Are crime dramas overexposing us to human depravity?

In my house I do not control the remote. I live with family and so I do not have any control as to what appears on the television.   We watch a bunch of crime dramas, CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, etc.... the list goes on and on.

My father and mother argue about what to watch on the television, my father prefers his crime dramas even if he's seen them a thousand times over, mother would prefer to watch nothing but the hallmark channel if my father would let her.  We mostly end up watching crime dramas.

I feel that this over exposure to crime dramas and this window into the utter depravity of the human condition just adds to the overall depression of my family.  My parents both have battles with depression, even having to take medication previously and I think I face my own battles with depression.

Now I don't believe that the crime dramas are the sole cause of our depression, I know there are probably a hundred extenuating factors that aid to our depression.  But, my question is with this depression do we really need to add the intimate details of a fictional serial killer, who tortures a family before putting them all to death? How many people in American take drugs to deal with depression and how popular are the crime dramas? We can't be the only family facing depression and a strange obsession with crime dramas.

I'm a self confessed Sci-fi/fantasy geek, I love the fantastical and the mystical stories.  I feel that the fantastical and mystical are less likely to be real (at least in my lifetime if at all) than a the wickedness of a single human being. Give me an old rerun of Charmed to that of an episode of CSI-NY. I want Eureka or Stargate Universe more than I want Criminal Minds.

I feel this subject matter pulls into reading as well as television watching.

After reading an especially graphic James Patterson novel called the Swimsuit in which the serial killer beheaded some of his victims.  Mr. Patterson gave a pretty graphic description of the evil protagonist in the book sawing through the back of a woman's neck while she was still alive. I read the rest of the book, but it still made me want to hurl. I've got a pretty overactive imagination and I think that my head can think up images worse than any movie director ever produced. There was another book I read I believe by James Patterson as well, in which the killer would go after moms' and their babies, and put a bullet in each of their heads.

Since those books I've decided to give up on Mr. Patterson for awhile.   I've started reading some fantasy books, which include witches, vampires and weres of all kinds werewolves, werecats, werepumas.  Oh and in my fantasy books the vampires aren't some emo, looking like heroin addicts, angst-filled teenagers.

People just say no to Twilight, please!!

I think my switch in reading material has lead to me reading more and enjoy what I read, I only wish I could block all crime dramas from the living room television.   I could go without watching an autopsy during dinner time, especially on spaghetti night.

Good authors to look for: Karen Chance, Marjorie M. Liu, Yasmine Galenorn, Eileen Wilks.

You can also check out a lady called PC Cast, though be wary she sometimes writes a few books geared to the teenage audience and I find them far too advanced to give to my thirteen year old daughter and far to preachy for me to read all the way through. I merely gave her a second chance because she hails from and writes about my hometown.  If you know of any other authors who write fantasy, let me know.


Thanks,
M.G.