Today's society has subconsciously learned to associate a television screen with a fun world of fantasy and escape. This fantasy world is a place where there are only positive consequences for the actions of the protagonist, and nobody to give orders and make a person work (except for maybe on the screen itself). Also a recent movie or TV show, good or not, can make for an excellent topic of conversation.
Anything can happen in "TV world", and no matter what happens, whether the movie ends in favor of the protagonist or not, it always ends in favor of the viewer. However as a general rule, the programming does usually end in favor of the protagonist. People do not think of bad things that happen to the antagonist as just that, they think of it as a positive thing for the protagonist. If a movie or TV show does not end in favor of the audience, it doesn't generally matter as it was only fiction and it doesn't affect them.
An LCD television set with a 16:9 image ratio.
A long screen television in Korea.
English: Public Television Screen, Festival SquareThat being said, it's interesting to think how a very good movie or show can have such a profound effect on people. Unlike reality, television also has this habit of being pathetically predictable which doesn't force people out of their comfort zones.
In the rare case where a movie or show doesn't end in the favor of the audience, generally makes a great topic of conversation (in this case, this style of conversation may be known as a "bitch fest"). A good movie or show can also be a great topic for weeks on end, as can a large scale, or even close to home news story. A television screen can be a means of something that is highly regarded in today's society: social acceptance. It's very difficult for...