Plan B Forum

I know there are shows out there that I would like to watch (many that were mentioned here at planb) but there is not enough time and there are so many shows. A zillion channels now not to mention streaming. I remember when there was only 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 (not counting UHF) and we were lucky to have that many here in the NYC area. Many areas had only 2 or 1 channel.
Saturated doesn't begin to describe it.
oh well

Is There 'Too Much TV'?
Ken Tucker
‎August‎ ‎12‎, ‎2015

As the Television Critics Association press tour gathering winds down in Los Angeles, a defining theme has emerged. It was the provocative assertion made by FX president John Landgraf that there is “too much television” — that we’ve reached the point where there is so much TV being made in such a variety of media that the industry is going to peak, quantitatively.

Landgraf spoke for many of us who cover TV for a living — and you who watch it, many of you as obsessively as the pros — when he said, “I [have] lost the ability to keep track of every scripted TV series.” He added, “Even though do this for a living professionally, this year… I finally lost track of the ability to keep track of every programmer who is in the scripted programming business… There is simply too much television.”

You know the feeling. You want to get on board with Mr. Robot and Ray Donovan, and maybe you’ve heard that The Strain has gotten a lot better in its second season, and your friend told you HBO’s Ballers is fun and you should binge a bunch of those half-hours, and you really want to try Hulu’s Difficult People. But you’ve also got a life to live, and who has the time?

This theory follows a corollary my editor and I have, which we call “Will Nothing Get Canceled?” With every relentless announcement of the renewal of any obviously mediocre, worthy-of-disappearance show, we email each other despairingly, “#WillNothingGetCanceled?”

Landgraf’s statement has been the talk of TCA — well, that and how completely charming the upcoming CW show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is. It’s a pretty bold thing, when a TV executive says maybe his industry is getting too good at doing what it does.

There’s a theory Landgraf has worked out: That sometime during 2015 and 2016, the “last stages of a bubble” will burst, and the market will suffer some deflation from over-supply and under-demand. As an executive and businessman, his position is that he needs to make his brand, FX, as sturdy as possible to withstand the onslaught — to make viewers still watch his network, while those eyeballs are being lured toward original programming on Amazon and Hulu and Netflix, on Crackle and DirecTV, on niche cable channels that are scrambling for shards of demos (kids ages 5-9; men ages 40-60; household pets ages 0-3).

Your problem isn’t Landgraf’s, and I’m simplifying a more nuanced argument he was making, but you get what he’s saying. I certainly do: It’s not unusual for me to have a few weeks of sitcoms and sci-fi shows clogging up my DVR, because those aren’t genres that seem as important to me right now than various contemporary hour-long dramas. Heck, I might watch Syfy’s Face-Off — a friend told me I should check it out again — if I had more spare time, but I’ve got six hours of David Simon’s new HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero to plow through. (With pleasure, I should add.)

And if you’re like me, you not only have new stuff to watch, you also like to chill out with some TV comfort food. The summer ratings suggest an awful lot of you are watching Saturday-night reruns of 48 Hours.

Are you overwhelmed with TV options? Will nothing get canceled? Did this new Golden Age of Television become that Fatted Calf of Too Much? Let me know your thoughts.

I watch little TV and manage to keep from being overwhelmed when having to choose from Keeping up with the kardassians or Big Brother. I choose OFF.

Bruce got it right...even though the numbers are out of date.

I've got my Premier League on weekends and the occasional weekday. I hear the Bundesliga will be on FoxSports1. The Big Ten Network is gearing up. The Mrs enjoys some programs on HGTV. Other than that, we hate to watch any TV series with commercials and the cable ones are usually profane or just plain mean and nasty - no civil discourse any more. I admit to enjoying Arrested Development on Netflix - wife hates it. So it's Frazier re-runs for us baby!

I remember when BBC 2 started, bring our choice of viewing to three whole channels.

Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 20 April 1964), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour.

We watch a lot of television...

Because with a six year old son, and a 16 year old daughter, television has become more or less a substitute for having a social life....

Instead of thinking on a Friday night, "where would we like to go out to?"

We now think, "what would we like to watch?"


"It's appalling it really is...(sometimes I think I ought to just shoot myself....good Lord has it come to this.. *








*That was a "joke" btw....

We watch very little TV, just cooking shows mainly. Partially as I prefer to read, and partially as Aussie TV is utter shite.

Right now we're working our way through the early seasons of The Glades on Netflix...

A really well written and cast police/detective series set in the Florida Everglades...

Starring Matt Passmore...(who is now starring in a truly horrible show about a middle aged gigolo called ...Satisfaction....the promos were enough to convince me it's hideous; I didn't need to watch an episode... )

But Passmore was great as Jim Longworth...

But he's another friggin' Aussie...

Like Robert Taylor, who played (and will again on Amazon Prime) Walt Longmire....

Another All-American kind of character...

Another damn friggin' Aussie...

Are we so short on male acting talent in this country, that we can't put together a decent show anymore unless we hire some damn furriner (from a country with 1/10th our population, no less...) to "play" a macho American lead character?

And aside from the Aussies "passing", half of the rest playing macho male leads on most US TV shows are damn Canadians... (well, except for Mark Harmon...)

Donald Trump will put an end to this...

Are we so short on male acting talent in this country,

I think the success of Tom Cruise proves that the answer to this is yes.

I agree. I heard he is a short actor...

Big RR wrote:

Are we so short on male acting talent in this country,

I think the success of Tom Cruise proves that the answer to this is yes.

As little as I think of the man personally the man is a good and possibly great actor. The problem isn't so much poor acting as a lack of courage by those making the calls to let someone play against type. See cruise in Collateral or Pitt in Kalifornia.

Tom Cruise is the farthest thing from a great actor; like Julia Roberts, every film he's in is just another Tom Cruise vehicle. The audience never forgets he's Tom Cruise. The only exception to this rule was his portrayal in Born on the 4th of July.

Beyond which he's a despicable human being who allowed his crazy cult to destroy the relationship between his first wife and their children.

Have you seen Collateral? How about Tropic Thunder? When given the chance he does disappear in his role often to great and surprising effect.

I read this morning that there are 400 scripted shows on the many channels available, the most ever (probably far exceed by the endless "reality" shows).

Crackpot wrote: As little as I think of the man personally the man is a good and possibly great actor. The problem isn't so much poor acting as a lack of courage by those making the calls to let someone play against type. See cruise in Collateral or Pitt in Kalifornia.

Good call on all counts re Cruise. He's clearly shown he is a strange and possibly dangerous person, an actor with real ability when he gets the right role, and content (apparently) to mostly play "Cruise" and make tons of money.

I think he may have had real ability at the outset (like in Risky Business), but I haven't seen it since. IMHO he walks through his parts, and even when he does play out of character (the only one I saw was Born on the Fourth of July--I had no interest in Collateral or Tropic Thunder), I could think of any number of actors who would have played the part better.

That being said, his movies make money and are popular, so I am not representative of all tastes; but I just don't see any evidence of even average acting ability.

like in Risky Business

I thought he was good in that lawyer movie. forgot the name (Gene Hackman was in it also)


ETA
The Firm?

Yes, "The Firm". But really, that was him doing a good job of playing Cruise in a pretty well written movie (adapted from a Grisham novel) with other strong actors.

This is worse than Dumbold Trump

But really, that was him doing a good job of playing Cruise in a pretty well written movie with other strong actors.

A Few Good Men would be another good example of that...