Why is the TV landscape so boring?

[Winterfell is Burning]

There's plenty of great TV nowdays- though of course less so during August. Seems even strange to have these discussion.

 

On 19/08/2016 at 3:51 PM, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

Troll post, but I'd like to address some of it.

Sitcoms and cop shows are cheaper than genre shows for obvious reasons. And a lot of sitcoms and cop shows are derivative fluff like CSI or Big Bang Theory. .

To be fair, CSI was NOT derivative at all when it was released. It just inspired so many spin-offs and copycats that it seems that way.

 

 

 

 

[Azzanadra]

I will agree, though i assume most will be disagreeing with the premise.

After Breaking Bad, my hope for the TV medium was revitalized- the post-Wire days made me think never would a TV show reach a similar level again, but Breaking Bad proved me wrong, it reminded me of the potential TV shows have and the massive advantage they have over movies in terms of character and plot development.

Here we are now, three years after Breaking Bad ended and I am still waiting for that second golden age. I am not saying TV shows are not good nowadays, but they feel like colossal wastes time, the time investment makes getting to those good little moments all the more painful. These past four months I finished watching Hannibal and Fargo, and again, they were good shows! No one is doubting that, but the 40-50 hours I put into these shows in total makes me think I could have instead watched  25 movies or read some books that would have overall not only had the potential to be more enjoyable, but also allow me to educate myself and get something out of this entertainment. I was planning on watching "Orange the New Black", but catching up to 52 (!) episodes seems like a trudge through the mud to get to the quality entertainment, and honestly feels like "junk" entertainment compared to what I could be doing. Heck, re-watching The Wire would probably be more useful considering the depth of that show. 

[PetyrPunkinhead]

On 8/18/2016 at 0:25 PM, MisterOJ said:

This really seems like a troll post. 

Yeah, that's the most I can make out of the jibberish posted. Seriously, the whole argument made in the first post can be refuted with one word: Netflix.

[briantw]

On 8/24/2016 at 11:16 PM, C Rutherford said:

I think one of the main reasons American television in regards to the major networks (with some bleed-over into cable) has seen such a decline in part is due to the rush to cancel.  There simply is no time to let a show develop anymore. 

I also think it's the length of network seasons combined with the censorship inherent in developing for network television.  It's really hard for any team of writers to come up with 20+ quality episodes of television a year.  There are inevitably going to be decisions made primarily for budgetary reasons or to cope with time constraints.  There's also no way you're making 20+ good episodes that follow a continuing story.  There are going to have to be filler episodes and bad episodes.  Hell, there are filler episodes in shows with 13 or less episodes.  

Then you add in the censorship.  You just can't do things on network television that you can on cable, and that has an impact on the kinds of stories you're able to tell or the things you're allowed to show.

[Mladen]

1 minute ago, briantw said:

Then you add in the censorship.  You just can't do things on network television that you can on cable, and that has an impact on the kinds of stories you're able to tell or the things you're allowed to show.

I wasn't aware of the extent of it until Julianna Margulies discussed on one of the Emmy Roundtables the death scene of Josh Cjarles' character on "The Good Wife"'s 5th season. She said that the writers of the show had actually to ask for permission to kill the character off since the actor weren't gonna sign for season 6. And it was only after they got permission, they started shooting the episode. I was a bit thrown back by it. Really surprised, at least.