I can't get into modern television. (Off-Topic)

by Coaxkez, Sunday, January 21, 2018, 16:54 (2499 days ago)
edited by Coaxkez, Sunday, January 21, 2018, 16:57

I have recently been made aware of the fact that I am behind on the "golden age of television". A co-worker expressed disbelief that I have never seen a single episode of Game of Thrones. "It's the greatest show on TV," he exclaimed, "how have you never seen it?!"

TV is a big commitment. You can usually sit down and watch a movie from beginning to end in 90 minutes or so, but never more than 3 hours, which is great for people like me who have to budget their play time between a host of different activities. A TV show demands that you get invested in the world, the characters, and the story over many days' of viewership, often requiring you to remember obscure details from past episodes at that. If the show gets boring or loses the plot, that's potentially 10-15 movies' worth of time you'll never get back. I enjoy episodic TV shows like SVU, but those seem to be in dwindling supply these days. I have always preferred the self-contained, efficient storytelling of movies.

However, I am aware that there are many shows that are now receiving the praise once reserved for great movies, and that television in general is becoming the medium of choice for "serious" writers, and so I have developed an interest in checking some of these shows out.

So I come to you, fellow denizens of DBO, to ask the double-barreled question: What TV shows are you watching, and should I be watching any of them?

I'll watch stories of any genre if they present a compelling narrative, but I tend to skew toward action science fiction. Some of my favorite films are Star Wars, The Matrix, and the X-Men franchise. I have never been able to get into the DCEU, and Marvel is almost like a TV show in the amount of material it commands you to digest. I do enjoy more cerebral films as well (Ex Machina being a great recent example), but if I'm going to watch an entire show's worth of material, I would rather watch one that plays to my interests seeing as I know those shows are out there now.

For reference, one of the few shows I do watch is Star Wars Rebels, which is pretty entertaining for a kid's show, although I will admit it's mostly the elements carried over from the far superior Clone Wars show that hold it up for me. (That show was fantastic, by the way. The first season was rough, but they quickly found their footing and told some great stories. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. If you're a Star Wars fan, it's a must-see.)

The most recent great television show I watched was Breaking Bad, which was indeed excellent, but the story felt complete and so I never felt the need to check out Better Call Saul even though I have heard that it too is fantastic.

I think I'm facing a crisis of oversaturation. There's so much "great" television now that I cannot narrow down the selection in any meaningful way.