The Life of a TV Series, in Four Stages →
From Canada’s National Post, a fairly good explication of how good series go bad, even if it does cite as examples shows I wouldn’t be caught dead watching like Without A Trace:
The history of a TV series, like the history of a nation or an art movement, falls into four periods — primitive, classic, baroque and decadent.
This more or less conforms to what I’ve noticed for years about how TV shows fall from grace. I’d go so far as to say that when people argue over when a show has ‘jumped the shark’, they’re really arguing over the transition from Baroque to decadence.
If I were to classify some current shows this way…
- Primitive: Dollhouse, Fringe
- Classic: 30 Rock, Mad Men, Lost
- Baroque: The Office, House, The Venture Bros, Lost*
- Decadent: Heroes
(* Lost is a special case, in that it’s always been pretty damned baroque…which is precisely what makes it so great.)
