"Nuanced" Shows?
Hi old friends. As a longtime believer of the inherent goodness of humanity, I am very fond of stories with a little... shall I say, nuance? This post is going to be rather long, so please be patient.
A good example is the video game "Spec Ops: The Line", a shooting game played rather like "Call Of Duty", but in which you are forced to watch the consequences of trying to behave like an action hero in a warzone. The game doesn't give you second-hand honor and glory, as commonly shown in shooting games, but second-hand guilt and PTSD.
I really LOVE how the game takes effort to show that pretty much everyone in the game did what they did because they have good intentions, just that those good intentions still lead to hell. Another big reason this game struck a chord was because despite being very violent, playing it didn't make me want to be violent, but actually made me disgusted by war. This sure explodes the myth that violent games cause people to become more violent. Instead, I think it's because games like "Call Of Duty" never portrays the reasons and consequences of violence realistically. Kind of like how domestic violence in movies make you disturbed rather than make you want to beat up your spouse.
Also the 2023 Cdrama "Destined" (this show is currently my all-time favorite Cdrama), where pretty much all of the bad guys are shown or heavily implied to have a tragic backstory. Like the crime merchant who used to be a war hero, but after he retired from service, he became disillusioned by how military veterans who sacrificed so much for their homeland ended up abandoned and poor, and hence he was forced to do business with criminals to make a living. But even after he became a criminal, he regularly donated money to other veterans, at least one of which would have starved to death on the streets if it weren't for his help. Also the main antagonist of the series; throughout the show, watching him elicit feelings of skepticism, sadness, and a sense of loss rather than righteous anger. When he was killed at the end of the show, I actually cried, both for all the lives he had ruined as well as a tragic waste of what could have been a good person, if only circumstances had been different. (The show even outright states pretty much what I just wrote.)
Are there any shows which are like I described? Shows which are both entertaining and also forces me to think, and sympathize even with the bad guys?