TV In the Summer of 2023 Feels Very Familiar

I39m not talking about that domestic sensation Tiger King We can all be excused for that collective lapse of judgement given what we were going through at the time Rather the first two years of the pandemic when television was everybody39s best friend was the time when I discovered such international treats as Eamp769lite Who Killed Sara Merli La Casa de Las Flores Curon Money Heist and The Mess You Leave Behind among many others These were shows I might never have made time for had US television production not screeched to a halt as COVID19 spread around the worldAnd now here we are again Sort of The situation is dramatically different but the impact feels familiar Even as the world was continuing to return to some sense of postpandemic normalcy and the television industry finally seemed to be back in neartop form twin strikes by the WGA and SAGAFTRA have sent the business reeling and threaten to indefinitely compromise the entertainment opportunities for all of us all over againOther than the absence of latenight talk shows TV doesn39t feel too different yet After all if it39s summer and that means it39s time for endless reruns of scripted shows on the broadcast networks with a few primetime game shows and a healthy percentage of unscripted content in the mix As always thank goodness for NBC39s continued wisdom in leaving America39s Got Talent on its summer scheduleBasic cable has always shone during the summer months though in the new world order much of that content is also available on various streamers Speaking of which they39re doing just fine except for the whole thing about how they are losing a ton of money with plenty of interesting content right now including The Bear on Hulu And Just Like That on Max I39m a Virgo on Amazon Only Murders in the Building which is about to begin its third season on Hulu Star Trek Strange New Worlds which is having a great second season on Paramount and the limited series Justified City Primeval Yes the latter is an FX show first but I39m watching on Hulu It39s a habit I guessA note on this Critics and entertainment journalists are quick to cite these shows and many others when declaring that there is still plenty to watch But I don39t know very many people any actually who are uniformly jazzed about the same group of shows as I am People like what they like Just because there are a lot of highprofile options out there doesn39t mean that everyone will watch all of themPutting aside the considerable success of sports programming which just might save the medium come fall the broadcast networks will face yet another fresh hell Cable will continue to hurt too amp8230 not because of the strikes given the wealth of reality programming on basic cable but rather the rising popularity of the streamersThis brings me back to Fake Profile and other hot international series just like it As long as Netflix keeps serving up a substantial and substantially diverse selection of shows from other lands I don39t think I39ll ever run out of quotnewquot stuff to watch And as long as Hulu keeps the full run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show I39ll be good as I could watch those two gems time and again for the rest of my lifeIndeed there is so much enticing vintage television fare on Hulu Peacock Tubi Pluto and others that I feel as though I39ll be fine no matter the outcome of the twin strikesBut that39s not what it39s all about is it Remember amp8230 in most cases quotvintagequot equals quotbroadcast pastquot Scripted television needs to continue feeding itself amp8230 on broadcast cable streaming and whatever comes next There39s nothing wrong with news and unscripted fare but the medium needs more It39s nice to have options amp8230 especially of the international variety Given the money that certain conglomerates charge us for the opportunity to watch their content however those options better remain damn goodNow if they would just figure out how to share some of their wealth with the writers and actors who keep us all happy maybe by mid2024 television will finally begin to resemble what it was way back in the good old days of 2019Click the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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TV In the Summer of 2023 Feels Very Familiar

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Ed Martin

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TV In the Summer of 2023 Feels Very Familiar

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