For some, television is a great way to switch off after a hard day’s work. But TV is also a powerful medium for presenting thought-provoking questions. From The Twilight Zone to The Good Place, TV asks big questions on small screens. Whether your interest lies in science, politics, or feminism, here are seven shows to really get you thinking.
Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker’s dark imagination brings us the dystopian vision of Black Mirror. Each episode is set in a world eerily reminiscent of our own, but with subtle reimaginings of how technology and culture are taking over our lives. Each gripping episode explores deeply philosophical themes about identity and expression in a digital age and features creative reimaginings of social media, dating apps, and AI that are scarily realistic. Black Mirror is a great watch for anyone interested in science, sociology, or the intersection of these disciplines.
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone was a phenomenon from 1959 when it was launched throughout the ‘60s, exploring science and philosophy at a time when the material living standards of daily life were changing fast. “Contemporary shows such as Black Mirror owe a lot to the Twilight Zone’s exploration of big questions,” says James Boykins, an entertainment blogger at DraftBeyond and Researchpapersuk, “and its psychologically taut episodes remain fascinating from our 21st-century perspective.” Fans of psychology and science will find this engaging series as relevant today as it ever was.
Get your copy of The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series on Blu-ray or DVD by clicking here.
The Good Place
When philosopher Chidi Anagonye meets the amoral Eleanor Shellstrop in the afterlife, a budding relationship based on moral philosophy is born. The question of an afterlife is one of the oldest we have, but The Good Place uses this question as a launching pad for exploring Kantian philosophy and questions of how to live a good life. Each episode is packed with philosophical facts and theories that are closely connected to analytic and western philosophical thought.
Get your copy of The Good Place Seasons 1-4 on DVD by clicking here.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Adapted from Margaret Atwood’s seminal dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale hit our screens in 2017. For many, this aptly timed launch aligned with the Trump presidency’s erosion of moral standards, and the show became an eerie allegory into how the slow slide into fascism can take place before our eyes. “By exploring political philosophy and questions of feminism and equality, The Handmaid’s Tale became a TV show for our times and a powerful warning of things to come,” says Curtis Roberts, a tutor at Writinity and Last Minute Writing.
Brain Games
National Geographic’s informative channel features television based around science and the natural world, but the unique show of Brain Games takes a closer look inside the human skull. Each episode explores fascinating cognitive questions from an offbeat perspective, bringing neuroscience and psychology together in a compelling format. The game show format is engaging and challenging to the viewer, encouraging you to think about the big questions possessed by the show before presenting its own conclusions.
Get your copy of the Brain Games: The Complete Collection on DVD by clicking here.
Inside Man
Each fascinating episode of the documentary-style Inside Man takes on a controversial topic with subtlety and nuance rarely found in today’s politicized journalistic culture. From gun control to immigration, host Morgan Spurlock reveals the deep-rooted assumptions that those on both sides of the political aisle have on these issues and gets to the heart of the personal stories that are often hidden behind the headlines. Sociology and politics are tactfully explored by Spurlock’s balanced perspective.
Crowd Control with Dan Pink
Dan Pink, the best-selling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, has a powerful grasp on behaviorology. In Crowd Control, Pink explores the hidden world of human decision-making, explaining how our world is built to subtly guide our actions. From supermarket layouts to city streets, Pink reveals the hidden structures behind our motivations. Psychology and behavioral science are laid bare in this thought-provoking TV series.
From dystopian science fiction to situation comedy, television is a powerful means for exploring big questions in entertaining and engaging ways. A single episode of Dan Pink’s Crowd Control can provide deep insights into the environmental factors that guide our own actions, and Black Mirror encourages criticism of the ways we unthinkingly interact with ever-expanding technology. These deep TV shows are a great way to get to grips with some of the biggest questions of the current age.