DIRECTING THE DARK, EMBRACING THE LIGHT

I was directing an episode in which terrible things happened. Characters were brutally wounded, killed in horrific ways, abandoned and bereft. Why do we engage in such stories? What is the attraction?

From a directing standpoint, it’s a rather thrilling challenge to figure out how to achieve these things without actually killing or maiming anyone. How do we show it – the gouging out of eyes, for example, or a terrible and tragic car accident – and make it seem real, when it never is? It feels a bit like magic, though it’s dark magic, to be sure.

That may be the appeal for an audience too. We all have deep fears, dating to when we were babies, afraid our parents would leave us, either by their death or departure for more exciting places than next to a changing table. Those deep fears may be assuaged by watching the dramas on TV that depict our fears of abandonment or death but we can dismiss the fears because it’s a story. It’s not real. It didn’t happen in our lives, it happened on that box in the corner that we can turn off anytime we want.

Horror or thrill movies are the same; the audience gets to be scared and feel the adrenaline rush and then laugh it off when the movie is over. But having seen The Exorcist at an early age, I can say decades later that I wasn’t able to laugh it all off. There is still a vestige of doubt and fear – are there devils that invade us, that we can’t control, that want us to carry out evil acts?

My logic tells me that it isn’t so, that the vestigial fear is a remnant of previous times when unexplainable things happened and human beings invented tales to explain the unexplainable. Today we know so much more – scientifically, philosophically, almost any -ally. Psychiatrists and therapists abound and calm those fears.

But I still worry that by directing the dark stories, I’m contributing to the world’s general malaise about our current times. Everything seems scary and wrong, from the cost of housing and food, to the rise of the political right not just in the U.S. but around the globe, to terrorists carrying out unthinkable violence. Did those people grow up watching dark stories and think that that’s just the way things are? Did they think that, if they saw it on TV, that somehow that gave them permission to act in unkind and violent ways?

There are shows at the other end of the spectrum that present a more positive life view. Ted Lasso, When Calls the Heart, any holiday TV movie. But do those counterbalance the dark stories, when they’re outnumbered about a thousand to one?

This is why it’s crucial for creators to provide more life-affirming product on TV. Let’s tell the other side of the story, that life is good, that people are good, that everything will be all right. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make for good drama, which thrives and turns on conflict and turmoil. So I guess I’m advocating for happy endings. Sure, any story will have conflict – otherwise it’s just a pablum of bland tapioca – but it can end in an uplifting, positive, even inspiring, way. There’s nothing wrong with inspiration – think about how we all get choked up with happy tears when watching the Olympics or any other come-from-behind sports story. It can even be motivational, pushing the viewer to get up off the couch and actually do something to change the status quo, make a difference, or just cause a stranger to smile.

Telling stories is how I make my living. As a freelance director who needs the paycheck, I don’t have a lot of control over the kinds of stories I tell. But that’s why a new desire is arising within me, to create positive, life-affirming stories. For my own sanity. For my own wish to redeem the world of visual storytelling from its descent into mayhem and horror. I believe it can be done, and if not now, when? And why not me?

While The Exorcist stuck with me in an unfortunate way, there is another story of good versus evil that has been inspiring since I read it long ago. In The Stand, by Stephen King, that same universal conflict story is told to a powerful effect. After the escape of a bacteria from a government lab that killed 99% of the U.S. population, the survivors banded together in two groups. The bad people gathered in Las Vegas and did bad things. The good people gathered in Boulder Colorado with the determination to adhere to strong morals and positive ethics.  I can’t imagine anyone reading the book or watching the TV miniseries and saying, “Yes! I would want to join those F?&%ing people in Las Vegas!” But maybe some people did, encouraged by the continual dark stories on streamers and the superhero movies in the theaters. That’s why it’s imperative to tell the positive, life-affirming stories: to make them part of our cultural ethos, to allow audiences to believe that good always does triumph over evil. Somehow, the dark stories of violence and evil are construed to be more creative, more award-worthy. But there’s nothing wrong with telling inspirational stories of achievement and kindness. They can still have conflict and be compelling, but result in a positive outcome. I want to be a part of that creative cohort that steps up to tell those kinds of stories, to embrace the light. There is nothing bad about that.