Please Read the Goddamn Room – Thoughts on the Purge TV Series and the Purpose of Pop Culture

I do not want to rehash the history of The Purge film series. I don’t really want to talk about the context in which the original was made, or how the sequels managed to expand on the premise leading to this series. I haven’t watched any of these films, nor do I have any intention of seeing them. I desire very specific things from my pop culture. One of those specific things is some semblance of escapism. By that, I mean some semblance of hope in what is very easily the weirdest, darkest timeline that could possibly occur in all the multiverse. My fatigue is very much politically-driven, and founded on desperately wanting me and mine to survive the harrowing current circumstances. So much so when I saw trailers for The First Purge, I’ll be honest I barely blinked.

Announcing the commencement of #TheFirstPurge. In theaters July 4. pic.twitter.com/DL25hhd6MI — The First Purge (@UniversalHorror) April 6, 2018

But when USA announced The Purge TV Series, I started screaming “read the goddamn room.”

In argumentation, the term ‘Kairos’ refers to the timeliness of the argument. Where ‘Logos’ appeals to logical, ‘Pathos’ to emotion, and ‘Ethos’ appeals to authority; ‘Kairos’ appeals to The Now. Pop culture lives and breathes on kairos in how its material relates to the present moment. This is what I imagine The Purge TV series is trying to appeal to. The high tension resulting in a dark take on a Swiftian proposal of ultraconservatives taking power and controlling populati…