The elements usually involved a fallen hero or heroes. These people are damaged goods or simply imperfect people like John on Person of Interest, Sherlock on Elementary and Kate on Castle. Frequently the lead characters are involved with either technology or other fantastic elements that lie sometimes just outside of the things mere mortals like myself have or will ever have access to. On the tech side there are/have been programs like Continuum, Fringe and Person of Interest. On the fantasy side there are teleplays like Grimm and Once.
These shows are populated by usually buxom women (lots of them blond or ginger) most of whom have a propensity to show their cleavage. I can’t think of a single one of these where there has not been a contrivance to get the good looking star down to her skivvies at some point in the series run. These shows are also populated by handsome and usually buff men. Again virtually all have come to some plot point that has mandated some main male character to show off a solid buff physique wearing only his boxers. The women are usually subjected to this diminished state of attire as part of an escape in cold weather (and water be it sweat or the East River) but for the men it usually involves a gym stakeout or a meeting at a swimming pool or sauna (mob types like saunas I have been led to believe).
Most of the story lines have some degree of sexual tension. This usually involves someone to who the hero or heroine can best be said to be a frenemy. There is almost always a third wheel who behavior is erratic or unreliable, think Fusco on Person of Interest. And there are other elements like soft retro lighting in scenes where back story is told and harsh cold lighting in situations where the outcome is theoretically dubious.
The core of each of these stories is this. In every situation the lead character is threatened by a malevolence that is vaguely personified. In some series this evil is clearly identified but is an ongoing unseen and perhaps unnamed character. In Castle it is the shady group that killed Kate’s mother. In Grimm it is the royals. I almost forgot the Mentalist’s Red John. In others of thee programs the evil changes from week to week with the hero vanquishing the current foe while still knowing that something else dark and sinister will arise. In every story the hero is burdened by imperfect, inexact knowledge. It is the role of that imperfect knowledge to keep us tuned in for the full hour.
My thought is that I (we, perhaps) are drawn to these programs by a feeling that our lives are lived with imperfect knowledge and that we like to see someone win a battle or two against the malevolence that pervades our world. When we are subjected to arbitrary and capricious dictates about how we are to perform our jobs or how our kids’ education must be planned or how we have to deal with some part of government’s interaction in our lives we feel a dark presence over which we are powerless to respond to. Thus I (we) subconsciously empathize and root for these characters. We have too often lost often due to the missed e-mail, the notice not removed from the backpack or being out of the group that is in the loop. We want to kick somebody’s ass and when those folks on TV do it we feel glee vicariously.
Those bastards at the networks are smart and manipulative.
Oh yeah we might watch this stuff because we wished we had done or could do the kind of acrobatic, anarchic and authority defying stuff they do. Perhaps it is because we wish we could drink as much as they do (and never have a hangover) or have as much rough sex as they do (without any consequences). Maybe it is just because we like to see beautiful people living lives as scantily clad rich people. Right now my favorite is Justified.
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