Are we currently in the golden age of TV?

[Random Sample]

With as many good shows that are on television, do you think that we are in the golden age of television?

I mean when USA has good shows on, I kind of think that we are.

[Philaflava]

The Wire, Breaking Bad, GOT...

I'd say the last 10 years have been fucking phenomenal.

[drizzle]

I think the golden age started from The Sopranos and ended sometime in the last few years. Mad Men was arguably the last product of that age that was standing.

We're in a different age now, marked by quantity and the changing ways average people consume tv via binge streaming. This produced some good shows but still only a relatively small percentage of the 400+ titles out now deserve to be mentioned in the same convo as the glory days of HBO Sundays. Trends for the content itself are shifting in this era too - 30 min comedies are becoming more respected again being mostly marginalized for like 10 years, dramatic shows are very rarely episodic anymore and are plotted more like very long movies, the fantastic and the heavily stylized stuff is edging out gritty realism, viewers and critics are becoming more skeptical of prestige show bait, etc etc. A few years need to pass before we can really assess what we got out of all this.

I think you can make a pretty good argument for TDs1 being the splitting point between the two.

[LilLeftBrain]

believe this time is now being referred to as beak teevee

[Employee]

I think the golden age started from The Sopranos and ended sometime in the last few years. Mad Men was arguably the last product of that age that was standing.

We're in a different age now, marked by quantity and the changing ways average people consume tv via binge streaming. This produced some good shows but still only a relatively small percentage of the 400+ titles out now deserve to be mentioned in the same convo as the glory days of HBO Sundays.

This is a cogent and agreeable analysis.

"The Sopranos" was the initial salvo, but once that ended a lot of other quality shit ended around the same time. "Breaking Bad" was the last best show on television; nothing comes close to it now. Not even "Better Call Saul" which is, at best, an "okay" show (infinitely more entertaining than most cable shit yet lacking so much because of its predecessor). In the era of "Alpha House" it is safe to say that we are not, in any way, in the Golden Age of Television.

[Tommy Bunz]

Yeah we've crossed over the golden age and into peak tv.
The market is so over-saturated that its way less likely for the cream to rise to the top and very few shows are reaching water cooler status anymore, really the only two water cooler shows left are Thrones and Walking Dead.
Streaming and being able to binge entire new seasons at your own pace has significantly changed the landscape and there are just way too many options out there for anyone to be able to really have a definitive opinion on what's best.
I watch way too much tv and I there are still a ton of great shows that I haven't gotten around to.

[Random Sample]

I watch way too much tv and I there are still a ton of great shows that I haven't gotten around to.

Me too.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

A golden age can only happen once, and being that's referred to at that first wave of great shows in the 60s that showed what TV as a medium could do, that makes Sopranos-era silver age and this current "peak tv" is bronze age if we're going by that terminology.

[Employee]

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Norman Lear: The current Golden Age of TV is too politically correct

Posted January 5 2016 — 5:54 PM EST

Though prolific producer Norman Lear called this the Golden Age of television, he also thinks what we’re seeing on the small screen these days is too politically correct.

The creator of such boundary-pushing shows as All in the Family, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time was on hand at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Pasadena on Tuesday to promote his guest-spot on Ovation’s Rough Draft with Reza Aslan, a talk show that delves into the minds of some of the biggest writers on TV. For his part, Lear said the influx of programming on cable and streaming services has provided more opportunity for writers of all backgrounds to make their voices heard.

“I think the answer to it is in your face every day,” Lear said. “I don’t know how many signals I can turn to for great drama, great dramedy. This has to be the Golden Age. There is so very much good quality, so much excellence in drama. I live a life, probably we all do, where people are constantly saying, ‘You mean you haven’t seen…’ and they mention a show that’s been on for 10 years… It’s the Golden Age.”

Among the shows Lear says falls into that Golden Age category? “Transparent is a giant show,” Lear told EW after the panel. “My wife and I just binged on — for us, four episodes is a binge — Homeland. We had done the same thing a week or so ago on Ray Donovan.”

However, Lear also believes that a lot of networks are taking a sensitive approach and the current programming falls on the side of being too PC. “I don’t think the narrow point of view serves the American people well,” Lear said on the panel. “I don’t think the bumper-sticker quality of news and discussion helps us understand, and I think the obligation of broadcasters — when that word existed and there were three networks, the news was not expected to make money. I think the American people don’t get what they earn by way of help and understanding in context what is going on in their world.”

[Professor Piff]

90's

cheers (end of)
seinfeld
everybody loves raymond
fresh prince
family matters
x files

i could keep going if need be... the only shows that will be remembered, these days, are big budget premium tv series. Just my 2 cents

[drizzle]

90's

cheers (end of)
seinfeld
everybody loves raymond
fresh prince
family matters
x files

i could keep going if need be... the only shows that will be remembered, these days, are big budget premium tv series. Just my 2 cents

as opposed to..... the big budget primetime sitcoms that you remember from the 90s? you're not exactly making a cogent point here.

[Tweak Da Leak]

There was at least 5 top 20 show seasons ever the past 3-4 years

Hannibal S1/S2
Justified S4
The Americans S1
Rick & Morty S1/S2
Fargo S2

Madmen S7 probably just missed the list.

Edit: Oh and I think St. Elsewhere was the first sign of things to come in terms of great TV drama.

[Tommy Bunz]

motherfucker just used Urkel in an argument and was serious

[zappy]

A golden age can only happen once, and being that's referred to at that first wave of great shows in the 60s that showed what TV as a medium could do, that makes Sopranos-era silver age and this current "peak tv" is bronze age if we're going by that terminology.

yeah i think the 60's will be reclassified as the bronze age. we called it the golden age before we knew what a golden age was. unlike movies from the golden age of film, few of the TV shows from back then hold up.

as for whether or not right now is the golden age of TV, it's way too soon to tell. it's may be a golden age, just like the 60's, but who knows if it will hold up with time. calling something the golden age is really hard to do without time and perspective.

but too soon to tell is more than a cop out, i honestly think that TV is still getting better. we may not have really hit the golden age yet.

[tehgiftofgab]

I watch way too much tv and I there are still a ton of great shows that I haven't gotten around to.

Me too.

[battlecatmeowstab212]

A golden age can only happen once, and being that's referred to at that first wave of great shows in the 60s that showed what TV as a medium could do, that makes Sopranos-era silver age and this current "peak tv" is bronze age if we're going by that terminology.

yeah i think the 60's will be reclassified as the bronze age. we called it the golden age before we knew what a golden age was. unlike movies from the golden age of film, few of the TV shows from back then hold up.

as for whether or not right now is the golden age of TV, it's way too soon to tell. it's may be a golden age, just like the 60's, but who knows if it will hold up with time. calling something the golden age is really hard to do without time and perspective.

but too soon to tell is more than a cop out, i honestly think that TV is still getting better. we may not have really hit the golden age yet.

I don't think you get how these terms work. A Golden Age always comes first. It's the first great age. You can't have a third child before your first born.

[drizzle]

Slotting that era alongside our current tv is a tricky thing. On one hand nobody gives a flying fuck about Kraft Presents Cowboy Adventure Hour and such from the 50s, the format and content is so drastically different from what we watch now that it might as well be a different medium entirely. On the other hand, gems like Twilight Zone are undeniably important and still hold up in a way that's relevant today.

[Larry2times]

i hear this cos Leftovers rly feels like an outlier now

love Leftovers. go big smartdumb shit