The History of the Present
It's always difficult to write the history of the present. However, if you were attempt to look at television today through the lenses used in this course, how would you describe it? Take one example of a current trend in television and analyze it.
With the near religious fandom that shows like "Breaking Bad", "Game of Thrones", and "The Walking Dead" have amassed, television today seems to be the era of the scripted drama. As I wrote about in my research paper, four months into 2013, there were already nearly as many scripted dramas as the whole of 2007. Although there is a big temporal gap, with an increasingly number of second-screen experiences and outlets through which the shows can be viewed, for scripted dramas, fandom has grown to be similar to cult television. Audiences are consumed by these cinematic-like universes. Recognizing this trend, separate from the television screen, content services online have also begun to write original scripted dramas in hopes of making their place in the market. In contrast to this wave of popularity, there is also a huge growth in television shows that directly oppose these formats. In direct parody of conventional and popular formats, there is now a larger number of "anti" shows on channels like Cartoon Network and IFC. The intent of these programs, like "The Eric Andre Show", "Infomercials", "Comedy Bang Bang" and "Check it Out! With Steve Brule," are more self-aware and critical than would have been thought. And so, while this is undoubtedly the age of scripted dramas, shows that directly oppose this format, validate its popularity and confirm that it can be considered this era's type of television.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest trends recently in the television industry is the comeback of the anthology drama. Though in different form than classic series like "The Twilight Zone," the season-long anthology is one of the most popular genres today with hits such as "American Horror Story," "True Detective" and "Fargo" contributing to its rise. With the dramatic increase in programming, the battle for audience attention has become incredibly difficult. The anthology drama affords networks the opportunity to reboot itself at the end of each season, creating the buzz and spectacle that a first season series attains even leading into its fourth, fifth or sixth season. The constant redevelopment also lends itself to increased fan engagement, events, cast announcements and most importantly, new merchandise with each season. The anthology drama--in this age of television--encourages a "cult" nature, to be viewed and engaged with on multiple screens, different texts and different mediums.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting trends in media right now is the line becoming blurred between television and independent online content.
ReplyDeleteTraditional television programming has begun to appropriate web content. Shows like The league, SNL, Portlandia, or Key and Peele have begun to introduce “web clip” like comedy. Lower production value is accepted as a style choice, and isolated one to three minute gags are more and more common.
On the other side of this, web content producers have begun to appropriate more traditional television. When popular web content first appeared, most videos tented to be candid, unedited shorts, which then evolved into edited, acted out shorts (like The Landlord). Even still the production value was very low and each clip was a singular entity. Now, content producers are stepping up their game, producing whole series’ on-line, with increasing production value. For example, Red vs. Blue, which started as a fun little Machinima project for a few friends, only intending to make about five short, not very polished, videos, has resulted in Roosterteeth, a multi-million dollar company with animation and live-action capabilities that equals any tradition television production company. Many other content producers like Freddy Wong, Felicia Day, or Walk off the Earth, that all started with very simple content, have grown to adapt more traditional, and higher quality productions.
One of the non-mainstream but interesting trend in Television is the changing representations of minority groups in different genres, especially the rising number of of Asian Americans on screen. In my research paper, I have discussed the assimilation effect of the Asian American actors who are fighting against the “racial segregation” on throughout the history, which is also applicable for this trend analysis.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, the situation has been much more changed, even though there are still latest stereotypical sitcom “ Fresh off the boat”,a butch of Asian characters come to the front of the camera, not because of their ethnicity but “who they are”. For example, there are less “ dragon lady” but more ordinary school girls who are born in states and just like anybody else in series; instead of making fun of the Asian accent or food like Benny Miller show in the past, some characters are playing a crucial scientific part in crime shows or fictions; and many details are trying to resolve the white stereotypical thoughts about Asian countries, thus attracting more investment as well as viewing in broader international markets.
It is still difficult to value whether the representation become better or worse, but the trend is clear that in the future, the Asian American would not alway be the group who have left behind by the industry.
Television’s move to the internet has been quick and has profoundly changed the way we view media. Netflix, a powerhouse in online streaming has begun to air their own original television shows. What’s particularly interesting about this is shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and it’s newest original show, Marco Polo, are released in its entirety for our viewing pleasure. There’s no more waiting every week to see what new situations our favorite characters get out of. We can now snuggle under our covers, grab some popcorn, turn on our computers, gaming devices, etc in the comfort of our homes, and power-watch/binge-watch our favorite shows. I’m curious as to why Netflix chose this model (though I’m not complaining) to stream their television shows. One answer could be our increasing need for content. With endless ways to find new content to watch it isn’t surprising that Netflix would cater to the ravenous consumption viewers demand.
ReplyDeleteHBO, which could only be accessed if you paid for premium cable services, is changing with the times as well. Now allowing individuals to purchase plans to stream HBO content, without cable, is a major win for people who do not want to buy cable. It’s also for people who do not watch a physical television anymore but get their content through other devices.
I’m very interested to see where we go from here.
“Prior recognition” as described by Lynda Obst in her address to the UMich SAC department (3/13/2014) has become a major trend in television over the past few years. Prior recognition is a marketing and production technique that utilizes characters or worlds audiences are already familiar with and invested in to make new content more appealing to audiences. This can be seen in the growing number of adaptations, remakes, and spinoff shows that have been developed over the past few years. Shows like Elementary, Dallas, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are part of a larger trend in television and film in which the largest shows and films are those which use characters that the audience already know such as Sherlock Holmes, the families from the original Dallas, and Agent Coulson (from Marvel Cinematic Universe fame). However, prior recognition doesn’t affect any genre as much as does the superhero drama. These shows attempt to appeal to young people through the use of comic book characters. Shows such as Arrow, The Flash, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. rely upon a fanbase of people who already know and like Green Arrow, the Flash, and Agent Coulson. This reliance upon a prior knowledge of the characters or worlds portrayed in the shows is, however, a worrying trend; there is a limit to how long people will stand to watch television shows and films with the same content rehashed time and time again. Similar to the collapse of the recognizable superhero in the early to mid 2000’s following the saturation of the market with shows like Smallville, Birds of Prey, Black Scorpion, and The Tick and films about virtually every Marvel and DC Comics property film studios could get the rights to such as Spiderman, the fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Jonah Hex, and many others. This collapse, like many other marketing bubbles, is doomed to failure. Studios relying upon the seemingly continuous success and longevity of the genre are not taking into account the inevitability of its collapse in the year 2016 or perhaps sooner, when the audience tires of watching the same men fight the same villains on the big and small screen. Prior recognition also has another glaring pitfall. The comic book industry is saturated with white, male protagonists. In recent years this has been undergoing some changes as artists in the industry have tried to combat this problem. However, the issue remains that due to the overwhelming longevity of white men as protagonists, television shows and films about Captain America, Spiderman, Thor, the Flash, etc do not reflect the new wearers of the masks, young men of color and women, the actors portraying these superheroes remain overwhelmingly white men in their early 30s. Essentially, the concept of prior recognition, while good for the bottom line in pulling in audiences domestically and across the globe fails to provide a long-term serviceable and stable genre of programming but a short term burst of white driven dramas which, when they fail, will toll the death knell for the possible person of color and women lead television shows and films about superheros. Prior recognition is not a healthy method of creating an audience for the superhero genre. It is poisoning the chances of women and people of color in the audience of gaining any sort of meaningful representation in the genre before it collapses, thus dooming them to wait another ten years for the next round of white, male superheroes to take over the screen once again.
ReplyDeleteI would like to examine the trend of the resurgence of the noir genre on television. Starting with true detective, on HBO last season, the detective show is once again on the rise. with huge names booked for next season, movie star Vince Vaughn to headline the show, the style of show is definitely on the rise. Fargo, a detective based mini series also aired last season with tremendous success. it also follows the noir structure that true detective is based on. Fox, is coming out with a detective show this upcoming season based on the success of true detective.
ReplyDeleteWhere does this trend come from? I think from the darkness of the human mind. these new style of detective shows lets us explore the dark mind of a criminal. For some, this is fascinating. the complex narrative worlds inside of these shows offers an escape from normalcy and into the life of a high stakes detective.