Trauma television used to be simple. When I was a kid, the world united for news of the 1987 rescue of Baby Jessica, a Texas toddler who fell down a well in her aunt’s backyard. There were interviews with pastors, drilling experts and second cousins. Then, we cut back to desperate rescue workers digging under klieg lights. The rescue was the thing. .
We are no longer gripped by a simple story well told. It is helpful if televised tragedies come with foreshadowing b-roll and pop culture cameos. The tale of disappeared billionaires on an unregulated faux sub operated by a video game controller is — to borrow a trend piece catchphrase — a story for how we live and watch now.
that Titan’s guests, paying 250k, signed a release stating they knew the craft had not been vetted by any third-party regulatory bodies. . Viewers instantly had a backstory not previously present in real-time televised disasters. We now knew the mission had been piloted by a hubristic guy whose approach to safety was, charitably, cavalier or, less charitably, inexcusably negligent.