TV Loves Stasis

There was a recent op-ed piece in my local paper with the headline “TV Sitcom is unrealistic.” OK, the writer was specifically nitpicking cultural inaccuracies in the new sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and not making a general comment about television in general, but still whoever wrote that headline is an idiot.  The day TV sitcoms are realistic is the day the entire world stops watching TV sitcoms.

Were the two apartments in Friends realistic, especially considering three of the six man characters had low paying jobs?  I suppose Fresh Prince of Bel Air is a blueprint for how African American families in bad neighborhoods cope, by sending their kids to live with wealthy relatives.  And of course the exploits of Two Broke Girls are ripped from the headlines.

Of course TV is unrealistic; we watch TV to escape from reality (so why do people watch reality TV?  Search me).  But there is one way in which all episodic television is unrealistic: TV loves stasis.  Ty Burell of Modern Family said at a Paleyfest gathering on March 14 that sitcom characters don’t change, and he is basically right.

In the real world, time passes.  Things change, people change, and circumstances change.  Few TV shows are equipped with a device that constantly propels the action forward.  Lost is the only successful broadcast show that comes to mind where you can start watching an episode at random and immediately identify where in the timeline it fell.  Cable shows like Game of Thrones and Mad Men also have some linear continuity.  But when you watch a random episode of Friends you have to look for clues to see if Rachel is with Ross, or Joey, or whomever (wasn't she with Monica for a while? Sorry, just my imagination).

For example, take the successful show The Big Bang Theory.  Yes, things have evolved.  Raj now speaks to women (the producers decided to slay that dragon after they introduced two recurring female characters).  Howard got married.  Sheldon has sort of a girlfriend.  So there has been change.

But the central relationship is Leonard and Penny.  They’ve known each other for nearly nine years at this point, and they are still “dating” (if that’s what you call two people who live across the hall from each other hooking up regularly).  Is this realistic, even aside from the fact that a gorgeous sort-of actress is sleeping with a science nerd whose job is something she doesn’t come close to understanding?  At some point in a real relationship they would have reached some consensus about their future.  She would have met a handsome actor she had some shared interests with, or he would have met an attractive female physicist (I’m sure they are more common than unicorns) who could follow poly-syllabic utterances.  Or they would have gotten married and moved in together to save expenses and get some tax deductions.  But they wouldn’t be hanging out together for over eight years.

Of course the King of Stasis is The Simpsons.  After 25 years of Bart being in the first third grade, Homer being bad at his job, and Maggie not talking, they have to have selected amnesia.  How else can you explain the recent episode where Marge participates in a card counting scheme at a casino, with nary a shout out to the classic episode $pringfield which established Marge has a gambling problem?  Being animated, The Simpsons can push the boundaries of unreality further than most sitcoms.

So if you are looking for reality, don’t look to television.  Of course if I am telling you this, it is probably too late for you.  You can’t find reality on television, except possibly on The Daily Show.  The fake news is the only thing real about television.