CBS, NBC, FOX). I rarely even check out shows on those networks anymore because so much is so formula and restrained. And the franchises. Three straight hours of “different” FBI shows . Chicago PD/Fire/Etc. all the “different” Law & Orders. All the “different” NCIS shows. Blech! Those networks are all pretty much off my radar.
I’m also pretty much ruined for old network TV after marathoning so many great shows commercial free. I’m finding it harder to tolerate watching shows that have their momentum constantly broken by commercials and shows that I have to wait a year between each 10 episodes.
I am, however, still watching a lot of cable shows. HBO, Showtime, FX, AMC. But not their streaming counterparts like Max, Hulu, Paramount+. But cable is apparently dying. One sign of that is the plans for Billions London, Billions Miami, Billions Elsewhere. I watched original Billions and it was a very good show. But I have no plans to watch any of the Billions franchise spinoffs.
When I do finally cancel cable, I will only be subscribing to one streaming service at at a time, supplemented with DVDs as long as they still exist. I only have so much time for TV. So once the only shows worth watching are all on streaming services, it will only make sense to pay for one streaming service at a time.
All that said, since I don’t stream (yet), I haven’t seen most of this years Emmy nominees. Offhand, the only shows I can think of are Fargo and True Detective:Night Country and I loved both of them. Because of the strikes, I’ve been catching up with a lot of great older shows that I missed while they originally aired (The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Treme, Big Love, for example). I’m watching Curb Your Enthusiasm but I’m only up to season 8.
The whole industry is in the midst of major upheaval. It will be interesting to see how things shake out. We all have a lot of choices now and it is probably impossible for them to put that genie back in the bottle.
