In class this past week we studied the Flynn effect and other theories from Steve Johnson’s novel Everything Bad is Good for You. We can investigate Johnson’s theories in an informal setting by using episode four from season one of Mad Men as a referential text.
Steven Johnson argues that over the past 40 years the increasing complexity in media texts, such as dramatic television shows, has engendered the increase in people’s IQ and G (a test of fluid intellect, which some claim is more comprehensive that IQ). Mad Men can be used as an example of the increasing complexity of television shows. Until episode 4, the narrative of Mad Men primarily focused on Don Draper, his wife Betty Draper, their children, Betty’s gossipy friends, the divorced neighbor Helen Bishop and her children, Don’s mistress Midge Daniels, Don’s other love interest Rachel Menken, Sterling Cooper, Peggy Olson, Joan Harris, Salvatore Romano and Pete Campbell. There are a few other minor characters who interact with these prominent figures as well. For being only three episodes into the program this is a dizzying number of characters to keep up with, certainly proving Johnson’s point that Television shows have become exponentially more complex than they were 40 years ago. In episode four, the narrative delves into Pete Campbell’s parents, his wife, and her parents. Pete’s insecurities over the control he has in his life, particularly his emasculation – as demonstrated by his concern with his wife’s parents purchasing an apartment for him and his wife – and the lack of respect he receives – demonstrated by his parents ignoring his request for a loan. The narrative is able to delve into other characters because, as Johnson points out, television consumers desire programming that challenges their intellectual capabilities. Even though television is a one-way medium, consumers want to interact with it, and producers allow them to do so by making the programming intellectually challenging so that the text requires mental scrutiny from the consumer to keep up with the information being supplied to them.
Besides the expansive character list that the narrative of Mad Men keeps up with, the program is also complex because seemingly perfunctory moments in each episode are revealed to be significant in later episodes. A subplot of episode 4 occurs when Betty Ross baby sits for Helen Bishop’s children. This subplot illuminates Betty’s discomfort with the idea of being a single mother, which she professes to her psychiatrist. In an odd scene Glenn spies on Betty while she uses the restroom and then begs her for a strand of her hair. Betty later explains to her psychiatrist that she felt sorry for the boy being raised by a single mother so she obliged his request. This subplot was important to illuminate Betty’s character traits in this episode; however, in episode seven this minor scene becomes important again when Helen Bishop discovers the hair in her son’s room and rebukes Betty in public for giving it to Glenn, which leads to Betty slapping Helen. Now that brief scene in episode four becomes important to the overall narrative to the show becauseit divides the women in the neighborhood. I suspect it will become important again as the season continues.
Johnson would claim that the depictions of characters incessantly enjoying cigarettes and alcohol does not influence people because form is more important than content in a text. Johnson believes that viewers will not emulate Don Draper’s unhealthy habits because they watch the program. Rather, viewers will expand their mental capacities by following the nuanced plot. Form trumps content, Johnson would say, and I agree.
I would like to believe Johnson’s point that the increasingly complex television shows engender increasing intelligence, but I believe that as consumers understand the medium of television more and more, the producers of television are able to augment their programming to satisfy the intellectual curiosity of consumers. So the increase in the nuanced programming is a result of increased familiarity rather than a result of an increased mental capacity because of the medium. It was only a century ago when consumers of films could not comprehend a cut in a scene, now consumers almost take for granted films like the Bourne Ultimatum where over 100 cuts are employed in less than two minutes.
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