The special efx haven’t gotten more expensive, cameras haven’t risen in price, writers don’t seem to be demanding particular high prices, netflix takes anything that you can pitch without saying the word disney.
So what in the world happened? X-files was an amazing show and watching it you are not only entertained but you care about mulder and scully. The show is genuinely a great time. Why did they stop making them like this?
Because they have started making better ones.
In TV there is a watershed moment. Before sopranos and after sopranos.
The shows that came before were specced to the particularities of broadcast television. Season length, episode lengths, budget, guest appearances, were all determined by the details of how broadcast television was organized in the late twentieth century, with seasons and sweep weeks and all that crap.
HBO was the first TV producer to bin all of that, and enable TV to reach its creative potential.
X files was a very cool show, but its late 20th century broadcast pedigree is on full display.
The BBC did it first, in part thanks to a lack of ad breaks and shorter seasons.
Eg. the UK version of House of Cards is genuinely excellent and arguably better than the US version, even before Spacey.
Another thing is the production schedule on some of these shows. They’d be doing 12 hour days, 6 or even 7 days a week, sometimes writing shows that were going to be released within days. Far harder to create a coherent arc or plan stuff, when you have to write and direct far more episodes in a limited time frame.
I haven’t watched sopranos, but after all the mafia/gangster movies, i felt the genre was done with, the god fater 1 to 3, once upon a time in america, good fellers, casino, scarface, the list goes on and on. I’ll give sopranos a shot but i am not holding my breath…
You have not understood anything I wrote.
I’ll do better
That’s… not what the poster was saying. Prestige TV extends much farther than the mafia genre, sopranos was just the turning point when higher budget dramatic things were more commonly greenlit.
The Wire, Breaking Bad, Watchmen, The Expanse Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Mad Men etc all absolutely blow X files out of the water. And while I do love X files, the monster of the week format is not even in the same ballpark as those long form character dramas.
I think you might be letting nostalgia blind you to how great television has become.
bro you are seriously telling me walking dead is better than x files? I had to stop walking dead after 5 episodes because i couldn’t bare it anymore. Xfiles you get excited about every episode you watch. Don’t get me wrong i love zombies, but walking dead just aint it…
I mean, I am not a huge fan of the show and didn’t finish it. But the first season was stellar. But that aside, reading your other comments it seems like you don’t like a lot of modern shows. Which is fine, but personally I find older stuff I watched when I was a girl just sorta meaningless. X files had so many skipable episodes without serving the overarching plot. I’m honestly kinda baffled that you would prefer monster of the week instead of expanse and breaking bad, but you are allowed to think as you please. Just seems at odd with two of the most higely praised shows of recent history.
And I don’t super appreciate being called bro… >_>
I don’t think it’s the monster of the week part. I definitely understood your opinion though.
It sounds like the OP wants ‘monster of the week’ stuff
Watchmen - holy shit. I decided almost on a whim that I’d give it a try and I was totally unprepared for the awesomeness. It took a few episodes to kick in, but once it did, I was like OH MY GOD THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS I’VE EVER SEEN WHY DID IT ONLY GET ONE SEASON THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Yup! Now we get cheap crap shoveled out six episodes at a time once every couple of years! If we’re lucky.
That’s mostly Disney content. Most series are 8-10 episodes long still, and there’s more series made than there was in the 90s and 00s.
Agree so much on HBO. We just moved to the US and got the “Max” subscription and we’re finding gem after gem, some of it a decade old. Like TV that rivals any great movie, amazing storytelling/directing/music/concepts. Still plenty of filler to sort through, but some genuine art in there.
Too bad their mobile app is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life regarding streaming services. I know people like to rag on Netflix, at least their app is top notch. How can a big company like HBO have such a piece of crap software when dozens of better examples to copy from already exist is beyond me.