Its been a while now since I have watched a film in its entirety. Most of the unwarranted intermissions are thanks to my two-year-old. But I make sure I don't miss my serials. And no... I am not a fan of the glycerin factory that makes up Balaji products. I prefer the stuff of Star World and AXN. Among my favourites are Supernatural (Yes!! one of the main reasons is Jenson Ackles), Shark, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, House, The CSI series, Heroes and so many more. In the old school, Mind your Language, Who's the Boss? X Files and of course Friends are still all time watchables.
I have always had a soft corner for stuff that has a medical, forsensic, psychological, legal and paranormal basis. And there is one thing I have found across all of such serials. In each progressive season, the level of gore that is displayed gets increasingly... well icky.
Take for example The X Files - the introduction and perhaps the first two seasons made for fanstatic viewing (for a paranormal freak like me). But then it progressively began to sneak in more gore and violence than I felt justified the show.
Another more recent and popular show - Heroes - Season one told the story of Silar - a villain, who in short - had superhuman powers and went about killing others like himself to absorb their powers. His modus operandi was to slice off their skulls and yank the power out of their brains. In season one - this was shown via a painting that was done by an artist who could see the future. In season two, they showed the victims pinned to the wall and the initial incision into the skull followed by a random shot punctuated with a scream. Episode of Season three - actually showed the victim lying down, with an exposed brain, with Silar digging into the brain and then actually throwing the scalp with hair back on his victim when he was done.
Case three - Supernatural - a story of two brothers who travel the length and breadth of America fighting supernatural demons in search of the one that killed their mother. Season one - bloodshed indicative... Season two - random beheading, gutted necks and some such... caught season three - almost every episode had a overhealthy dose of bloodshed and gory faces... Season four which I caught online - is an out and out gore fest.
There are several more examples and it got me thinking - while the story lines have been strong and continue to be so... why is it considered necessary to add the unnecessary gore. Shock value, I understand, but then after a point it gets numbing and then downright boring. What is the basis of such introductions. Does the storyline become so flimsy that it needs to be interjected such senseless gore.
Anyways... I still follow these serials - of course, I do turn away if I feel queasy... but this trend in serials was just an observation. Would be glad if anyone could enlighten me :)
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