Music, TV and pop culture in general is dark and gritty. That's why I am naming this decade the "Noir Era". The unprecedented popularity of noir elements in TV series like House Of Cards, Ray Donovan, Bosch, The Killing, Breaking Bad and Justified.

I agree. That is a good description of this decade, although the early 2010s were slightly less gritty, there were still roots of it from then. Don't forget Game of Thrones as well!  :D

I agree. That is a good description of this decade, although the early 2010s were slightly less gritty, there were still roots of it from then. Don't forget Game of Thrones as well!  :D


I see Game of Thrones as classic storytelling, though much larger in scope. It doesn't strike me as the artsy weirdness of, say, Inception. In fact, those HBO-style shows like Game of Thrones, or Poldark or Versailles or tons of others (the historical dramas especially seem to come from the UK), are, I think, the closest thing in TV and film today to regular storytelling, even though they're on the gritty, cynical, power politics and corruption side of things.

However, I do think there's been a push toward artsiness in film in the U.S. over the past decade or so, aside from the superhero movies, and I'm not a fan of it.