A couple of years ago I did a lecture in one of my film classes about the characteristics of network versus cable television. A student approached me after class and told me that he had a hard time understanding the difference between the two because he watches everything on his laptop and therefore makes no distinction between how various shows are broadcast. It was a lightbulb moment in my teaching because I realized in that moment just how much the landscape of media has changed. I have an understanding of the difference between network and cable television because I remember UHF dials and tin foil on rabbit ears. However, I am immersed in an industry in which people like my students have a completely different relationship with film and television and how they are watched. Television has shifted from being a communal bonding event, to a very personalized manifestation of individual taste. Times have definitely changed.
In terms of content, it is no secret that the world of television has experienced a renaissance in its cultural relevance. Some of the most intelligent, complex character development has come through the small screen, to the extent that some have called this another Golden Age of Television. The past couple years we have seen shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and currently American Crime win critical acclaim for great performances as well as great writing. But more than the change in content, access and acceptance, television has experienced a change in how we engage with it, and how it connects us to one another.
If you’ve been buried in the books or living under a rock this past winter, you may have missed the latest television phenomenon known as Empire, a soap opera-type drama (ala Dynasty, Dallas, and Melrose Place, etc.) set in the world of hip hop. Empire follows the story of the Lyon family just as the patriarch, Lucious, learns that he is (supposedly) dying of ALS and must decide which of his three sons will take over his successful music empire–all this while his ex-wife, Cookie, is released from prison after 17 years and tries to win back the allegiance of her sons, her ex-husband, and her share of the company. Sounds like the stuff soap operas are made of. It’s also the kind of plot that can make intellectuals and theologians roll their eyes and scoff at its banality. I almost missed out on this show for that very reason. But one thing I couldn’t deny and I couldn’t avoid was the impact the show was having on my community.
Empire has broken records hand over fist since it debuted. It is the only primetime scripted series since 1991 that has consistently grown every week in viewership. The show’s soundtrack beat Madonna’s “Rebel Heart” album on the Billboard 200 list. The show has also been groundbreaking from a cultural standpoint. It is one of the few dramas on primetime television that features an African American family, and it is also seeking to, in the words of its creator, Lee Daniels, “blow the lid off more on homophobia in [the African American] community.” To say that my entire Twitter and Facebook timelines shut down on Wednesday nights is an understatement. It got to a point where I could not talk to anyone in my circle of friends on Wednesday nights unless it had something to do with Empire.
My first reaction to the show was that it was trite and cliche. I joined the ranks of people on social media who criticized the show for not adding anything new to black television, or television in general for that matter. But the more I went online to critique the show, the more I saw the comments from swarms of people who were having a live, communal experience while simultaneously watching it via social media and the immediacy of the live tweet. And I wanted in.
Live-tweeting is just another way that the television game has changed. Scandal was one of the first shows to gain a ratings boost by using Twitter. According to Variety.com, it was one of ABC’s first shows to actively use Twitter in its promotional activity when it used #WhoShotFitz to promote one of its episodes in 2012. It has become another way for the show to experience community among its creators and viewers. Betsy Beers, an executive producer on Scandal has stated that “Twitter’s become a water cooler for us. Now everybody’s watching shows in a different span and rate. The great thing about Twitter is that you can always find a community.” Darby Stanchfield, one of the show’s co-stars has said that live-tweeting has been “the closest thing I’ve had to theater in television. You’re getting to see what people think.”
This sense of community was what I experienced with Empire. I experienced it first when I found myself anticipating the call to my sister every Thursday morning so we could talk about the previous night’s show. But then I saw it when I actually joined the Twitter and Facebook conversations. Keeping abreast with the show each week, I reconnected with old friends and found new friends both locally and abroad. I experienced it when certain people posted about real-life experiences that mimicked the ones on the screen. I experienced it when others posted about being abused and discriminated against because of their sexuality, much like one of the Lyons sons, Jamal, whose homosexuality has been one of the highlights of the show (and, one of the stronger and more compelling storylines).
Ok, so maybe I’m just saying all this to justify my guilty pleasure in watching the show. But it has caused me to think about how we evaluate “good” and “bad” television. Could it be that not only are our methods of watching television changing, but maybe our valuation of television is changing or should change too? In 1974, Raymond Williams published an article in The New Republic titled “On High and Popular Culture” in which he tried to define and defend the merits of both “high culture” and “low culture.” He states,
There is a kind of culture that has been developed by a people or by the majority of a people to express their own meanings and values, over a range from customs to works. There is also a different kind of culture that has been developed for a people by an internal or external social group, and embedded in them by a range of processes from repressive imposition to commercial saturation.
He also states that, “Culture”…implies also both the whole way of life of a people and the practices and products of intellectual work and the arts. These two implications become sources of difficulty in our notions of “high culture” and “popular culture.” A show like Empire could be considered “low culture” by some, but what if that piece of culture is speaking to what the community is seeking?
For all of the success and acclaim that the show has garnered, we must wonder why this particular show has had such an impact on communities, and what is our response as we look to engage theologically with this artifact? Perhaps the people are expressing their value for human lives regardless of sexual orientation and for alternate representations of the African American family. The show was deliberately targeted toward African American women, however, even though they make up the largest percentage of viewers, the show’s combined audience is very diverse. With all of the racial tension existing in light of the police brutality cases around the country, maybe Empire, in all of its banality, gives us an opportunity, even if only for an hour, to live out how we want our interactions with others to be. Or perhaps the show provides us with a bit of reprieve from the dismal reality that injustice has cast in light of Ferguson and Indiana. And while our examples of what we deem “good” television may offer us a type of quality content, these definitions may have their limitations.
In the best case scenarios, live-tweeting and the online spaces have given us an open door to dialogue with the people at large about what they love and what they value. Twitter has done more than create a technology shift in how we view television. It takes into account that even though people like my student are not watching content live anymore, platforms like Twitter force us to be present with one another and to have shared experiences around common values. Is that such a bad thing? Maybe even “bad” television will bring us closer together and help our individualistic society stay together.