Debates over the darkness of lighting in movie and TV shows are nothing new, of course. Back in 2016, Slate ran a report, “Why TV Shows Are Darker Than They’ve Ever Been,” detailing changes in the approach to lighting from “I Love Lucy” to “The Sopranos.” One of the shows mentioned in there was “Better Call Saul,” which just concluded its final season over the summer.
“Better Call Saul” had a whole subplot where a character, Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), who claimed to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), was always sitting around his house with the lights off and a space blanket over his head. Yet that spilled over into scenes of other characters without EHS sitting in dark rooms, as the series drew from a noir sensibility to tell its story. Fewer complaints arose about the lighting of “Better Call Saul” because, even with the lights off in-scene, you could usually make out what was happening.
Two other examples from 2022 of well-received movies with low-lit scenes are “The Batman” and “Nope.” It’s undeniable that moody dark lighting has become more of a tool in the cinematographer’s kit, and that isn’t always a bad thing. But there are definitely times when it’s downright annoying and seems to add nothing but frustration to the viewing experience, as if you were watching a production lit by Chuck McGill.
As a viewer, I know I’ve personally developed a pet peeve that some of our readers might share: namely, when something I’m ostensibly “watching” (or trying to, anyway) is seemingly under-lit insofar as you can’t see anything. It’s the kind of thing where, while at-home viewing more during the pandemic, I’ve often found myself having to turn up the brightness on my screen, even with the motion smoothing off.
