Is Sony AXN's Absentia a Sign of Yet Another TV Industry Evolution? The world of television – how it’s made and how people watch it – has changed rapidly over the last decade. A prime example of this is Sony AXN’s. Absentia.  In discussing the show making its world premiere at the Monte Carlo TV Fest,Variety rightly dubbed Absentia a “hotly anticipated” Hollywood show. Yet this show wasn’t made in Hollywood – it was shot largely in Europe. Furthermore – at the moment – it doesn’t have a US release.

Is this the next wave in America’s new “golden age” of television? There are a lot of pieces needed to solve this puzzle, so bear with me. What is TV’s New Golden Age & What Does Absentia Have to do With it? Officially the “New Golden Age” is marked by the HBO drama The Sopranos. I agree, but I’d say –as do others – the precursors to it could be seen in the NBC drama Hill Street Blues. The X- filesalsoplayed a role in shaping it. Let’s look at the components of TV’s new golden age and how Sony AXN’s Absentia fits in.

TheFutonCritic.com is the web's best resource for series information about primetime television.

The First Factor: Movie Quality Television. One of the hallmarks of American television’s new golden age is highly creative and multi- layered storytelling.

• Freeform (stylized as FREEFORM) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group division of The Walt.
• Vulture Watch. Will Kara soar to new heights or come crashing to Earth? Has the Supergirl TV show been cancelled or renewed for a fourth season on The CW?

However, this trend didn’t start because TV executives thought the world needed to see The Sopranos. HBO needed a way to create “must- see- TV” – in a way that people would pay for. That meant it had to be different from the traditional formulaic shows the networks offered.

While at the time no one would frame it this way, the answer was to make movie- like television. However the movies being emulated are from David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos originally had envisioned the story as a film.

A key change that happened when HBO agreed to make the series is that Chase was given creative control of the series. This fundamentally changed the role of the writer/creator of a show and soon it became TV’s new normal. Movies and Television –  Then and Now. It used to be that great television was the purvey of the executive producer – whether they created it or not. Today we talk about the showrunner. That person is usually the writer/creator of a television series – as well as a hands on executive producer. Much like the director of a film it’s the showrunner’s vision that is allowed to shape and drive a show – and whom its success or failure is pinned on.

Another connection between American film directors and showruners is what occurred to define those roles. One of the things that led to what’s referred to as Hollywood’s second Golden Age or. New Hollywood, was the introduction of television. Showtime Full Still Mine Online Free.

Television’s New Golden Age was also pushed by the introducing of new technologies: first by cable TV and then the internet. The two eras are similar in the sudden burst of creativity sparked by the freedom given to the artistic side of production. A quick anecdote illustrates this perfectly. Watch Rainbow Time Online Free 2016. During his time directing the Boardwalk.

Empire pilot for HBO, Martin Scorsese told his fellow executive producer Mark Wahlberg,“I feel like I’m back in the ’7. Variety).  Scorsese is one of the greatest auteurs to come out of that New Hollywood period. If he says the two periods feel similar to him there’s definitely something similar. The Second Factor: Niche TV  & The Internet. The other thing that helped create this golden age of television is the ability cable and streaming have to cater to specific interests. This is because cable and streaming shows aren’t dependent on the number of viewers at a given time.

Ratings are irrelevant. In fact, streaming won’t give out numbers. What these services both needed was critical acclaim to create buzz and viewers passionate enough about a show to buy a subscription. It meant cable stations – and later the streaming services – could afford to experiment and break with network TV norms. It’s the structure of cable and streaming that made it safe to offer writer/creators so much creative control. The Avid Viewer. We will (always) take a show for a small passionate audience over one that is ‘for everybody.

These days, nothing is more important than passion to making a show [a] success.                                                                                                 – Joel Stillerman,  AMC’s EVP of original programming,                                                                                                                                              production and digital content. THR) Many sneer at the term “fandom,” but are quite comfortable with the term “avid viewer” as coined by cultural critic Anna Leszkiewicz. To be fair, not all avid viewers are part of a fandom, but all people involved in a TV fandom are avid viewers.

An avid viewer is someone with intense interest with all aspects of a show and the people who make it happen. Fandom. There’s always been groups of people who form social groups based on the love of something. From people who dress up to go to Renaissance fairs or Star Trek conventions, to cinephiles and members of. The Dickens Fellowship Old Movie clubs, they all can fall under the idea of fandom. Fandom: The fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. What niche TV has done is allow for shows to be directed to a narrower group of people.

In time even network television caught on that you no longer had to write a show to appeal to everyone in the 1. A show that created a passionate response and intense discussion could create interest for a larger audience, as well as sustain a decent baseline viewing. Ideally, you’d want both, but for subscription cable it was more about the prestige of a well- crafted show. For networks whose ratings have been splintering because viewers have so many options, being able to point to a core audience of certain demographics has become crucial. The Internet & Social Media.

The internet created a space for these avid viewers to read about and discuss their favorite shows. The X- Files debuted just as the internet, aka the world- wide- web, was becoming more mainstream due to browsers like. Netscape.  It’s that show and the internet communities created by it that gives us the idea of television fandoms that we use today. Social Media. After our initial love of AOL & Netscape died with the onset of Google, the next big shift in the post- internet world came withthe onslaught of social media.

While Facebook and Twitter weren’t the first, they really were the game- changers. Facebook – founded in 2. It also, via its Facebook games, encouraged becoming friends with people you didn’t know – who played the same games as you. These connections had nothing to do with where you lived, but what you liked. Two years later Twitter took this connecting by interest to a new level. Now people were encouraged to follow others based solely on their interests.

Suddenly people from all over the world were talking to each other directly about everything and anything: politics, food, music, movies, and TV shows. This rise of social media has taken fandom to the level of being able to make or break a television show. Don’t believe me? What tipped Fox into giving Fringe its fifth wrap up season? What pushed ABC’s Castle to scrap its season nine?

Why is Supernatural still on the air? There is no disrespect intended to Supernatural fans in asking that.) The answer to all of these questions are: the fandom. Hollywood has certainly noticed thepower of fandom – last year a bunch of “media broadcasters” paid for a study to try and figure out how they work! Golden Age or Not, It’s Always About The Money Although everyone loves to talk about the creative freedom in this New Golden Age of Television, don’t think it’s a total free- for- all. CB4 Full Movie Online Free. TV showrunners – just like movie directors – are ultimately controlled by the bottom line.

Nothing changes that. Whether it’s about production values or getting good talent when you look at a show like HBO’s Game of Thrones, or CBS’s long- running comedy The Big Bang Theory, it’s clear that TV continues to get more expensive to make.