Violence on Television: A commentary

I was watching a recorded episode of Law and Order: SVU last night and it was a pretty gruesome episode about a women who killed another women to win the love of a serial killer.  Then something occurred to me after I was done watching the show; they seemed to take every opportunity they could to show the picture of a dead and mutilated woman.  While I understand that its there to get the watcher to have a strong emotional reaction I wondered if it was really the most effective way to bring out dread and revulsion.  Also what does it say about our culture that television shows seem to be getting more about pushing the shock envelope and less about telling an engrossing and sophisticated story?  I wish I could say that Law and Order: SVU is the only show doing it, but network television is full of shows that seem to be more about violence than telling a story, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Criminal Minds the list goes on an on.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with them showing this stuff. After all we live in a country that protects the rights of the media to show pretty much whatever they want, and whether we like it or not, the public does watch it.  What I do wonder is if it is really necessary to show vivid scenes of death and violence in order to tell the story.  What ever happened to the idea of what is unseen and unknown is far more terrifying than what is seen and known?  When did good story telling get replaced by showing grisly images of death and violence replace the suspense of suggestion?

I find it sad really, that shows seem to be more in favor of showing blood drenched bodies rather than tell and intelligent and engrossing story.  Let me know what you think, is it bad?  Is it good?  Lets have an old fashion conversation about this.