Why is Buffy never a candidate for the BSE? (repost)
Apr 15, 2022 11:16:05 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Apr 15, 2022 11:16:05 GMT -8
I guess the difference here is that I'm more pessimistic about this state of tv than you are, lol. I know I'm being greedy--22 episode seasons were an absolute nightmare to produce--but I still feel like that one-and-done approach lets go what was great about television as a medium. Which was really taking advantage of the longer length compared to films to build up to moments and episodes that wouldn't have been possible with a film. It feels like just turning tv into 'longer films' loses something along the way. Comparing Picard to The Next Generation helps make my case very easily, because the former's bloody awful!
2013-14 must've been a pretty fun time, eh?
I wouldn't say I'm necessarily optimistic about the changing face of of television; just that they make sense regarding the current nature of the industry. On the half-hour comedy/dramedy side, I think TV is doing some really interesting things right now; it's a bit spottier when it comes to hourlong dramas, even on the prestige networks. The drive for self-contained seasons is pushed in part because of cancellation worries (from both writers and fans) - there's no need to be concerned about dangling plot threads if a show is designed for only one season. But now this has led to a lot of shows intended to be miniseries that are popular enough to be turned into ongoing shows, as the writers have to scramble for reasons to prolong the story. Anthology miniseries (that tell a new story with new characters every season) are a way to split the difference, but those can still vary wildly in quality from one year to the next.
And yeah, 2014 was the inflection point - that was the year we got the perfect mix of TV quality vs. TV quantity, before the latter overtook the former. That was the period of the cable boom (when multiple cable networks jumped on the bandwagon of scripted programming), when Netflix had broken into the biz of original shows but had not yet flooded the market with #content, and just as broadcast networks were really starting to phase out of quality primetime dramas. That was the year we got the debuts of Fargo, The Leftovers, True Detective, Bojack, Jane the Virgin, Manhattan, Silicon Valley, Review, You're the Worst, and Broad City; when The Americans, Orange is the New Black, Veep, Rectify, Good Wife, Rick and Morty, Person of Interest, and Hannibal were all at or near their peaks. It was a genuine perfect storm of events that produced one of the greatest years for television ever, and it has not been matched since.