Married... with Children: Dysfunctional Family Dynamics and Misanthropy
The moral case for embracing what you hate about the world.
We all hate something.
Whether it's a thing as simple as when you stub your toe or are caught in a traffic jam, or something as complicated as a person or group of people. There's something you can't stand no matter how much you might fight against it. What's worse is that these things you don't like can multiply and compound over time to make you bitter and angry about so many that you simply can't handle it at all. You can even come to resent the people who you're supposed to love the most, namely your family. Once that happens, you can end up unable to properly function in society, since the entire basis on which you develop relationships is faulty.
Yet you're stuck with your family as long as you or they are alive. This can create dysfunctional relationships that reinforce themselves through feedback loops of continuous interaction. It can then ripple outwards and create resentment and hatred for anyone who's even remotely like them. And given that all human beings can fundamentally fail to allow for any positive outlook on them, all you can do is resent humanity as a whole. You end up treating everyone and everything with the same contempt with no redeeming qualities.
Being so resentful however doesn't mean that you're going to take it out in any really destructive fashion like vandalism and assault and other things like that. It's simply an unwillingness to treat anyone with respect and dignity.
Married… with Children exemplifies this attitude towards the world. From the stories it covers in which the Bundy family seeks to exploit either each other or the rest of the world, to the family members themselves. Almost no one has anything but contempt for everyone around them. None of them are redeeming in any way. Even the people who claim to care about things like the environment, human rights or the exploitation of other people, ultimately find themselves to be willing to give up on those principles for a simple, often cheap thrill.
Bud is a sex crazed loser who can't get a woman to save his life. Kelly is a blonde airhead who doesn't have a thought in her head. Marcy only cares about the world around her if it doesn't interfere with her own desire to climb the corporate ladder and emasculate her husband, whether it's Steve or Jefferson. Peggy embraces a life of being a leach off her husband and never really accomplishing anything. However, the epitome of this is Al Bundy himself.
He hates everything and everyone around him. Constantly complaining about the unfairness of it all while even if he does attempt to better himself or the world, he never ends up succeeding. Despite this reality staring people in the face, there's something endlessly fascinating about watching it play out on screen. Most likely because deep down, we all understand that perspective on the world.
We've all felt it.
Make sure to explore your misanthropic side by checking out Married… with Children.
It’s currently available on Hulu and Peacock in the United States and Amazon elsewhere.