Why “eat the rich” storylines are taking over TV and movies
Why “eat the rich” storylines are taking over TV and movies
In the HBO series “Succession,” Tom and Greg are living on the outskirts of the Roy family, trying to claw their way up the ranks, which includes acting like they belong. There’s this one scene from the first season that stands out to TV critic Caroline Framke.
“Tom brings Greg to this fancy restaurant, and they’re eating this bird. I think it’s called the Ortolan,” Framke said. “You can tell neither of them want to do this, but it’s this thing that they’re told is what wealthy people do.”
It makes being rich look ridiculous, like it’s a whole lot of fussy make-believe. This is a big theme in TV and movies right now: finding pleasure in watching wealthy people suffer.
“There is a little bit of a schadenfreude in watching people so much richer, so much more, quote-unquote ‘successful’ than you be revealed for frauds or not being fulfilled or not being quite satisfied with what they have,” Framke said.
These characters are often one-dimensional, oblivious to their privilege and have questionable morals. Think the “do you know who we are” tech bros in the movie “The Menu” or Jennifer Coolidge’s character in “The White Lotus,” a woman born into wealth and on a pursuit to find happiness that has dire consequences.
“When it comes to watching TV shows and movies about wealth, the modes can sort of go between a vicarious escapism or it can be morbid fascination,” Framke said. “I think we’re more in the latter moment right now.”
We’ve always been fascinated by the rich in magazines and movies and on social media and TV. But lately, it feels like Hollywood’s depictions of the wealthy — and perhaps societal attitudes toward them — have changed. Recent standouts have taken on “eat the rich” themes with dark humor and cynicism.
The moment isn’t random. Think about the extreme economic events we’ve been through. There’s the pandemic, when essential workers kept the country running while the richest 1% amassed a huge sum of wealth — twice as much as the rest of the world put together, according to the nonprofit Oxfam. And before that was The Great Recession, which is how we got the term “the 1%.”
“This is the kind of wealth that is the subject of films and of television shows that are popular,” said Brooke Harrington, an economic sociologist at Dartmouth. “It’s the dynastic wealth, meaning it’s inherited by subsequent generations and they don’t compete in the marketplace like the rest of us.”
It was a turning point. Being rich suddenly meant something different. And it’s probably not a coincidence that around that time flashy shows like “MTV Cribs” were canceled and movies about greed, like “The Wolf of Wall Street,” became blockbusters. Even Bravo’s hit reality franchise “The Real Housewives” has been focusing less on glitz and glamor and more on the casts’ absurdity and financial scams.
“It’s not always depicted accurately just how lonely, paranoid folks are,” said Harrington. “You know, as they say, ‘more money, more problems.'”
In that way, we may have not just gotten to a more hate-watching place but a more accurate one. As the middle class shrinks, so has its representation, fading away with sitcoms like “The Cosby Show” or “Everybody Loves Raymond.” And so have rags-to-riches storylines like “The Pursuit of Happyness.” Because in a time when Mark Zuckerburg can lose $30 billion in a day and still rank among the world’s richest people, who even cares how wealth is made?
“Where once upon a time, we had this American dream that anybody could, you know, succeed and become wealthy if they worked hard enough, I think some folks are disillusioned with that and they see things more as a crapshoot,” said Jonathan Kuntz, a film historian at UCLA. “Some people got lucky and the rest of us suffer as a result.”
But Kuntz said it doesn’t mean we’ll live in this cultural moment forever. Storylines ebb and flow with society.
“It’s hard to say where we’re gonna go from this kind of ‘eat the rich’ phase that we’re in now, because it’s gonna depend on what happens to people,” he said. “I mean if people are doing well, if the economy is booming, I think there will be less of a critique of the rich.”
Right now it’s all nepo babies and tech tycoons, but there could still be room someday for the American dream.
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