Millennials Include Noir

How do millennials deal with a genre shift? In particular, a shift to noir? We often see noir explicitly portrayed as timeless. I’ve seen The Maltese Falcon , The Big Sleep the Godfather and  Chinatown and even more recent noir films such as Pulp Fiction and  Fight Club. Stylistically they do have differences but the darkness is always present, though it manifests itself differently. Yet what does noir mean to millennials? I remember an episode of Smallville titled “Noir” that plays to the older stereotypes that emerged when noir did WWII era. The whole episode was shot in black and white, and really plays on the typical crime/thriller but it doesn’t use the style to touch on underlying issues. It’s the stereotypical nature of that episode that bothers me, because noir has a lot to offer as a genre.  As Professor Stein states, “noir offers a generic discourse rife enough with its own complexities to encompass the perceived contradictions of the millennial generation” In Veronica Mars and even Gossip Girl, they incorporate from the genre of noir to provide a rich millennial representation complete with a twist. As Braithewaite introduces, both programs offer the story of crime, and the story of investigation. Though Veronica Mars is more explicit, and perhaps even more aware of its relevancy in the noir genre. The overarching theme of Veronica Mars incorporates a toned down version of “dark brooding doom”, as far as the brutal murder of Lilly and the rape of Veronica, but it also appeals to the duality of mystery and romance aspects of noir.  The noir I find most apparent are the frequent flashbacks, both in Veronica Mars, and in Gossip Girl ( especially where Chuck Bass was concerned in the particular episode with the night he doesn’t remember). But Veronica is always interacting with flashbacks to both help us and herself piece together the overall crimes, the murder and rape. And ultimately the “outsider” aspect Veronica assumes, and seems to pride herself on. As her, and her father take on the role of private eye, always digging into everyone’s business, they are always isolating themselves from their Neptune society. But perhaps the millennial in me likes the tone of the series best: skeptical. And this is the fusion I see of millennial personality and the genre of noir. Nothing is taken to its full value, and nearly everything is questioned. Sure millennials can be bought by advertisers, but its with a grain of salt. Veronica’s voiceovers and even her own personality always cast a tone of pessimism on each scene.  Duncan’s father also says of Duncan, “ I’m so tired of your cynicism”. Yet, Duncan is just being skeptical. Though his skepticism isn’t quite like Veronica’s. As she accuses him as someone who ” stands idly by”, and not someone who takes action like her. She questions and everything while she takes action, a kind of protection and distancing  she uses to deal with the murder and the rape, themes and emotions you can even see in a character like Philip Marlowe from the Big Sleep.  Thus, while “noir” evokes a pastime, it is very present in its effective incorporation in millennial television.

As a side note… the cellphone references in Gossip Girl are very femme fetale of Blair and friends and their reaction is completely millennial. They are socially empowered with the cellphones, while at the same time trapped within their Upper East Side Culture. As for their reaction to the momentary loss of cellphones: it’s sad..we simply cannot function without them. We must always be connected to our social contacts, without them we feel like we’re missing out on something big,

 

2 thoughts on “Millennials Include Noir

  1. lgreer Post author

    Thanks Anna! I’m glad I could help, or rather, I’m glad that Gossip Girl could help the Pretty Little Liars.

    Reply
  2. Anna Gallagher

    “They are socially empowered with the cellphones, while at the same time trapped within their Upper East Side Culture”– awesome quote! I might use this for my paper on PLL. =)

    Reply

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