Catharsis in contemporary popular drama is a story of conflict and resolution that inspires the viewer to empathize and ultimately identify with the fate of the main character(s). The outcome may be happy (Neo overcomes the evil avatars in The Matrix) or sad (in Titanic Jack freezes to death in the water, even though it certainly looks like there was room for Rose to let him up on that piece of wood). In either case, the viewer experiences an emotional release. Catharsis defined the aesthetic of the various Golden Ages of Hollywood film and television, as it did the aesthetic of the Victorian novel and melodramatic theater in the nineteenth century, as well as many other forms in the twentieth century. Chapter 4 explores catharsis through examples in film and video games.

The (first) Golden Age of Television

Marty (1953), an example of live drama on television in the 1950s.
Twelve Angry Men (1954), another example of live drama on television in the 1950s.

Three remediations of the Matrix transmedia franchise

Matrix (1999), the film, which was the principal media form.
Animatrix (2003), animated shorts released on the web containing backstory for the plot of the Matrix films.
Enter the Matrix (2003), a single-player video game.
The highly cathartic final scene of the long-form television series Lost.
Skyfall (2012) was the twenty-third Bond film and illustrates the fragmented narrative techniques of the franchise in its latest phase.
Chris Milk explains in a Ted Talk how virtual reality is the ultimate medium to evoke (cathartic) empathy.
Arora and Milk's Clouds over Sidra (2015) is a 360 video that Milk offers as an example of the cathartic power of virtual reality cinema.

Cathartic games

Gone Home (2013) borrows cathartic techniques from film.
What Remains of Edith Finch (2017).
The Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
The Last of Us: Part I (2013) is an excellent example of photorealism in video games.
The Last of Us: Part II (forthcoming). The trailer shows the continuing effort of this genre of video game to perfect photorealism.