To think a lot of dramas these days are so visually dark they’re unwatchable?

You are not alone! My in-laws recently upgraded their telly, so we managed to wangle getting the old one - it's a whole new world, being able to read the crucial text messages and letters etc. It aggravates me that getting a bigger TV made such a measurable difference, it shouldn't be necessary 😂

Omg I thought it was just me. I’ve been watching 80’s/90’s/2000’s movies with the kids and they’re so much brighter and more vibrant than the movies and shows now. Even dc have commented on the difference. Even comedy & romance films these days. They’ve lost that ‘feel-good’ factor as the lighting is often dark and dinghy and you can’t even hear what they’re saying. The actors also mumble a lot and then the music is so loud. I genuinely don’t enjoy watching new things anymore.

The sets on Emmerdale are so dark now that they have lamps on when it’s supposed to be the middle of the day. It never used to be like that until a couple of years ago. I wonder what the reason is?

And another thing... why, in the soaps, is the decor blue in pretty much every single blinking living room? Apart from being boring to look at, it often has a darkening effect imo, which doesn't help matters.

We don't have a TV for various reasons and watch things on an ipad in bed. Sometimes the programmes are so dark that we start just seeing the fingerprints all over the screen!

This drives me insane! And I agree with pp, it's not just the bloody darkness, it's the dialogue being so quiet and the music being SO LOUD.
Don't even get me started on having to read text messages on a phone that are intrinsic to the plot.
I spend half the programme saying to DP "ffs, what does that say??" 🤣

You are not wrong @FinGizz

Here's such an article concurring, by the tv critic from The Independent

and the comments after are worth a read.

I've just looked up the film that caused DH and to start referring to this phenomenon as "blackovision": Godzilla, 2014. It's dark to the point of absurdity.

Sometimes I put on Downton Abbey just to reassure myself that my eyes are functional 😂

I find the shows on Apple TV too dark. Some scenes, you can hardly see anything. Even adjusting the settings. makes no difference.

Yes!!! I have to have the curtains drawn and the subtitles on to watch anything, I hate it.

As a pp said, you can have full lights and still convey the impression of it being in darkness / night time. They used to manage it in old films anyway.

"They've lost sight (hah, ironic) of the audience requirements."

I agree.

For me I spent some money on the visual but not so much on the audio.

So I have a cheap 5.1 sound setup. It has exactly the problem people on here describe, you turn up the sound to get the dialog, but that drives the bass to neighbour annoyingly loud sound levels. I would like to be able to adjust the relative sub woofer volume but on my cheap as chips system I have no ability to do it. I suspect in higher cost/more modern systems there is an option for this.

I think there is also the issue that integrated TV sound is beginning to get better and the bass more powerful over time, which also presents its own issues for people using low end equipment.

To add to the post above, these modern drama series are just amazing TV and incredible entertainment. But they should be for everyone to enjoy, and in fact their commericial success depends on it. Not just a small % of AV nerds.

TBH though, referring to it as a "lost art" when you see the general production values of series like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon is nonsense. These are some of the finest TV shows ever produced, and the lighting is an actual choice rather than a lost art.

True, but it may as well be actually lost if nobody is bothering to light a scene well enough for the average viewer to be able to see what's going on. They've lost sight (hah, ironic) of the audience requirements.

Yes, exactly.

People will sneer about "where does the light come from" if a dark scene is well-lit enough for you see what's going on, and to them I say: "the light comes from the same place as the music". It's television, not real life, I want to be able to see what's going on!

@GasPanic I think they ought to produce two versions, one for the digital streaming services that is adjusted to give better levels and one for the high end AV equipment that can actually cope and give a good experience.

^This. There are countless useless and unwatchable Freeview channels that could be re-dedicated to provide standard quality picture and sound. Relatedly, they might also offer a 'red button' option to turn off/down intrusive music.

YANBU. I have eye issues and struggle to see in the dark, so wasn’t sure if it was linked to those! I don’t bother with many dramas now, as I can’t see what’s going on in the dark scenes.

I know what you mean.

TBH though, referring to it as a "lost art" when you see the general production values of series like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon is nonsense. These are some of the finest TV shows ever produced, and the lighting is an actual choice rather than a lost art.

I get it. Castles are dark and moody and really didn't have fantastic lighting and the director wants to convey some of that. Some of the contrast lighting scenes in those series are also amazing, when you get a generally dark scene and light flooding through the windows it's incredibly atmospheric.

Part of the problem is though it doesn't work well on standard AV equipment such as the bog standard TVs and also the limited streams that a lot of digital TV services offer which may be in 4K and HDR but lack fidelity due to compression.

If you have HDR it gets better and if you have "scene dynamic" HDR like Dolby Vision it gets better still, where the picture characteristics are actually adjustable on a scene by scene basis. Unfortunately to get these you need a 4K blu ray player, a 4K dolby vision compatible TV (a lot of TVs will have 4K but not so many Dolby Vision unless they are higher end) and to actually purchase the series on 4K blu ray which is not inexpensive. You're probably looking at above £1K on AV equipment to watch this, which is probably not as far as "enthusiast" level but some way above what the ordinary telly watcher wants to splash out, with most people having TVs in the £250-£500 range.

TBH I think they ought to produce two versions, one for the digital streaming services that is adjusted to give better levels and one for the high end AV equipment that can actually cope and give a good experience.

So the TLDR is the moody low level scene lighting looks great if you have the equipment to watch it, and a lot less great if you don't. And most peoples equipment falls into the lot less great catagory.

All of this is a real shame, as GOT and HOD for example are some of the best television ever made (GOT before the last season anyway).

i am 47 with no hearing issues and said exactly the same, the films are too dark to see and the sound effects/music overtakes the voice so cant hear them speaking properly. Also echo the volume up and down to hear what is going on.

There was a recent thing we watched where the main character's potentially beautiful home seemed to be decorated entirely in shades of black! I think this was meant to be a reminder that she was grieving the loss of her husband... which you couldn't forget because they kept wanging on about it!

Generally though, like others, it's the sound that I find difficult. So indistinct.
I saw recently somewhere that you should check the sound settings on your TV: they may be defaulting to 5:1 sound which is for surround sound. You may have to switch it back to original. Not that I've got round to doing this; I just complain about it instead!

Game of Thrones was just the worst! It got to the stage where DH and I would watch it in the dark, with the curtains closed so there would be no reflections, but still couldn't make out half of what was going.
I watch an awful lot of old movies and the difference is so clear. They are a pleasure to watch...lighting is perfect, people speak clearly, and there's no straining to see or hear.

Yep, both of these have been a source of viewer complaints for a decade now, and yet things aren't improving. I routinely send in complaints into the BBC about this, not that they do anything about it.

I commented on a similar thread a couple of weeks ago, and a very supportive MN reader 'explained' that it was because I was over fifty! Thanks, hun 🙄. Whilst hearing does change with age, this is definitely a much wider problem.

Funny, though, I have no problems watching older dramas, films etc. It's definitely a modern production problem. These shows probably look great in the editing suites but are hopeless on your typical family TV.

Oh my god,all the time!
Me and my husband moan about this a lot! He's always shouting " turn the bloody lights on!" if a character walks into a building and starts mooching around in the dark.
We sometimes watch dramas on catch up at the weekend. Our TV is in front of the window and we have to close the curtains became can't see a thing otherwise! Programmes such as Blue Lights are the worse.
Puts me off watching them! It's too much like hard work!

If you have your brightness settings up high it might be exacerbating the problem. I would find a programme which has the problem and pause it on a still image and go in and fiddle with the settings, it might be the opposite of what you assume that you need to change. For example setting contrast to high will blend together similar shades whereas lower contrast allows more subtlety in shading. Brightness might also be accentuating areas where the screen is lighter and making darker parts less clear.

Absolutely right. I felt it start with Game of Thrones and has just spread into everything since then. No idea how it makes it onto TV in that state.