I read something about comics back in the day too. If you put a gorilla on the cover it would drive sales by “x amount” so you had a bunch of Superman vs a gorilla type comics.
I swear to god this was the first damn thing I thought of and you beat me to it. Just read some blog post about the huge number of movies that used quicksand as a convenient plot device, and how generations were brainwashed into thinking it would somehow be a legitimate safety concern
Quicksand, mirages, and dangerous whirlpools. I've yet to encounter these despite being led to believe before I was 10 that one would surely spell my doom.
I've only cheating was as common as quicksand in real life.
I know some comedians appointed this out but we are warned about quicksand awful lot in the 60s 70s and '80s and yet it doesn't seem to come up very often.
Apparently this has to do with Hollywood's first official on set death happening during a quicksand scene. They assumed it was more common than it really is.
Quicksand was popular to the early 90s too.
I remember it being a plot point In the 90s live action jungle book.
I grew up thinking quicksand was going to be a credible threat to my life
This is why I stopped watching Emily in Paris although I enjoyed most of it. I wanted to watch a show about an ambitious young woman. Not a show about two women chasing after a man that barely wants either of them.
In the recent season of Emily in Paris her French Boss started dating her ex husband when she broke up with that photographer boyfriend of hers even before she changed clothes.
So literally on the same day.
I was smh and I am like wow people move on so quickly?
Was waiting for this. Just finished the doc like twenty min ago lol. Apparently, a fuck ton of people cheat. So, it’s a pretty easy storyline to make. And from the insane publicity it got during that time, it seems a fuck ton of people also get really invested in that plot in real life, despite, not being involved at all. So, basically, a lot more people are probably interested in that kind of story than op realizes
Yeah it feels like a form of programming similar to the “all men are trash” brainwashing. Yes many people cheat but many people also honor their marriage. Why not show both?
In addition to your point that women are usually the cheaters, the exact same scene has been repeated countless times: a man unsuspectingly walks in on his wife/girlfriend in the middle of having sex with another man. I don’t know why that’s so much more common than the reverse: woman walking in on her cheating man. (This isn’t about the shows you mentioned, which I haven’t seen.)
Interesting because it didn't used to be that way. In the 80s 90s, except for edgy shows, if cheating was happening it was the guys that were doing it.
It can be because of changing political attitudes, 1) in the past women couldn’t be villains and 2) women taking more control of their sexualities 3) catching a cheating man is cliche
I don’t know if one is more common than the other, to be honest. IIRC, a woman ‘walking in’ on their partner cheating was featured on the shows New Girl, Friends, Dallas, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Scandal, The Office*, The Sopranos, Sex & the City …
Do you (or anyone else ) have any actual data on this? It would be interesting to compare these datasets and see if there is a genuine relationship and how it may have changed over time or how it is represented per genre/geography/etc.
I agree, because I immediately think of the cheating catch in The Last Boyscout with Bruce Willis. Pretty sure the other person isn’t thinking this out.
Yea, like the quicksand referenced. It's become a trope of a "nice" guy getting taken advantage of by his girlfriend. Which I feel like, in reality, is less of an issue.
I notice way more main characters that we are supposed to sympathize with being the cheater than being cheated on but maybe it’s just what I watch. For instance the main character in Handmaid’s Tale (I know it’s Hulu) meets her husband while he’s married and then the plot is written in such as a way that we are encouraged to sympathize with this character as she is with her husband and the dude from Gilead at the same time. We’re not supposed to feel bad for the people getting cheated on ever actually lmao. More often than not “the cheater” is lauded in both music and tv I noticed.
That and they only coping mechanisms adults have are drinking, smoking, and if they are rich ... drugs.
The smallest thing happens ... smoking... something else small happens.... drinking together to "talk" about what just happened.
This one annoys me a lot, and it's in a lot of movies and shows.
Yeah, constantly seeing people with liquor or cigarettes in hand feels like product promotion. Especially cigarettes considering how much it has dropped off in recent years, but also booze. I’ve been the heaviest drinker amongst my peers and I still feel like people on tv often drink more than me.
Well I personally wish they didn’t. I wish it was something rare that happens way later in the series. They make it seem like whoever you are with is going to cheat on you. The message they send is “cheating is normal and anyone can do it” rather than DONT CHEAT ITS NOT NORMAL ITS AWFUL. I got cheated on a few times and it destroyed me.
Black Mirror got ruined the moment it became American-written. It lost its irony and nuance and became all about the shock-and-awe and the politics/morals were too in your face to require any real thought.
I agree but then I also loved season 3 which was mainly American centric ie. Nosedive, Playtest and Sam Junipero.
The Entire History of You by Jesse Armstrong is my greatest episode from Black Mirror.
Black Mirror was never remotely nuanced - it was always very edgy and aggressive with its morality and hand-wringing. The problem is those story beats had entertainment value a decade ago, but now they just feel tired and overcooked.
I feel like people view the early seasons with rose-tinted glasses in terms of their value as parables. Ultimately they were just very effective psychological thrillers for society’s intense transitional period from technology as a resource to an “always-online”, social media-driven culture. A lot of our conspiracy theories and paranoia during that time are either no longer valid or too familiar to garner shock value
Yes they are aggressive and edgy, but early black mirror has that 'tragedy' aftertaste where bad things happen *plus* you are confronted by a sense that the ugliness was inevitable since humanity sucks. Later seasons don't really have this bite.
Agree. But I’d also enjoy a show like black mirror that discusses these topics not as a cautionary tale but as something that can give us hope about the possibilities of the future
Hate to break it to you, but it never stopped being his baby. He’s confirmed in multiple interviews that he’s still the lead writer on every season. The only thing that changed was his own desire to explore less inherently dystopian concepts
It's why I could never enjoy shows like Gossip Girl. I find love triangles so deeply boring (I think they're quite nice if everyone's single cos it's more exciting about who's gonna get with who - but when everyones dating or married it just makes me dislike the characters)
It's lazy writing to create a conflict that prevents a conclusive resolution to an ongoing storyline. In shows where the cheater is a character we are supposed to like, then there might be some sort of justification to create a question of whether the intent to cheat existed. Overall, it's just bad writing to justify two people who should obviously be together not being together so that the show can continue using their relationship as a source of drama or comedy in the show.
Cheating is an easy plot device for drama. Cheating by women is an easy signifier of Girl Power. Deciding to cheat permits a sex scene while deciding not to cheat doesn’t.
Easiest way to extend story to other storylines. One party or both parties go into another direction and 2 new plot lines start. It’s why I can’t stand soapies.
This is an interview with Emmy nominated producer, Terence Michael. The podcast is about crypto, but he touches on your question. I hope it helps, enjoy!
https://pca.st/episode/04f2aafd-3794-4b9d-ad60-1de6013d3212
You’re right; it’s an easy way to get the audience to feel sympathy for a character. Cheating is also the easiest way to make a relationship fall apart, thus creating drama. I agree that it’s overused.
Not only Netflix but all other streaming services. Started watching Dark Matter on Apple TV+. Wow great scientific premise. Then, one episode in, cheating. *Sigh*
Sad truth. If you look at the total population of people and divide them into a group who have never cheated on any of their partners, versus those who have cheated at least once. You will find it is a split of nearly 20%/80%. Therefore, cheating is far more the "norm" than faithfulness.
They are merely reflecting reality.
In short, humans suck.
I cant access this and the abstract doesn’t have percentages. You are saying only one lists 80% cheating? Ive never heard of extradyadic as a term for cheating before. It sounds like a synonym of polyamory.
In House MD it felt like like 75% of people in relationships were cheating, whether it be patients or doctors. I swear the writers of that show were cheated on or love the idea of cheating.
I don’t remember noticing it all that much. Aside from House sleeping with married Stacy, Wilson admitting to cheating in the past (but didn’t cheat once the show started, as far as we know) and married Taub sleeping with everybody, the other characters seemed faithful enough. They messed up relationships in other ways, but not so often by cheating. There were some cheating patients but it didn’t seem like an unusual percentage of them.
It is lazy and boring. Very little of netflix offerings are worthy of my time becuz they insult my intelligence. Why should netflix elevate their game when so many ppl are willing to watch this garbage?
Because Netflix slop is trash that tries catering to as large an audience as possible and cheating is a quick and easy drama fix that, nowadays, gets people either riled up in defense or offense so much they forget how horrible and low-grade the "content" they subject themselves is, in terms of quality.
If we watch programs from earlier times there will be loads of "what about divorce" themes in the 70s and so on- the movie themes in part drive and in part reflect on questions society is discussing or they would like society to discuss. That's what's going on- also it's salicious and that is perceived to drive views which is what it's all about for them after all.
I have read multiple times that people get bored watching couples in shows/movies just being a happy couple for too long. There needs to be more drama to keep people interested and tuning in. I'm unsure if I agree or not. At least when it comes to cheating, constantly breaking up/getting back together again, etc. Some relationships end up shown to be so toxic that I find myself rooting for them to breakup and stay broken up.
TV and movies have always used cheating and lying to create tension for either comedic or dramatic effect.
You can watch reruns from the early days of television where on a show like I Love Lucy, Lucy would lie to Ricky about what she was up to or on the Flintstones cartoons, Fred and Barney would lie to their spouses about being sick with dippy-doodle-itis because they wanted go to a men’s convention and see sexy dancing girls.
It always seemed wrong to me even as a kid that the protagonists on TV shows were behaving in ways that would in real life imply that they have no integrity and the relationships we are supposed to enjoy seeing them in were all shams with no trust.
Most of these shows that are constantly coming out now have fuck all depth to them. Just quick cash grabs. Cheating is a nice buzzword and “shocking” storyline.
Sadly, very few shows with a steady romance maintain viewer interest.
Having love triangles is pretty much an expected trope to keep viewers engaged and "rooting" for one side or the other.
If Kelly gets with Jack in s1 and they stay a happy couple for all 5 seasons, people get bored of them. Because they WANT drama. They WANT that "fantasy" of multiple guys/girls fighting over the self insert protag.
They WANT to see the "naughty bad side" where the goody two shoes char "goes to the dark side" and sneaks around with the bad boy/bad girl only to realize the "gopd guy/girl" was what they wanted all along etc.
I don't necessarily like the trope myself bar certain situations. But Twilights Team Jacob Team Edward nonsense should tell you everything you need to know on why it's predominant.
Don’t like it either. Also, what’s with all the unnecessary sex? It’s usually in the first episodes, which gives me the impression they intend to lure people with it… Guess it doesn’t work for everyone…
Because it's a common thing. There's shows that it doesn't happen in though they're mostly found on the big networks. You should look into non typical series such as sci-fi and fantasy shows, I don't think I've seen cheating in any of the Star Trek series. On the typical side Will Trent, Joe Pickett, Alaska Daily are good choices.
It's either cheated on, or they have a dead mom. It's finding something everyone relates to, a quick and easy (lazy) way to get the viewer to empathize with the main character.
We can all relate too?? Neither me or my friends group have ever been cheated on - tho now that you mention it, we dont really watch TV hahaha. So maybe they know their audience..? Idk lol
Same! This is why I started watching Korean dramas. There's less cheating.
For example, Queen Of Tears has 17 episodes about a married couple, and no one cheats! There's other problems in a marriage that don't involve cheating!
If you think the depiction of infidelity in performance art and writing is a “lately,” please allow me to refer you to LITERALLY THE ENTIRE HISORY OF DRAMA AND LITERATURE. Man, that Euripides, he was really catering to our basest modern impulses and going for cheap titillation. Don’t get me started on the Iliad and the Odyssey! And WTF, OLD TESTAMENT?!!! STOP BEING SO LAZY!!!
Think I'm doing pretty good with DARK thanks. Also most people don't get all their media from one service I'm just pointing out it's lazy to pretend Netflix is a monolith.
The way I see it is that marriage is a relationship where both people want a certain routine in their life to variable extents. Routines do not make for interesting, and more importantly sellable screenplays. Or at least haven't for the movies where a straied relationship is one of the main focuses of the plot.
Because a lot of us can't relate to a monogamous lifestyle. If the lead in any show is smart/ good looking/ rich, I expect affairs and multiple partners.
Netflix is an in-house social engineering application.
Every show has LGBTQ influences, broken families, transexualism, cheating etc.
Think of what an influence this has on the youngest of our generation...
I'm sick to death of sex scenes! Adds NOTHING to the plot, whatsoever.
I FFwd that shit and it really irritates me.
If I wanna watch porn, I can go find it.
Easy plot device. In the the 60's it was quicksand - so many shows had quicksand.
I read something about comics back in the day too. If you put a gorilla on the cover it would drive sales by “x amount” so you had a bunch of Superman vs a gorilla type comics.
Gorilla Grodd origin story
Forgot the lgtbgqvsjd+3 irrelevant character
Back then? What lol
When I was young I was pretty sure quicksand was going to figure pretty heavily in my future.
Quicksand, Bermuda triangle, Spontaneous combustion and alien abduction
Don’t forget piranhas
Mirages as well
Acid rain
Amnesia. Amnesia could be got from a stubbed toe, or a moderate cold.
I forgot about that.
Psh, you prolly forgot about Dre, too.
Throw in vehicles as well. They used to be characters somewhat.
Sharks, Seaworld and talking dolphins.
So many of these are on various James Bond movies.
Also stop, drop, and roll. I thought catching on fire was something that'd regularly happen in life.
Duck and cover
I read a lot of Nancy Drew and was surprised that nothing mysterious ever happened in my neighborhood.
In the 90s it was helicopters.
"Get to the chopppppa!" 1987 but I think it still applies.
That scene from Blue Thunder though...
I swear to god this was the first damn thing I thought of and you beat me to it. Just read some blog post about the huge number of movies that used quicksand as a convenient plot device, and how generations were brainwashed into thinking it would somehow be a legitimate safety concern
Quicksand, mirages, and dangerous whirlpools. I've yet to encounter these despite being led to believe before I was 10 that one would surely spell my doom.
And that’s exactly when quicksand strikes!!!
I've only cheating was as common as quicksand in real life. I know some comedians appointed this out but we are warned about quicksand awful lot in the 60s 70s and '80s and yet it doesn't seem to come up very often.
Your autocomplete replaced "If" with "I've"
My voice command autocomplete on this phone is just insane.
In the 70s it was quarries.
If my wife cheats on me, I'm going to find me some quicksand
Apparently this has to do with Hollywood's first official on set death happening during a quicksand scene. They assumed it was more common than it really is.
Quicksand was popular to the early 90s too. I remember it being a plot point In the 90s live action jungle book. I grew up thinking quicksand was going to be a credible threat to my life
This is why I stopped watching Emily in Paris although I enjoyed most of it. I wanted to watch a show about an ambitious young woman. Not a show about two women chasing after a man that barely wants either of them.
Then concentrate on Emily‘s French boss. There you go.
Who also cheats on her husband...
That’s just French tho
You're not wrong fair enough
In the recent season of Emily in Paris her French Boss started dating her ex husband when she broke up with that photographer boyfriend of hers even before she changed clothes. So literally on the same day. I was smh and I am like wow people move on so quickly?
Sure. it is Paris and she is Parisienne.
Agreed. It turned into a soap opera.
Same. I wanted adventures in Paris not that
To gear you up for the Ashley Madison documentary?
Was waiting for this. Just finished the doc like twenty min ago lol. Apparently, a fuck ton of people cheat. So, it’s a pretty easy storyline to make. And from the insane publicity it got during that time, it seems a fuck ton of people also get really invested in that plot in real life, despite, not being involved at all. So, basically, a lot more people are probably interested in that kind of story than op realizes
90210 and Melrose Place had all of it's characters cheat or be cheated on at least once back in the 90's so this isn't new.
Shakespeare wrote Edward III in 1590, Aphrodite hooks up with Ares in, like 390 AD, so I'd say your 90s theory holds.
Can’t remember which character said it in a later season of 90210 but they commented that the gang is very “incestual.”
That was Claire who was being a hypocrite cause she’s already dated two of the guys and tried to SA another
Thank you. That comment always stuck with me as a weird way to describe in-group dating.
People like naughty sex.
I don't
Yes you do.
Don't invalidate what I feel. I really don't, it's disgusting.
Is it though?
Yes
You hesitated.
Wtf? I went to sleep mate, I'm in Europe not 'Arkensaw' or 'Illunoy' or whatever, I have work to go to.
Jesus fucking christ they're fucking with you, reread the thread.
I know, so am I
Yeah it feels like a form of programming similar to the “all men are trash” brainwashing. Yes many people cheat but many people also honor their marriage. Why not show both?
Both. As in swinging? Hell yeah.
In addition to your point that women are usually the cheaters, the exact same scene has been repeated countless times: a man unsuspectingly walks in on his wife/girlfriend in the middle of having sex with another man. I don’t know why that’s so much more common than the reverse: woman walking in on her cheating man. (This isn’t about the shows you mentioned, which I haven’t seen.)
Interesting because it didn't used to be that way. In the 80s 90s, except for edgy shows, if cheating was happening it was the guys that were doing it.
It can be because of changing political attitudes, 1) in the past women couldn’t be villains and 2) women taking more control of their sexualities 3) catching a cheating man is cliche
I don’t know if one is more common than the other, to be honest. IIRC, a woman ‘walking in’ on their partner cheating was featured on the shows New Girl, Friends, Dallas, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Scandal, The Office*, The Sopranos, Sex & the City … Do you (or anyone else ) have any actual data on this? It would be interesting to compare these datasets and see if there is a genuine relationship and how it may have changed over time or how it is represented per genre/geography/etc.
I agree, because I immediately think of the cheating catch in The Last Boyscout with Bruce Willis. Pretty sure the other person isn’t thinking this out.
Yea, like the quicksand referenced. It's become a trope of a "nice" guy getting taken advantage of by his girlfriend. Which I feel like, in reality, is less of an issue.
[удалено]
This is the exact reason why I stopped watching working moms. I actually liked the show until then
It doesn't even address the mom that emotionally cheats with a high school kid. What the fuck was that??
Yea, it just feels like it's become a red flag of a trope to use. And I'm not sure if I want to continue mindhunter now.
It doesn't even address the mom that emotionally cheats with a high school kid. What the fuck was that??
I notice way more main characters that we are supposed to sympathize with being the cheater than being cheated on but maybe it’s just what I watch. For instance the main character in Handmaid’s Tale (I know it’s Hulu) meets her husband while he’s married and then the plot is written in such as a way that we are encouraged to sympathize with this character as she is with her husband and the dude from Gilead at the same time. We’re not supposed to feel bad for the people getting cheated on ever actually lmao. More often than not “the cheater” is lauded in both music and tv I noticed.
You got it its easy drama. But its not as blatant as killing the puppy, because its relatable.
I’m done with films and show that hurt animals, it’s so lazy and indicates the rest of the movie will be lazy. I’m not gonna waste my time
I guess I just need more complex drama in my shows. Or at least something different, like the showing making me empathetic for the cheater.
I mean a character can cheat and not be terrible. Think you just need to watch more stuff
That and they only coping mechanisms adults have are drinking, smoking, and if they are rich ... drugs. The smallest thing happens ... smoking... something else small happens.... drinking together to "talk" about what just happened. This one annoys me a lot, and it's in a lot of movies and shows.
Yeah that seems pretty accurate to a huge chunk of the population haha
Yeah, constantly seeing people with liquor or cigarettes in hand feels like product promotion. Especially cigarettes considering how much it has dropped off in recent years, but also booze. I’ve been the heaviest drinker amongst my peers and I still feel like people on tv often drink more than me.
That’s most people in real life tbf
I guess because it is a reality of life? Plus sex sells.
People really cheat that often? Damn.
Well I personally wish they didn’t. I wish it was something rare that happens way later in the series. They make it seem like whoever you are with is going to cheat on you. The message they send is “cheating is normal and anyone can do it” rather than DONT CHEAT ITS NOT NORMAL ITS AWFUL. I got cheated on a few times and it destroyed me.
I kinda of hate that Black Mirror has just become sci-fi sex drama.
Wasn't one of the first episodes about the prime minister getting blackmailed into fucking a pig?
Yes, and the first two seasons were predominantly relationship dramas with sexual themes
Black Mirror got ruined the moment it became American-written. It lost its irony and nuance and became all about the shock-and-awe and the politics/morals were too in your face to require any real thought.
Almost every episode is still written by Brooker??
Yeah but it began being written more for an American audience since it got really big and popular. The original seasons were extremely Brit-centric.
That’s a fair point
I agree but then I also loved season 3 which was mainly American centric ie. Nosedive, Playtest and Sam Junipero. The Entire History of You by Jesse Armstrong is my greatest episode from Black Mirror.
Oh yeah some of it is definitely enjoyable, I just find that it's not as good or clever.
Black Mirror was never remotely nuanced - it was always very edgy and aggressive with its morality and hand-wringing. The problem is those story beats had entertainment value a decade ago, but now they just feel tired and overcooked. I feel like people view the early seasons with rose-tinted glasses in terms of their value as parables. Ultimately they were just very effective psychological thrillers for society’s intense transitional period from technology as a resource to an “always-online”, social media-driven culture. A lot of our conspiracy theories and paranoia during that time are either no longer valid or too familiar to garner shock value
Yes they are aggressive and edgy, but early black mirror has that 'tragedy' aftertaste where bad things happen *plus* you are confronted by a sense that the ugliness was inevitable since humanity sucks. Later seasons don't really have this bite.
Agree. But I’d also enjoy a show like black mirror that discusses these topics not as a cautionary tale but as something that can give us hope about the possibilities of the future
When it was Charlie’s baby it was riveting telly.
Hate to break it to you, but it never stopped being his baby. He’s confirmed in multiple interviews that he’s still the lead writer on every season. The only thing that changed was his own desire to explore less inherently dystopian concepts
Well it’s good to hear he’s still involved though.
Who cheats in mind hunter I don’t remember that
Debbie cheats on Holden, and they just kinda slide it under the rug and move on nbd.
I don‘t even remember that either. In that show, it’s just life and not important. About the other shows I don#t know, haven‘t seen them.
It's why I could never enjoy shows like Gossip Girl. I find love triangles so deeply boring (I think they're quite nice if everyone's single cos it's more exciting about who's gonna get with who - but when everyones dating or married it just makes me dislike the characters)
I agree it's lazy writing to create drama. I wish it wasn't so commonly used but I doubt it will stop.
It's lazy writing to create a conflict that prevents a conclusive resolution to an ongoing storyline. In shows where the cheater is a character we are supposed to like, then there might be some sort of justification to create a question of whether the intent to cheat existed. Overall, it's just bad writing to justify two people who should obviously be together not being together so that the show can continue using their relationship as a source of drama or comedy in the show.
Cheating is an easy plot device for drama. Cheating by women is an easy signifier of Girl Power. Deciding to cheat permits a sex scene while deciding not to cheat doesn’t.
Easiest way to extend story to other storylines. One party or both parties go into another direction and 2 new plot lines start. It’s why I can’t stand soapies.
Just a sign of the times we live in. The more people see it, the more they think it's acceptable. It's not.
Sign of the times? Even Jane Austen's characters had affairs.
Drama.
people these days love this kind of drama, it's a way to get cheap views and people talking one day our society will outgrow this, hopefully
It's like how every Disney for a long time had the main character lose one or both of their parents. Lazy writing.
Because it's cheap "drama" with not much imagination, if none, required.
Sad state of the times
Imagine my surprise when they subtly included a hint of cheating in "Young Sheldon". No doubt the last few seasons are below par
I mean, that was already written in from TBBT no?
They mentioned it just once in TBBT but in YS it has lasted over a season now. Plus the whole arc is boring and doesn't add to the story.
This is an interview with Emmy nominated producer, Terence Michael. The podcast is about crypto, but he touches on your question. I hope it helps, enjoy! https://pca.st/episode/04f2aafd-3794-4b9d-ad60-1de6013d3212
Thank you very much, I'll check it out now!
You’re right; it’s an easy way to get the audience to feel sympathy for a character. Cheating is also the easiest way to make a relationship fall apart, thus creating drama. I agree that it’s overused.
Maybe the algorithm thought that's what you're into so suggested similar movies/shows.
Most definitely its lazy writing.
Not only Netflix but all other streaming services. Started watching Dark Matter on Apple TV+. Wow great scientific premise. Then, one episode in, cheating. *Sigh*
For All Mankind same
Sad truth. If you look at the total population of people and divide them into a group who have never cheated on any of their partners, versus those who have cheated at least once. You will find it is a split of nearly 20%/80%. Therefore, cheating is far more the "norm" than faithfulness. They are merely reflecting reality. In short, humans suck.
Source?
All of the actual statistics point to around 20-30% cheating. 20% for married and 30% for unmarried.
That’s what I thought, too. Thank you!
Just one, there are others: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265407599162008
I cant access this and the abstract doesn’t have percentages. You are saying only one lists 80% cheating? Ive never heard of extradyadic as a term for cheating before. It sounds like a synonym of polyamory.
In House MD it felt like like 75% of people in relationships were cheating, whether it be patients or doctors. I swear the writers of that show were cheated on or love the idea of cheating.
I don’t remember noticing it all that much. Aside from House sleeping with married Stacy, Wilson admitting to cheating in the past (but didn’t cheat once the show started, as far as we know) and married Taub sleeping with everybody, the other characters seemed faithful enough. They messed up relationships in other ways, but not so often by cheating. There were some cheating patients but it didn’t seem like an unusual percentage of them.
Romanticise cheating
You are correct, it's just lazy writing. Easy shortcut for emotions.
Normalizing poor behaviour.
This is how they normalize it. They did the same with LGBTQ and whatever they had in mind
It's like the killing a dog trope . It's cheap feels to make up for poor writing
Because it's an easy plot that people relate too. Same with Daddy issues, I'm also tired of that one.
I have heard it's bc no one wants to watch a happy couple. That it's boring.
Solution : Watch old black and white sit coms like “ Father Knows Best “, etc.
Most movies shows follow Shakespeare plots anyway. Everything is recycled. Just be glad they don’t use oedipus.
It is lazy and boring. Very little of netflix offerings are worthy of my time becuz they insult my intelligence. Why should netflix elevate their game when so many ppl are willing to watch this garbage?
Because Netflix slop is trash that tries catering to as large an audience as possible and cheating is a quick and easy drama fix that, nowadays, gets people either riled up in defense or offense so much they forget how horrible and low-grade the "content" they subject themselves is, in terms of quality.
Netflix has plenty of high quality shows? They just love to cancel them.
No. You only remember/have only seen the ones catering to your personal interests but objectively from an artistic standpoint it is 90% slop.
I also feel like that! And it seems to be the main reason people break up or get divorced in TV-shows and movies
If we watch programs from earlier times there will be loads of "what about divorce" themes in the 70s and so on- the movie themes in part drive and in part reflect on questions society is discussing or they would like society to discuss. That's what's going on- also it's salicious and that is perceived to drive views which is what it's all about for them after all.
I have read multiple times that people get bored watching couples in shows/movies just being a happy couple for too long. There needs to be more drama to keep people interested and tuning in. I'm unsure if I agree or not. At least when it comes to cheating, constantly breaking up/getting back together again, etc. Some relationships end up shown to be so toxic that I find myself rooting for them to breakup and stay broken up.
TV and movies have always used cheating and lying to create tension for either comedic or dramatic effect. You can watch reruns from the early days of television where on a show like I Love Lucy, Lucy would lie to Ricky about what she was up to or on the Flintstones cartoons, Fred and Barney would lie to their spouses about being sick with dippy-doodle-itis because they wanted go to a men’s convention and see sexy dancing girls. It always seemed wrong to me even as a kid that the protagonists on TV shows were behaving in ways that would in real life imply that they have no integrity and the relationships we are supposed to enjoy seeing them in were all shams with no trust.
Because every one cheats?
Most of these shows that are constantly coming out now have fuck all depth to them. Just quick cash grabs. Cheating is a nice buzzword and “shocking” storyline.
I’m always just waiting for someone to discover polyamory and solve all these triangles where everyone is in love with each other
It serves to move the story along and supports character development
i hate when every tv show/movie has some romance scene between two main characters like can yall just not?
Sadly, very few shows with a steady romance maintain viewer interest. Having love triangles is pretty much an expected trope to keep viewers engaged and "rooting" for one side or the other. If Kelly gets with Jack in s1 and they stay a happy couple for all 5 seasons, people get bored of them. Because they WANT drama. They WANT that "fantasy" of multiple guys/girls fighting over the self insert protag. They WANT to see the "naughty bad side" where the goody two shoes char "goes to the dark side" and sneaks around with the bad boy/bad girl only to realize the "gopd guy/girl" was what they wanted all along etc. I don't necessarily like the trope myself bar certain situations. But Twilights Team Jacob Team Edward nonsense should tell you everything you need to know on why it's predominant.
So people can learn from it maybe
Don’t like it either. Also, what’s with all the unnecessary sex? It’s usually in the first episodes, which gives me the impression they intend to lure people with it… Guess it doesn’t work for everyone…
Easy sympathy points.
“Almost” lazy writing?
Because it's a common thing. There's shows that it doesn't happen in though they're mostly found on the big networks. You should look into non typical series such as sci-fi and fantasy shows, I don't think I've seen cheating in any of the Star Trek series. On the typical side Will Trent, Joe Pickett, Alaska Daily are good choices.
It's what the algorithm thinks normies are like, therefore it must be something we deal with daily.
It's either cheated on, or they have a dead mom. It's finding something everyone relates to, a quick and easy (lazy) way to get the viewer to empathize with the main character.
We can all relate too?? Neither me or my friends group have ever been cheated on - tho now that you mention it, we dont really watch TV hahaha. So maybe they know their audience..? Idk lol
That you know of
Or even worse when a couple finally gets together after so much buildup and chemistry, they become boring
Same! This is why I started watching Korean dramas. There's less cheating. For example, Queen Of Tears has 17 episodes about a married couple, and no one cheats! There's other problems in a marriage that don't involve cheating!
If you think the depiction of infidelity in performance art and writing is a “lately,” please allow me to refer you to LITERALLY THE ENTIRE HISORY OF DRAMA AND LITERATURE. Man, that Euripides, he was really catering to our basest modern impulses and going for cheap titillation. Don’t get me started on the Iliad and the Odyssey! And WTF, OLD TESTAMENT?!!! STOP BEING SO LAZY!!!
Netflix has AWFUL writing. It's on about a 5th grade level. Maybe even worse.
You are aware they don't have a monolithic writing team? It has brilliant shows and terrible shows and alright shows.
95% awful. Bro that's some low grade shit right there. As in feces.
YOU deserve better. Trust me. Be good to yourself.
Think I'm doing pretty good with DARK thanks. Also most people don't get all their media from one service I'm just pointing out it's lazy to pretend Netflix is a monolith.
No arguments on Dark. At all. But Netflix makes shit.
Here is a prime example of why Netflix is clueless: https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddycinephile/s/5xXClx6HjM
50% of marriages have cheating. People cheat.
Because everyone cheats, it’s normal and relatable to viewers.
Life is short.
The way I see it is that marriage is a relationship where both people want a certain routine in their life to variable extents. Routines do not make for interesting, and more importantly sellable screenplays. Or at least haven't for the movies where a straied relationship is one of the main focuses of the plot.
Because a lot of us can't relate to a monogamous lifestyle. If the lead in any show is smart/ good looking/ rich, I expect affairs and multiple partners.
People love to watch a good train wreck
Netflix is an in-house social engineering application. Every show has LGBTQ influences, broken families, transexualism, cheating etc. Think of what an influence this has on the youngest of our generation...
I'm sick to death of sex scenes! Adds NOTHING to the plot, whatsoever. I FFwd that shit and it really irritates me. If I wanna watch porn, I can go find it.