Are you ready for the golden age of genre TV?

[CaptJohnSheridan]

Thanks to Game of Thrones we are entering a golden age of genre TV. Syfy has renewed The Expanse for a second season and it will also make John Scalzi's futuristic military drama Ghost Brigades into a series. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes for a series based on the sci fi detective story Altered Carbon. And HBO is making Isaac Asimov's Foundation into a show. I'm excited! Are you ready for the new golden age of Television?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

But will they all match the movie like quality of Game of Thrones?

Also I really want to see The Sopranos, the show the spearheaded TV with Movie calibur cinematography and writting.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Golden Age?! Hardly! Game of Thrones is the exception, not the rule. And you'll say "Oh but SilentPony, I like the Flash and Arrow and the every 4th episode of Agents of Shield." And I will say congratulations, you like 4 shows out of tens of thousands.

Its easy to think quality is going up because popularity makes shows seem bigger, but Thrones and Flash are still only 2 shows.

Dark Matter is terrible. Defiance was terrible. Veep! is a one-joke sitcom. True Detective is a bore. Gotham made the critical mistake of removing Batman from Batman! And 3/4ths of Agents of Shield is passionately unwatchable.

And its simply unfair to reality to assume its some new Golden Age because a minuscule minority of shows are good. Its always been that way!

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Golden Age?! Hardly! Game of Thrones is the exception, not the rule. And you'll say "Oh but SilentPony, I like the Flash and Arrow and the every 4th episode of Agents of Shield." And I will say congratulations, you like 4 shows out of tens of thousands.

Its easy to think quality is going up because popularity makes shows seem bigger, but Thrones and Flash are still only 2 shows.

Dark Matter is terrible. Defiance was terrible. Veep! is a one-joke sitcom. True Detective is a bore. Gotham made the critical mistake of removing Batman from Batman! And 3/4ths of Agents of Shield is passionately unwatchable.

And its simply unfair to reality to assume its some new Golden Age because a minuscule minority of shows are good. Its always been that way!

What about Walking Dead, Falling Skies, Breaking Bad, Black Sails, Sons of Anarchy?

 

[SupahEwok]

Golden Age?! Hardly! Game of Thrones is the exception, not the rule. And you'll say "Oh but SilentPony, I like the Flash and Arrow and the every 4th episode of Agents of Shield." And I will say congratulations, you like 4 shows out of tens of thousands.

Its easy to think quality is going up because popularity makes shows seem bigger, but Thrones and Flash are still only 2 shows.

Dark Matter is terrible. Defiance was terrible. Veep! is a one-joke sitcom. True Detective is a bore. Gotham made the critical mistake of removing Batman from Batman! And 3/4ths of Agents of Shield is passionately unwatchable.

And its simply unfair to reality to assume its some new Golden Age because a minuscule minority of shows are good. Its always been that way!

I wouldn't really call Arrow, Flash, or AoS genre tv. Sure, they're based off of comics, but they're also designed to be broadly appealing and don't have movie like budgets. They're just pretty standard action dramedy shows with a twist, that twist being comics.

In terms of shows that have high budgets, a focus on ongoing plots rather than "problem of the week with maybe an overhanging arc", and unapologetically niche appeal, we are absolutely starting to see an upswing. Sure, there's stinkers like in every other media pattern, but that doesn't discount the fact that genre tv is becoming far more prevalent now compared to 10 years ago.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

What about Walking Dead, Falling Skies, Breaking Bad, Black Sails, Sons of Anarchy?

Peaked years ago, boring as all piss, halfway decent, haven't seen it, said all it needed to say in the fist season.

 

[TimeLord]

Well I mean Red Dwarf is coming back this month soooo......

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

I was always told that mutation, it being something you're born with, was a reference to homosexuality. And Agents of Shields, being Marvel, is supposed to be dealing with Mutants, not just 'enhanced humans'

But really, any minority can be projected. Transgender, gay, black, albino, Baalite, people who think Zootopia is a bad movie, Mac users. Its all about overcoming society's prejudice. Unless you think Zootopia is bad, in which case you're a dick.

And the problem with Gotham is there are no stakes to any of it, because we know nothing happens for 20 years. Because Batman. So does Gordon live? Of course! Do they catch Penguin? NO! Does that one dude become the Riddler? Yes!
They can't possibly have a compelling, gripping story because they need to be in stasis until Batman arrives, because Gotham and Batman are woven together. Its the story of Batman trying to save Gotham from itself, and yet they've gone and removed Batman from his own damn story.

Its like having a gritty World War 2 drama set in 1900. We have awhile to go before the plot begins.

 

[Chanticoblues]

People have been saying we're in the golden age of TV since 2002, and I'm always sitting around going "that's it?".

 

[FalloutJack]

I deny that SyFy is in any part golden, full stop.

 

[Zontar]

I deny that SyFy is in any part golden, full stop.

Completely agree, while things are better then they where a few years back, there's no golden age of SyFy without at least one active Stargate series.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I deny that SyFy is in any part golden, full stop.

Completely agree, while things are better then they where a few years back, there's no golden age of SyFy without at least one active Stargate series.

I am waiting for George RR Martin to make a Sci Fi version of game of thrones.

 

[Zontar]

I deny that SyFy is in any part golden, full stop.

Completely agree, while things are better then they where a few years back, there's no golden age of SyFy without at least one active Stargate series.

I am waiting for George RR Martin to make a Sci Fi version of game of thrones.

He won't even live to finish the fantasy version of Game of Thrones, what makes you think he'd start another?

 

[Hawki]

"Are you ready for the golden age of genre TV?"

What? A few threads ago, didn't you lament that there was nothing good on TV for you? Also, why does this:

Thanks to Game of Thrones we are entering a golden age of genre TV. Syfy has renewed The Expanse for a second season and it will also make John Scalzi's futuristic military drama Ghost Brigades into a series. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes for a series based on the sci fi detective story Altered Carbon. And HBO is making Isaac Asimov's Foundation into a show. I'm excited! Are you ready for the new golden age of Television?

...read like an advertisment?

But to answer your question, the general trend in TV nowadays is that on one hand, it can cater to niche audiences more than it could in the past, largely in part due to increased awareness of said shows/Internet/Netflix, etc. The other side of the coin is that this leads to audience fragmentation, so there's much more competition for shows to stay on the air. If anything, the various posts on this thread prove my point. User X nominates Show A as an example of quality, User Y disagrees that Show A is such an example, then nominates Show B, and so on.

Also, http://www.tor.com/2016/09/05/sci-fi-fantasy-adaptations-movies-tv/ might be worth a read if you're declaring a golden age.

And since people have commented on certain shows, this is where I apply my obviously objective tastes in an obviously objective manner and point out when they're obviously right/wrong, as in:

-Game of Thrones: Awesome

-The Expanse: Haven't seen, partly because it's not out on DVD yet, partly because I have little love for the books it's based on.

-Altered Carbon: Great dislike for the book, didn't like the writing style

-Foundation: I think the book is quite solid, but is clearly a collection of stories welded together (which is actually the case). Think it's much better to have a TV adaptation than film one though (wasn't Emmerich slated to direct at one point?)

-The Flash: Only seen season 1, I don't feel like repeating my thoughts on it again

-Arrow: Seen seasons 1 to 3, feel it takes a nosedive in season 3, from what I've heard, this continues in season 4.

-Dark Matter: Only seen season 1, think it's good - it oddly complements Killjoys. Killjoys excels in worldbuilding, but has broad characters/plots. Dark Matter has better characters/plots, but the background of the setting is left vague for the most part. But overall, I enjoyed it.

-Defiance: Only seen season 1. Bit "meh." There's a good concept lying in there, but here we have a changed Earth, and have limited it to one town in the middle of nowhere. Feels like the budget couldn't meet the ambition.

-The Walking Dead: Watching season 4 right now. Season 2 was a bit of a blip (if still "good), season 1 and 3 were very solid. Overall, very good show.

-Stargate: I'm honestly fine with this, in that we're getting a reboot. SG-1 is solid, but it's a show that feels like it happens to be called "Stargate" rather than a true continuation of the film that was originally called "Stargate." Atlantis was basically SG-1 2.0, and I liked Universe, but only because it had a solid second season to make up for a lacklustre first season. To be honest, I'm not sure what a fourth Stargate show could even do to be different from previous ones, unless maybe you took the premise of Infinity (near future, public knowledge of the Stargate Program, etc.), and did something decent with it.

 

[Bobular]

-Stargate: I'm honestly fine with this, in that we're getting a reboot.

Wait! We're getting more Star Gate? I'm of to look into this!

That combined with new Star Trek and I may be a very happy boy if they're any good.

 

[Zontar]

-The Expanse: Haven't seen, partly because it's not out on DVD yet, partly because I have little love for the books it's based on.

I saw it on DVD at HMV months ago. Blu Ray version hadn't came out at the time, but the DVD is definitely out.

-Stargate: I'm honestly fine with this, in that we're getting a reboot.

Wait! We're getting more Star Gate? I'm of to look into this!

That combined with new Star Trek and I may be a very happy boy if they're any good.

Don't get your hopes up, it's a movie trilogy from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. With the financial under-performance of Independence Day 2, and the fact that outside of Deadpool pretty much every genre movie that wasn't form Disney this year either under-performed or straight up flopped, it's possible the movies are being reevaluated given the movies haven't even entered pre-production.

Which we can only hope, because nothing is better then that reboot.

 

[Hawki]

-The Expanse: Haven't seen, partly because it's not out on DVD yet, partly because I have little love for the books it's based on.

I saw it on DVD at HMV months ago. Blu Ray version hadn't came out at the time, but the DVD is definitely out.

It certainly isn't out in Australia as far as I can tell. There's a strong chance that it will never be - Defiance was never released on DVD here past season 1, Continuum was never released on DVD past season 3, etc. It doesn't forbid me from importing it from overseas, but that's a heck of a lot of money.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

We're arguably in a Golden Age of television right now (or at least a Silver Age) thanks to strong programs like Mr. Robot, The Night Of, House of Cards, and Stranger Things. Outside of Mr. Robot there's no real Sopranos/Wire level heavy hitters, but thanks to the streaming services putting out loads of second tier quality material there's a lot of good choices available.

Genre, though? Genre is still in pretty rough shape. Walking Dead remains the premiere program in that area, and it's still extremely uneven and currently coming off a universally loathed finale. Game of Thrones has degenerated over several seasons and is now utter piss...pure candycorn spectacle and dumb-as-shit dialogue. I haven't seen The Expanse, but I have read the books, and there's not a lot to go on there. The rest is all speculation.

I do have some hope for Westworld, but I believe that's just a miniseries, and not an ongoing one.