Crikey. How did that happen?
Time has flown again, since an amazing 11 years ago, The Medium Is Not Enough emerged blinking into the world, primed to make sarcastic comments about foreign TV, with reviews of Prison Break, Supernatural, and Global Frequency. That last one was well worth the viewing time I expended on it, obvs.
What have we learnt in the past year then?
- Now that we’ve reached ‘peak TV’, there’s an awful lot of quite good television out there, but not a lot of very good television
- Australian TV is quite definitely on the rise
- UK TV is now pretty much unwatchable, with a few notable exceptions
- Remakes are big and it takes only about a year for good ideas to get recycled
- Despite its rep, only about half of Netflix’s original output is any good and almost none of the comedies
- If a TV show is good, Amazon will now probably acquire it and start showing it before the ink on the press releases is dry
- Many shows are now waiting until the seventh episode before they get really good (cf The Magicians). They’re also getting cancelled since everyone’s given up on them by then
- Being good and getting decent ratings isn’t enough to keep a network show on the air any more – it’s got to fit with a brand (cf Limitless)
- Conversely, being bad and getting poor ratings isn’t enough to get a network show cancelled any more – if it fits with a brand (cf Rosewood)
- Even I have forgotten about the Carusometer, judging by the fact I didn’t include it in last year’s history of TMINE
An awful lot of lessons there, but I could probably go on. I’ll also throw it open to you guys: have you learnt any TV lessons in the past year?
As always, a great big thank you to all the regular commenters, without whom I’d have packed up years ago and done something useful with my mornings and evenings instead, such as jog or go to the gym: Mark Carroll, GYAD, JustStark, benjitek (I wonder what happened to him… you all right, benji?), Andy Butcher, bob and tassiekev. Also, a big thanks to everyone who even left a single comment in passing.
Same time next year everyone?
