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posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday September 02 2015, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the diamonds-in-the-coal-pile dept.

John Koblin writes in the NYT that there's a malaise in TV these days that's felt among executives, viewers and critics, and it's the result of one thing: There is simply too much on television. John Landgraf, chief executive of FX Networks, reported at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour that the total number of original scripted series on TV in 2014 was 371 and will surpass 400 in 2015. The glut, according to Landgraf, has presented "a huge challenge in finding compelling original stories and the level of talent needed to sustain those stories." Michael Lombardo, president of programming at HBO. says it is harder than ever to build an audience for a show when viewers are confronted with so many choices and might click away at any moment. "I hear it all the time," says Lombardo. "People going, 'I can't commit to another show, and I don't have the time to emotionally commit to another show.' I hear that, and I'm aware of it, and I get it." Another complication is that shows not only compete against one another, but also against old series that live on in the archives of Amazon, Hulu or Netflix. So a new season of "Scandal," for example, is also competing against old series like "The Wire." "The amount of competition is just literally insane," says Landgraf.

Others point out that the explosion in programming has created more opportunity for shows with diverse casts and topics, such as "Jane the Virgin," "Transparent" and "Orange Is the New Black." Marti Noxon, the showrunner for Lifetime's "UnREAL" and Bravo's "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce," says there has been a "sea change" in the last five years. "I couldn't have gotten those two shows on TV five years ago," says Noxon. "There was not enough opportunity for voices that speak to a smaller audience. Now many of these places are looking to reach some people — not all the people. That's opened up a tremendous opportunity for women and other people that have been left out of the conversation."


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:15AM (#231056)

    Nobody thinks Big Bang Theory is intelligent. It's a nerd farce, a sign of the times that nerds are now cool enough that nerd culture jokes and sex jokes can be on even footing at the center of the most popular sitcom currently on television. Some might call that cultural appropriation, others would call that a vast improvement over previous decades.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:17AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:17AM (#231058)

    Nobody thinks Big Bang Theory is intelligent.

    Unfortunately, you are so very sadly mistaken. All too many see that show - both the "comedy" and the "science" - as literal genius.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:42PM (#231389)

      Since your content-free "nah-uh" response was considered insightful, I guess you are probably right about how little it takes to be considered genius.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:18AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:18AM (#231116) Journal

    I had heard BBT was intelligent, funny, and geek oriented so I watched a couple episodes. What I saw was a bunch geek tropes and tired out social ineptitude jokes. It wasn't even remotely funny.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @01:40PM (#231254)

      Like most shows after about 3-4 seasons they have run out of jokes. The good stuff was in the first few seasons. The first few seasons were funny. I am sure by this point they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I am sure if I watched the show now I would enjoy it but would be thinking 'what have you done to this show?!'

      I know everyone *loves* the Simpsons. But after about season 6 they started repeating themselves *A LOT*. This week we get to see how homer sucks even more, Bart does something 'shocking', Lisa gets a speech, and Marge goes unnnh.

      A show like south park decided to switch to topical humor. As after about season 6 they realized they were out of material. Their best episodes are ones where the kids act like kids but amp it up (ie the WoW episode).

      Or take a show like dukes of hazard. Basically a poor chase movie in TV form. There was only so many chase tropes out there... Which is why after 3-4 seasons they were done.

      Or something like the daily show. Where the idea was to make fun of the other news stations. Instead just ended up bashing on one group. Today we get to find out what some republican said and make fun of that for 15 mins. Yawn another opinion show. I get enough of that on all the other 'news' stations.

      Even Seinfeld realized 'hey I am just doing the same stuff over and over Im out'.

      Also like most shows they may do something in one episode that fits for that one episode. But now they have baggage. They have to drag that along forever. It becomes part of the mythos of the show. It becomes a tired old joke they bring out every few episodes for a cheap laugh. Take for example Married with children. Watch the first episode then watch the last episode. The change in style and characters is quite striking. In the first episode they were just lower middle class getting by and not batshit insane. By the last episode the wife would not get off the couch the boy was a social retard kelly was border line retarded and Al was making less than min wage (yet they still lived in a middle class house). Many shows they take some small quirk of the character and blow it out until it is no longer funny but pathetic.

      Or sometimes they decide to 'switch the formula'. My goto example for this is the John Larroquette show. The first season I dont think I have ever laughed that hard at a TV show. The second season though? Well there was a reason it was canceled. They tropped everyone up and ruined the formula. It could have lasted at least 4-5 more seasons. But they screwed it up.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:58PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:58PM (#231346)

        Or take a show like dukes of hazard. Basically a poor chase movie in TV form.

        Uhhhhhh when I was a kid when that was new, I was like "Daisy? Who? Eww girl cooties?" and then I became a teen and its all "Whoa thats the show with Daisy in it, oh and some cars or something?" Same deal with Hee Haw and Baywatch. Before the internet you only got to see girls at school or at the mall 80s style until the rentacops chased you out, so TV was pretty cool. This is probably some of the decline of modern TV. Why watch PG-ish cheesecake on TV when you can see far better on your internet connected smartphone? This requires TV to up its game, and given experiments during superbowl halftime shows indicate that showing more skin isn't likely to be successful...

        Watch the first episode then watch the last episode.

        Not necessarily disagreeing, but I'd add that some of these shows run so long that the characters are more ossified and static than the viewers. I mean, Bart from the Simpsons and I are kind of the same generation, well, maybe I could have baby sat him or been his older bro or uncle, but he was in his first season before I graduated from high school, and he's unchanged but I haven't been a high school kid in ... awhile. How I related to a TV cartoon boy is going to change a bit as I go from being "kinda his age" to "I could mathematically be his grandpa, theoretically". Yet Bart hasn't changed. Or for another example the daughter on Married w Children has gone from theoretically possible dating material for me (maybe a little outta my league?) to I don't let my daughter dress like that.

        The only TV I can think of that attempted to age actors with the show would be old rural CBS stuff from the 70s, like Waltons, Little House on the Prairie stuff like that for stay at home moms to watch on reruns. Not aware of anything popular and current that ages the actors.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:06PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:06PM (#231479)

        Or sometimes they decide to 'switch the formula'. My goto example for this is the John Larroquette show. The first season I dont think I have ever laughed that hard at a TV show. The second season though? Well there was a reason it was canceled. They tropped everyone up and ruined the formula. It could have lasted at least 4-5 more seasons. But they screwed it up.

        Studios do not change shows that are successful. If there is one defining characteristic of the entire industry it is risk-aversion. That's why there are so many copy-cats and sequels. They are the living manifestation of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The Larroquette show was changed because it was failing. It would not have lasted 4 more seasons. If it had not retooled it would have not even had a 2nd season, much less the 3rd and short 4th that it did get.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @06:49PM (#231391)

      You took it too personally. The bimbo is the butt of her fair share of jokes too - first she was a loser actress waiting tables and now she's a big pharma rep selling drugs she doesn't understand to doctors by looking pretty - and that 'ineptitude' is just a variation of what is in all sitcoms.

      The show wouldn't be nearly so popular if the majority of the audience couldn't identify with the characters - the show is the furthest thing from mean-spirited.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MrNemesis on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:55AM

    by MrNemesis (1582) on Wednesday September 02 2015, @09:55AM (#231179)

    I best saw it described by the following quip:

    Big Bang Theory is stupid jokes about clever people. Arrested Development is clever jokes about stupid people.

    Not trying to hold up Arrested Development as the pinnacle of comedy (being a brit I am ethically obliged to say that mantle is taken by Fawlty Towers) but it's light years ahead of Big Bang Theory in terms of actual wit.

    --
    "To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."