{"id":13226,"date":"2025-07-31T09:13:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=13226"},"modified":"2025-07-31T09:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:13:40","slug":"tvs-new-age-of-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=13226","title":{"rendered":"TV\u2019s New Age of Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Bear didn\u2019t wait long to stress out its viewers. \u201cReview,\u201d the seventh episode of the dramedy\u2019s first season, is one of the most anxiety-inducing viewing experiences in recent TV history. In it, the employees at the sandwich shop in which the show originally takes place lose their cool after a food critic\u2019s praise directs a deluge of customers their way. But the crew\u2019s panic quickly permeates off-screen too. \u201cReview\u201d seems designed to elevate a viewer\u2019s blood pressure in tandem with that of its characters: Over the course of 20 minutes unfolding in real time, arguments arise, accidents happen, and several chefs quit their job. The episode exemplifies The Bear\u2019s ethos as a whole; four seasons in, the show remains defined by ticking clocks and barely controlled chaos. As my colleague Sophie Gilbert wrote, it\u2019s \u201chorrifically stressful\u201d to watch.<\/p>\n

Yet that unrelenting feeling of stress has resonated with viewers, enough for The Bear to break streaming records over the course of its run. And lately, it\u2019s not the only series channeling the pressures audiences may be feeling in real life: The Pitt, a word-of-mouth hit that uses each hour-long installment to follow the minute-to-minute events of one shift inside an emergency room, operates like a close cousin of The Bear when it comes to drumming up unease. The Pitt scored a bevy of Emmy nominations earlier this month, as did The Bear and shows such as Severance and Adolescence, which also use single-take, unbroken sequences to nerve-wracking effect. Even this year\u2019s most-nominated comedy series, The Studio, in which each scene is meant to look like one continuous shot, encourages more nail-biting than laughing as it tracks the trials of a harried Hollywood executive. These programs go beyond merely dialing up the intensity of what\u2019s happening on-screen; they submerge viewers in visceral, in-the-moment tension. The experience of watching them may be stressful as a result\u2014but it is also apparently satisfying at the same time. They seem to be scratching an itch: for realism, and for an acknowledgment that day-to-day concerns can feel extraordinarily high-stakes.<\/p>\n

Waning, it seems, are the days of the Emmys being dominated by television predicated on escapism and spectacle: Comfort shows such as Ted Lasso and historical epics such as Sh\u014dgun are currently off the air; sumptuous dramas such as The Crown have ended. Meanwhile, there seems to be less appetite for excessive violence. (Yellowjackets and Squid Game, former nominees known for their high body counts, were completely shut out of the Emmys this year.) Instead, a slate of series concerned with more mundane types of stress has emerged, using hyperrealistic filmmaking techniques to capture anxiety in a way that feels intimate.<\/p>\n

Read: Why The Bear <\/em>is so hard to watch<\/p>\n

The human brain\u2014more specifically, the way it\u2019s wired to enjoy jitters\u2014is partly responsible for how well these shows have been received by viewers. \u201cOur body doesn\u2019t always know the difference between a heart-rate increase associated with watching The Bear versus going for a walk,\u201d Wendy Berry Mendes, a psychology professor at Yale, told me. People have always sought excitement by being spectators; doing so causes, as Mendes put it, \u201cvicarious stress\u201d\u2014a fight-or-flight response that feels good because it involves zero risk. Watching a horror movie can produce the effect, though Mendes pointed out in an email that horror tends to unfold at a more extreme pace, causing reactions infrequently experienced by audiences. (Think of how jump scares can dramatically startle viewers.) The intense shows holding viewers\u2019 attention these days, meanwhile, can conjure a sense of ongoing anxiety. \u201cCertainly, that unremitting pressure\u201d in The Bear, Mendes wrote, \u201cis something more common than running from a zombie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research has also shown that witnessing a loved one overcome a tough task is more stressful than seeing a stranger do so. Television shows that unfold in real time can feel like they collapse the fourth wall; combined with techniques such as extreme close-ups, it\u2019s possible they can produce a strong level of empathy for some viewers. \u201cOur minds create what is real and what isn\u2019t real to our stress systems,\u201d Jeremy Jamieson, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, told me. When a viewer engages intimately with the material, he added, \u201cthey could be having essentially a stress response when they\u2019re not actually doing anything stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

This form of immersive storytelling is nothing new. Take 24, a regular presence at the Emmys in the 2000s that, each season and across 24 hour-long episodes, chronicled the events of a single day in the life of an improbably skilled government agent. The scenarios were likely unimaginable to viewers, and their over-the-top\u2014if anxiety-inducing\u2014nature made them compelling. More mundane trials are faced by average-Joe protagonists such as The Pitt\u2019s Robby (played by Noah Wyle), a senior attending physician, and Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), the executive chef on The Bear. Their arcs are prosaic compared with the high-stakes journey of 24\u2019s Jack Bauer: Robby just wants to get through a tough shift in the ER, and Carmy is chasing a dream of turning his brother\u2019s failing sandwich shop into a fine-dining establishment. \u201cThey\u2019re sincere characters, grounded in caring about what they\u2019re doing and caring about the people around them,\u201d Nicholas Natalicchio, a professor of cinema and television studies at Drexel University, told me. Even Matt (Seth Rogen), The Studio\u2019s protagonist, is defined more by his struggle to stop people-pleasing than by his noteworthy occupation as the head of a major company.<\/p>\n

Read: How anxiety became content<\/p>\n

The emphasis on emotional responses rather than pulse-quickening plot twists also enhances how much these ensembles resemble actual people. As Robby, Carmy, and their co-workers encounter problems on the job\u2014running out of money to purchase equipment, trying and failing to manage a supervisor\u2019s ego\u2014they begin to seem like a viewer\u2019s own colleagues. (Although The Bear doesn\u2019t always track its story in real time like The Pitt does, it continues to place its characters under the threat of deadlines, frequently showing a countdown clock sitting in the kitchen.) Such recognizable stress helps their stories resonate further. \u201cWe all aspire to have that kind of excellence in our work lives,\u201d Yvonne Leach, a professor of cinema and television studies at Drexel, told me. It can be cathartic, as a result, to see hardworking characters struggle realistically\u2014to, as she put it, \u201csee the toll that it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides, Leach added, the recent need for escapist television\u2014the popularity of which grew during the coronavirus pandemic\u2014may be abating. Her students in a class on TV storytelling have recently been voicing how much they want to \u201csee things that are real,\u201d she told me. Natalicchio agreed, adding over email that undergraduate students today have grown up with anxiety as a constant in their life, especially when it comes to entering the workforce. They\u2019ve come of age amid economic turmoil and near-constant disruption to many industries, which may contribute to their interest in shows about challenging workplaces. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say there wasn\u2019t stress before, but I think never before has it been a steady hum in the background like it is now,\u201d Natalicchio said. \u201cI think, for many viewers, seeing shows like The Studio or The Bear is cathartic. They can, to a certain extent, relate to it and process their own stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The characters on these shows may fall apart emotionally, but they do make it past their hardest times one way or another. In the case of The Pitt and The Bear, even the worst days yield victories: Robby and his team save plenty of patients, and the employees at Carmy\u2019s restaurant always make it through dinner service. In characters like them, Jamieson said, \u201cyou have a role model for resilience.\u201d Such characters are both flawed and capable; they\u2019re who we want to root for and maybe even who we hope to emulate. \u201cWe tend to be drawn to people who are competent and warm,\u201d Mendes explained. When both of those qualities are present, it creates, she said, \u201cmagic\u201d\u2014the kind that offers a reassurance that other anxiety-inducing shows don\u2019t. The realism of shows like The Pitt and The Bear may remind viewers that simply making it through the day can be an uphill battle. But these shows also embrace the idea that such days don\u2019t last forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bear didn\u2019t wait long to stress out its viewers. \u201cReview,\u201d the seventh episode of the dramedy\u2019s first season, is one of the most anxiety-inducing viewing experiences in recent TV history. In it, the employees at the sandwich shop in which the show originally takes place lose their cool after a food critic\u2019s praise directs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[2822,6134,289],"class_list":{"0":"post-13226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-age","9":"tag-anxiety","10":"tag-tvs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}