3 ms·

I agree with some of that, but not with TV. The best TV shows today are as good as or better than TV has ever been and there's usually an ad-free option. Tele

I agree with some of that, but not with TV. The best TV shows today are as good as or better than TV has ever been and there's usually an ad-free option. Televised sports is an exception- the number of ads is insane and there's no real way to avoid them. On the plus side though, I have access to a lot more games/matches/races/etc...

uncircle 6mo ago
The golden era of TV just ended. All that’s in our future is endless remakes.
- Izkata 6mo ago
  I think it ended in the late 2010s, when streaming took over: Over the 2000s and early 2010s, writers were perfecting the style first experimented with by the great shows of the 90s and earlier, where seasons were mostly episodic but led into serial plot. Several of those early ones have been mentioned in these comments, and often alternated episodic and serial, while the later ones were figuring out how to mix the overarching plot into the episodic ones, advancing it slowly as something extra so viewers could miss one or two episodes without getting lost. Then at the midseason and season finales it'd be a big event for the larger arcs, bringing it all together. Streaming no longer had to worry about viewers missing an episode, so all the episodic filler started getting dropped in favor of streamlining the overarching plots. Unfortunately, what we lost along with it was things that were less filler and more character and world building. Getting to know the characters through action instead of summarizing it with narration, making the setting feel more real, laying out events and actions in a more natural way instead of it feeling contrived. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjd9RgRUQDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjd9RgRUQDY The backstory that makes this scene work so well was almost all in those episodic character and worldbuilding episodes we don't really get nowadays. We actually watched these characters develop and grow and change over years before this scene. I don't really think modern TV in its serial format could have a scene with as much impact - all that "filler" makes them feel like three dimensional people rather than plot devices.
carefree-bob 6mo ago
What is a good TV show that is on today (or was, say, within the last couple of years)? I'm looking for recommendations.
- criddell 6mo ago
  My backlog is crazy long. As much as I love TV I don't get nearly as much time to watch it as I'd like. From the last couple of years: * Andor * Black Rabbit * Dune * Last of Us * Percy Mason * The Paper * Pluribus * Severance * The Studio * Succession * White Lotus Of all those, Andor was the biggest surprise. I'm a mild Star Wars fan (I've seen the movies and that's about it) but I really enjoyed this, probably more than the movies. It looked amazing, was well written and acted. It's a prequel to one of the movies and we watched the movie right after we finished the series and I ended up liking the movie a lot more than I did the first time I saw it. The Paper and The Studio are comedies and watching them made me miss the great sitcoms of the past. Why aren't there more comedies? I liked the Last of Us game and I think that's a big part of why I enjoyed the tv show. If you haven't played the game or aren't a zombie person, you could probably skip that one. I liked The Peripheral but it was canceled so I have a hard time recommending it. What they made was very good but there just isn't enough of it. The William Gibson book it's based on is worth reading IMHO.

uncircle 6mo ago

The golden era of TV just ended. All that’s in our future is endless remakes.

Izkata 6mo ago
I think it ended in the late 2010s, when streaming took over: Over the 2000s and early 2010s, writers were perfecting the style first experimented with by the great shows of the 90s and earlier, where seasons were mostly episodic but led into serial plot. Several of those early ones have been mentioned in these comments, and often alternated episodic and serial, while the later ones were figuring out how to mix the overarching plot into the episodic ones, advancing it slowly as something extra so viewers could miss one or two episodes without getting lost. Then at the midseason and season finales it'd be a big event for the larger arcs, bringing it all together. Streaming no longer had to worry about viewers missing an episode, so all the episodic filler started getting dropped in favor of streamlining the overarching plots. Unfortunately, what we lost along with it was things that were less filler and more character and world building. Getting to know the characters through action instead of summarizing it with narration, making the setting feel more real, laying out events and actions in a more natural way instead of it feeling contrived. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjd9RgRUQDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjd9RgRUQDY The backstory that makes this scene work so well was almost all in those episodic character and worldbuilding episodes we don't really get nowadays. We actually watched these characters develop and grow and change over years before this scene. I don't really think modern TV in its serial format could have a scene with as much impact - all that "filler" makes them feel like three dimensional people rather than plot devices.

carefree-bob 6mo ago

What is a good TV show that is on today (or was, say, within the last couple of years)? I'm looking for recommendations.

criddell 6mo ago
My backlog is crazy long. As much as I love TV I don't get nearly as much time to watch it as I'd like. From the last couple of years: * Andor * Black Rabbit * Dune * Last of Us * Percy Mason * The Paper * Pluribus * Severance * The Studio * Succession * White Lotus Of all those, Andor was the biggest surprise. I'm a mild Star Wars fan (I've seen the movies and that's about it) but I really enjoyed this, probably more than the movies. It looked amazing, was well written and acted. It's a prequel to one of the movies and we watched the movie right after we finished the series and I ended up liking the movie a lot more than I did the first time I saw it. The Paper and The Studio are comedies and watching them made me miss the great sitcoms of the past. Why aren't there more comedies? I liked the Last of Us game and I think that's a big part of why I enjoyed the tv show. If you haven't played the game or aren't a zombie person, you could probably skip that one. I liked The Peripheral but it was canceled so I have a hard time recommending it. What they made was very good but there just isn't enough of it. The William Gibson book it's based on is worth reading IMHO.