TV Culture

A lot of aspects of TV culture are quite different here... it takes some getting used to. In the UK, I was used to (and expected) short-run series (6 episodes) and mini dramas. Every week I looked through the TV magazine (TV and Satellite Week was our choice) to see what was new coming up that week. There was always something noteworthy starting (or occurring) on any given week. TV over here seems very different in the way series are structured. Here, there are very few network TV series starting or finishing on any given week. Most of the network TV schedules are taken up with long-running "safe" TV shows which have proven their worth (ratings) over the last few seasons. Nobody is taking any risks. This leads to a very stale, very consistent week-by-week TV schedule. One of the consequences is that for newcomers like us, it is difficult to engage with new TV shows... because there aren't many. The other consequence (for newcomers and long term Americans alike) is that the incumbent shows find it more and more difficult to retain viewers, because the shows naturally run out of plot (most TV shows obviously have a natural life in terms of plot development, and American TV seems to keep shows alive waaay beyond this). For example, Desperate Housewives would appear to now be embroiled in some kind of hostage situation. This is a show which is about housewives in American suburbia (the clue is in the name). It is not an action series. They are clearly running out of plot lines. Whoever is responsible for this show should have been focusing their energies on something new by now. We were lucky enough to arrive just as "Heroes" was starting on NBC. This is a fantastic series that you really should watch. It clearly has a single season plot (much like "24", I suppose), but it wouldn't surprise me if they manufactured something beyond that (much like "24", I suppose). Also "Hammered" that I previously blogged about I think would do enormously well on British TV (like Discovery Real Time). But other than those, there is little of the week-by-week diversity that I'm used to on BBC, ITV and channels 4 and 5. This is a real shame. Whatever happened here to create this situation, I really hope doesn't occur in the UK. Grrr...