Melissa McCarthy is worried about the impact "dark" TV shows have on people.
The ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ actress admits she can "only take in" small quantities of certain programmes, even if she is enjoying them, because she thinks they have negative effects.
She said: "There’s so much good stuff, good shows, quality shows, but it keeps getting darker and darker and darker. No one cares about anyone. The end is coming — why bother? Everybody hates everybody. People are, like, innately evil. I can only take in so much of that. Even if I know this is good, I enjoy it, I can’t only take that in, it starts to affect me. And I think it affects everybody if they are just constantly consuming hate and anger and despair, and you don’t talk to humans because you are always staring at your phone."
The 48-year-old star also worried that being online and using technology is ruining basic human interaction.
Discussing an evening in a restaurant, she recalled to the Sunday Times Culture magazine: "It was like being in the zoo. Everybody was taking selfies and not talking to who they were at the table with. It was completely jarring, and I just kept saying, ‘It’s the end of days.’ "
Melissa and her husband, Ben Falcone, only allow their daughters Vivian, 11, and Georgette, eight, online for 20 minutes every three days and they think that is enough to satisfy their urge to use tech while ensuring they have plenty of free time to be creative and make their own fun.
She said: "It really is plenty. Because when I don’t let them go online, they start building weird things out of cardboard. One of them makes a spider’s web in her room out of socks. I feel it’s like my generation when parents used to say, ‘Go outside.’ If you said, ‘I’m bored’, they’d say, ‘Go outside and do something.’ "
One show the ‘Bridesmaids’ star can’t get enough of is ‘The Great British Bake Off’ because it is so "calm and lovely".
She said: "Half of our lives is completely controlled by that ‘Great British Bake Off’ show. I love it so much. It’s so pleasant. It’s so kind compared to an American show, with people sniping at each other. They just simply bake, and we sit there, and it’s all so calm and lovely.
"In America, it has to be, this one hates that one and that one’s a jerk. You can be just as engaging when you show the good side of people."
Melissa McCarthy worries about TV darkness
