Most of the shows I like to watch come on primetime network television. I’ve written before about how network tv has been pushing the limits with the language they use but in the past few days I’ve noticed that they are also walking a fine line with the images they show. Surprisingly, I was unaffected at first but after giving it some thought I am a little shocked. Nothing seems to left up to the imagination anymore and it is a shame.
Every Sunday night at 9 I watch Desperate Housewives faithfully. This past Sunday’s episode included not one but TWO suicide attempts. Although Desperate Housewives is known to kill off a character or two towards the end of the season, I was a little shocked at how they choose to portray the suicide attempts. The season’s newer character, Danny, ingests a bottle of pills and is discovered by his mother, Angie, laying face down on the bed. Danny is not shown ingesting the pills but the action is implied when Angie picks up the bottle that is next to his motionless body. By the end of the episode, Katherine, who has been having a mental breakdown the whole season, places a fake phone call to 911 saying she’s losing a lot of blood after Mike finally tells her that he never had feelings for her. The camera then stays on a knife on the table (that Mike placed there after Katherine asked him to kill her). The next shot is of Katherine picking up the knife followed by an off screen gasp and Katherine placing the now bloody knife back on the table.
Not even a whole 24 hours later, there was another suicide attempt on my other favorite show One Tree Hill. Much like the scenario with Katherine and Mike, the season’s new character Alex is finally told by Julian that he has no feelings for her whatsoever. Alex, a washed up actress and recovering addict later on leaves Julian a voicemail after he ignores he call saying that she’s sorry for the pain she’s caused and he won’t have to worry about her causing anyone pain anymore (all this takes place in a tight shot on her face). The following shots are of her dropping the cellphone in the tub and a wider shot of Alex sitting in a tub full of water in her underwear with her wrists bleeding.
I was more shocked with how One Tree Hill choose to convey the suicide attempt than I was with Desperate Housewives. Although it was obvious that the character’s inflicted some type of pain on themselves, the act is not shown. In the case of Katherine, her blood is shown on the knife rather than showing her bleeding from wherever she cut herself. With One Tree Hill, there was something about seeing Alex bleeding from the wrists that shocked me a little bit. Part of me only expected to see the water turn bloody after she dropped the phone as opposed to seeing her body sitting there with blood pouring from her wrists.
It is a little alarming that I’m so desensitized now. I truly was not bothered by what I saw however it did cause me to think. But it is more alarming that the writers and directors of these shows do not realize how powerful it is to convey these issues on television. I am interested in seeing how much further it will go before more people pick up on how inappropriate and explicit the images of primetime television are becoming.
**The end of this clip shows Katherine’s suicide attempt**
Tags: abc, desperate housewives, drama, one tree hill, primetime, suicide, the cw
