I would hazard a guess that thanks to the rather bitterly cold weather we have been experiencing lately, plenty of us have spent many a night in, heaters a-blazing, huddled in front of our TV.
Some of the biggest names on the silver screen have happily made their mark on TV productions – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks served as executive producers of HBO series Band of Brothers and The Pacific- Paula Fleri-Soler
Which is not a bad thing because television has come of age. And whereas it never quite delivered on the threat it posed to cinema on its inception, the quality of TV programming has improved so exponentially of late – thanks to the sheer excellence of the writing, improved production budgets and the gravitating of big screen stars to the small screen – that it is certainly giving its big screen brother a run for its money.
While there is still nothing quite like watching a great film unfold on the big screen, we cannot deny the advantage TV shows have over the average film, mainly the luxury of numerous episodes in which to build a story’s mythology and its protagonists’ backgrounds. This gives us ample time to fall in love with characters, loathe others, bite our fingernails at season finale cliff-hangers, weep with delight at the good stuff, or chuck the remote at the TV when things do not quite pan out as we want them to (at least I do).
The early 1990s heralded a shift in the nature of TV shows. For me it started with The X-Files, which debuted in 1993 and grew to become one of American network Fox’s lasting successes. It is considered a defining show of its era where series creator and head writer Chris Carter had full control and protagonists David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson became international stars.
The X-Files paved the way for the production of more hip, edgy and intricate shows. Gone were the days of Mom, Dad and Apple Pie of sitcom-land or the clean-cut – and with hindsight rather anodyne – heroics of Starsky and Hutch and Charlie’s Angels.
TV executives were now ready to flex their creative muscles and be more daring in terms of storylines and more complex lead characters. Fox’s main competitors – the ABC, CBS and NBC networks – pulled up their sleeves and invested heavily in the production of shows which broke ratings records and quickly gained millions of fans.
As the new millennium approached, shows like The West Wing, which recounted the day-to-day goings on in the White House of fictional president Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) earned critical and commercial accolades. Similarly to The X-Files, the success lay in the show’s creator and main writer Aaron Sorkin. Sharp, funny and topical, Sorkin made politics widely interesting and accessible.
Another popular TV writer is Joss Whedon, who initially saw his original script Buffy the Vampire Slayer mangled beyond recognition when it was made into a humdrum fantasy film in 1991. Whedon was given the chance to revisit his baby when he turned it into one of the most popular cult TV shows of all time. It’s a show which, despite having ended in 2003, continues to find new generations of fans.
The turn of the century brought forth myriad shows of differing genres, which built sizeable audiences and constantly battled each other for top spots in the ratings, both in the States and overseas.
ABC’s Lost equalled The X-Files in its labyrinthine plot which kept viewers guessing throughout its run. However, it was not just fantasy and genre shows which kept the ball rolling as the decades-old medical drama and police procedural staples remain successful to this day – vide the long-running Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), House (Fox), the CSI franchise (CBS) and the Law and Order franchise (NBC). Their longevity can be attributed to the popularity of their respective ensemble casts, and the consistently classy writing – it still amazes me that a 13th-season episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is as hard-hitting as its earlier stuff.
The late 1990s also presented a huge challenge to the main networks with the evolution of premium television cable channels such as HBO, Showtime and AMC. Unlike the national networks, these are available to viewers on subscription, and have over the past few years offered programming which pushes the envelope in terms of sex, violence and other previously taboo subjects, challenging and enticing viewers with their gritty content.
Between them and similar channels, they have created some of the most talked-about shows of the last decade and a half – and elevated their creators to star status.
To name but a few, there is David Chase’s The Sopranos, David Simon’s The Wire, Terence Winter’s Boardwalk Empire, and David Benioff and D. B. Weiss’s adaptation of George RR Martin’s fantasy novel Game of Thrones – all these have been remarkably successful series for HBO. Showtime’s serial killer drama Dexter, developed by James Manos Jr, and the comedy Weeds, by Jenji Kohan, about a suburban housewife who makes a living selling marijuana, boast millions of fans, while AMC has put itself on the map with the sublime Mad Men, about a New York ad agency in the 1960s, created by Matthew Weiner.
Adding to the considerable attraction of these shows are the substantial budgets which allow the productions to leave the confines of a studio and film on location (such as Game of Thrones filming in Malta) and spend more on intricate sets and costumes, giving many of these shows the gloss and epic scope of cinematic offerings.
More money also means bigger stars. No longer is it considered a step down for movie stars to work in TV. Gone are the days when George Clooney is celebrated for breaking away from TV to forge a career in cinema. Nowadays, some of the biggest names on the silver screen have happily made their mark on TV productions – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks served as executive producers of HBO series Band of Brothers and The Pacific, while the first episode of Boardwalk Empire was directed by Martin Scorsese. Look closely and you will also note many big name stars in various TV cast lists.
Most recently, Claire Danes – the little blonde naïf protagonist of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet – is earning kudos for her role as tough-as-nails bipolar disorder sufferer and CIA operative Carrie Mathison in Showtime’s Homeland, while this year’s Best Actress Oscar nominee Glenn Close played formidable lawyer Patty Hewes in five seasons of the acclaimed drama Damages.
Eagle-eyed readers will note I have not yet crossed the Atlantic to the UK – also purveyor of brilliant TV – but that would need its own space. Suffice it to say, however, that just a mention of Downton Abbey and the new, modern-day version of Sherlock Holmes is enough to underscore their already incredible reputations in their native UK and across the globe.
The choice is vast, the quality of its content superior, and the production values are sky-high – no wonder there’s no entertainment like home entertainment.