Are Movies and Series Increasing Our Propensity Towards Violence and Killing

Have streaming movies and series lowered the threshold on viewers willingness to want people to die and even kill?

I'm watching a series on Netflix and the bad guy-- a gang-banger in west LA-- murders a kid who's trying to leave the gang and the system so he can take care of his baby daughter. This murderer then goes on to terrorize the neighborhood ordering shootings on other people. The story is written so the viewer hates this guy and can't wait until he is dead. There are a whole slew of people angling to kill this monster.

The writers of this series want you to hate him. Maybe they even want YOU to want to, or be willing to kill this guy. The story ends up with the grandmother of the baby orphaned when her father was killed does the killing of the bad guy. That narrative makes the killing even more acceptable, as compared to another gangbanger killing him.

It seems like there are a lot of movies and series with really horrible, hateful bad guys who the creators designed to cause you to hate and despise them, maybe even kill them. It's gotten kind of obvious that a bad guy, once he does something really terrible, is going to die later in the show. From then on, as the bad character continues to do evil, to perpetrate horrific acts, the viewer is rooting for karma to do its thing and kill the bastard. And it's working. I find myself thinking that I'd be willing to serve as karma's deliveryman. If the bad guy was to be executed, I think about how I'd be willing to be a part of the firing squad or willing to push the plunger on the lethal injection.

Now flash to all the Trump cult members who have said they are ready to raise arms and fight and kill the libtards... and to January 6th, when the traitorous, seditious rioters beat up police, putting their lives at risk. They are ready to kill. And they are legion.

As a writer, as the founder and organizer of a conference on the art, science and application of story, I am more aware than most of the power of a strong, complex villain. Strong villains can make a movie successful. Look at The Joker, in Batman movies, and the bad guys in avengers movies.

I wrote earlier this month about cheering for anti-vaxxers who tried to persuade others to refuse vaccination. I don't like to think or feel that way. And, when I think about it, I don't want to be considering executing anyone. And I don't want to blame the movies or series or their writers for my feelings. But maybe they have lubricated the release of those thoughts and feelings.

Others have written about the level of violence in video games and music. And I don't know how my theory could be objectively tested. But it seems to me that Netflix, the major studios and networks making series and movies could tell writers not to kill bad guys, or at least not have them killed by people. Let nature or accidents, or the villains own behaviors cause the deaths they deserve.

In the past, movie companies have literally put in their contract that screenwriters must write a hero's journey into their scripts. I have a feeling that family oriented Disney has such a policy, even if it is not necessarily in contracts.

A good example is the series Manifest. There's a drug dealer who has killed a few people. He is horrible and hateful and has acted in the way writers portray villains so you want him dead. But the good guy characters literally stop family members of victims from killing the guy. It ends up his own behavior causes his death, and it's a satisfying death, for the audience.

We're seeing a jump in violent crime and murders in the big cities. Maybe this explosion of murder supporting content that is now available on Netflix, Prime, HBO, and other streaming media is part of the problem.