Making things dark and edgy (DAE) is a thing nowadays, and yet most shows don’t know how to use this element properly. Well, here I am to tell you how it can be done right. 

For starters, don’t see it simply as decoration. If you are supposed to make your show seem more mature, misery, violence and death are supposed to be parts of it. If you don’t have any of that, and you just use lots of dark colours and scary sceneries, you don’t have DAE, you have grimdark, which is simply an aesthetic. It doesn’t mean anything on its own and can be used in any story without affecting characters or plot. You can even have fairy tales with grimdark aesthetics, which as far as structure is concerned are not any different than typical bright and light fairy tales. 

Second, don’t treat it solely for shock effect. Misery, violence and death can attract a lot of people, but if you don’t do anything more than killing or torturing characters, it will get boring very fast because the audience will get over the initial shock, and eventually get used to it. If you overuse it, it will not make your show differ from any other, so use DAE with modesty. 

Third, not using it all the time, does not mean you are free to awkwardly switch it with other styles. Many shows suffer from sudden tonal shifts, where they think it’s cool to have tragedy being instantly replaced by slapstick comedy. This is not comic relief, it’s emotional whiplash which ruins the immersion. So have smooth transitions from one mood to another. Leave the viewer with some time to get accustomed to the change, or let him see the danger slowly approaching. It has a much better psychological effect this way. 

Fourth, when you use it, make sure it will have a permanent effect on the mentality of the characters. If death and violence don’t somehow affect how they think and act, or said effect goes away completely when things are not DAE, then the whole deal doesn’t feel important. You might as well not be using it at all. 

And finally, fifth, proper presentation always makes something better. Being well-told always multiplies the effects of well-written, and that includes directing, planning, pretty colours, and nice sounds. Although I keep making fun of visual presentation, I still see its importance. But it should always be taken into consideration last, not first. The mistake many of you plebs do, is that the only thing you care about is if something looks pretty, or has sad violin music, and you disregard everything else. DAE, just like any other element for the same reason, does not automatically become good if it has a high budget. It’s not scary or captivating if no effort was placed on the writing and directing.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWNSh80tys