TV

Streaming services are changing the way we view media. There are currently several key streaming services (Netflix, Hulu,) and some currently planning services/recently launched services (D.C., Disney). What are the benefits and downsides of streaming services, when compared with traditional cable or broadcast television? Compare the benefits and downsides of both styles of media consumption and creation.

I am interested in this topic. Maybe here there are already many articles and people focusing on that? Maybe several people that know good books, articles related to anthropomorphization?

I think it would be interesting if someone familiar with philosophy or moral theory could dissect some of the main thematic elements in the television series "The Good Place". Main character Eleanor awakes after death in heaven, only to realize she isn't a "good enough" person to belong there. She receives lessons from a former ethics professor, which she attempts to apply towards her daily life to become a better person.
The show quotes Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, among others, and offhandedly mentions topics like moral particularism and utilitarianism. While the show takes these moral lessons in stride, it doesn't do much to unpack them in the context of the show's characters. Moreover, while much of the show focuses on the question, "what does it mean to be a good person?" I think there are other philosophical questions the show hints at, like what heaven or hell really is, and in which scenarios we can or should put ourselves before others.
What questions about morality and ethics does "The Good Place" raise, and why should they matter to lay audiences? How does this show make these topics accessible to viewers, and why should it matter?

From Don Herbert who starred in “Watch Mr. Wizard” (1951—1965) to Bill Nye who starred in “Bill Nye the Science Guy” (1993-1998), we see that science could be explained in ways which do require a degree in science. How do we look at the impact of these shows? Both Herbert and Nye have had some degree of prominence beyond their shows. In the case of Herbert, by the mid 1950s, there were several thousand Mr. Wizard science clubs, and, in the case of Nye, besides appearances on TV shows such as “The Big Bang,” and “Dancing with the Stars,” Nye has been prominent in addressing creationism and global warming. The legacy of these two individuals can be studied to address making science a topic that is not simply left to scientists.

With the recent announcements that The Punisher has been cancelled and Jessica Jones will air its 3rd and final season soon, what will happen to the characters featured in all of Netflix's Marvel shows? There is an agreement that Marvel cannot use the characters until 2 years after the cancellation of the shows. When those two years are up, will we see these characters reappeared for Marvel's films or the Disney Streaming Service, or will these characters be completely rebooted?

It’s important to address sensitive and controversial topics in television and film. Oftentimes, however, these shows and movies can come off as glamorizing and using these issues for pure entertainment purposes.

For instance, Thirteen Reasons Why faced backlash for its portrayal of depression and suicide. Another example would be the depiction of Joe Goldberg, a killer and stalker, in Netflix’s YOU and how it caused some viewers to lust for him. Likwise, the brief movie trailer for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile where Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy had many people upset about how the trailer seemed to romanticize the killer.

Do these shows and movies use controversial topics and issues as a mechanism for entertainment? And if yes, to what extent? Perhaps, it invites discussion and attention to these issues that people would not have become a part of had they not seen these shows and movies in the first place.

Analyze how shows and films approach controversial and sensitive topics, how viewers respond to it, and what this ultimately reveals about our society.

Emerald City is a TV series that ran for one season before being cancelled. Its premise was a darker, grittier vision of the Wizard of Oz mythos – something like Gregory Maguire's Wicked, but turned up even further. The original Wizard of Oz books and movies had much less heavy themes and a much less grim worldview, so why were these changes made? Are they merely trying to piggyback on the popularity of Game of Thrones, or is this more related to the shift in cultural expectations over the past twenty years? Or perhaps there is a deeper reason? The essay could speculate on what such changes add to the Oz mythos or tell us about it, and could also branch off into similar evolutions seen in other series, perhaps even in other genres like video games.

"The Romanoffs," an anthology series found on PrimeVideo follows the lives of self-proclaimed descendants of the Russian Romanov dynasty. Episode One, "The Violet Hour," depicts an elderly woman, Anastasia, living in Paris in need of a new caregiver, Hajar. A topic of interest is the treatment of Hajar, a nursing student and Muslim. Various interactions between Anastasia, Anastasia's family, and Hajar reopen the topic of Western Imperialism/Post Colonialism and the Middle East. One particular scene involves Hajar confessing to Anastasia's nephew that their one-nightstand (where Greg pursues a hesitant Hajar) produced a pregnancy, where Hajar's family demands a restitution of sorts at the symbolic invasion of their daughter. (I immediately thought of the symbolic rape of the Nile with the occupation and construction of the Suez Canal by Britain.) Greg responds with "I should be mad, but I'm not…" This also introduces the age-old notion of women bearing the responsibility of unplanned pregnancies.