Television: State of the Art

• Favorite Shows
• Gone, But Not Forgotten
• Separating Good TV From Great TV
• What's Wrong With TV

Favorites (2004-05 edition)

For the 2004-2005 season, here are my favorites so far. I'm still a fan of the shows from last year, of course.

• Rescue Me: I liked Denis Leary's The Job and I think this series was worth the pain of losing that one. Allowed to be more outrageous than standard network fare, Rescue Me is engaging and, if at times a little soapy, keeps me wanting to see more. Reminds me of the early seasons of NYPD Blue in its evenhandedness about showing both the good and bad sides of its characters. I'd still like to know if it's a requirement for all FX series to end their seasons with the main character's wife leaving them to an empty house (cf. The Shield).
• Lost: How JJ Abrams spent his summer. I'm not sure where this is going but it is engaging. If Abrams manages to make this series last more than a year, it'll be a miracle, but I like his chances.
• Boston Legal: I'm sure this series won't last more than a couple of seasons, but it's still fun right now. James Spader and William Shatner ("Denny Crane") are doing great work here. If the rest of the ensemble cast picks it up a bit, I think this show will do very well.

Favorites (2003-04 edition)

For the 2003-2004 season, here are my favorites so far. I have some access to FX, but still no HBO/Showtime, so you won't see any of their fine shows on this list.

• 24: If the show manages to get me to watch every week, it must be doing something right. The producers/writers are wise enough to keep tweaking their show and rewarded their loyal fans by bringing back Nina and Sherry Palmer.
• Alias: Still a fun romp, especially since they have put the "2 year gap" storyline behind and exposed their evil mole. If Isabella Rosselini's character develops a relationship with Victor Garber (Jack Bristow), I might get over missing Lena Olin.
• The Shield: I caught one episode while travelling and bought both DVDs as soon as they hit the shelves. This is certainly not the Michael Chiklis from The Commish, and he deserves every bit of credit he gets. The stories are surprisingly involving and the ensemble acting is uniformly excellent.
• The Daily Show with John Stewart: Still the best "news" show for putting things in perspective. I worry that too many folks are getting all of their news here, but at least they are getting something.
• Law and Order: The reigning franchise king. NBC, A&E, TNT, I follow it everywhere. The main series is running a little slow right now, but SVU and Criminal Intentare probably producing better work this season.
• South Park: From the first episode, Trey and Matt have had me hooked. A series with lots of highs and lows, but you want to be there when they hit the home run.

Favorites (2002-03 edition)

I don't have FX/HBO/Showtime, so you won't see any of their fine shows on this list.

• 24: Who knew Kiefer Sutherland could be riveting? I respected his work in Dark City, but this is something special. Nina seemed so nice riding in that VW in New Orleans, too.
• Alias: Beautiful star, lots of ass-kicking, good vs. evil. What's not to like? Adding Lena Olin to create TV's most dysfunctional spy family was brilliant. If they will just let Victor Garber (Jack Bristow) use his fine singing voice...
• CSI: I always enjoyed the forensic aspects of Quincy(but not the moralizing), so CSI is a real treat. A generally well written show with a good ensemble cast. The general mediocrity of CSI Miami shows how hard it is to make a show like this work.
• The Daily Show with John Stewart: This show scores major points for its handling of major news stories with humor and sarcasm. Probably the best coverage of the inanities surrounding "Operation Iraqi Freedom.". Guest commentator Lewis Black kills every Wednesday.
• Law and Order
• South Park.

Honorable Mention:

Without A Trace (good premise, good acting, good writing, some truly powerful episodes; unlike CSI, sometimes nobody dies), Scrubs (last year was funnier, but John C. McGinley [Dr. Cox] makes me laugh).

Gone, But Not Forgotten

A few words about some shows that have recently departed:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I've enjoyed the series from the first scene with Darla. Brilliant work in seasons 1-3 with a slight decline since then, but a mediocre Buffy episode is better than most everything else. Joss Whedon is one of those creators whose name guarantees I'll be watching when the show is on.
• Farscape: Outlandish, contrived, muppets...this show had everything. Throw in beautiful CGI, Emmy-quality makeup/costuming, and a slow-developing love story. Then throw in characters who are genuinely interesting. When it had its A-game, this show was a wonder to behold. It meets every criteria for being a great TV show and I will miss it. I believe Sci-Fi will regret not finding a way to get at least 9 more episodes of this show for next season because their Friday schedule won't be the same without it.

Separating Good TV From Great TV

Over the years, I've watched way too much TV. Making a great television series is much harder than making a great movie because you have to keep cranking out good episodes 22 times a year. Network executives seem to have a free hand to muck up a television series (cf. Firefly). The very best series have a few things in common:

• Strong Creative Vision: The auteur theory of TV greatness. A show's creator must figure out what the show is going to be about and subordinate everything else (including ego) to making it work. Even if the premise of the show is ridiculous (a cheerleading vampire hunter?), a great TV show is true to its premise and thereby earns its audience's respect. It is very, very hard to maintain this vision if the producers changes, so continuity of production (more than actors) is key. Consider how weak The Practice became when David E. Kelley's attention began to drift to his other shows. Success stories: Joss Whedon on Buffy, JMS on Babylon 5.
• Good Writers: The work done before the cameras roll is at least as important as the work done by the actors. Clever concepts, special effects, and telegenic actors can hide writing problems for a while, but it all comes back to the words on the page.
• Cast Management: While replacing a primary character is nearly impossible, handling changes to the supporting cast without losing focus is one of the most difficult challenges for a series. Making the new characters better than the originals is what separates the merely good from the great. Success stories: the Buffy/Angel spinoff process, Law and Order's casting carousel, M*A*S*H, Cheers.
• The Journey: The contrary requirements of episodic television (i.e., the series needs to be viewable without too much backstory and without forcing a particular order of episodes) tends to weed out "the journey" through which the series' characters tend to flesh out. Too many series use Very Special Episodes as a substitute for long-term character development; things happen and are then forgotten. A great series rewards its loyal audience by allowing them to watch the characters grow (or devolve). The Law and Order franchise is a seeming exception to this rule unless you consider "the law" a character of the series; having watched for over ten years, I am beginning to think it is the main character. Outstanding examples: Londo Mollari and G'Kar on Babylon 5.

What's Wrong With Television

There are at least as many great television shows today as there were ten years ago...twenty years ago...ever. People remember their favorite shows and forget the crap that surrounded it on the schedule. It is the crap that concerns me most since it crowds out the good stuff. Worse, crap with good ratings leads to derivative crap. Here are some things about television that are not working for me:

• Shorter Seasons: Once upon a time, a television season had 26 episodes. Then 24. Now it's 22. There are still 52 weeks in the year, though. With so few original episodes (made worse by The Annual Clip Show) and so many interruptions, is it really surprising that audiences aren't as loyal to shows anymore?
• The Annual Clip Show: In an attempt to eke out a little more profit, the 22nd episode of most series is a "clip show" masquerading as a regular episode. Sometimes they bother to film a "framing" device to foster the illusion. But what is the point? Fans of the show don't need a clip show every year; they've already seen all the episodes. If someone's not watching, the clip show isn't going to reel them in. If the producers had any integrity, they'd film 22 regular episodes and provide the clip show as the bonus 23rd episode. Fat chance!
• Broken Flow: The vagaries of the Nielsen rating periods and special events (sports, awards, etc.) sometimes cause prolonged gaps in a series (from the third week in December to the last week of January, for example). In the short term, ratings perk up when people finally get to see new episodes and it makes some sense to synchronize these with the sweeps periods. In the long term, though, it creates more opportunities for viewers to lose the habit of watching a show. The summer hiatus makes this even worse.
• Schedule Randomizer: Once in a while, a show can't seem to get itself cancelled. Instead, it starts to wander the schedule...sometimes Friday at 8, other times Saturday at 9. Eventually, it disappears entirely, but it takes the audience a month or two to figure this out. Finding Twin Peaks during its original run was pretty challenging. So is trying to catch new episodes of Andy Richter Controls the Universe.
• Scheduling Fratricide: The folks at the network like scheduling shows against other shows with identical demographics. I hear they call this blunting, since it tends to lower the ratings of the competition. I've often wondered how the creators of the shows feel about this. Why not just counterprogram to steal away viewers from a different demographic?
• Spoiled by Commercials: Why do the networks want to spoil their shows for their viewing audience? It's especially bad when they reveal the twist in a mystery show (or Law & Order). Can they not keep a secret?
• "Most Watched Program"...Cancelled: Damned statistics! Network marketers can always find some new definition of "watched" to justify that their new program is hot. Said program is often cancelled within a month.
• A Very Special Episode...: A phrase that should be used for something that is really unusual, like a new episode the last week of December or some significant development that won't be forgotten the following week.
• Bugs: I hate the little graphics that are supposed to remind me what station I'm watching. If they really cared, they should show them during the commercials, when I'm most likely changing channels and can't tell which channel is which. TNN wins my special award for most horrific bug: a matted zone at the bottom of the screen that includes programming information and only goes away during the commercial breaks.
• Squeezed Credits: Vertical-, horizontal-, or time-compressed credit sequences at the end of an episode are just wrong. The folks who put the show together deserve their moment to shine. I've yet to see a network use the additional screen space to anyone's advantage, so why do they step on the little people?
• Overruns: Scheduling a show to overrun the hour by five minutes is just plain annoying. If you're showing just reruns, like TBS, then I suppose you might need a hook to get your audience. If you're broadcasting Friends, you're just a greedy bastard.

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