Pop Culture’s Lessons in Recession

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Nov 30 2009 | 2 Comments

It looks like the recession has made its way into pop culture. HBO has a new series called “Hung” and in its premier recently, it showed scenes of Detroit factories that were abandoned and had a voiceover talking of how the city has now fallen. The series focuses on a man named Ray Drecker, a guy that many can relate to these days.

Drecker was a star athlete in his younger days and is now having a hard time; he is divorced, behind on bills, and lost his job as a high school football coach because of some budget cuts the school had to perform.

The recession is going into its second year and the economy has found its way into pop culture; movies and tv shows have altered their scripts to put the tones of the recession in the stories. Also, plenty of books are offering frugal ideas and tips.

Long running tv shows like the Simpsons have also started talking about the recession. In one episode Homer and Marge have to sell their house because their mortgage payment had gone through the roof. On 30 Rock the characters had to deal with budget cuts. Even the kids from South Park had to learn a lesson about the recession.

Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, said, “On the one hand, it’s good when it becomes part of popular culture because people are talking about it and thinking about it, But on the other hand, it’s bad when people are obsessing about it to the point of absurdity.”

In past downturns, the recession has been a way to escape from the problems, but this time, it seems as though pop culture wants to immerse itself in the current situations everyone is facing.

If you look back to shows like Dynasty, in the 1980’s the show was very popular and featured people with a very flamboyant lifestyle where they would flaunt their money. They also thrived during the 1980’s recession.

During the Great Depression big musicals also became very popular.

“If you’ve got a loved one dying of cancer, you may not want to watch, as your entertainment, movies of loved ones dying of cancer,” Thompson said.

I don’t necessarily enjoy watching people suffer in a recession, but I do really like to know that other people, even those in television shows, feel the same way that everyone else does. It makes me feel like Hollywood is connected to the real world and that at least the writers understand what is going on with the average American.

Art is supposed to imitate life I thought. This would be the best way to do so. People want to find solace, this is not a cancer.

Related posts:
5 things the recession put an end to
Well, at least Google is seeing an end to the “advertising” recession

Tags: barry ritholtz, mortgage payment, homer and marge