Misanthropic Entertainment in Mainstream Culture: From Hobbes to HBO

What is this article about?

This article explains how pessimism and cruelty have become dominant themes in today’s mainstream films and series. Through a theoretical review, Fernández-Rodríguez and Romero-Rodríguez trace a cultural lineage—from Hobbes and Schopenhauer to modern streaming—highlighting the rise of what they call “depressing fun” in audiovisual entertainment.

Why is it important?

This article explores how misanthropy and violent spectacle are no longer marginal but central in cultural narratives. As platforms like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime elevate dystopian, nihilistic stories, viewers are fed a steady stream of aestheticized cruelty that blurs fiction and reality.

Key Findings: How cruelty became entertainment

1. Pessimism as cultural capital

• Thinkers like Nietzsche, Freud, and Schopenhauer saw cruelty as human instinct.

• Today, that pessimism is repackaged as prestige drama in shows like Chernobyl, True Detective, and Squid Game.

2. Postmodern narratives glorify violence

• Instead of catharsis, modern media offers pornography of horror (Imbert, 2017).

• Streaming content turns taboo and trauma into spectacle, losing humanist depth.

3. TV and cinema are now indistinguishable

• The “third golden age” of TV merges cinema’s aesthetic with serialized cruelty.

• Shows like Black Mirror and Succession present social decline as chic dystopia.

From Aristotle to Netflix: The Aesthetic Shift

• Aristotle’s tragedy aimed for catharsis and moral reflection.

• Now, tragedy is reduced to visual shock and nihilism, erasing emotional depth.

• Series are no longer about plot but emotional numbness and despair.

Spectacle, Sadism, and Screen Culture

The article explains how mass media—TV, streaming, film—elevates misanthropy to art. According to thinkers like Debord, Han, and Bourdieu:

• Entertainment now replaces metaphysics, becoming the new sacred.

• Spectacle trivializes politics, violence, and suffering, desensitizing audiences.

• Even rebellion is commodified to fit capitalist needs (Black Mirror as a brand of critique).

FAQs

Q: What is misanthropic entertainment?
A: A type of content that uses cruelty, violence, and emotional despair as central themes for viewer engagement.

Q: Are viewers becoming desensitized?
A: Yes. According to cultivation theory, constant exposure to grim narratives distorts perceptions of reality.

Q: What role do platforms like Netflix play?
A: They industrialize and globalize cruelty-based content as entertainment, often rewarding it with awards and prestige.

Q: Is there a cultural solution?
A: The authors suggest re-evaluating the purpose of fiction and reclaiming art as a space for reflection, not despair.