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For years Americans have been infatuated with stories about hopelessness. Just look what we’ve been watching. Dark dystopian, apocalyptic stories have been dominating our television screens for years. Whether it’s The Handmaid’s Tail on Hulu, Black Mirror on Netflix, Chernobyl on HBO, or The Walking Dead on AMC.

But that was then, this is now. It turns out that hopeless dystopian storylines aren’t playing well in 2020. Just yesterday, The New York Post ran an article with the headline Dark dystopian Shows Are Out as Americans Binge on Comfort TV.[i] Columnist Jennifer Wright explains:

"There was once a time (last year) when we were obsessed with apocalypse TV. . . . But now it’s hard to watch any dark futuristic television in the age of COVID. We don’t need to look elsewhere for a world full of horrors. We can just turn on the news and watch its harrowing reports — so far, the coronavirus has claimed more than 700,000 lives worldwide — and any fictional portrayals of an approaching Armageddon have become a big turnoff."

In 2020, dystopian shows like Westworld, Altered Carbon, Brave New World, and a Twilight Zone reboot have been released to mixed reviews. Meanwhile, in the age of Covid-19, Americans have turned towards more feel-good and predictable plotlines. Hopelessness is out, hope is in. Now Americans are watching shows like  The Baby-Sitter’s Club reboot, America’s Got Talent, The Masked Singer, Umbrella Academy, and of course lots of re-runs of old predictable favorites like Friends, Seinfeld, Parks and Rec, and The Office.

It’s gotten so bad that Hollywood creatives are taking notice. Charlie Booker, the creator of the wildly popular dystopian show Black Mirror, which has won multiple Emmys, is taking a pause before filming a sixth season, because he’s “not sure if audiences could stomach another season at the moment.”

You don’t have to be familiar with any of these television shows to recognize an important truth about human nature. We can survive without hope, for a little while. But we cannot thrive without hope. When life is comfortable and easy, we may find ourselves drawn to dystopian stories. But not when life feels dystopian. When that happens, we want to escape to what’s comfortable, what’s familiar, what’s hopeful. But here’s the question: are we turning to a hope that lasts?

Peter the Apostle knew something about humanity's need for hope. In the first letter that bears his name, he writes to a group of mostly Gentile Christians in modern-day Turkey to instruct them how to live faithfully as exiles in a hostile world. And he understands that in order for exiles to live faithfully they need a hope that lasts. May that same hope be ours today as we strive to thrive in a hostile world.

1 Peter 1:3-9 -- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, (5) who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, (7) so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (8) Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, (9) obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 

[i] Jennifer Wright, “Dark Dystopian Shows Are out as Americans Binge on Comfort TV,” New York Post (blog), August 8, 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/08/08/dark-dystopian-shows-are-out-as-americans-binge-on-comfort-tv/.