Like many college students, I spend way too much of my time watching Netflix shows. I binge watched Greys Anatomy in two months and am currently watching One Tree Hill. One thing that I have begun to notice in these “chick-flick” shows is the over-romanticization of unhealthy relationships. I’ve also noticed how often the shows make you want the characters to engage in unhealthy relationship activity (i.e. Cheating, lying, sneaking around, etc.). However, these shows introduce the viewer to these unhealthy relationships in subtle ways that you may not even realize were extremely unhealthy.
McDreamy (Derek Shepard) and Meredith Grey were introduced as the power couple in Season One of Greys Anatomy. However, at the end of the season it was revealed that Shepard had a wife back in New York. The viewer learned, in Season Two, that Addison Shepard, Derek’s wife, had cheated on Derek with his best friend, Mark Sloan. Upon realizing this, Derek fled New York and went to Seattle. He also started a relationship with Meredith without informing her he was still legally married. After much contemplation, Derek decides to try and fix his marriage with Addison, leaving Meredith in the dust. However, upon her trying to date, Derek gets angry and begins to treat her poorly. This form of control is minor psychological abuse, with the “I won’t date you, but you can’t date anyone else either” mindset.
Then there’s the ideology that encompasses One Tree Hill for the first few seasons; “I want my TV show couple to be together, no matter what it means”. This was primarily shown whenever the viewers started to want Peyton Sawyer and Lucas Scott to be together and be a couple, regardless of Lucas being in a romantic relationship with Peyton’s best friend, Brooke Davis. The viewer almost wants Lucas to cheat on Brooke, in order for him to be with Peyton. The show is filmed in a way in which it makes that seem OK, instead of making cheating out to be the horrible entity that it is.
This cheating ideology, is shown in another ABC show, Scandal. In this show, Olivia Pope is involved in a relationship with the President of the United States, who is also married with children. The show portrays this relationship as being OK and allowed, because the President is not happy in his relationship but has to do it for the public. However, it does not show the toll it would take on the President’s family.
These shows all show behaviors that should not be part of a healthy, monogamous relationship, however, the viewer fails to see it that way due to the way that these shows are shot and produced. Obviously, these shows to encompass other relationships, which are much healthier, however, these three that were listed, are also the main “relationship” of the TV series, and something that the show is built around. With the exception of Nathan Scott and Haley James in One Tree Hill, Peyton and Lucas’ relationship embodies most of the series screen time.
This is also shown in the relationship between Ezra Fitz and Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars, in which Ezra is Aria's high school teacher.
This over-romanticization of these unhealthy relationship is a problem, however, once the viewer becomes aware of it, they do not continue to hold the power.
