The mediator is a guide for the process. The mediator's job is not to be part of the conflict, and to become clear about what the parties are saying and what they are seeking to accomplish. This makes it easier for the mediating parties to be clear and see their own options themselves. Even in mandatory mediation, the parties routinely describe the process itself as satisfactory. It is clear that avoiding a battle, even one fought only with words, is a tremendous benefit to all concerned.
Mediation lacks drama, so it has never been on television.
And just as driving defensively and avoiding that smash-up will never make it to the screen, neither will mediation. Either win OR lose. We somehow forget that if each encounter MUST generate a winner, it also must, with equal certainly, generate a loser. In any ongoing relationship, this means that loss is constantly in the equation. And loss erodes trust, and destroys ability to relate.