How Much Better Could it Get!

“Video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms-turn out to be nutritional after all.”
-Steven Johnson

Many people argue that 24 is violent, cruel and torturous, and overall may or may not have a negative effect on the American audience. However, according to Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You, it is the intricate storylines, violent or not that are offering us a dose of Johnson’s sleeper curve every time we watch it.

The one thing that the Sleeper Curve is undermining, is the belief that things are getting worse, where the pop culture is on a race to the bottom, where the cheapest thrills win out every time. (132) When comparing shows from the past to today, it is pretty obvious that today’s shows are making us think more for ourselves. Even though some of the new shows on TV are trash, they are so much more complicated and intricate. Shows from the past, just about everyone could understand them. These new shows have such complicated story lines and multiple things going on at once, that they are making our minds work harder without even realizing it. The Sleeper Curve is really saying that things are getting better.

This quarter I watched a show called 24. It was one of the best and most violent shows I have ever watched in my life. Jack Bauer is the main character that saves the day no matter what comes his way! This is one of the only shows that I have watched that has kept me on the edge of my seat through each and every episode. This show is definitely one of the most complicated shows I have ever seen also. I believe that this is what makes the show so good. Trying to follow each and every character through all the different stories is what makes it so thrilling.

I feel 24 is definitely one great example of the Sleeper Curve. This show is one of the most violent shows on television. It also is one of the hardest to follow. Many people argue that this show is horrible and ridiculous. One thing about this show that is making us think so much and become smarter is multithreading. Multithreading is when there is one main story line, plus a lot of little story lines going on at once. 24 usually has about 10 different threads going on at once and is usually in the Nielson top twenty. (72) These different threads are the intricate storylines that are making us think so much more. Multithreading is one of the best forms of modern television drama. (72)

Johnson mentions in his book Everything Bad is Good for You that “24 measures the public’s willingness to tolerate more complicated narratives.” (72) I honestly don’t think the public is simply tolerating 24. I think that the public has grown to appreciate and enjoy this complicated and intricate show. Also the public doesn’t think about how 24 is making them think harder and become smarter. That’s the cool thing about the Sleeper Curve. No one thinks about it while they are watching it. I know I have never thought that a T.V. show or video game was making me smarter before I read Johnson’s book. We don’t even know it, but I think that these more complicated shows are what America loves now. According to Johnson, the new shows and video games that have these multithreads and flashing arrows inter twined into them are not bad for us at all like everyone thinks.

If you have ever watched this show, it has about ten different threads going on at once. One example of this during 24 was the last episode I watched. There were 6 threads going at once, and they were Matobo taking the Prime Minister, a toxic plant security guard trying to shut off a valve, the President eating dinner with her son, Jack tracking the Prime Minister to a building, the FBI looking for Jack Bauer and Renee Walker and the FBI agent and the President’s husband having an affair. Personally I love the way these threads make me follow the show. It is pretty much impossible to fall asleep while watching 24. At times it becomes very difficult to follow, but this is exactly what Johnson means about the Sleeper Curve. Johnson has really opened up my mind to how a show like 24 can be good for us. Just think if our children grow up watching this stuff. I really don’t think it is going to make them stupid or make them want to engage in violent acts just because they are watching it on T.V. I think it is going to make them smarter and make them more aware of what the real world is like.

What about how society actually is today. Society has become more violent since the 60’s or 70’s. Just like Johnson says “the real world doesn’t come in nicely packaged public service announcements, and were better off with entertainment that reflects the fallen state with all its ethical ambiguity.” 24 is exactly that! 24 shows the real world in its fullest. This show goes all the way from terrorists attacking, to an FBI agent’s affair.

Another thing that Johnson points out, is that these “new shows aren’t just making us remember things and zone out on the couch for hours.” It is actually making us analyze it and process it through our minds. This is why I feel 24 is a great example of the Sleeper Curve. On this show, sometimes they leave things out maybe until the end of the show and put it all together maybe half way through the show, or even at the end. One thing I noticed while watching this show is that I am wide awake watching it and could watch it for hours upon hours. I almost feel like my brain is the most wide awake when I am watching this show. Also I am a person who falls asleep while watching shows or movies. So that must tell you something about 24.

Another aspect of television today that is making us smarter is “flashing arrows.” They are like a narrative signpost, planted conveniently to help the audience keep track of what’s going on. (73) Johnson says that “It’s like when the villain first appears in a movie emerging from the shadows with ominous, atonal music playing-that’s a flashing arrow that says: “bad guy”.” These are things that happen during one episode of the show and you may not even realize it, but it points to what is going to happen in one of the next episodes to come. It could be as simple as a scream, the type of music playing or someone saying something. It’s just whether or not you catch it. Also you may not even realize it was a flashing arrow until you see something happen in one of the next episodes. While I have been watching 24, there have been many flashing arrows. These arrows make me think more and more about the show. Sometimes I will be watching and then all of the sudden be like aw, that’s why he was doing that or that’s why she unlocked the door. There are probably so many things in 24 that go right over my head and I don’t even understand. Some of these things are so complex and sensitive to the viewer’s eye that the average viewer can’t catch them all. According to Johnson, these flashing arrows and multithreading is what’s taking television to a whole new level.

Bandura a woman who researches the effects of violet TV shows. She talks a lot about children. I think most researchers know that it doesn’t have a great effect on adults like it does children. She says that “The person in the cartoon or television show gets bowled over by another character and they get back up without being harmed. Children begin to believe that violence doesn’t really hurt others.” She also feels that children cannot tell from real or unreal. I definitely agree with her that children are affected by violent shows, but I don’t feel that it would make them go out and commit violent acts. This is why you teach your children that TV is fake for entertainment. 24 being violent has nothing to do with the Sleeper Curve effect.

Barbara Ehrenreich feels that we watch TV to escape from our families, because television shows us how dull our families really are. Barbara also states that she has come to the claim that we love watching TV so much because it brings us a world where TV does not exist. She feels people should be outside riding bikes and being with their families, instead of becoming couch potatoes. I completely disagree with how she feels. A lot of the time TV brings families closer. For an example, when I watch American Idol with my family, we are all betting on who is going to win. I feel TV brings families together in a way. Like on Tuesday and Thursday nights I always have to make sure I’m home to watch Idol. If it wasn’t for that show I probably wouldn’t be home with my family.

24 does go along with Steven Johnson’s Sleeper Curve. I fell that this show proves all of Johnson’s points very well. The intricate story lines, multithreading and flashing arrows is what’s making our minds work harder and harder to follow these new forms of television. 24 is violent, but it is just depicting the real world. The violence doesn’t take away from the Sleeper Curve at all. I agree with Steven Johnson all the way!

Works Cited

Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good For You. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. The Cultural Influences of Television. “Spudding Out.”

http://library.thinkquest.org/5676/effects.html

24. Keiffer Southerland. Twenty First Century Fox, 2008.