The TV thread

I know some critics referred to the Sopranos - Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad - era as the "Platinum Age" of TV where there was more good stuff to watch than you had time to watch it. I think we're past that era for sure. Succession is still great, The Crown and Billions are fun, and there are a lot of very good shows, but for the most part TV shows seem to burn hot and fast. One minute they are "the thing" the next, they are shooting their final season. I'm not sure Netflix will have a show older than three seasons when the Crown goes away.

 

16 year old me just flipped both of you off.

37 almost 38 year old me is embarrassed for him.

 

HBO Max, Apple+ and BBC give you tons of great stuff to watch.

 

I realize everything went to streaming, with TimeWarner et. al putting their top content there. But even there, WandaVision apparently is only one season, Fleabag is already done. Watchmen was one and done. I do think The Good Place was somewhat groundbreaking in that it was pretty much designed to be short run - though if the ratings were better, perhaps they would have stretched it out some.

 

Sometimes a show has more impact as a one and done. Tehran on Apple TV was excellent in its only season and left you wanting more but there may not have been enough there there to string out over an entire new season.

 

Many shows now are framing themselves to be 3-4 seasons, which is better than trying to stretch something out for 8-10 seasons, just for the hell of it. And with streaming, they don't need to worry about getting 100 episodes for syndication rights. They live on forever on Netflix / Apple / Disney / Amazon. In the long run, it will create better, tighter TV shows.

 

I actually like the model now, more networks are allowing shows to complete their run - five or six years - give the writers time to craft an ending and avoid having to renegotiate with the actors and producers for more season. Honestly, I wish the writers of Lost had the story mapped out when they shot the pilot. Instead they just kept throwing weirder stuff at the wall.

 

Game of Thrones would like a word. Schitts Creek, too. Westworld isn’t everyone’s idea of a good show, but HBO certainly has invested in it. Peaky Blinders, though British with shorter seasons, is an excellent series. Ive found lots of good TV on STARZ, SHOWTIME, AMC and EPIX

 

But I think the point is, and it’s a good one, there needs to be 15-20 great shows, which are in our wheelhouse of what we want to watch, in a year for it to be a great year or for there to be more out there than we can watch.

The Crown isn’t in my wheelhouse, but Loki isn’t in a lot of wheelhouses, either.

 

I'm in the "catching up on shit that everyone else watched two years ago" phase so I plowed through Sunderland Til I Die on Netflix. Really well done, and it makes me truly appreciate my club (Watford) making just a cameo in the Championship before coming back up. It's freaking hard to get back out after being relegated, and the look into club finances after the ownership change post season 1 was interesting. Sunderland going on its fourth season now in League One... it can all fall apart so quickly.

 

Watching Taxi, have seen a few episodes over the years. Now going through the whole season as my background entertainment. Most lols from Jim. Just listened to him on a podcast recently, maybe Maron. Also enjoying the theme song.

 

An interesting end to season one of Kevin. I was sincerely wondering how they were going to keep the fake sitcom going, but they managed it as well as setting up the conflict nicely for season 2.