Jonno2006

What’s with all the 30 min comedies on every networks this year? They’re freaking sprouting like weeds!

Is this really the death rattle of the 1 hour serialized drama?

Every year on all networks there was always SOMETHING for me to watch (huge fan of serialized drama, even better if it’s sci fi-ish) but looking at all the networks fall schedule makes me cry. It’s pretty much all reality shows, laugh track comedies or procedurals. I know this isn’t new, it’s been like that for awhile but like I said, networks always at least TRIED to give us some every fall(even though 90% of them get cancelled I still watch them!)

And with FOX and ABC with their Dancing with the Stars and American Idol/X-Factor playing ALL YEAR LONG with multiple shows in the week makes for ALOT of dancing/singing shit. I mean think about it, with X-factor doing the performance and results shows that’s 2 nights of shows per week(if not more) and same with American Idol in the winter, so that’s ALOT of hours spent on those things. It’s incredible, and they’re huge hits so on a pure financial basis they would be stupid NOT to milk these shows for all their worth, i can definitely understand that. It’s all about demand. But it’s bad for people like me who love scripted shows, if a network spends so much time in a schedule for these reality shows it doesn’t leave much room for my fav genre.

So on Fox this year the only shows i’ll watch are :

Fringe
Terra Nova

NBC :

Maybe Playboy Club
Chuck
The Office
Maybe Grimm

ABC :

Maybe Revenge (no clue what it is but it SOUNDS cool?)


The CW :

Nikita
Supernatural
Maybe the Ringer



CBS :

LOL, I’m not THAT old that I watch shit on CBS

No but seriously I think it’s been YEARS since anything good was on CBS (by MY standards of course)

For some reason MIDSEASON shows look more appealing though, so maybe 2012 will be better

It sucks because i LOVE watching TV. I’m always excited when Fall comes around and full of new shows and shows returning start playing. But like i said, as a big fan of serialized drama TV for me is becoming less and less appealing (well network TV anyways, At least i still have Game of Thrones, Dexter, Justified, True Blood)

I can’t be the only one right? ..... RIGHT?

Red Dog

Give your attention to the vastly superior offerings on cable. Starting this fall, I am going to wean myself off network programming (except for sports of course) by not watching any of their lame new programming and subject myself to their requirement of instant success, quick triggers, and scheduling shenanigans.

Plus I also find the cable scheduling far more flexible with re-airs and such.

DeadLamb

IMO the problem is that networks where all trying to clone out Lost for the last 5+ years..

So the networks all wanted the big new strange sort of show so the bulk of the serialized dramas went with a -what's going on?- sort of hook. Invasion, Surface, Fringe, Flashback,The Event, Threshold and a bunch of others that are slipping my mind.

problem is they mostly tanked or died off in one year. Soooooooo they blame the serialized format and try to go back to shows that let people just catch an ep here or there

as Red Dog mentioned, the best serialized shows are all on cable right now. I think they work better on cable being they can show each ep over and over to give people a change to catch it. I know I've gotten hooked on a few of them like Justified and Breakout Kings.

BearFan

Exactly, and there are more new ones .. namely Terra Nova and Alcatraz (probably more, but those are the two that interest me so far).

There are not that many shows like Lost (though Fringe is really good too), but a show like that is incredibly tough to get right. You need a really good overall plot, interesting characters, and interesting sub plots within the characters.

Groucho

There's a reason that the Game of Throne threads are the longest in this forum right now.

edstein

Cable has all the best shows right now. No reason to watch the major networks at all except for sports.

resinrats

A problem I've noticed is the HUGE break in the middle of seasons now. I had almost totally forgotten that The Event was even on when it came back. I had to sit there remembering what had happened. That is major problem with serialized dramas. Too long of a break & people forget. 24 figured out a solution of not even starting the season until after the holidays so it can run straight through with no breaks. I always said there should be 2 seaons a year. Pre holidays & post holidays so shows can be aired without breaks & loose viewers.

Autotelik

The serialized dramas I watch are mostly on cable:

Game of Thrones
True Blood
Boardwalk Empire
The Killing
The Walking Dead
Breaking Bad
Justified

Non-cable:
Fringe
Vampire Diaries
Nikita

Overall, still plenty of good stuff to watch. In fact, all the recent awesome stuff on cable (esp AMC, FX, and HBO) makes this a pretty darn good era to watch serialized TV.

creekdipper

Yeah, the "hiatus" status of some & "winter break" for others really hurt the entire network drama concept. Likewise the need for reruns as early as two months after a show's debut while new installments are being completed.

It's hard to believe now that there was a time when shows would run for 30-plus episodes straight from late August/early September until May without a break (except for the occasional holiday special). Then re-runs kicked in for the summer. Pre-emptions were rare...it usually took something like the assassination of a President, declaration of war, or something similar to interrupt a show.

Now it's hard to get a 13-episode run without a break somewhere. AMC, FX, USA, TNT, and the pay cable channels are about the only place to see a series with extremely limited interruptions.

rfduncan

Don't forget Mad Men, Justified and Damages!

I hear Breaking Bad is also good.

RichC2

Breaking Bad is my favorite serialized show right now. Can't wait for S4 to start.

wishbone

Some of the early threads included spoiler posting discussions ad nauseum that contributed to their length.

It certainly helps having source material to work from as opposed to these open-ended serials that purport to have some grand unified scheme to pull divergent story lines together but do not. Chalk it up to piss poor writing.

GreenMonkey

I'm in the same boat. I watch even less than you. It used to be there was Heroes (before it sucked), Lost, etc.

I'm down to Fringe on the networks. I kinda watch House (in my spare time) but I don't like crime or medical procedurals, and I hate almost all 'reality' TV.

On cable, it's a bit better. Breaking Bad is awesome - I watched S1-3 in the last couple of months, now that's a good show.

Will be swapping Mad Men on DVD/BD for Game of Thrones with the wife...never seen any of that. We both still need to watch the Walking Dead S1.

Was watching Boardwalk Empire but the wife never got around to watching it and she deleted the end of S1 from the Tivo

I also have been enjoying Vampire Diaries. It's a little too angsty at times, but it's got a body count like Game of Thrones

rfduncan

Depending on your cable provider, you know you can watch virtually EVERY HBO show on demand using HBOGO? I just blazed through Boardwalk Empire in a week. It is only 13 episodes and well worth catching up on before it returns for S2.

Interesting that you say that. True Blood has been tenuously treading that water since the beginning - using the books as source material only to a degree then flying wildly free at the same time by adapting characters and keep a few alive that should have died a long time ago. In their case, it has so far been the opposite of piss poor writing IMHO.

chuckd21

Cable does these shows right. 12 episodes at a time is perfect for serialized storytelling. The first two seasons of Justified have been PERFECT.

davidh777

The Good Wife is a great one-hour drama. Not strictly serialized in the way Lost and other shows were/are because the episodes are somewhat standalone, but there are runnning plotlines throughout.

Double_Oh_7

You hear?!?! You should be watching!! Hands down the best show on TV right now.

GreenMonkey

Eh. My wife has HBO GO on her ipad (and I could get it working on my Nook color), but I don't sit around and watch stuff on my tablets. Sitting in front of a computer isn't normally my thing either (not while the kids are up). The small amount of time I get to watch stuff is when everyone is asleep on weekends (I work nights) - and then I'm plopped in front of the plasma.

I'll get around to catching up on it, eventually.

Supermallet

I went through all five seasons of The Wire in about two weeks. Cable is definitely the place for serialized dramas at this point.

gmanca

What sucks is how bereft the broadcast and cable networks are in sci-fi/alien series and even when they do pick them up, it's an afterthought of an effort. I really wish AMC would pick up Voyage, a show about SETI getting a signal from an alien race. Yes it's a Contact ripoff but geez any sort of sci-fi that's not monster-of-the-week or some procedural would be welcomed.

writer106

The only serialized type show I watch on broadcast is Fringe. I recently watched season 1 of The Vampire Diaries on DVD so I might starting watching it next year.

I agree with others in this thread, cable has the best serialized dramas. With the announcements of the new shows for the fall, I noticed that not too many procedurals are ending up on the main networks. I think procedurals overall are declining and viewers are losing interest in them. I stopped caring about procedurals a few years ago and I know others who have ditched them too.

I'm willing to give Tera Nova and Revenge a chance. Both sound interesting and I wonder Revenge will be set up for multiple seasons.

Jonno2006

Yeah, after making this thread I went to watch the trailers of all the new shows and I’m actually surprised there is some good stuff! Even though as always 90% of them will get cancelled, I’m still surprised.

I’m actually down for :

Terra Nova
The River
Awake
The Ringer
Once Upon a Time looks cool but for some reason all the shows that play on Sundays (on networks at least) seem very Soap Opera-ish
Person of Interest (looks like a different case a week but still looks kinda cool, it’s weird that it’s on CBS though, I NEVER watch CBS stuff :P)
Grimm looks kick ass!

outlander78

Network serials are treated poorly. There is no promise that they will be concluded. Too many have ended on a cliffhanger that was never resolved, not even by a press release. Because of this, I don't watch these series until they successfully conclude (thank you, TV DVDs!). Perhaps I am not alone in this. Any network serial that does not do well gets killed of quickly, probably creating a feed-back loop.

I find that weekly shows like Hawaii Five-O, Castle, The Mentalist and Blue Bloods have long-running arcs that scratch the serial itch, but if you miss a week, you are fine. I particularly appreciated Blue Bloods first season finale, which wrapped up the arcs - I wish every show did this. Quality, not cliff hangers, should be the way to get viewers coming back.

A more positive point: Law & Order was written as two half-hour shows (police and DA) because when it was launched, networks saw dwindling ratings for hour-long shows and wanted half-hour ones (this is in the extras of the first L&O DVD set). TV is cyclical, and I'm sure we will get dramas back again.

rfduncan

While I see your point, you do know there is a cable that let's you play iPad video through HMDI to an HDTV, right? Just saying their on-demand is great. If you have such little time for TV, I would think on-demand would be your preferred option.
I don't know. I hope you're right, but I think reality shows continue to spread like a bad rash. They're much cheaper to produce.

Shady12

That sounds cool..is it dead in the water? I love first contact stuff.