To wonder why US dramas fetishise workolism?...

[coconuttella]

... Grey's Anatomy, West Wing, Suits... I could go on, but all seem to worship at the altar of the all-consuming career.

I mean "Workaholism"....

Suits and West Wing (in terms of work culture) fits my career in banking perfectly. I guess they're looking at careers at a senior level.

It's the Puritanical work ethic. You don't work hard, you are worthless.

Because you can't make an interesting drama out of happy people with a nice work/life balance!

It'd be pretty boring tv if we see them sitting around binge watching Netflix and eating crisps or grocery shopping or laying in bed playing candy crush

Crazy isn't it, lots of TV shows and movies are like that. They never seem to be at home. And another thing: when people have babies their lives and plot lines seem to continue exactly as they did before, rather than their whole world being turned upside down! Who takes care of the babies?! I don't get it!

On the flip side I've noticed a lot of rom coms where work is hardly mentioned, the main characters seem to be on an endless holiday from work, and yet live in amazing luxurious apartments and have plenty of cash for shopping sprees, makeovers and meals out etc.

Good Wife too. What annoys me is when couples with DC work all the time and the DC never appear or seem to have any issues.

Carrie from Homeland and Kim from Better Call Saul are also workaholics...

My BIL (from the US) says it's normal in many parts of the US. Often people only get a couple of weeks leave a year and may not always even take that

I worked in New York for years (financial services)....its really not out of the ordinary to work that much (hence why I came back to Blighty!). Not sure it 'fetishises' workaholism rather than reflect the reality for many.

12 weeks unpaid mat leave in the states. Women often can't afford to reduce hours/stay at home.

To be fair a lot of people do work like that.

The programmes are based around a place of work. So it makes its easier for their lives to revolve around work.

We were watching suits the other night and i commented that at least theor houses always look like show homes. Mine would if we were never here.

Again pregnancy is just a story line. If the action is all around work, they will continue that. If its leaf characters that are having a baby they arent going to write them out of the show for a year while taking MAT/PAT leave.

I work with people in the US a lot. It's not fetishised, it's a representation of how they actually work(!)

It's the consequence of workers having very few rights, they have hardly any of the protections we have (let alone compared to Continental Europeans).

I don't know anyone in the US that has taken a two week holiday for example, it's basically unthinkable to them...totally normal to get emails from them at all times of night/early morning their time. It's crazy and why we should be wary of anything that erodes workers rights here.

I am a self-confessed workaholic, and therefore I tend not to watch programmes featuring similar characters.
I prefer light, frothy sitcoms to unwind where the characters never seem to work, as BayLeaves mentioned!

If it's actually like that in the States, how do people ever spend their money...
They're always at work!

In New York your rent will take care of a lot of it.

I assume you spend it like the rest of us. Internet shopping. I do most of mine on there anyway.

I work at the office 8.00-4.30pm. Then work a couple of hours at home after the kids are in bed.

I guess you spend it on paying to get the things done that you would do yourself if you weren't working so obsessively maybe?

Grey's Anatomy is sort of realistic (never ending plane, train, automobile and natural disasters aside) for the length of time they spend at work.... that's the whole point of a hospital based drama.

Americans spend all their money on childcare!! And many that I know drop a lot of cash on caterers as they don't have time to cook.

Because it's drama based around workplace.

If the characters just go home and watch telly after a nice home made meal there is no ... drama.

Every scene ( except establishing shots etc) has the be based around conflict. Inner conflict. External conflict. The more conflict the better.

That's why we watch and read and listen to drama - to see characters battling through that conflict.

Because the purpose of American popular culture is to inculcate new workers for the capitalist machine?

It's their culture, the American dream work hard and succeed. If you haven't succeeded you should have worked harder. I believe taxes are similar levels as in the UK but you then have to pay for health insurance on top. And poor tax is particularly bad there.

I used to work 50-60 hours a week in the US, pretty standard, IME.

They do work more in the US. Get about half the annual leave we do iirc. It's fucked up, I'd never consider living there.

I remember watching the first series of Suits and I almost started a thread about the ridiculously (to me) long work days, to ask if those hours were normal hours in the UK too, in those fields.