New Shows' Recession Themes: Risky Business

摘要

The recession has already taken its toll on the media industry's bottom line, depressing advertising revenue and curtailing production budgets. Now the economic reality is beginning to show up in the creative, with shows hung on the broken backs of victims of the downturn.rnBut while addressing the elephant in the room may be judicious at the financial planner's office, is it something that can be successfully played for laughs? "Television is about escapism," says Brad Adgate, senior VP of research at Horizon Me-rndia. "Viewers want to be entertained and escape their economic situation. To be reminded of that may not be something that a lot of them want to see."rnABC's Hank and The Middle, Fox's Brothers, HBO's Hung and reality series Someone's Gotta Go on Fox are among those with recessionary themes. Hank stars Kelsey Grammer as a pompous corporate titan whose life is upended when he's pink-slipped. The Middle recalls classic blue-collar comedy Roseanne, which is the subject of a June 5 TV Land recession-themed marathon; Roseannernmined the timeless American leitmotif of middle-class struggle that The Middle is clearly attempting to emulate. But there is also a risk that when the country begins to climb out of the recession, a show like Hank with a premise that so clearly cleaves to the current downturn could become dated.