8 ms·

The content itself took a nosedive after the writer's strike too. It feels like 2/3 of broadcast television these days is some kind of low effort singing/danci

The content itself took a nosedive after the writer's strike too. It feels like 2/3 of broadcast television these days is some kind of low effort singing/dancing contest. Considering it's basically a live music video, there's no reason why you wouldn't browse the internet at the same time.

wishinghand 7y ago
> The content itself took a nosedive after the writer's strike too I find this a weird take because we're in a renaissance of quality story telling TV right now. Keeping in mind Sturgeon's Law, only 66% of tv being crap is a win.
- barbecue_sauce 7y ago
  > renaissance of quality story telling TV right now Not on broadcast television, which is what OP was referring to. It’s all monster of the week procedurals, low effort sitcoms, and reality garbage.
  - Tagbert 7y ago
    “The Good Place”
  - ccajas 7y ago
    This isn't something I hear too much, but maybe content restrictions are actually starting to become a disadvantage to broadcast TV. You could once tell a thrilling serial (whether it's crime drama, or sci-fi) within TV-14 guidelines that many people will watch, but now people expect more grit I guess. They want more gut-wrenching violence or adult language that feels more real and doesn't hold back.
- smegger001 7y ago
  Yes but that is for "prestige" shows, of which you get 6-12 episodes for a season. Used to be you would get an average of 22 episodes a season of any show. Also season breaks are getting longer used to be 6-4 monthes between season now you get 8 months to two years in some cases.So now a network as to fill a lot more time with a lot of inexpensive content so we get tons of crap tv shows. There is no middle ground any more. it is either cheap simi-scripted reality series, music/tallent shows, and game shows or high budget prestige dramas.
mrfusion 7y ago
And what happened with the ending of game of thrones? Shouldn’t professional writers be smarter than the average viewer? I didn’t seem like that was the case.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  I think they realized around season five that they weren't going to be able to hold onto the whole cast for long enough to finish the show properly so they sped things up a lot. they also caught up with the books around here so they had to start making stuff up themselves. this is a classic problem with long running tv shows. it's hard to get the pacing right when you don't know in advance how many seasons you're going to make.
  - tayo42 7y ago
    That would be new to me. What I have heard is grrm wasn't involved after season 4. Also HBO offered more seasons to do what ever they needed. The two writers decided to make the last season short.
    - Consultant32452 7y ago
      My understanding is the show runners were trying to jump ship onto a Star wars project, so they rushed out crap, and then star wars fell through.
celticmusic 7y ago
I feel this way about everything. GoT took a nose dive when they stopped having source material to work off of. It became stupid, mindless drama. People talk about the ending as if that's where the problems started. No, the writing was crap for the last several seasons. The latest season of The Expanse was disappointing. It went from a slow burning, character driven series to an action packed run-of-the-mill drama laden mess, like most of the television shows you see nowadays. I'm happy Amazon picked it up, but they basically butchered the show, it will never live up to its potential. Everything just kind of becomes samey because they're all learning how to do it from the same sources, and the lessons they're learning is unnecessary drama pulls people in and keeps them there. Except it drives me nuts when an entire season's worth of plot points could literally evaporate if character A articulated why they were angry at character B, who would then explain it was a misunderstanding.
- goatlover 7y ago
  The Expanse S4 was going off the fourth book, I believe. I didn’t like it as much as the last two seasons, but it’s supposed to be a setup season for what comes in the next couple books. Also, Chernobyl was fantastic and Watchmen was delightful, for the most part. And Evil is an interesting supernatural/cutting edge Tech mix. Then there’s the final season of Mr. Robot.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  I'm a little surprised that you would say this about the recent season of the expanse. I found it to be quite the opposite: mostly character development with not nearly as much plot movement as I had hoped for. I didn't like it as much as the third season, but that's a pretty high bar to meet. the main conflict with murtry was pretty contrived, I'll give you that. holden has been sent personally by chrisjen, literally has a warship parked outside of town, and the guy is going to push his buttons over a single person he wants to kill?
- wobbly_bush 7y ago
  I don't feel the same about expanse. Maybe it's just me, but I felt the show is progressing just liked in the books.
ccajas 7y ago
What's been the biggest factor do you think is the decline of broadcast TV? Writer's strike made a dent to be sure but that should affect all of TV. Television shows in general had underwent a big boom recently, but it's just not happening through the rabbit ear antennas. But there's still some good stuff there if you know where to look (mostly in form of comedy, Brooklyn 99 for example). Is it that major media conglomerates allocating less budget on their broadcast TV business and more into their movies and subscription based business models? My other guess is that content restrictions of broadcast TV are now really holding it back.
hinkley 7y ago
It was that way before the writer's strike. The slow decline that started with The Real World had picked up pace, and the airwaves were slowly filling with reality show after reality show. Then Lost went on the air, and nobody noticed at first, but by Season 2 it had competition from story-driven shows again. And I dunno who rushed out Lost Season 1 on DVD a few months before the second season aired, but that was an inspired decision. Tons of new viewers for Season 2, and probably for the first time ever people were binge-watching a TV show. It ended with a whimper, but boy did it start with a bang.
- Izkata 7y ago
  > but boy did it start with a bang. Lost got some crazy publicity (for the time) as well: Lots of people thought the shot of the plane from the inside being torn in two was real, not from a TV show.

wishinghand 7y ago

> The content itself took a nosedive after the writer's strike too I find this a weird take because we're in a renaissance of quality story telling TV right now. Keeping in mind Sturgeon's Law, only 66% of tv being crap is a win.

barbecue_sauce 7y ago
> renaissance of quality story telling TV right now Not on broadcast television, which is what OP was referring to. It’s all monster of the week procedurals, low effort sitcoms, and reality garbage.
- Tagbert 7y ago
  “The Good Place”
- ccajas 7y ago
  This isn't something I hear too much, but maybe content restrictions are actually starting to become a disadvantage to broadcast TV. You could once tell a thrilling serial (whether it's crime drama, or sci-fi) within TV-14 guidelines that many people will watch, but now people expect more grit I guess. They want more gut-wrenching violence or adult language that feels more real and doesn't hold back.
smegger001 7y ago
Yes but that is for "prestige" shows, of which you get 6-12 episodes for a season. Used to be you would get an average of 22 episodes a season of any show. Also season breaks are getting longer used to be 6-4 monthes between season now you get 8 months to two years in some cases.So now a network as to fill a lot more time with a lot of inexpensive content so we get tons of crap tv shows. There is no middle ground any more. it is either cheap simi-scripted reality series, music/tallent shows, and game shows or high budget prestige dramas.

mrfusion 7y ago

And what happened with the ending of game of thrones? Shouldn’t professional writers be smarter than the average viewer? I didn’t seem like that was the case.

leetcrew 7y ago
I think they realized around season five that they weren't going to be able to hold onto the whole cast for long enough to finish the show properly so they sped things up a lot. they also caught up with the books around here so they had to start making stuff up themselves. this is a classic problem with long running tv shows. it's hard to get the pacing right when you don't know in advance how many seasons you're going to make.
- tayo42 7y ago
  That would be new to me. What I have heard is grrm wasn't involved after season 4. Also HBO offered more seasons to do what ever they needed. The two writers decided to make the last season short.
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    My understanding is the show runners were trying to jump ship onto a Star wars project, so they rushed out crap, and then star wars fell through.

celticmusic 7y ago

I feel this way about everything. GoT took a nose dive when they stopped having source material to work off of. It became stupid, mindless drama. People talk about the ending as if that's where the problems started. No, the writing was crap for the last several seasons. The latest season of The Expanse was disappointing. It went from a slow burning, character driven series to an action packed run-of-the-mill drama laden mess, like most of the television shows you see nowadays. I'm happy Amazon picked it up, but they basically butchered the show, it will never live up to its potential. Everything just kind of becomes samey because they're all learning how to do it from the same sources, and the lessons they're learning is unnecessary drama pulls people in and keeps them there. Except it drives me nuts when an entire season's worth of plot points could literally evaporate if character A articulated why they were angry at character B, who would then explain it was a misunderstanding.

goatlover 7y ago
The Expanse S4 was going off the fourth book, I believe. I didn’t like it as much as the last two seasons, but it’s supposed to be a setup season for what comes in the next couple books. Also, Chernobyl was fantastic and Watchmen was delightful, for the most part. And Evil is an interesting supernatural/cutting edge Tech mix. Then there’s the final season of Mr. Robot.
leetcrew 7y ago
I'm a little surprised that you would say this about the recent season of the expanse. I found it to be quite the opposite: mostly character development with not nearly as much plot movement as I had hoped for. I didn't like it as much as the third season, but that's a pretty high bar to meet. the main conflict with murtry was pretty contrived, I'll give you that. holden has been sent personally by chrisjen, literally has a warship parked outside of town, and the guy is going to push his buttons over a single person he wants to kill?
wobbly_bush 7y ago
I don't feel the same about expanse. Maybe it's just me, but I felt the show is progressing just liked in the books.

ccajas 7y ago

What's been the biggest factor do you think is the decline of broadcast TV? Writer's strike made a dent to be sure but that should affect all of TV. Television shows in general had underwent a big boom recently, but it's just not happening through the rabbit ear antennas. But there's still some good stuff there if you know where to look (mostly in form of comedy, Brooklyn 99 for example). Is it that major media conglomerates allocating less budget on their broadcast TV business and more into their movies and subscription based business models? My other guess is that content restrictions of broadcast TV are now really holding it back.

hinkley 7y ago

It was that way before the writer's strike. The slow decline that started with The Real World had picked up pace, and the airwaves were slowly filling with reality show after reality show. Then Lost went on the air, and nobody noticed at first, but by Season 2 it had competition from story-driven shows again. And I dunno who rushed out Lost Season 1 on DVD a few months before the second season aired, but that was an inspired decision. Tons of new viewers for Season 2, and probably for the first time ever people were binge-watching a TV show. It ended with a whimper, but boy did it start with a bang.

Izkata 7y ago
> but boy did it start with a bang. Lost got some crazy publicity (for the time) as well: Lots of people thought the shot of the plane from the inside being torn in two was real, not from a TV show.