From TV Antiheroes to Heroes. NewsWire

NewsWire: 8/6/21

• TV’s antiheroes have been replaced by sincere and honest role models. In an essay, critic James Poniewozik argues that the “irony” model of storytelling has fallen out of favor. (The New York Times)
• NH: Remember David Brent? Walter White? Tony Soprano? Michael Scott?
• These celebrated TV leads were emblematic of early-aughts comedy and drama, with personalities ranging from clueless to despicable. Now they’ve been largely swapped out for earnest and kind protagonists, like Ted Lasso and the Schitt’s Creek gang. Even the fake Stephen Colbert has been swapped out for, well, the real Stephen Colbert.
• I’ve been commenting on this shift since 2014--see, most recently, “Nice Reality TV” and “Niceness is Taking Over TV.” But Poniewozik makes an interesting additional observation here: It’s not just the tone of shows that has shifted, but their mode of storytelling.
• The earlier shows were not always cynical, with dark messages about humanity. In fact, they often wanted to tell heartwarming stories. But they made their case ironically. Viewers were supposed to observe characters to learn from them--not to admire them or to want to be like them. Today’s characters, by contrast, while not perfect, are intended to be sympathetic. That distancing layer has been stripped away.
• Poniewozik credits this new era to different cultural trends, such as the growth of social media and creative backlash to all those dark stories, which was amplified during the Trump years as bluezone voters sought out comfort viewing.
• But I’d say that the trend has been underway long before 2016 (see "All Aboard the Smile Train"). And I'd say that its dynamics are easier to explain: Sincere TV is in because it’s what up-and-coming audiences want to watch. People being kind to one another resonates more with Millennials and Homelanders than wink-wink-nudge-nudge humor or burn-it-all-down antiheroes.
• Bottom line: The move from irony to sincerity reflects the changing generational mix of who's watching.