You might not believe it but what we watch, describes our personalities. A depressed individual will never watch a film that makes him or her happy, hence they would go for drama. A content person’s choice will always be a movie that makes him laugh. Similarly, a person who can withstand suspense would go for suspenseful films, a hyper person’s first priority would be to watch an action flick, so on and so forth. So what is it that defines the youth of today then? Movies from all genres come in theatres near us, so which makes our youth tick?

It is agreed that movies play an integral part in our lives these days. The youth of today has been opting for Franchises like the Final Destination, Paranormal Activity, Saw and Scream because they like seeing blood getting splattered all over, and people succumbing to unnatural deaths. What else would they watch if they get such realistic movies on TV and theatres! The Blair Witch Project and I Know What You Did Last Summer were the movies which changed the viewer’s mindset in the 90s, something that hasn’t changed yet. I agree that movies like Halloween, Evil Dead and Nightmare on Elm Street are also to be blamed for their contribution, yet the flicks of the 90s restarted the trend.

I am proud to belong to the generation which gave us TV shows like MacGyver, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Manimal, The A-team and many more whereas my predecessors had Six Million Dollar Man, Columbo, The Man from UNCLE and many more to entertain them. Sadly, the current generation – which is more hooked to TV, thanks to torrents and Cable TV – gets what they want most – shows with murder, blood and needless suspense. Shows like Crime Scene Investigation, Naval Criminal Investigation Service, Lost, House provide mystery, Leverage, Hustle make you learn about conning others, whereas old-school shows like The Mentalist, Monk, Psych and others give you a glimpse of shows from the past. However, the more gruesome the show, the more viewers it gathers. It must not come as a surprise that House was declared the most watched show when it toppled Knight Rider a couple of years back, because it has all the ingredients to make you sick.

I know we can’t decide what we want to watch because we live in Pakistan and they produce the shows in America. What we can do is avoid the ones that will leave our blood pressure elevated and watch those with some meanings. For instance, MacGyver taught us science, Matlock taught us courtroom drama and The Wizard taught us the use of gadgetry. What if we can find those TV shows and movies that have no unnecessary killings, and necessary actions! We can always revisit X-Files, because as we all know, the truth is out there!