Welcome to Television Shock, where I have made it my mission to bring to light the artistic integrity of scripted television series, comedy, drama, or otherwise. Join me as I explore this art form, so often considered to be of lesser importance than others, and show the world just why it's (shocker!) not.
After six seasons and 121 episodes, Lost concluded its run on May 23rd, 2010. Created by J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber and overseen by Lindelof and producer Carlton Cuse, the island-set drama has garnered 10 Emmy Awards, 31 Emmy nominations, 1 Golden Globe Award, 6 Golden Globe Nominations, and countless other honors throughout its six years on ABC (Internet Movie Database).
Loved by audiences and critics alike, Lost has been hailed by Newsweek as "the #1 best show," and USA Today has dubbed it "the most gorgeous, audacious, expansive series on network TV." The Hollywood Reporter compliments the writing staff and the large cast, calling the series "cleverly constructed and superbly acted," while Matt Roush of TV Guide claims that "you'd be crazy not to watch." Audiences seem to agree, the series finale alone earning an impressive 13.5 million viewers according to Entertainment Weekly.
USA Today writes: "let Lost remind you of how spectacular network programming can be." Lost reminded its viewers that, in an age where cable series are beginning to take over, a major network series can be just as creative, stimulating, and thrilling. Based on both its ratings and its critical praise, it will be dearly missed.
Thank you, Lost, for an incredible, complex, and creative six years that will likely be remembered as one of the greatest television sagas of all time.
An [spoiler-filled] excerpt from Lost's series finale, courtesy of Hulu.com
Above Image: Promotional Photo, featuring the principal cast of Lost. Credit: Flickr Creative Commons. Click here for source.
Burn Notice (the principal cast of is pictured above) has been renewed for, not one, but two more seasons. True Blood has garnered numerous Emmy and Golden Globe wins and nominations. Mad Men has taken home the Outstanding Drama Series award two years in a row at both the Emmys and the Globes. Both Weeds (about to begin its sixth season) and Breaking Bad (currently in its third) are enjoying critical acclaim and awards recognition for their respective stars, Mary-Louise Parker and Bryan Cranston.
It might seem that these five series that have enjoyed great success over the last few years (Weeds being the oldest of the bunch, having premiered in 2005) do not have much in common besides critical success and fan devotion. There is one other string, however, that binds these certified hits together: the fact that not a single one of them airs on a major network (ie. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX).
It seems that cable series are starting to take over and their successful performance at awards shows in recent years makes one wonder if the major networks even have a fighting chance. Lacy Baugher of New Media Strategies sheds light on this recent shift in primetime power: "The riskiest, most interesting television remains the providence of the cable channels. USA’s character dramas are absolutely second-to-none...They often rival production values of more established network series...FX is constantly proving their “There is no box” tagline true with edgy fare such as Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck, both of which push the boundaries of “traditional” television and expected characters. And SCI FI’s beloved (and, lamentably, recently wrapped) Battlestar Galactica is probably the best TV series of the past five years, save only HBO’s incomparable police drama The Wire. Even AMC, a channel previously known for its dedication to classic film, is getting into the TV act, producing stellar original dramas like Mad Men and Breaking Bad."
Promotional Trailer for USA's Burn Notice Season 4, courtesy of Hulu.com
Cables series run relatively uninhibited by network interference and demands from the suits up above. This allows for a certain creative and artistic freedom that network television can only dream of (granted, if a network series is successful enough in the ratings, the higher-ups rarely meddle). Network creators, producers, and writers also have to accommodate for age-groups, time-slots, commercial breaks, and ratings for such aspects as violence, sex, and language. These are all facets of production that barely register as a blip on the radar of your average cable series. Cable series creators are free, not only to tell their stories how they want to tell them, but to have as much time as they want - free from commercial interruption - to do so.
Not all network series, however, seem doomed. Lost has managed to thrive creatively and artistically for six seasons on ABC under the careful guidance of show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and series co-creator J.J. Abrams (who himself has found success on numerous networks with Fringe (FOX), Alias (ABC), and Felicity (The WB). Even Baugher, despite her strong advocacy for cable series, names Lost one of her "must-see" shows (along with NBC's Friday Night Lights) while NOW Magazine recently named the island-set drama "the best show on TV right now."
Even Lost, however, despite a flourishing, complex, mythological plot brought to life by a cast that is as talented as it is diverse, has failed to receive much love from either the Emmys or the Globes recently, even after scoring the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in its first season and the same award at the Globes the following year. Network series hardly seem to be able to get a word in edgewise. According to an article in The New York Times, channels such as HBO are overpowering awards ceremonies (the 2009 Emmys alone garnered the thriving station 99 nominations). The highest amount of nominations for a major network was 67 for NBC. Lost received 5.
With Lost about to end its successful six year run, and no apparent successor in sight, the future of network television is murky, clouded in indecision and doubt as to what direction to take next.
Above image: Sharon Gless, Bruce Campbell, Jeffrey Donovan, and Gabrielle Anwar in Burn Notice promotional image; Credit: Flickr Creative Commons. Click here for source.
Ever since scripted television series have existed they have carried with them a certain stigma: TV is the lesser actor's Hollywood. Many an actor would make the leap from the small screen to the big screen, but hardly ever did movie stars "belittle" themselves by doing the opposite. Well, folks, I have news for you. TV is the new Hollywood and actors (such as Lena Olin, pictured above) are practically flocking to guest star on - or sometimes even headline - primetime series.
It is no wonder why. NOW Magazine writes: "Bored with movies? No wonder. TV shows like Lost, The Office and Mad Men offer way more compelling narratives. Have you noticed how unsophisticated most movies are these days? How the editing of romantic comedies just cuts mechanically from one mid-shot to the next, or how dramas are now built on the most basic of story concepts? There’s a reason for that. All the sophistication is on television. The last decade has seen spectacular advancement in long-form small-screen storytelling."
Hollywood's creativity is struggling and dragging the opportunity for diverse, interesting characters down with it. Scripted television series, on the other hand, are more popular than ever. According to Entertainment Weekly, this season alone gained an impressive number of viewers for the season finales of Grey's Anatomy (15.03 million), CSI (14.2), The Mentalist (15), and the series finale of Lost (13.5). With whole seasons to tell stories, scripted series are allowed rich, emotional developments that films cannot always achieve in a two-hour running time.
Five time Oscar Nominee Glenn Close has headlined (and garnered two Emmys for) FX's Damages for three seasons after a celebrated stint on the same network's The Shield. Oscar winner Anna Paquin now stars in HBO's True Blood. Jason Segel (I Love You Man) finds time to balance a popular film career with his duties as a weekly regular on How I Met Your Mother, while Jane Lynch, known for her Emmy nominated turn as deliciously wicked cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on Glee, has done the same, appearing in such recent hits as Role Models and Julie & Julia.
The 2001-2006 spy series Alias managed to draw an undeniably impressive guest roster including Sir Roger Moore, Quentin Tarantino, Terry O'Quinn, David Carradine, Ethan Hawke, Djimon Hounsou, Richard Lewis, Christian Slater, Danny Trejo, Vivica A. Fox, Isabella Rossellini, Ricky Gervais, Joel Grey, and Michael McKean. These talented actors stem from a variety of backgrounds ranging from theatre to television to film. Most notably perhaps, Oscar nominated actress Lena Olin joined the Alias cast as a regular during its second season. As Jennifer Garner's duplicitous on-screen mother, she earned critical acclaim and an Emmy nomination.
The line between movie and television star is blurring. Some series even manage, like Alias, to draw the best of both worlds and beyond, proving that television and Hollywood can co-exist peacefully and that important, praiseworthy, performances are not limited to the big screen.
Above image: Lena Olin as Irina Derevko on Alias; Credit: Alias-Media.com. Click here for source.
Forget the actors. Forget the crew. Forget the script, the costumes, and the sets. One of the most integral pieces of a television series is, believe it or not, the opening credits. It is the job of these sequences, not only to grab viewers attention, but also to set the mood of the show. Some popular shows (Lost and Grey's Anatomy come to mind) have forgone the trend altogether, opting instead to simply display the series' title in white font over a black background. Most, however, follow the traditional trend of playing a catchy song, whilst clips of the principal cast members appear alongside their names.
In recent years, however, many series have begun to push the limits of what an opening sequence can achieve. Often lengthy, these new credits sequences suggest an artfulness that is refreshing and unique. One such credits sequence can be seen on HBO's True Blood. The drama's opening credits - set to Jace Everett's Bad Things, juxtapose images of race, religion, blood, alcohol, and decay against a deep southern backdrop. The sequence was developed and shot by Digital Kitchen (whose work is also seen in Six Feet Under and Dexter).
In an interview with Creative League News, Digital Kitchen had this to say about their inspiration for the project: "One of the biggest ideas we latched onto was “the whore in the house of prayer”. This delicate balance of the sacred and profane co-existing creates powerful imagery. Editorially we collided the seething behind-the-curtains sexuality of the south into the fist pounding spirituality of Pentecostal healings to viscerally expose the conflicts we saw in the narrative of the show." It is clear that there was far more thought and creativity going on behind the scenes here than, say, a flashy segment supplemented by a song that everybody has already heard a million times and has absolutely nothing to do with the show itself (here's looking at you CSI: Miami). Dark, gritty, and more than a little unsettling, True Blood's titles completely capture the essence of the series. They are anything, but flashy.
To watch the True Blood opening credits on youtube.com click here.
Above image: Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer in a scene from True Blood; Credit: Flickr Creative Commons. Click here for source.
Fringe, an hour-long weekly drama on FOX, deals with an FBI team's investigation of unexplained phenomena such as teleportation, time-travel, and precognition. Their exploration of this fringe science (to which the series owes its title) begets chilling revelations and shocking twists, but last week the creators pulled something out of their hats that no one expected: a noir themed musical episode.
The episode, titled Brown Betty (click here to watch its clever promo), succeeds because it opts to depart from the series' usual dark and serious tone (which, don't get me wrong, I love) to have a little musical fantasy fun, featuring tunes from such diverse sources as Stevie Wonder, Traffic, Tears for Fears, Willy Wonka, and A Chorus Line. How fitting that, in an episode already crossing between multiple genres, the musical numbers do the same.
Fringe is truly living up to its tagline "New Cases. Endless Impossibilities." After all, Brown Betty's premise, for all intents and purposes, should not work, but it does, thanks to the carefully crafted story, the impeccable design and, of course, the talented cast (click here to view Anna Torv's rendition of For Once in My Life). Hopefully this will encourage more series to experiment, to test the limits (if there even are any) of mixing and matching genres. I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like Brown Betty.
Fringe stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble and airs on Thursday nights at 9pm on FOX.
Promotional trailer for Fringe, courtesy of Hulu.com
Above image: A promotional poster for Fringe; Credit: Flickr Creative Commons. Click here for source.
A commonly occurring theme in the television field, as well as the arts world in general, is that of adaptation. We live in an age of sequels, song covers, spin-offs, and remakes that are often met with disdain and heavy criticism. Leave it to Glee, however, to accomplish the unthinkable. The hybrid musical-drama-comedy series has taken a song that I despise (Christina Aguilera's Beautiful) and re-imagined it, transforming it from an annoyingly overplayed pop ballad into an emotional anthem that is incredibly honest, outstandingly performed by actress Amber Riley (eat your heart out Aguilera), and extremely poignant.
Adaptations can be bad. I mean, really bad. That being said, there is something to be said about the artistry in taking one aspect of the industry (in Glee's case a song) and gift-wrapping it for a new audience. Sometimes, as Glee has now proven, the adaptation might even be - dare I say it - better.
Behind the scenes video of Beautiful, courtesy of Hulu.com
To hear Amber Riley's moving rendition of Beautiful, click here.
Above image: Amber Riley in a Glee promotional image; Credit: Flickr Creative Commons. Click here for source.
