Why We’re Entering a New Golden Age of TV

Television has come a long way. The first Golden Age of Television was in the 1950s, when formats were perfected and genres were established. It was an age of creativity, when classic shows like Hancock’s Half Hour and Dixon of Dock Green were setting the tone for all the shows that followed after.

Soon, however, things changed. The age of more stations, followed by the age cable and satellite, meant stations had to compete with ever larger numbers of stations to attract the huge audiences they needed. They did this by speaking to the lowest common denominator. That brought in the numbers of people the advertisers wanted to see.

Then the digital era came along, and TV had to compete with the internet. Instead of shrinking into obsolescence, however, TV rose to the challenge and began producing high-quality shows prolifically.

That is a big statement, of course, but we can back it up. This is why we’re entering a New Golden Age of TV.

1. TV shows are giving themselves the time and space to dig into complicated characters and situations.

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Television is accused of being chewing gum for the mind. Bill Hicks even said “watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.” But the fact of the matter is, TV series – the ones that become must-own box sets – have the time to really look at a character’s development, seeing how a person can change at a fundamental level. It can take its time with plots that twist and turn, allowing the drama to slowly unfold and draw the audience in. TV shows can look deeply at one thing in a way that no other medium can, and television is finally allowing itself to really take advantage of that ability. For example, Breaking Bad focuses on the development of Walter White from everyman chemistry teacher to psychotic drugs dealer. The Killing is almost an entire day’s worth of programmes, concentrating solely on one case.

2. Once a show has built an audience, it doesn’t have to stick to marketing roles, so it doesn’t.

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Often when people talk about the New Golden Age of TV, they do so by comparing it to film. In this case, the comparison is necessary to understand the point. Films have huge-budget marketing campaigns to make sure tickets sell. A major part of those campaigns is the targeting of the film: audiences want to know if it’s horror or comedy or romantic (or in Shaun of the Dead’s case, all three). But generally, a film needs to be put in a niche in order to be sold.

Television shows, by contrast, can make their audiences laugh, cry and gasp in shock, all in one show. Then they can do something completely different in the next episode. Look at Family Guy’s recent turn [SPOILER ALERT].

In a highly publicised recent episode, the show saw off Brian, the family dog. The episode had some funny moments, but it was a poignant episode, full of characters struggling to come to terms with both the death itself and other people’s ability to move on. After 15 years of fart jokes and sight gags, the show decided to be reflective. And the audience just went with it.

 

3. Television made Netflix popular; Netflix showed executives the power of starting small and growing.

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Netflix is a global entertainment powerhouse, and when it started, it was an online replacement for Blockbuster. In other words, it concentrated on films. One day, it got the licencing to start showing full series of TV shows, and it exploded. Once people were able to stream entire TV shows, the service became insanely popular.

The effect on television was immediate. Now, executives had undeniable proof that a show could start small, build a loyal international audience and eventually become insanely popular. Shows like Archer, The League and Sons of Anarchy all did it. Shows like Luther and Peep Show found international success, largely because of the streaming service. The creators of Breaking Bad specifically credit Netflix with the show’s international success.

If television was already a great place for successful shows to stretch themselves, Netflix gave the people in charge of programming a reason to let small shows prove themselves, instead of cancelling them if they weren’t instantly popular.

And Netflix is so crucial to television that it has started commissioning its own insanely popular series, like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and the reboot of Arrested Development. These shows have, in turn, been forcing traditional TV companies to raise their game. It’s a vicious cycle that simply results in fantastic television.

 

Television can take its time, giving the audience the ability to dig deep into the complex actions and motivations for characters, and the complicated situations that arise from those. It can leap genres in a way that films simply can’t. And it is in a creative arms race with Netflix that means shows are just getting better and better. With all of that in mind, it seems inevitable to say we’re entering a New Golden Age of TV.