How TV has changed....

i don't think we're at the golden age yet, netflix and the others are only just gearing up and commissioning many series, think it's only going to get better for many years to come.
both in number, quality of programs and quality of image/streaming.
and with bbc saying they want their back catalogue online, even back catalogues can and probably will improve a lot.
 
Steampunk said:
Most TV isn't about making good shows, it's about making something enough people will watch in order to sell adverts in the breaks and make money.
Click to expand...

I dont believe this is true anymore (and really hasnt been for a few years)

Back in the 80's /90's (and before) - this is completely true, but this kind of "sale" has fallen by the wayside.

Its all licencing (from Sky and other broadcasters) , selling physical boxsets / downloads, and other means.Not to mention Netflix and Amazon who dont have ads at all and are still coming out with quality tv programs, and NowTV also doesnt whether its an original sky program or bought from HBO or whoever else

a lot of it is down to subscription payments - very little on terrestrial tv apart from reality tv and repeats (which is the traditional habitat of ads)


If England could go without repeats and constant variety of reality **** Im sure we could still get away with under 10 channels - but there is so much crud on, there must be over a hundred by now hahaha
 
Last edited:
[TFU] Thegoon84;30392377 said:
Peaky Blinders yes.... The period drama stuff can only be done by the British..... Such as The Tudor's, amazing.

The rest.... Meh, not for me at all!
Click to expand...

Its down to the US enormous budgets they have for shows, we simply can't compete. Any decent shows/actors we do have get snapped up by them.
 
Not watched normal TV for well over 3 years now on anything that resemble a regular basis. Whenever I catch glimpses here and there I always think I being Punk'd or watching some sort of trolling show. Pure, utter and complete trash.

On the other hand, the rise of high production TV shows is magnificent and between the girlfriend and I, we done about 12 shows last year. Most of them multi-season shows such as Breaking Bad, The Wire and quite a few more.

Hope it continues like this.
 
I think we have it great right now, don't get me wrong, there are moments while watching the west wing or the wire, i think to myself there's nothing as good as this on TV now.

But then we have gems like stranger things, house of cards and the night of. What disappoints me most is the shows we've had over the last 10 years which have been great that have been cancelled to "poor viewing figures". These shows would thrive on the nexflix / amazon model.

I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a live TV show, on demand services have changed everything for me.
 
lego said:
I think we have it great right now, don't get me wrong, there are moments while watching the west wing or the wire, i think to myself there's nothing as good as this on TV now.

But then we have gems like stranger things, house of cards and the night of. What disappoints me most is the shows we've had over the last 10 years which have been great that have been cancelled to "poor viewing figures". These shows would thrive on the nexflix / amazon model.

I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a live TV show, on demand services have changed everything for me.
Click to expand...

You know House of Cards isnt original , right?

Its a very good show, but its still a re-imaging of something done in the 80's (with British politics at its core).
 
I tell you what I'm glad about, the evolution of tech so that we can get away from sitting in front of 5 minute advert eye rape. I'm so happy I can pay seven quid to remove it altogether. Also gone are the days of watching the least crap thing on TV.
 
FrankJH said:
You know House of Cards isnt original , right?

Its a very good show, but its still a re-imaging of something done in the 80's (with British politics at its core).
Click to expand...

A 52 episode series (so far) based on a 4 episode mini series, sure it used the original as it's basis but the new series has positively surpassed it in every way.

Aside from the name, very few people would watch the original and think the new version was derived from it.
 
JunglistE said:
See, I loved Breaking Bad. So much I've watched the entire series 3 times now but I think it is so overrated it's unreal.

Maybe overrated is a bit of a exaggeration and I haven't started the Sopranos yet (annoyingly I signed up to Sky Now thinking it would have the box set as they have HBO things but had no joy) so I'm not sure how it compares to that but for me Breaking Bad is a very distant 2nd to The Wire.
Click to expand...

The Sopranos is better than both.

Banshee was my TV show of the yr (last yr)

I got rid of the TV license, its really not worth the money.
 
For me Sopranos wasn't as good as everyone had said. I did miss it once I'd finished, but for me it's not on the level of Breaking Bad.

I was recommended Banshee last year too. I've watched the first two seasons and really enjoy it. It's a little... cheesy at times though.
 
Banshee is a pure guilty pleasure TV show, it's equally brilliant and awful at the same time.

Worth watching just for Lily Simmons tbh.
 
I think TV series also became so popular because they can explore story lines and characters so much better with that much time, over a capped 2 hour film. Imagine trying to get some of the big TV series that are at 5+ series into a two hour film. Impossible. It actually kind of makes films seem lackluster now in comparison. I can't remember seeing a film in the last decade that I watched and thought...wow...perfection. I always feel like they could have done something better, or spent more time on XYZ etc.

TV series actually take it to the extreme now, of having so much time to explore detail, that they are in danger of becoming too dull, being dragged out due to popularity and presumably money. There are many episodes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead that I've had to really motivate myself to carry on sticking with.

In terms of how we watch TV now. I've almost become incapable of tolerating live TV (unless sport or BBC) due to adverts. I watched something the other day on one of the Discovery channels I have in my package, and a hour program had 6 x 5min 30sec ad breaks. That's only 27 minutes of the actual program, which assumes you want to see the same bits repeated again and again. i.e. They show you "what's coming up" and then after another 5minutes and 30 seconds, you get to watch that actual section having had it spoilt for you already. Utter dross.

The quality of productions I think has gone down on average if you look at the utter amount of rubbish on TV, as it drowns out the ground breaking new/good/quality stuff.

I mean look at kids TV. The stuff kids have on these days is utterly awful compared to kids TV of the 80s and 90s in my opinion. I guess there is so much choice, it's become a quantity thing, with a distinct lack of quality. I guess it's about queuing up all the good stuff and watching as and when you can. That's what we try to do.

Some of the reality TV stuff that is on I find unbelievable that people watch and enjoy it. Stuff like Big Brother and Celebrity Get me out of here. Also the mind numbing soap operas like Eastenders and Cori with their stupid predictable and unrealistic story lines. If only they got out of the habit and explored other things. I think of things like that Jeremy Kyle and it just makes me cringe that people obviously want to watch that still and enjoy it. Wow.
 
if you liked westworld you should watch deadwood that aired back in 2004 so was made before then. so over 13 years ago so I don't know where this arbitrary 8 year figure comes from tbh.

some tv has always been good and some bad and some in the middle.

it's always been that way. tv also has always been different too to suit different tastes.

it's just that with modern tech, bigger subscriptions (revenue) they can now do a lot more.

there is still a lot of crap on tv like arrow, eastenders, etc.
 
trentlad said:
I tell you what I'm glad about, the evolution of tech so that we can get away from sitting in front of 5 minute advert eye rape. I'm so happy I can pay seven quid to remove it altogether. Also gone are the days of watching the least crap thing on TV.
Click to expand...

Don't get too comfortable, one of the streaming services will win the war, be it Netflix or Amazon, and then a year or two later, adverts will start creeping back in, not mid-episode, but between episodes, or on the landing pages...advertisers will need to waste money somewhere.

Psycho Sonny said:
if you liked westworld you should watch deadwood that aired back in 2004 so was made before then. so over 13 years ago so I don't know where this arbitrary 8 year figure comes from tbh.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I had forgotten about Deadwood, what a great show, I will be rewatching that soon!! :)
 
AndyCr15 said:
Erm? What? Like TV stations perhaps? When will they collapse to just one?
Click to expand...

Amazon is built to destroy other companies. They don't sell for profit but for expansion. When you have that type of mindset and aggressive tactics companies built for profit don't stand a chance.

All amazon need to do is buy more exclusive content. People will soon switch from one to the other. Netflix revenues suffer which means they lose more content as they cannot afford it and then slowly die out.

It is a huge possibility IMO, however competition is healthy for pricing so I hope Netflix sticks around however I don't see any other companies entering that market standing a chance against them now they are established and amazon is growing very fast.
 
I don't think it will happen. Yes, Amazon have been known to sell things at a loss, to put competition out of business, some Nappy company for example I think. But... Amazon cannot sell 'House of Cards' or 'Orange is the New Black' or 'Narcos' so I don't think it's a straight comparison.

It's more like NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox etc. There's plenty of room for them all and we all benefit from them all vying for our viewing time.
 
FrankJH said:
You know House of Cards isnt original , right?

Its a very good show, but its still a re-imaging of something done in the 80's (with British politics at its core).
Click to expand...

I don't think i used the word original, I just said it it was a gem. As has already been stated it was base on a UK show, which as a result of the remake, I watched.

You don't have to create something original for it to be better, you can simply make something better than the original.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom