Why is the TV landscape so boring?

[1981]

True, it's about money. But you don't need 10 000 orcs to make a good TV show. In Treatment is about people sitting in an office talking.

I happened to catch a few episodes of a documentary about haunted houses. Based on some googling, it was probably A Haunting. It was scarier than many horror movies. The low-budget dramatizations and good bad acting (meaning they felt like real people) gave it extra flare.

I'd like to see more of that.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Yeah this pretty much. Watching all these plus stuff like the Americans and iZombie. Looking out for the American Gods adaption.

Even some of the Network stuff is okay. The Flash and Supergirl are much better than Smallville ever was for my guilty-pleasure watching.

I think I'm all zombie-ed out but the Americans does look pretty good.

I need to catch up with Flash, I've only seen the first season. After the 3rd (or 4th) season of Arrow (the one that aired with the 1st season of Flash), I just gave up, the plot and characters were just too all over the place to where I was mainly watching it for how bad it was. I enjoyed Supergirl until the season finale, which I though was horrible.

 

[WolfThomas]

I think I'm all zombie-ed out but the Americans does look pretty good.

I need to catch up with Flash, I've only seen the first season. After the 3rd (or 4th) season of Arrow (the one that aired with the 1st season of Flash), I just gave up, the plot and characters were just too all over the place to where I was mainly watching it for how bad it was. I enjoyed Supergirl until the season finale, which I though was horrible.

I know the feels about the zombie genre but iZombie is really different. It's more of a character drama/police procedural. My wife was adamant she was going to hate it and was hooked after one episode.

Yeah arrow hasn't been great. The flash is the better of the two. The supergirl season finale was lacklustre indeed.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I think I'm all zombie-ed out but the Americans does look pretty good.

I know the feels about the zombie genre but iZombie is really different. It's more of a character drama/police procedural. My wife was adamant she was going to hate it and was hooked after one episode.

I've think I've seen enough police procedurals to last a lifetime as well. But this basically shows how great TV is as you can really pick and choose what to watch based on subject matter alone considering how many great shows there are now. Before (and not that long ago at all), you sorta had to watch the few good shows even if you weren't into them as there wasn't much good quality content out there. There's so many shows on now that I would've of totally been all over like 10 years ago but that I pass on now just because there isn't enough time to watch everything. I've been recommended so many shows from friends that I haven't checked out yet just due to "my" shows consuming so much time.

 

[WolfThomas]

I've think I've seen enough police procedurals to last a lifetime as well. But this basically shows how great TV is as you can really pick and choose what to watch based on subject matter alone considering how many great shows there are now. Before (and not that long ago at all), you sorta had to watch the few good shows even if you weren't into them as there wasn't much good quality content out there. There's so many shows on now that I would've of totally been all over like 10 years ago but that I pass on now just because there isn't enough time to watch everything. I've been recommended so many shows from friends that I haven't checked out yet just due to "my" shows consuming so much time.

True. My friend was trying to get me to watch Banshee. And I was like, this looks good, not great. I'm sure I might have watched it 5-10years ago but right now I have Justified and other stuff to catch up on.

I mean my god, I can't believe I watched LOST for so long.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

In fairness to the OP, every other TV show is always going to pale in comparison to Babylon 5. It will probably be so until the year 2258.

 

[Skruff]

If you're legitimately looking for good shows to watch across any TV-adaptable genre, you'd have to try pretty hard NOT to find something outstanding to watch right now. Yes, budgets, profits, and bottom lines limit the size and scope of every show, even the animated ones, because that's just reality... but the variety and creativity we're seeing on TV right now is really fantastic! My "to watch" queues have never been so full!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I mean my god, I can't believe I watched LOST for so long.

Haha. I watch 4 seasons of Lost because I swore they said season 4 was going to be the final season (or I heard that somewhere) and it totally wasn't the last season or I would've stopped at season 3. Season 1 of Lost was so good though and the show really should've just been one season IMO.

 

[WolfThomas]

Haha. I watch 4 seasons of Lost because I swore they said season 4 was going to be the final season (or I heard that somewhere) and it totally wasn't the last season or I would've stopped at season 3. Season 1 of Lost was so good though and the show really should've just been one season IMO.

You were smart. I left at Season 5. Just threw in the towel and refused to watch it.

Another show like that is Dexter. I liked the first season but each season following I found meh. The 4th did capture some of the excitement and I stuck around for Season 5. Now I wish I could have saved that time up to watch the things I want now.

 

[maninahat]

The dominant shows on American TV are sitcoms, reality shows, and cop shows. Compare that to a novel that has space battles, daring military actions, parachute jumps through a planet?s atmosphere, and high-stakes politics. Why can't TV be that exciting? Do TV shows do not get the budget of CGI heavy adventure movies? Is there something in American life that zaps people of their creativity and imagination?

What are you shitting me? These have probably been the most exciting last few years I've seen for television. In terms of creative output and trailblazing, it way outstrips the movie industry at the moment (which currently spends a fortune on nothing but more superhero movies). In the last month I've watched shows about superheroes, but I have also watched shows about mind bending preachers, 80s kids fighting Stephen King monsters, Jewish skanks sleeping their way around New York, angry pirates, angry gangsters, angry vikings, kung-fu magicians, real life police conspiracies, a cartoon pervert scientist and his terrified grandson, a dozen different Korean rom-coms about millionaire boyfriends, and a hip-hop King Lear.

There is certainly still a subset of boring rom-coms and boilerplate police procedural, but they are only the lingering remains of the early 2000s and 90s, which was a time were you pretty much got nothing but those shows (outside the occasional BBC drama) all the time.