Reducing in T.V. Shows

I was sitting around this weekend, watching One Tree Hill on Netflix, episode after episode, when it hit me… This show reduces A LOT of things that the age group watching should know about. A particular episode struck me as being blatantly obvious about reducing issues. In this particular episode, Brooke Davis, who is a main character, has lost her clothing company due to her vice president forging her signature and lying to investors. Along with losing her multi-million dollar clothing line, she gives everything she has to repay the investors that lost all their money. In the episode, after you see her lose all of money and even stating she is broke, she is driving around in a BMW, living with a fully-stocked fridge in a mansion beach house, while going out to the clubs that night to enjoy what I presume is a $10 martini. 

As I was watching this episode, I was thinking about how messed up this is to think about. In real life, a person who just lost their income source, their life savings and basically everything would not act this way. The show’s producers reduced what the lifestyle of Brooke Davis would have turned into if this was reality. Reducing real-life situations out of TV shows is a common thing, not just in One Tree Hill. As I began to think about what was being reduced in One Tree Hill and other current hit shows, the largest thing I could think of was the amount of time characters work. Now, this excludes shows like Scandal, Suits, NCIS, and other shows that revolve around the particular job. Shows such as Modern Family, One Tree Hill, New Girl and several other shows reduce the work the characters do. They show them living these fabulous lives without any worries as to money when it doesn’t show you how they are making a living. 

I believe this is an awful thing to do, especially in a country that supports so many people with welfare and other government assistance. They grow up watching these shows, idealize these characters and believe they can live the same type of lifestyle. We need to start watching realistic shows, not reality shows, but shows that show the struggles you go through in real life… not shows that show you hitting the club the day after you lost your life savings and your multi-million dollar business!