I love your column and ...
Question: I love your column and respect your opinion greatly. I believe you said a while ago that we are in a golden age of TV drama. A few years ago I wouldn't have believed it was possible, as I lamented the loss of the great
Boomtown. But so far, I'm very happy with this TV season. High on my list are
Jericho, which I was happy to see seemed to be well-received, and
Six Degrees, Kidnapped and
Justice. Coming in close behind are
Men in Trees,
Studio 60 and
Vanished. I'm slightly concerned about getting hooked on these shows only to have them canceled, but that would never stop me from enjoying them while I can. In your opinion, can these shows survive? I would hate to see any of them go too soon. Also, I was a bit perplexed and annoyed by the media coverage following the premiere of
Studio 60. There was a lot of talk about how the show was not able to retain the audience of its lead-in,
Deal or No Deal. Who would possibly think that those two shows are compatible? As a high-school English teacher, I spend a lot of time talking to my students about the concept of audience, and I think that even
they could figure out that these two audiences are not the same.
Answer: It is way too soon to tell which of the season's new dramas (many of them serialized) will be keepers. It depends on the network, the expectations for the time period, the competition, whether a show is growing week to week (or the reverse, which can be fatal), or if it holds on to enough of its lead-in (which is likely to be
Six Degrees' downfall). The problem facing so many of these shows is that we're already enjoying a surplus of great drama choices, and there's only so much time even a dedicated watcher is going to be able to devote to new shows. (And wait until you see
Friday Night Lights this week. Talk about a great, golden-age-worthy drama that you're going to want to root for.) The outlook will become clearer over the next month, and many of these shows' fates will be determined before or during the November sweeps. (If they go on extended hiatus then, that's never a good sign.) As for your
Studio 60/
Deal or No Deal question, I agree. The shows aren't compatible. The game show brags about how mindless it is, while the Sorkin drama is a dense, busy and intellectually stimulating piece of polished work. Of course, this is a moot point now that
Heroes has settled in as
Studio 60's lead-in. Again, not much audience flow from show to show on NBC's Monday lineup. The
Heroes cult and the older, more upscale target for
Studio 60 aren't a perfect match, but I'm thinking each of these shows can survive in its own, very different way.
