Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks is the best show I have ever seen. Every episode plucks my heartstrings. Every episode has me laughing my ass off. Every episode is full of complex character developments yet every character and situation exhibits the adolescent Americana to a symbolic, standard degree. I've fallen in love with every character on the show in the most platonic way. I can relate to every main character in some definite degree, whether it be a rite of passage they endure or some simple idiosyncrasy that reminds me of my youth. It is one of the only shows to offer me extreme escapism that even reality couldn't slip in my peripheral. It is one of the only narrative shows that leave me feeling enlightened by the themes and references that play.
I have yet to see a TV show that rivals it in quality. Most films don't even offer the quality that Freaks and Geeks has. That disappoints me. TV canceled the show after only one season, yet there still remains a cult following that lives and breathes that show - even when, in these days and among the new generation of TV watchers, most have not even heard of the show. I guess demographics and a writing/production team that caters to profits is more important, because that's exactly the way it is for most shows. There are upsides to television depending on how you look at it, but they're usually attached to the larger picture, which degrades the end result. Remember, popular television is just a reflexion of our evolving mainstream society. The shows that play in the evenings on the major broadcast networks are hooky and tasty, but offer diluted substance (which is taken as standardized high quality these days.). It's rare to find a show that exhibits subtle acting - it goes against what a sitcom stands for. Sitcoms need to be fast paced and stimulating. The production values are higher...a better term would be more efficient. They exhibit faster cutting, thus less mind engagement (temps mort) for the viewer to consciously engage with. They have less respect for formalisms of film and what the camera can reveal about our world and our people. They exhibit more like magic tricks, and less like visual poems. More elaborate computer graphics are a selling point as well. More references to pop culture. More reality TV. More qualities that MTV has standardized. All of these properties are the properties that we want from a show or else they would be canceled. That's why a show with substance got canceled and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets aired for multiple seasons.
I shouldn't only slander TV shows of today as poor quality because a lot of television shows throughout its existence has been of poor quality. But every once in a while, you get a Freaks and Geeks which stands as a work of timeless art - An Americana companion to shows like Kieslowski's The Dekalog, or Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, or other American shows like MASH, and the oddball and imperfect Twin Peaks even.
But such is the way all artistic quality is considered in the modern age. It will never be accepted, understood, or liked by the popular mainstream, ever.
(for the LJ crew, I'm sorry if I offended you because you like Buffy. Sigh....)
I have yet to see a TV show that rivals it in quality. Most films don't even offer the quality that Freaks and Geeks has. That disappoints me. TV canceled the show after only one season, yet there still remains a cult following that lives and breathes that show - even when, in these days and among the new generation of TV watchers, most have not even heard of the show. I guess demographics and a writing/production team that caters to profits is more important, because that's exactly the way it is for most shows. There are upsides to television depending on how you look at it, but they're usually attached to the larger picture, which degrades the end result. Remember, popular television is just a reflexion of our evolving mainstream society. The shows that play in the evenings on the major broadcast networks are hooky and tasty, but offer diluted substance (which is taken as standardized high quality these days.). It's rare to find a show that exhibits subtle acting - it goes against what a sitcom stands for. Sitcoms need to be fast paced and stimulating. The production values are higher...a better term would be more efficient. They exhibit faster cutting, thus less mind engagement (temps mort) for the viewer to consciously engage with. They have less respect for formalisms of film and what the camera can reveal about our world and our people. They exhibit more like magic tricks, and less like visual poems. More elaborate computer graphics are a selling point as well. More references to pop culture. More reality TV. More qualities that MTV has standardized. All of these properties are the properties that we want from a show or else they would be canceled. That's why a show with substance got canceled and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets aired for multiple seasons.
I shouldn't only slander TV shows of today as poor quality because a lot of television shows throughout its existence has been of poor quality. But every once in a while, you get a Freaks and Geeks which stands as a work of timeless art - An Americana companion to shows like Kieslowski's The Dekalog, or Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, or other American shows like MASH, and the oddball and imperfect Twin Peaks even.
But such is the way all artistic quality is considered in the modern age. It will never be accepted, understood, or liked by the popular mainstream, ever.
(for the LJ crew, I'm sorry if I offended you because you like Buffy. Sigh....)