Every fall brings an onslaught of new TV shows, and now every other season of the year. As another fall approaches, The New York Times TV critics James Poniewozik and Margaret Lyons explore what “fall TV” means in the streaming age, and what new series they’re most looking forward to. We discussed the returning series.
James Poniewozik Remember Fall TV? that’s right!
I’m old enough to remember there was a fall TV season, not just a fall TV season. Towards the end of summer, the big networks rolled out flashy primetime TV preview specials that smelled fresh and promising of new school supplies. My Pop Culture Christmas was a Saturday morning preview special. Christy Macnicol Also captain cool and the kongs Introducing the latest junk food for preteen eyeballs.
So what is autumn?Big premieres like HBO this year “Dragon House” When “Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power” At Amazon, it lands before Labor Day. I’m not talking about the eternal “death of broadcast television” here — it still exists and even has some decent shows — a general shift in how and when people watch new TV In the streaming age, premier seasons (all year long, really) are less about what to watch right away and more about adding to your to-do list of shows you end up watching.
I mean, it still feels like autumn, with the imprinted sidereal rhythm Sid and Marty CroftBut when fall falls in the forest of year-round content, does it sound?
Margaret Lyons In addition to scheduling throughout the year and an overall increase in the number of new shows each year, new series are not only competing with each other, but across the streaming catalog. The buffet has gotten bigger and more elaborate, but the kitchen is also open, stocked in the pantry, and knows how to cook.
Can I “lose” “Falling TV” and lose something? Above), the schedule is good all year round! We want you to be delighted with the shows that come out the week between Christmas and New Years Day. I want strong summer clothes for hot and humid nights. Buzz has no seasons, and the pervasiveness of the schedule allows smaller shows that might have been buried during the high season to break through during the fallow season.
Reboot culture brought us the end of endings. I wonder if streaming and year-round scheduling will contribute to the end of the beginning.
Poniewozik Yes chef! (Sorry. Kitchen metaphor = essential “bear” reference. I don’t make rules. )
The network’s traditional approach of premiering almost all of its work on TV the week after the Emmys hasn’t been very good for TV viewers or TV producers either. Many materials at once! A lot of cancellations! And a vast period of nothing. TV is always there now. But there. teeth. everytime. tv set. If there’s one thing I miss, it’s the rare seasonal sugar rush “My show is back!”
Yet I still feel it a little. “Abbott Elementary School” — a straight-up, joke-filled broadcast sitcom that makes plenty of episodes a year and is actually good — is returning to ABC in September, just as the drafters of the Constitution intended. I’m glad there are cable and streaming shows of all lengths and styles (I saw “The Bear” again).
What are you looking forward to? Or is “forward” meaningless in the eternal present of streaming?
lions I think “Abbott Elementary” is a good example of an obscure beginning: ABC aired previews of “Abbott Elementary” in December, after which the episode was made available on Hulu, followed by a rerun of the pilot in January. I was. on Monday before the show moved to the Tuesday time slot for the rest of its run. Now there’s a naturally fancier rollout, from sleeper hits to crown jewels. A reintroduction of sorts.
In terms of fun, I’m counting the days when Apple TV+ is back. “Mythic Quest” IFC’s “Shaman Showcase” When “Los Espookies” on HBO.final season of “Atlanta” FX and “Good Fight” Paramount+ is close.
Also, I’m wondering if I’m about to experience the vampire moment again. “Ann Rice Interview with the Vampire” Adaptation of the series on AMC and on Showtime “Put in the right people” Both are coming this fall. And I’m curious that Susan Sarandon and Hilary Swank are both starring in the network drama. “monarch” and ABC’s “Alaska Daily” Respectively). My guess is that our tastes overlap quite a bit here.
Poniewozik Indeed, “Atlanta” and “The Good Fight” are two of the shows I’m most looking forward to this season. Both capture the unreality of life in America for the past six years or so in very different ways.
wants “white lotus” On HBO, it has the potential to be just as strong as its ongoing anthology, when it thought it would be a one-off, limited series. And as a former ’80s fantasy geek, I at least… strange About the Disney+ series version “willow.” Ron Howard’s film, which released in theaters in 1988, wasn’t the blockbuster the producers hoped it would be. “Reserved dog”.) Now that fantasy has become as ubiquitous a genre as policeman shows, maybe the time has finally come.
As always, I just want to laugh too. So I agree about “Shaman’s Showcase” — welcome back, it’s been too long!
lions Yes, “willow” is also high on my “hmm” list. Is this the title people have been craving? perhaps!
Another thing I’m wondering is if the fall season’s waning dominance is part of the general lack of standardization in television. How many episodes are there in a “season”? How long does the show run between seasons? How many seasons are considered a good run? Are there? What are the rules?
Poniewozik Things were simpler when the rule was “Make TV from September to May and keep doing it until ratings drop”. Better be. In fact, TVs no longer always know what size they should be.
Some unseen standards committee recently decided that the optimal length of a streaming series is 8-10 episodes. Often yes! (I was one of those critics who was praising British television for creating two six-episode filler-free seasons and calling it a day.) Sometimes I feel that there isI love Jason Katims “As we see” It had eight episodes on Amazon, but felt like it was once a 22-episode Jason Katim drama on NBC.
On the side of not always having more, we’re approaching the AMC finale this fall. “the walking dead,” This started in the first Obama administration when Netflix was the place to watch old movies. I don’t know how many times I’ll see another marathon like this.
lions And of course, “The Walking Dead” never actually dies. Now, he already has two spin-offs, with a few more in the works.
I doubt we’ll see another show with such ratings success. But I think long-running series are a feature of current networks and cables. In many cases Show forever. “The Simpsons” Entering the 34th season, “Law and Order: SVU” 24th, “NCIS” 20th “Grey’s Anatomy” on the 19th. “challenge” Debuted in 1998 and recently renewed for the 38th and 39th seasons.
“South Park” It’s the 25th season. “Bob’s Hamburger” Entering the 13th day, “The Goldberg Family” Tenth of them. “Keep your enthusiasm down” has been broadcast intermittently since 2000.It’s always sunny in Philadelphia Started in 2005. “The Real Housewives of Orange County” Beginning in 2006, “Diner, Drive-In, Dive” These are all still mainstays of prime time!
Streaming platforms haven’t been around long enough to create truly long-running shows, but I doubt their models were designed to produce or support them. Will ‘Love Is Blind’ follow the ‘Bachelor’/’Bachelorette’ model and outlive all of us? “Stranger Things” It’s hard to imagine the show going on for 10 seasons.
Poniewozik i don’t know, the last one “Stranger Things” episode I’ve acknowledged Felt 10 seasons long.
But yeah, there’s a difference between your deathless animated sitcom, procedure, and game/reality show – I’m there “Survivor” Season 43 — A highly serialized show that began to trend more toward short programs and one-season limited series. Maybe “LOTR” may revive the long-term serialization. Elves are immortal!
And whatever Disney’s Marvel and “Star Wars” shows are. But these are also interconnected, multi-platform, decades-long intellectual property blob chapters that are chaotic and static.You know what to expect from a brand and that’s what they give you.I hope these mega his franchises are more free to be weird and experimental on TV but now “Wonder Vision” seems like an exception.
Film critics wonder if movies in the streaming age will become television. Perhaps — at least when it comes to recycling big-ticket IP — TV is becoming cinema.