Granted, I was being somewhat hyperbolic by calling it a largely dead genre - but it essentially is so unpopular that very few tragic films or shows become mainstream popular, and hence not many are produced. Simple supply and demand. And it should be noted that just because a story has a tragic ending, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is a "tragedy", even though they are commonly referred as such. Stories with tragic endings seem to be more common (but still rare) than true tragedies. I did cite one film produced in the past decade - In Bruges - as the most recent one with a tragic ending that I've seen, but there are others. I can probably think of ten at most that I've seen that were made within the past eight years. Compared to the massive numbers of films with happy endings, I think that number is somewhat negligible, do you not? Another relatively recent film of sci-fi/horror with a tragic ending in which all protagonists die (in order to save countless lives), is the movie Sunshine.I can't help but feel that tragedy as a genre has always been outnumbered in film and television, but to say that it's largely dead strikes me as inaccurate. Breaking Bad is a perfect example of how to create a tragic ending that fits while being largely praised by both critics and its audience. Admittedly, I'm not familiar with enough films across all genres to draw up lots of examples, but if you haven't seen a movie that didn't have some sort of forced happy ending, I question whether or not you've watched a lot of movies made in the past decade.
Breaking Bad was somewhat unusual, I think. That was probably the best television show that I have ever seen in my life. It was absolutely incredibly well done in almost every way. The entire show was a true tragedy, not just the ending. And with regards to the ending, I mean - how could it have ended any other way? Did people expect Walt to suddenly be cured of cancer? It's a miracle, praise Jeebus! If it had a happy ending, it would have been thematically jarring with the rest of the show. And the ending was, in a sense, at least a bittersweet if not happy one for Jessie's character. But I think that show succeeded for two reasons: one, it was unusually well done. Two, it exemplified a characteristic of the tragedy - it invoked a cathartic experience in the viewers who watched the suffering of Walt and other characters that were so well written that people loved to hate them.
Who knows, maybe the success of that show will make tragic dramas more popular again. But I doubt it. People seem to prefer elements of tragedy within shows ("oh no that character died! I loved them") which have a different altogether tone overall. The Walking Dead is a good example of a show that is often tragic but is not a true tragedy thematically.
But all that is rather tangential to the discussion at hand
. I prefer a tragic ending to Mass Effect, which is why if I had to choose a head canon, one in which everyone tried, failed, but ultimately freed the next cycle would be it. But, other people prefer a happy ending, and that's totally fine. Both could fit with the story.
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