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Rachel Woldum is a former television snob who has embraced the medium as it entered its Golden Age. Contact her at woldumr@gmail.com.
Good, Better, Best UNPACKING WHAT MAKES ‘GOOD’ TV GOOD
hat was the best TV show of 2021? Ask ten people and you’ll probably get ten different answers. Our opinions differ based on taste, but also because we all have different standards for what we think makes a show “good.” Are you looking for originality? Humor? Familiarity? Do you want to be challenged or surprised? Entertained or impressed? Without shared criteria for making our assessments, comparing one show to another becomes an apples-to-oranges situation. Who’s to say Game of Thrones is really “better” than Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Below is a list of characteristics that I think a) can have a huge impact on a show’s overall quality and b) are what people are referring to when they say a show is good. Use them to talk about shows more articulately, help you decide what to watch next, or heck, just win arguments. Acting: Do the actors bring their characters to life? Are their performances realistic and compelling? Do they bring emotional truth to their roles? This one is pretty obvious – bad acting can Acting kill a show faster than just about anything. Open with an extra delivering a line poorly and it’ll take the rest of the episode to win me back. Conversely, a series with an unoriginal premise can be made better by the acting chops of its cast or lead. But even something as seemingly straightforward as acting is up for debate: is the best actor the person who portrays their character most realistically, or the one with the most over-thetop, head-turning performance? Or are they simply the person with such star power, such individual magnetism, that you could watch them clean the kitchen and be enthralled? No matter the
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answer, standout performances are one of the primary reasons shows get called great. Recent Example: Kate Winslet (Mare of Eastown); Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) Past Example: The cast of Arrested Development Realism: Does the show feel true to real life? Does it accurately capture some truth about human existence, or what it feels like to be a real person in this world? In short, how realistic is it? Authenticity to real life is not the task or aim of every piece of art. But it can certainly be a factor that contributes to a TV show’s overall impact. Shows that excel at realism manage to be specific and universal at the same time — we recognize nuances of behavior and circumstantial subtleties that we thought only WE experienced,
because originality for the sake of newness does not good TV make. But sometimes the most buzzed about shows are the ones that make us go “Wow, I did NOT see that coming!” or “This is unlike anything else I’ve seen before.” When people first started watching Game of Thrones, they were blown away — high fantasy Originality had never been done so well, or on such a large scale, for TV before.
Realism
only to realize we’re not alone. Or they capture the reality of a particular time and place with such detail that we feel like we know it, despite having never experienced something similar. Recent Example: Maid Past Examples: The Wire, early seasons of The Office Originality: Does this show offer something new? A wildly creative premise, or a fresh take on a familiar premise? A world we haven’t seen before? Does it debut a format no other shows have yet attempted? This can be a double-edged sword,
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People who previously thought dragons were just for nerds were hooked. Flash forward eight years and it was one of the most successful and talked about shows to ever hit the small screen. Other series showcase originality through their storyline (The Good Place – set in heaven, and all the main characters are already dead), their ending (The Sopranos – that infamous cut to black), or their structure (the first season of True Detective’s nonlinear, threetimeline narrative). In a world where we have endless iterations of detective/cop/ lawyer/doctor shows, a little originality can go a long way. Recent Example: Squid Game Past Examples: Black Mirror; Orphan Black
Ongoing Impact/Cult Following: Have people continued to talk about this show even after it’s stopped airing? Has its fan base remained strong (or even grown) over time? Have characters, scenes, or lines become pop culture references? Sometimes, it takes the passage of time for us to realize the true impact of a show. Our collective cultural mood is not always ready to accept them right when they’re released. Other shows take a few episodes (or seasons) to find their rhythm and audience. And still others, though popular when first aired, prove to be far more beloved or
Recent Example: Too soon to say Past Examples: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Twin Peaks; The Office
Writing: Does the dialogue sound either a) natural or b) smart? Do the characters behave consistently, but also demonstrate growth over time? Is the plot both surprising and satisfying? Do scenes work on their own, yet also contribute to the overall narrative aim? Are there deeper themes beyond just the plot points shown onscreen? Films have the luxury of a single director, and thus a singularity of vision, but TV shows are often led by a new director each episode. This means that a show’s writing is perhaps the single most influential element of good TV. I’d also argue that each of the components I’ve already listed — acting, realism, originality, and ongoing impact — are ultimately at the mercy of the Ongoing Impact/ writing. Cult Following Great writing is multifaceted; not only is it what’s responsible for giving us fleshed out characters we believe, love, and remember, but it’s also what makes the story work or fall apart. Great writing gives us turns of events that feel unexpected, yet true. It plants seeds in Episode One that we see come to fruition seven episodes (or seven seasons) later. It has layers of subtext, meaning there are both explicit and implicit interpretations. Recent Examples: Fleabag Past Examples: The West Wing; Barry What follows is that the greatest TV shows of all time excel in each of Writing these categories. Think The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Americans influential than anyone could’ve predict— shows with unforgettable characters ed. When I first watched The O.C. my (and near-Shakespearean character sophomore year in high school, I never arcs), award-worthy performances, plot thought it would become a shared points that come to fruition years after point of reference for my generation. (I the first seed was planted, and stories still swear that Adam Brody’s character that have become part of our cultural Seth Cohen is responsible for inventing lexicon. an entire genre of man.) Likewise, I can For decades, filmmaking was considname each of the six main characters ered the superior art form to television. from the cast Friends despite having But with recent feats of storytelling like never seen an episode. Watchmen, big screen actors like Meryl What I think these types of shows Streep taking on television roles, and have in common are a) a singularity of even auteur directors like David Fincher vision or b) beloved characters. Fans making projects for the small screen, are attracted to their weirdness and the I think it’s safe to say that television is world they’ve created, often wishing a worthy art form with a power all its they could be a part of them. own.
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