As the end of 2024 approaches and 2005 threatens to become twenty years ago,it’s interesting to look back on the bad, the good, and the confusing evolution of how TV shows are watched, produced, and remembered.Twenty years ago,The Sopranoswas still on the air, and heavyweight, long-running series likeGrey’s AnatomyandSupernaturalwere about to premiere. While there are notable projects like thebest Prime Video shows of 2024and the other offerings from streamers and networks alike, they’re unrecognizable from the way television was created just a few years ago.
Of course, there has always been just as much terrible TV out there as there has been boundary-pushing content, but the way that TV exists today feels more and more like it’s not art anymore; it’s just profit. Thebest TV shows of the past 20 yearsbecame popular enough to sustain themselves almost against all odds. None of this is to say that there aren’t great shows or that some changes that have come to the television landscape aren’t positive. However,there’s a disconnect between what audiences are asking for and what’s being funded by production companies.
10Longer Gaps Between TV Seasons
The wait for the next installment of a beloved show has increased
When looking at many of the most popular but more time-consuming projects of the past few years, most have seen larger gaps between seasons than ever before. Much of this issue can be attributed to the model of the streaming service, which has fundamentally changed TV. The traditional cable model used the year-long television cycle. This meant there were usually only a few months between seasons, with a year-long hiatus being an unexpected development. However, the recent gap between seasons ofthe beloved Apple TV+ showSeveranceexemplifies the modern problems of these gaps lengthening.
While the quality of content can sometimes be improved when creators spend more time with the project, this isn’t always the case.
Most audiences will need aSeveranceseason 1 recap to rememberall the story details that will be relevant in the long-awaited second season. There are some extenuating circumstances, as the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have played a role in the recent breaks between seasons. However, this has been a growing complaint for audiences for some time now. While the quality of content can sometimes be improved when creators spend more time with the project, this isn’t always the case. Instead,viewers are more likely to forget about these series, and streamers become more likely to drop them.
9Most TV Shows Have Shorter Seasons Than 20 Years Ago
Great shows are cut down from the traditional 22-episode season to sometimes less than 10
There are still holdouts on network TV that get a full order of episodes every year, but almost no streaming or premium cable TV show gets the same treatment. This has eliminated filler episodes that older TV shows are famous for, as the writers have to streamline the season-long arc, getting straight to the point. However, this meansaudiences don’t get to spend as much time with the series,and both story and character development are weaker because of this. The creators are hurt by having their jobs cut short, and audiences miss out on the content they’re paying for.
English Teacher, a great example of how contemporary sensibilities can be translated into the sitcom format, has had a great response from critics and audiences. However,the series had just eight episodes for the entire first season.When an hour-long drama has around ten episodes, this is slightly more understandable, but now even thirty-minute comedies are cut short. Much of what this boils down to is a risk on the part of the network, as more episodes are a bigger investment, but it’s quickly forgotten how much audiences appreciate having more episodes to get to know the characters.
8Subscribing To Multiple Streaming Services Gets Expensive
The appeal of streaming services is starting to wane
Though the success and profitability of the streaming format have ebbed and flowed since it exploded onto the television scene, the past few years have seen streaming coming closer to mimicking cable. Each service has at least one heavy-hitter original series that maintains its user base, and many utilize a large backlog of older content to appeal to viewers. However,the cost of subscribing to multiple services at once is climbing,with streamers raising their prices and cracking down on password sharing.
Another Streaming Service Using Ads Continues A Worrying Trend (& Ignores The Point Of Cutting Cable)
As another streaming service introduces ads, a troubling trend continues and proves that the point of cutting cable is being blatantly ignored.
Additionally, one of the biggest draws of streaming was the lack of ads and immediacy of the content, as the development of streamers helped to create and cement the concept of binging. However,services have started reintroducing ads and including higher paywalls for certain contentor limited ad breaks. This is a clear signal that the profitability of streaming is not what many companies might have predicted ten years ago. At this point, subscribing to every streaming service is almost indistinguishable from the original cable format.
7TV Shows Are Canceled More Quickly
Too many strong shows are canceled after only one season
A series needs more than one season to prove itself, but with modern content,if a show isn’t explosively popular after just a few episodes, it disappears forever.The manyclassic TV shows that were almost canceled after one seasondemonstrate that series need time to find their footing and learn from their mistakes before producers give up on them. Even shows that have great Rotten Tomatoes scores and have captured audience attention are still at risk. For example,cancelingMy Lady Janewas a mistake for Amazonand demonstrates how disposable original content is to streaming services.
6Streaming Services & Networks Prioritize Franchises
This mirrors a similar issue that has been affecting filmmaking
Franchises aren’t a new invention of the past twenty years, but movie universes and larger franchise work have spread into the television sphere with a vengeance.Disney has amassed a huge collection of franchises within its streaming content,with Marvel,Star Wars, and its own original content all available on Disney+. This has resulted in an explosion of TV shows within these universes, many of which are highly anticipated, only to be quickly forgotten about when a new series airs. They’re beloved universes for a reason, but newer content is typically not afforded the same opportunities.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a franchise, as plenty of the best TV shows of the past several years are part of a larger whole.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a franchise, as plenty of the best TV shows of the past several years are part of a larger whole. However, this begins to be a problem when fewer resources and opportunities are afforded to original content because there isn’t a built-in audience base to ensure success. Additionally,building a franchise around successful IPs can quickly exhaust the storyand make audiences grow tired of the universe. Too much of a strong show can be just as bad as not enough of it.
5Reboots, Remakes, & Spinoffs Fail To Meet Audience Expectations
They struggle to live up to the success of the original show
It’s unlikely that the popularity of reboots and remakes will be ending anytime soon, and this isn’t necessarily negative. There are some genuinely great spinoffs, sequels, and more continuations of original works that go even further than the first iteration of the story. However, when a series rests on its laurels and expects the popularity of the original show to carry its success, this sparks significant disappointment.There should be strong justification for bringing back a seriesand adding to it within the world of the story. Unfortunately, since television is a business, money is typically the primary motivator.
There’s no question that reboots can be fun and that the continuation of a TV universe will likely appeal to a large array of audiences. However,the largest pitfall of these spinoffs and remakes is that they will always fail to please everyone.Fans have high expectations for reboots of beloved stories. They should, considering how strong an original series must be to warrant being remade, but it’s impossible to please everyone. Lore will be changed, characters will be altered, and the magic of the original show is too often a shadow of itself when translated into a remake.
4Popular TV Shows Are Forced To Go On Well Past Their Expiration Date
Just because a series is making money, doesn’t mean it should last forever
There are a surprisingly high number of TV shows still on the air today, which were almost twenty years ago.Grey’s Anatomyis in the middle of its twenty-first season, and theLaw & Ordershows have been going strong since the late 1990s. In some ways, this is an impressive feat,typically only achieved by TV shows that are more episodic in nature.However, just because a show has a formula that suits a lengthy run and a seemingly unlimited number of storylines doesn’t mean that the quality of the content will remain consistent for multiple decades.
7 Ongoing TV Shows That Peaked Way Too Long Ago
Peaking too early is a frequent problem for many TV shows, but peaking means that a series might get canceled before it hits its stride.
While it can be fun and comforting to return to series that have been airing for many years, it’s also disappointing to look back on their peak and see how much the plots and characters have declined. One ofthe most impressive things a TV show can do is end before it’s grown stale.Achieving a tight run is the mark of a great TV show. Additionally, after a certain point, it’s time for a series to recognize that it’s run its course and make way for a new show to establish itself as a modern classic.
3Animated Television Is Suffering More Than Ever Before
Children’s animated content is disproportionately affected
The current era of adult animation is very exciting, with standout projects likeInvincibleandThe Legend of Vox Machinaturning out high-quality visuals and storytelling. However,not every animated series is lucky enough to be a smash,and animation is often one of the most vulnerable niches of television when it comes to cutting costs. Animation is expensive and time-consuming, and it’s been shocking to see how many shows aren’t just canceled but taken off streaming services altogether, impossible to find and view today.
Recently,many Cartoon Network shows have been removed from Max(viaMovieWeb). While it’s normal for shows to move to different streaming services, some have become increasingly difficult to find. Additionally, memorable recent animated TV series have also been cut short because they’re not prioritized by their production companies. The boundary-pushing show,The Owl House, can still be viewed but was canceled too soon, ending with just a few special episodes in season 3. Even as animation expands beyond content aimed at younger audiences, this shouldn’t mean the end of great children’s programming.
2The Writing & Acting Industries Are Struggling
This is a driving force behind inconsistent writing and performances on television
In the past twenty years, the WGA has gone on strike twice,with SAG-AFTRA joining them just this past year, and attention has been drawn to how creative industries are suffering in general. Many of the overarching problems with television in the 21st century have compounded to make writing, creating, and acting for TV more difficult than ever before. Factors like shorter seasons, bigger gaps between seasons, and the scarcity of resources make it harder for new voices to emerge and even more challenging for them to stick around and have a chance to grow.
When TV writers and performers are supported and able to exercise their creative visions, it promotes better content, which helps everyone.
In many cases, things have not improved for the industry since the strike concluded,as fewer projects are being made, leaving more creatives out of work, driving them to leave the field (viaVariety). When film and television production is made cyclical, and the same people are being tapped as the creative voices behind work, this makes the whole of television suffer. When TV writers and performers are supported and able to exercise their creative visions, it promotes better content, which helps everyone. Audiences are more satisfied and interested in what they are watching, and everybody wins.
1The Era Of Prestige TV Is Over
This can be looked at both positively and negatively
There’s some argument over what constitutes prestige television and whether the era of peak TV that saw the production of so many series that earned this title is really over.Prestige TV rose to prominence when premium cable channels like HBO, Showtime, and more were becoming more popular and could use more graphic depictions of sex, violence, and explicit language than their basic cable counterparts. Prestige TV was far from perfect, but it did make producers more eager to green-light projects more risky and subversive than before. For the last 20 years, TV has been taken more seriously than ever.
Few TV series are as synonymous with prestige TV asThe Sopranos,a show that the most popular dramas of the contemporary era model themselves off. However, this makes it more difficult for new series to distinguish themselves if they’re attempting to be a weaker copy of something that’s already been done. It’s sad to say goodbye to a beloved era of television, but this should be treated as an opportunity, not a reason to mourn. The next twenty years of TV don’t have to be another steady decline if companies take a chance on something original.
