They say art imitates life. I have also heard, often enough, that life imitates art. However, this is not possible because art is a figment of man's imagination. It is a reflection of how a person would want the world to look (in most cases).Art portrays an idealistic image - of good or bad. And that is the problem - it is not real. It is not meant to be. Like beautiful paintings of scenes in which you can see the colors and the light, but not the insects; where you can see the vibrance of the market without the unpleasant smells.
So also with on-screen art - whether it is drama, comedy or movies on the big screen. Regular life problems like traffic jams are glossed over, the characters find solutions in the span of a series at the most. Clothes, hair and food - all come in perfect conditions at ideal times. It really makes real life stink! It feels terrible when Ziva of NCIS walks into the end-of-a rough-day scene looking fresh, absolutely ready for anything more, while my legs are aching from sitting hunched on little desks. I know I would give anything to be able to snatch the coffee that is always in Gibbs' hands. But I also know I would either have to make my own coffee - or treat myself to a ready one by going and getting one!
This of course is a small example. I believe the effect of these dramas and soaps is much more pernicious. The insidiousness lies not solely in the image we begin to expect from ourselves and others, it is so in the relationships we begin to imagine. We see the unbearably syrupy FBI agent husband perennially putting his career secondary to his wife's in The Closer. We gag at dialogues like "I will not let you hurt her anymore; I am with her now", but eventually almost begin to expect it. First onscreen, then in our lives. Do you know of anyone who would say that for anyone?? Oh, I know many who believe that, an actually do care that much- but would they SAY it? And slowly, we think less of men we know because they do not say what or how all the actors do. On TV we see men bending over backwards to humor their partners, and racing to be the first to apologize after a row. How many times does it happen in real life? It is hardwired into the male psyche not to! So why do we depict such unnatural behaviour ALL the time? It confuses women eventually when this ideal behaviour is not as commonplace as they had begun to expect. Women who watch these will slowly find all men lacking. Because these TV shows do not just raise the bar of expectation, they create one that is nonexistent in life.
And then there is the superwoman. The career-minded, great-looking, warm-hearted, uncannily intuitive-to-your-needs female partner of most Law&Order shows. Everywhere else too, sadly, the one qualification of being a woman is that you have to be really good looking and always in shape. In Indian soaps, the women also have to be a walking advertisement of some jewellery store while she's slogging over the stove even though she is fasting for her husband's long life! Oh, I love TV, especially the crime dramas! But I have to catch myself from wishing that real problems would get solved in an hour. I have to remind myself that life is not always as fair as they portray, that there may most likely never be anyone as principled as Jack McCoy or Leroy Jethro Gibbs. And I need to remember that the conundrums that I laugh at are not always funny in real life.
Our talents have been used well in amusing ourselves. Creativity is, after all, best utilized when it gives us the much-needed pabulum to our wearied souls. Art, at its best, is entertainment. We do need that respite of escape into another world . The difficulty arises only when we expect our world to mirror the one we create on screen.
