Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Corrupting the Youth of Today

So I've started to watch a new TV series, which is a little on the creepy and weird side. What drew my attention after watching the first episode (and the reason why I'm writing this post) is that the co-creator and co-writer of this series is Ryan Murphy. Murphy is the think-tank behind Glee.
Before he came up with the singing cash-cow, Mr. Murphy was the creator of Nip/Tuck, a wildly successful show with adult audiences. The thing is, Nip/Tuck was about two plastic surgeons, one of whom was a sex-addicted playboy, while the other was married to a wife with an adultery problem and had a son who was confused about his sexuality. Not as edgy as his new show, American Horror Story (the one that I've begun watching), but still pretty out there.
After Nip/Tuck came Glee, the biggest teen phenomenon since Twilight. It is a teen show that does push boundaries, but it's still a show directed towards teens and tweens, at its base.
Now that Glee has Murphy rolling in some serious dough, he's decided to tackle another show: American Horror Story. This show follows a family as they move into a new home that has had many (and I mean MANY) deaths on the property, most of them the family is unaware of. This house is haunted by their spirits and the family is generally unaware of the fact that these weird-o creeps that keep visiting them are ghosts and not real people; plus there's something creepy (possibly a Frankenstein-ish monster) that's living and killing people in their basement. The family has its share of problems too: the wife had a miscarriage within the last year (and is pregnant again... possibly by the house?), the husband had an affair (and got the girl pregnant), and the teenage daughter is a cutter who is in love with one of the ghosts (without knowing that he's a ghost). I know, I know... weird.
After watching several episodes of this new show and researching Nip/Tuck (as I have never seen even a minute of the show before), it got me to wondering why we let our youth watch Glee? I mean, don't get me wrong... I am a sold out Gleek and the running plot-line of AHS has me at least a little hooked. But, why are we letting children watch (and be influenced by) Glee, when it came out of the same mind that gave you the creepy show about a risk-ey haunted house and the creepy show about plastic surgery and sex?
Some things to take into consideration when thinking about this are things like the fact that our culture is already obsessed with sex. You can't search ANYTHING in Google or other search engines without getting at least one result that's porn. I once heard (although I can't verify this) that one out of every five results from an internet search engine is porn. Allowing youth to watch a show that was created by someone who clearly has no issues with some pretty "kinky" stuff is a little bit of a risk, don't you agree? Even Glee itself is a little out there. Every episode has at least one sexual innuendo and there are at least 7 characters that are either gay, bi-sexual, or have "experimented". And the next episode is entitled "I Kissed A Girl", featuring Katy Perry's song by the same name. The preview of this upcoming episode hints that a few of the girls will share that they have kissed (or something more intense than that) another girl at some point thus far in their lives.
Another thing, is that there is a new obsession forming with the supernatural and the afterlife. As a believer in God, I normally wouldn't mind this because it can spark an interest in Christianity. But, this new obsession isn't about where you're going when you die, nor is it about angels and God. It's about sticking around here postmortem (which is not possible, Biblically speaking), and about monsters and demons. This obsession is very dark and isn't going to turn very many (if any) people to the right side of the coin. If a series like AHS can come out of the same grey matter that brought you Glee, don't you think there will some cross-over (in two ways). One way, is that because the choir show has been so popular with youth, there will likely be some that will start watching AHS just because Murphy's name is attached to it. Another way, is that Murphy may possibly bring some supernatural aspects to Glee; it won't likely be in a big way, probably just little things like the episode last season about God (that basically said that He didn't exist), or things like that.
Again, don't misunderstand me here. I love Glee. It's very entertaining and the music is great. But should we be letting young people be influenced by a man that is clearly disturbed (at least a little)? If this is what comes from of his creative outlets, there's definitely got to be at least some of it floating around his noggin because he believes it in some part.
I'm not trying to offer a solution or say that Ryan Murphy's shows should be banned from young adults. All that I'm trying to do here is state what's been floating around my head since watching a few episodes of AHS, and raise a few questions about how media may be corrupting our youth. I only use this as an example.
'Til next time,
-B

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