Peak TV was characterized by great writing, great acting and in more than a few examples, the centering of terrible people.  The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Mad Men are the three best of many examples of how, when television was at the best it’s ever been (and now with art dying a slow death during the rise of “Peak Content” it may be the best it will ever be), it was focuses on some of the worst people.  We laughed with and rooted for murderers, racists, drug dealers, serial killers, adulterers, incestuous murderers (once Jamie Lannister began helping Brienne of Tarth), etc.  But one of the great things about art (not content) is that it can play with your emotions and have you hoping for outcomes that (hopefully) you don’t wish for in real life.  But did this multi-decade conditioning create an America where we became desensitized to anti-heroes and just drop the “anti”?

On a related note, there is one particular theme in the anti-hero space that bears mentioning. It seems that America was willing to afford this artistic license to white male characters.  I have often joked (and yet, is it a joke?) that Emmy Awards were always showered on white centered drug shows (Breaking Bad, Ozark, Weeds) as if the struggle of white people who chose to deal drugs was worth praise while equally, if not better, drug dealing shows with Black and Latino people (The Wire, Narcos, Snowfall) always went away empty-handed (and almost always unnominated) as if that artistic journey was not as impressive or important.  So like so many things, I think race is central to the ability of white anti-heroes to get Americans watching and rooting for them.  This, of course, is not to say that The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc. are not incredible shows. They are. But if you think Ozark deserved more Emmys than The Wire, I also think I know who you voted for.

And yes, that brings me to Donald Trump.  I have said on podcasts and in writing that I do not think Donald Trump could have been President in any other time than this one. A time where our civic engagement is the only thing lower than our smart phone-destroyed attention spans.  A time following the first Black president. A time when politicians were just as likely to be serving their own brands as their constituents. A time when an entire news ecosystem exists, not to deliver news, but to distort news and foment a singular hate for the other political side.  This combination of factors created a unique and fertile soil for an attention seeking monster.  He has no depth, but that’s ok because we aren’t seeking depth. He possesses no knowledge, but that is ok because we seek confirmation, not truth.  But as I think more and more about all the factors that gave us President Trump, a singular embarrassment in modern political history and a Mount Rushmore of American Historical tragedies, I wonder if our pop culture landscape assisted as well.

People have often cited Modern Family as a comedy that helped America become more comfortable with gay people. If that’s true, then can’t it be true that culture works in reverse also?  That white anti-heroes made Americans comfortable with a lawless, but entertaining central figure (who was white)?  There is just one difference: THIS IS REAL LIFE.  When MAGA roots for Trump to defeat his enemies (Democrats, diversity, decency, nuance) perhaps it feels like Walter White taking out Gus Fring, but it’s actually real people, real laws and the real US Constitution that he is wrecking. But like a mob of people who claim the title of Christians, with barely a connection to Jesus, or claim to be “Constitutionalists” while watching their president wipe his ass with it, these are people who seem to already be living in a semi-fictional world.  The problem is that at 10pm on HBO or AMC, the villains are done.  In Trump’s case, he is just getting started.