Does anyone else wonder what happened to happy TV? Everything on TV is so dark these days.
Clare is a huge Archie comics fans, so when she heard they created a TV show based on the comic series, she was excited to start watching it on Netflix. I thought it might be fun to see how Archie, Jughead, Veronica, Betty and the gang were portrayed on the small screen, so I watched the first few episodes of Riverdale with her.
It became clear in the first ten minutes this was NOT the Archie comics I grew up with. Moose shot by a rogue serial killer, Veronica ordering hits on her ex-boyfriend, characters cruising the woods after dark looking for a potential hook up. WTF?!?
I miss the days of happy TV. The days of Friends, Seinfeld, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and yes, Happy Days, when teenagers were teenagers who hung out in soda shops or coffee shops, and when the biggest drama was who you were going to ask to prom.
We were telling Clare the other night about Fantasy Island, where people flew in (who can forget Tattoo yelling, “ze plane, ze plane”) each week to live out their fantasies and The Love Boat, where Julie, Isaac and the crew helped people find love by the end of each episode. Call me nostalgic, but I miss those shows.
When did shows like NCIS, Dexter, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead take over the airwaves? The next generation of dark TV is even darker, shows like 13 Reasons Why, Stranger Things and Riverdale, ridden with themes like suicide, murder and blackmail.
No wonder teenage mental health is in crisis. TV used to be a place where we could escape the harshness of the world; today angst, anxiety and negativity washes over us from the airwaves.
This week’s #HappyAct is to boycott dark TV. Let’s all call on Netflix and HBO and the networks to bring back happy days TV, shows with positive messages and themes. Clare last week said she’s had enough of Riverdale. Let’s follow her lead.
Happy Act 
I found Netflix full of dark violence and portrayals of the jagged harsh sides of life. I’m old…. I just don’t get any joy out of reliving the most torturous moments of my life. So now I try not to watch Nazi movies, HIV movies and stolen children who never get found movies. The Handmaids Tale scared the crap out me because we-are far too close to some unbearable truth over which I have no control and it’s going to left to much those much younger than I to find a spark of commonsense in a rather turgid swill. Example: they have described Trump and Mr Kim as a tin-pot dictator and a badly dressed real estate agent… apparently they’re in charge… the question for us is “of what”?
You are so funny and right. I tried watching The Handmaids Tale too because I was a fan of the book, and hey it’s Margaret Atwood. It scared the crap out of me too. No cure for all this negativity except a nice bottle of Merlot I say…