Entertainment or Art?

Pop Culture, besides residing on a spectrum of "good" and "bad" also exists somewhere between entertainment and art. All of these labels are purely subjective. What I find to be good entertainment might not be the same for you. For example, to me, Die Hard is Good Entertainment. It is pure entertainment, with very little (to no) subtext. But it is damn fun to watch. Bad Entertainment might be considered something like the 2005 Eugene Levy movie, The Man. It isn't so bad that it becomes fun to watch and mock...it is just objectively not entertaining. Good Art is something like Requiem for a Dream, in no way was I entertained while watching it but it moved me the way good art does. Bad Art would be something like Keyhole, a super pretentious movie from last year that seemed to have been written by a first-year film school student. It didn't make me think about anything other than, "When will this be over?"



All that said, my favorite movies entertain me while leaving me with something to think about. Memento is a great example of the cross between art and entertainment to me because it was a blast to watch but also created questions and ideas in my head that lingered long after the film was over. That is kind of how I break art down from entertainment, you enjoy entertainment in the moment and art creates some change in you or lingers with you for a long time.

He's asking if you have seen this, and so am I.

I was inspired to write about this because I recently read an article about Breaking Bad which posited that it is sort of a cheap magpie, stealing ideas from better shows. True, this is right on time for a hipster backlash against the program, but I wanted to respond in a true way and not just as a knee-jerk "nu-uh" reaction. I have named it my second favorite show of all time (and it might supplant The Wire if it sticks the landing) so I had to ask myself, is it a good show?

No Spoilers, Bitch!

My cousin does a thing where he starts watching a show and just burns through all the episodes so he can know what happens. Whether the show is good or not, get him even slightly interested and he will watch every second of it. I have a problem with not getting hooked on shows that other people seem to love. For example, he showed me the first two or three episodes of Orange is the New Black (which might as well be called "what everyone is raving about this summer") and it didn't hook me. It feels a lot like a female Oz. Slightly wacky but nothing very engaging so far. It doesn't help that I so dislike the main character right away.

I did at least get to see Laura Prepon's naked body so...that was a plus.

Another non-starter for me is one I feel a deep shame in not appreciating...Mad Men. Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some John Hamm. He is fascinating to watch and it is a good thing he is the central character. However, most of the other cast does nothing for me. His wooden wife, the mousey secretary, the interchangeable office assholes...only John Slattery has made any sort of impression on me. At first I thought Pete Campbell would be compelling as an antagonist but, nope, he is just another office asshole. Granted, I am only halfway through the first season but it feels like eating my vegetables to sit down and watch the show.

All that is to say that Mad Men and Orange is the New Black don't entertain me. The characters don't engage me, the plots aren't especially enthralling and I never get the urge to sit down and watch the next episode immediately. Not to say there haven't been cool moments. Don Draper confronting his brother was a nice piece of awesome tension, but that is a single scene out of the hours and hours of the show I have watched.

Things were different in the 60s, we get it already!

The article I read claimed that Breaking Bad doesn't know what to do with the female characters (kind of true) and is built on implausible storytelling (probably true) but I'll be damned if I am not riveted. It isn't high art. The Wire is a very entertaining breakdown of a city from the angles of crime, labor, law, politics, education and the media. It gives you lots and lots to chew on and think about while telling a very compelling crime story. Breaking Bad has far less on its mind. It is entertainment first and an examination of good and evil second. Sure, it raises a couple of interesting what ifs about the slippery slope of letting your morals go for a little while but it really excels at creating plot situations that bounce the characters off of each other in fun, entertaining ways. The article says everyone but Walt is one-dimensional but the situations they all find themselves in are engaging regardless. The actors are good enough to bring their characters to life, get us invested and hope everything works out for them. It isn't art, but I will punch anyone who says it isn't entertaining.

Any excuse to plug The Wire, I will take it.

I remember my senior year of high school, I went to my girlfriend's prom (she attended a different school than I did). Her best friend and I argued over the relative value of entertainment versus art. I was saying that if a piece of pop culture doesn't make you think, it is worthless. He was saying he just consumes pop culture for the escapism and didn't want to have to think. Both of us were idiots. Really great creators can do both at the same time. Inception will never be a perfect movie for me because Nolan spends so much time explaining things that the audience (if they are even a little smart) could figure out. This year, Upstream Color (by the guy who made Primer), presented a complicated story with very little explanation and it was just as entertaining (I had problems with the third act but that is neither here nor there). I know some people who only want to watch art. And that is fine, as far as it goes. I can't imagine not wanting to sit down and just be entertained by Anchor Man or Drunk History or The Raid: Redemption every now and then.

Good flick. If I do a marathon this year...

All that is to say, there is nothing wrong with entertainment. Entertainment, in small doses, can release the psychic pressure valve of a hard day's work or tough emotional time. It can cheer you up or at least distract you for awhile. The danger is in consuming nothing but entertainment. Religion used to be the opiate of the masses, now it is television. For me, it is mindlessly trawling the internet for hours on end with no goal in mind. Too much entertainment makes you intellectually flabby and susceptible to suggestion (in my opinion).

On the other hand, too much art can distance you from other humans. To live in the rarefied air of nothing but metaphorical visuals and allegorical language is to make a chore out of art. If you have to learn something every time you are supposed to be relaxing, you aren't really relaxing.

Like I said earlier, the best films and television shows are those that thrill you in the moment and leave you thinking after they are done. That way, you get the release of entertainment, coupled with the mind-engagement of art. Unfortunately, creators who know how to straddle that line are few and far between.

What do you think, gentle reader? Where do your tastes lie? Everybody Loves Raymond or Arrested Development? The Shield or Law and Order? The Conversation or Enemy of the State? There are no wrong answers if it makes you happy in some way.