It seems today, that all you see is...perfectly good TV shows going on a good 2-3 seasons too long, and becoming terrible.
This is (mostly) the reserve of American shows. Unfortunately, as British public broadcast television begins to dwindle in terms of the money it has available, American shows are increasingly becoming the only good thing worth watching. On the internet, admittedly, but still.
The problem lies in the very concept, unfortunately. American shows get made with 20+ episode series' and high production values, which makes good tv, which people watch, which makes money. Then the creators dont want to give up on a good idea, so they keep it going, often long beyond a shows creative shelf-life. The money driven system which CREATES the good American TV shows is the same one that drives them into the dirt, creatively.
The list of shows that got worse and worse as they went on is impressive. Off the top of my head i can think of Friends, the Simpsons, Scrubs, Lost (season 2-3), 24,The OC, Buffy, Angel, Prison Break, The X-Files.
The most frustrating thing about all this, is that the situation IS avoidable! South Park has stayed fresh over 12 seasons by the creators keeping very tight control over the shows direction and integrity. ER manages to keep going by having no over-arching storyline, and no irreplacable characters, focusing solely on good drama. The Office and Twin Peaks, whilst being vastly different shows, both realised that their appeal could only be stretched so far, whilst brilliant creations, they were both essentially one trick ponies, and thus the wise decision was made to end after two seasons each.
Im not sure what the resolution to this problem is. I wanted to avoid sounding like a raving Commie, but the most obvious solution is the one we are least able to affect; until the creators of TV shows start to care more about artistic integrity and QUALITY instead of money, we will continue to have Simpsons episodes with 2-3 laughs, Scrubs episodes where the colouring is even MORE pastel and JD/Turk gay it up/fall over more, and the survivors of Lost still not having a fucking CLUE what is going on.
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2 comments:
Seems like more often than not it's comedy that loses it's way, dramas seem to last longer. Maybe it's simply that there's only so far you can take a comedy until it just starts getting repetitive. Even 30 Rock, which I love, I can't imagine being great after say, series 3.
On the other hand series like The Wire and Battlestar Galactica (it IS good!) are staying fresh well into their 5th series.
Although the Sopranos and Six Feet under definately got crap towards the end. They can eat my poo.
I don't know if you've ever watched it or come across it but Veronica Mars (initially "cult" American show) is a prime example of this. The first season was amazing. Fantastic, Twin Peaks meets Dawson's Creek. Film Noir in serialised form. But once the rape story, murder mystery etc had all been cleaned up (end of season 1) and it got a second season (i.e. no longer a cult show), it just became ... really bad.
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