Welcome to Culture Crash, where we examine American culture – what’s new and old in entertainment…
Recently, Nielsen released data on the most streamed shows of 2023, and it surprised some people that not a single show in the top 10 premiered in the 2020s. Some longer running current shows are on the list, such as NCIS and the kids show Bluey, but five titles on the list, including #1, which was Suits, are shows that have been off the air for years.
Now, yes, a part of this is that off-the-air shows like Gilmore Girls simply have more seasons to watch than new release shows like Love is Blind or The Mandolorian. But still, I think the attraction to older TV runs deeper than that. In some ways, I think people flock to watch older shows like NCIS and Supernatural because they follow a different model of TV than many of the splashy new release shows such as Ginny & Georgia or Ted Lasso. You see, new shows – even the ones I love – are made to be so much more economical than 1990s or 2000s shows used to be. Seasons of TV used to run 22 episodes long. Now, 10 or 13 is more common, with some shows only running 5 or 6 episodes in a season. I think that what people miss about older shows are often just the sheer volume of them. If you rewatch Friends or The Big Bang Theory, you can pour through hundreds of episodes. Some advance the show’s main plot, while others don’t. But it doesn’t matter, because fans of the show are invested in the characters and their lives more than any more specific plot. In the streaming TV era, new shows are often all about plot. In 6 or 7 episodes, audiences may be introduced to a new world, witness a crime, and follow its entire investigation. That can be thrilling, but there’s often not that rewatch value that comes from 22-episode seasons.
In short, I think we need to let TV be TV again. Movies are where tight stories can go to thrive, TV is at its best when it’s about the journey and not the destination. Save your 5-hour prestige limited series and instead, give me something to chew up hours of a slow weekend, give me 10 seasons of wacky hijinks or delicious drama. Then I’ll be happy.
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