Aristotle and Detective Shows

Aristotle wrote a lot of important stuff, very little of which I’ve read. But this Aristotelian idea is cool and I don’t know why we are not taught this in high school. It helps untangle why we are reading what we are reading and watching what we are watching.

When a writer writes a play or some other format for public consumption, people in the audience generally identify with the main protagonist of the story. If the writer ends the play in such a way that goodness is preserved, then people leave the theater or TV show or book feeling okay. If goodness is left unprotected and hanging, they leave jittery and distressed.

Artists who produce stuff for the public generally know this and if they don’t they should. Artists influence what we will do or not do by manipulating our emotions.

Our current world, if we are paying attention, is awful. Right? The travesties of greed and injustice are endless. 

How do we even breathe in such a world as this?

In the past few years Len and I have streamed-binged SO MANY detective shows where the leading character is a detective with some kind of haunting story in their past. Although, because they are “private” they rarely talk about their traumatic past. You know this plot, don’t you?

Why are there SO MANY detective shows with lead characters like these? 

The clue, I think, is in the Aristotelian observation that we follow what soothes us. We get wrapped into a drama. While we watch we are curious and anxious but then everything works out except for the one surprising event which hooks us into watching the next show. 

People are anxious. How do we live while we witness so much cruelty and injustice? How do we live fully without losing our sanity and or hope?

It would be crazy (if I even knew) to tell you what to do with your feelings of both power and powerlessness. When I write stories I try my best to not solve issues but to give my protagonist a situation in which they can act and make a little difference.

I know many people - and you may be one of them - who avoids X/Twitter, BlueSky, Instagram, and other online news outlets. I think it’s because one cannot handle the distress one feels when they read about ICE, or the latest corruption tale, or the genocide against Palestinians and in Lebanon, or famine and epidemics in developing nations. And more. We become riled and upset. We don’t think we have power so, in order to feel calm in our lives, we avoid learning what’s going on.

This is probably why broadcast news shows nearly always end with some “feel good” story. So that out horror will tamp down, and we will feel okay, and thus come back the next night so they can sell us more pharmaceuticals.

It’s the dynamic going on now and, friends, it’s been going on ever since people became people. The answer is to bravely continue to learn and care. Write letters and call people in power. Protest and boycott. Donate money.

And THEN watch a detective show. 

Not sure If I wrote this for you or for myself.