human experiences at heart.
You have to realize that when shows like Grey’s Anatomy seem overly enlightened with their ending narration, it might not be self–indulgent writing or pretentiousness, but a person crying–out, screaming for you to take heed of their mistakes and to be cautious with your choices. Not every story is an impossibility. We might not be watching the geek get the girl because, “it’s just a movie,” but rather because the writer is trying to show you what’s possible if you try. It’s the effort and lack of effort that cause our greatest victories and defeats.
We fear the things that we need to fear the least, and show bravado in areas that need care the most. The fear keeps us from acting, while feigned bravery keeps us from recognizing our weaknesses. Like it or not, we’re all the same in that department. We all enjoy the same television shows because of those common threads, and we should take comfort in that fact, because that common thread isn’t just between us and the show, but between us and everyone else that watches. For every Ross and Rachel breakup and display of undying love, there is a real–life analog. Every John Cusack character has a mirror, whether it’s a guy that never overcame that fear to get the girl, or the guy that had it made the worst mistakes to lose her. Every Dr. House quip and sarcastic deflection has a doppelgänger sitting at home, substance abusing and self–loathing.
As time moves on, we get new characters, but we still have those common issues. McDreamy involves himself with a complex woman that doesn’t know what she wants.. being in different places, wanting different things, and yet still having this love that you don’t know what to do with. They are the new Ross and Rachel, and clearly, we’re still figuring things out.
In the end, we can learn a lot from those stories, just like any story. How profound our revelations are will vary, but we should be open to taking insight from everywhere we can.
This week’s insight? Fight or Flight, evolved. As wonderful as life is, true connections between people are still quite rare. Rare enough that they are worth fighting for, tooth and nail. In life, we fight for things because we care, and in that respect, we should fight all the time. To care enough about something to fight for it… constantly, unforgivingly, and not knowing when to call it quits, that isn’t stubbornness or naïvet&eactute;, but steadfast resolve and heart. You may lose, you may win. In the end though, the only important thing is to recognize that you cared. You cared deeply and passionately without regard to self, and that is impressive.
And then there’s flight. When fear takes over and tells you to run. We can be fearless, or we can be human. If it comes down to it, I would tell someone to be human. Accept the fear, but recognize what it is. It’s healthier for a person to have fear than for one to not. While there is a line between rational fear and irrational fear, I’m talking about the former. When you fear something, its because you’re afraid of losing. It is not a fulfilling life to be fearless. It isn’t a happy life to have nothing to lose. You want fear. You want to have something in your life that you care about… Something that’s worth enough that you fear losing it.
We should always try and fight as much as possible, and take comfort in the fact that we care enough to not only keep fighting, but to fear losing. If you can stay in this cycle, consider yourself lucky. If you are fearless, or have given up on fighting altogether, perhaps its time to take a new perspective, and try again once more. No one wants to look back on a life wasted… might as well keep fighting.