The State Of The TV Address

Every five or six years one of my friends says “SNL sucks now. This new cast is horrible.” Exact words.  The funny thing is that usually it is my same friends.  So they are either one of two things:

1. A lunatic for watching a show that in increments of five to six years is getting exponentially worse for them.  If you are in your late 20′s or early 30′s and you’ve said this, you are still watching a show that two or three cycles ago you thought was already bad.  That is completely and utterly insane.

2. Being dramatic.

I like to think that my friends are being dramatic.  SNL isn’t getting any better or worse, but it is changing.  Just say “SNL is changing and I hate change.” The same way people complain about SNL sucking they complain about music, movies (which is kinda true now), and TV, but for the state of this article, I will focus on the people who will start saying TV sucks now between now and the next year or so.  I know this is going to happen, because I know what they are watching currently.

Right now we are about to hit a stretch of road where Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Office and other people’s favorite shows end.  These shows along with Mad Men (which is becoming creatively vacant) mark the end of the first great TV boom of the new millenium.  Whether you liked them or not they along with The Wire, Sopranos, Friday Night Lights, The Shield, Lost, and 24 changed the way we thought about TV.  For the first time, more people were talking about TV than they were movies, but the ratings eroded.  Shows like American Idol, The Voice, Modern Family, NCIS, and Big Bang Theory hold the largest audiences for shows on TV currently, but almost no one talks about them (Modern Family excluded, and even then, that show stopped being good about 3 years ago). They have ratings numbers that pale in comparison to the days of Must-See TV.

It’s not a bad thing that TV shows have much lower ratings than they used to.  It’s just a sign that we watch TV differently.  The DVR, Hulu, Netflix, and straight up stealing have all contributed to lower ratings, but moreover, a creative shift has happened in Hollywood.  People have learned that they can tell way better stories on TV than they can on the big screen.  These writers and showrunners either saw the new millenium TV boom, or were part of it themselves and have taken to writing more interesting stories.  The only problem with this is that Network television is still built upon the tenets that what is good for everyone is good for TV.  We as a TV culture have gotten away from it, but the networks have not.  Look at a show like Community.  People complain that NBC killed it.  No they didn’t.  They put on a show that virulently tried to be as insular as possible and they kept it on for three years of dwindling ratings before trying to screw with it.  The fact that NBC kept the show together for three un-fooled-around with years is the real victory.  Ignore the fact that they tried to screw with it to detrimental effect in season four, because the bottomline is that Community lived on borrowed time from it’s inception.  It’s a Network show with a Cable sensibility.  So, back to the main point.  People think TV sucks now.  It doesn’t, but the best shows, usually aren’t the ones everyone is watching, and most of them are on cable.

Now that I have argued that TV doesn’t suck now and laid the groundwork for why it does not, I’d be remiss in not mentioning the shows that are shaping the next TV boom of the 2010′s (do we have a cool name for this era yet?).  Since we consume TV differently, I would encourage you to pick up a few of these shows so that I don’t have to hear you bitch when Breaking Bad ends this summer.

Great Shows You Should Start Watching

1. Game of Thrones - HBO (The Wire + The Sopranos x The Lord of the Rings):  This list is not really ordered in a qualitative sense, however, Game of Thrones, is without question, the best show on TV.  It is dense, difficult, dirty, and badass.  If you are smart you like it.

5. Rectify - Sundance (Mad Men + The Woodsman): Ever feel as though Mad Men might be a bit TOO fast paced?  Well Rectify is the show for you.  I just started like a day ago or something, but I’m telling you this might be the show to put Sundance on the map the way The Shield did for FX or Mad Men for AMC.  It is a slow moving story about a man, who might have been wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years returning home to his family.  It’s kind of a gut punch of a show, but it’s beautiful.  It’s also the polar opposite of Hannibal or The Following, which glorify murder.

3.  Girls - HBO (Tiny Furniture + Seinfeld): I’m not going to waste any time talking about it.  It’s a great show with plenty of problems.

4. Orphan Black - BBC America (Fringe/Lost + Breaking Bad): This is the new sci-fi show your nerdy friend will try and get you to watch for eons. Save yourself the trouble and start now.  It’s highly serialized, but the premise (clones) is done in a way, I’ve yet to see.  It’s also really easy to get someone into.  It’s got a heavy cop element to it to ease in even the most dubious of viewers.

5.  Downton Abbey - PBS (Soap Operas + Jane Austen Films): Not a combination I’d ever want anything to do with, but somehow Downton crosses all demographic chasms out there and is so damn enjoyable anyone can get into.

Great Shows You Should Have Already Been Watching

1. Parks and Recreation - NBC: pound for pound the best ensemble comedy on television.

2. Homeland - Showtime: seriously, how do you go to work on a Monday without watching this? ABU NAZIR!

3. Sons of Anarchy - FX: It’s the single highest rated show on television for men 25 to 54. Get on it.

4. The Walking Dead - AMC: It’s the single highest rated scripted show on television for people 18-49.

5. Workaholics - Comedy Central: It’s It’s Always Sunny The Early Years

6. Justified - FX: Deadwood’s successor, and a damn fine cop show.

Great Shows I’m Not Watching Yet, But You Should Start Watching

1. The Americans - FX

2. Bates Motel - A&E

3. Veep - HBO

4. House of Cards - Netflix

There you have it. Eleven of these shows are great, and four I know will probably be great once I start watching.  For there to be fifteen excellent shows on the air at a given time is proof positive that TV is just as vibrant as it was when Mad Bad came around to anchor that first new wave of great TV this millenium.  There are plenty of good shows like American Horror Story, Shameless, Doctor Who, and Portlandia (and Pretty Little Liars) that I didn’t even mention because I know I just like them, but trust me when I say TV is great if you know where to look. Check out at least two of these shows once whatever you like ends, and you’ll be a happier man/woman for doing it.