How to make dark scenes look better on your TV
Dark scenes that appear murky are a common frustration. The uproar over the Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night" highlighted how viewers can struggle to see what’s on screen; as the cinematographer noted, the content isn’t always at fault—your TV may simply not be tuned properly.
Higher-end 4K sets and OLED panels can render shadows more accurately, but you can improve most TVs by adjusting settings. Start by making the room as dark as possible and disabling any ambient light sensors or auto-dimming features, which often overcompensate and brighten the picture unnaturally.
Try switching off HDR too: while HDR can boost brightness and contrast for vivid scenes, it can flatten low-light detail on many mid-range sets, and SDR can deliver better shadow rendition in those cases. Verify that the content actually supports HDR before forcing it—some services and tiers only offer HDR on select programs, and the TV may be applying HDR to material that doesn’t support it.