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Every month, TMINE lets you know what TV the BFI will be presenting at the South Bank in London
As is traditional in the month following a BFI/Radio Times TV festival, there are pretty slim pickings for TV viewing at the BFI this May.
But there are a few things at least. There’s a preview of BBC Four’s forthcoming Victorian Sensations, which looks at the ‘thrilling era of the 1890s’. There’s a tribute to the rather talented Philip Saville that will include a showing of Armchair Theatre‘s Afternoon of a Nymph. And best of all, there’s a talk about Smallfilms and how it created Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog, and Bagpuss.
In the US: Thursdays, CBS All Access In the UK: Not yet acquired
Why is Jordan Peele determined to prove me wrong? A while ago, I suggested that the old-school anthology show, with a different story and cast every week, no longer worked as a format, given the nature of modern television scheduling. Instead, the season-long anthology show has the best of both worlds, with both a regular cast and the ability to tell closed stories, all rolled into one:
With an audience who likes serial drama but who wants eventual conclusions to their stories that haven’t been drawn out too long, what could be better than a season-long story with a beginning, middle and an end, the next season then telling a completely new story in the same vein? With a bit of cleverness, you can even appease fans of the shows’ stars by having the cast come back to play different characters if they want – or just let them go off to the next job if they’d rather, just like in the old days, since that way you can get big names with limited availability to come in for just a season.
There have been attempts to return to the original, episodic formula, such as The Guest Book and Room 104, but these exceptions have somewhat proved my hypothesis that the format no longer works. How? Because no one watches them.
So I ask again: why is Jordan Peele is so determined to prove me wrong? I mean first he creates a feelgood, episodic anthology show for YouTube, Weird City, and now he’s resurrected possibly the most famous anthology show of them all, The Twilight Zone.
Why does the lauded writer-director of Get Out and Us think he knows better than me, hey?
