After years of 'eat the rich' television, are we finally full?

Over the last few years, TV audiences have seen a boom of class commentaries on screen. From award season darlings like Succession, The White Lotus and Squid Game to newer entries like Your Friends & Neighbours and Nine Perfect Strangers, the "eat the rich" genre of TV has never been more popular.

But in today's world, where economic disparities and concerns about a modern-day oligarchy seem to grow by the day, the appetite for these shows appears to be waning. 

Have we officially moved past the desire for a show that tells us rich people are flawed, amoral and out of touch with the common man? And if so, then what sort of series might gain popularity in the near future?

Today on Commotion, TV critic Saloni Gajjar and culture critic Nicole Froio join guest host Rad Simonpillai to talk about why this year's spate of "eat the rich" television is falling short of our expectations.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Rad: Saloni, you wrote that the terrible rich people have worn out their welcome. Why are you feeling that way?

Saloni: To me, Succession was at a peak when it aired.… It capitalized on this phenomenon, but also it thoughtfully portrayed the twisted and toxic family. But I think in the past few years — even just this year alone, especially after January — we're seeing so much in real life about how the wealthy, usually white, usually male, tend to get away with a lot of things. I mean, just turn on the news. 

And so I think to make TV like this work, it's going to take a lot more than just the obvious satire and surface-level humor. We've been talking about empathy, you know, we really do lack that in real life sometimes when we're watching the news. And so when we turn on the TV, you want to see people you care about, instead of a commentary that's really just too on-the-nose and too harrowing, and too flashy, and just lacking substance.

Rad: Well, it's interesting because, Nicole, we have all this satire about capitalism favouring the wealthy and then disenfranchising everyone else. And then in the real world, nothing has really changed. These shows haven't moved the needle culturally in any way. So what do you think should come after satire?

Nicole: I think that we are living in a reality where it's not even like every month or every year — like every day, things get more expensive. And so watching the rich enjoy caviar, trips to Italy or to wherever, even if they get something coming for them, it's not satisfying because we're still living in this reality. And I think that it really shows … the limitations of an industry that is controlled by profit and capitalism, right? Like we're not doing these films, TV and art to change the world; we're doing it to profit. And so I think that it requires a really huge shift in what we think about in terms of culture, and why we do it. So after satire, I think we have to maybe rethink why we're doing these shows — and if it's to make people more rich, then we're basically just replaying a cycle forever.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.