The Cinema of Cruelty in Streaming: Perversity in Chernobyl and Years and Years

What is this article about?

This article explains how the cinema of cruelty, a concept rooted in Bazin’s critique and Truffaut’s moralist view of film, has evolved into the mainstream streaming culture of today. Authors Fernández-Rodríguez and Romero-Rodríguez apply a content analysis model to two acclaimed HBO series, Chernobyl and Years and Years, identifying recurring elements of aestheticized violence, emotional desensitization, and eroticized horror.

Why is it important?

Streaming platforms have normalized cruelty as entertainment, blurring the line between moral storytelling and spectacle. This article explores how cruelty is no longer just a narrative device, but a commercial strategy—packaged as prestige TV to seduce audiences into consuming despair with aesthetic pleasure.

Key Findings

1. Spectacular cruelty replaces moral cinema

• Scenes in Chernobyl and Years and Years exhibit horror pornography, where tragedy is stylized and visually gratifying.

• Examples include radiation rain as visual poetry, or technological betrayal with a smile.

2. Show over narration

• Visuals often replace story, focusing on perverse character psychology and emotive saturation rather than plot development.

3. Cruelty as entertainment and merchandise

• Streaming series market violence and discomfort as art, detaching cruelty from its humanist origins.

• These series gain awards and audience acclaim, reinforcing the spectacle’s value.

Theoretical Contributions

• Builds on Bazin’s and Daney’s views of moral vs. aesthetic cruelty.

• Validates a 10-variable model using expert judgment and reliability testing (Cronbach’s α = 0.928).

• Conceptualizes “eroticism of cruelty” and “abjection aesthetics” as media tropes.

Sample and Method

• Series analyzed: Chernobyl (Craig Mazin, 2019) and Years and Years (Russell T. Davies, 2019).

• Method: Qualitative content analysis with interpretative coding.

• Validated variables include: eroticism of cruelty, spectacle over story, banality, misanthropy, and commodified horror.

FAQs

Q: What is the cinema of cruelty?
A: A film genre where violence and suffering are used as tools for emotional impact and critical reflection, now commodified in streaming.

Q: How are these ideas applied to streaming?
A: Series like Chernobyl use tragic historical events and stylized pain to entertain, not to educate or morally challenge.

Q: Why does this matter?
A: Because prestige TV now sells despair as quality, desensitizing viewers and replacing ethical engagement with emotional manipulation.

Q: Can cruelty still be art?
A: Yes—when it’s used with purpose and context. But when aestheticized without moral depth, it risks becoming just pornographic spectacle.