Talking to a friend the other day, I mentioned how I was going to pass on sampling any of the new TV dramas debuting this winter because I was hoping to cut back on the amount of television I watch for a while to catch up on some movies. He said he was considering the same thing and bemoaned the amount of network dramas that were currently clogging up his DVR, including multiple episodes of Castle and Bones and the like.
"Yeah, those things are a killer," I said. "Good thing I don't watch many anymore. In fact, wait a minute. Let me check something."
I fired up my DVR and scanned through my series manager, which laid bare a shocking truth: I no longer record a single network drama. The last two I watched religiously — which is really the only way I watch things; I'm either all-in on a show or I'm completely out — were Fringe, FOX's excellent cult sci-fi series that ended its five-year-run in style two Fridays ago, and Last Resort, ABC's nuclear-submarine-gone-rogue drama that closed out its first and only season just last Thursday. That sub blowing up may as well have represented my last blast with network hour-longs, at least until something more intriguing than FOX's The Following, probably the season's most heavily promoted new show, comes along. But remember this is network TV we're talking about. When they can push past all the reality shows and singing competitions to find time on the schedule for a drama, they usually choose to air the blandest procedural possible. (Or a total ripoff of something being done better elsewhere. See: Elementary. Better yet don't. Just go buy the BBC's Sherlock on Blu-ray.)
Keep in mind we're speaking only of network dramas. When you throw in cable and premium pay cable, I record 10 in-production hour-longs, ranging from AMC's Breaking Bad to FX's Justified to HBO's The Newsroom to USA's White Collar. They're not all classics, but they are all more varied, more interesting and more worth making time more than anything the networks are putting on. This isn't exactly a revelatory statement. I'm sure you can find millions of words written about the subject on the Internet. But I still find it worth noting that the networks have officially hit rock bottom in at last one household — MINE.
And it's going to stay that way until somebody manages to air the next Twin Peaks, the next The West Wing, the next The X-Files or the next 24 — network dramas all. I suppose, at some point, another can't-miss drama will pop back on on network TV and find its way into my DVR. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it, though. I'll be watching Game of Thrones instead.
