We’re now almost a decade removed from the period many critics referred to as the “peak TV era.”
Back in the mid- to late-2010s, streaming services helped create a rush of boundary-pushing shows. But the medium that was once referred to as “the small screen” is now just another screen, and TV’s creative and economic environments have shifted.
Those same streaming services now double as media companies. And while we often hear that they are struggling financially, there are also more new shows to watch than ever before.
To make sense of all this, The Show spoke to Peter Murrieta, the deputy director at Arizona State University’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School, the interim associate dean at ASU's Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts in Los Angeles, and a TV writer and producer.
He said TV has entered a new era.
Full conversation
PETER MURRIETA: I would say we’re in the playlist era of TV.
DINGMAN: Oh, interesting.
MURRIETA: As opposed to the previous era of appointment viewing. I think when you look at how people watch and you go online, you’ll see a lot of people announcing they’re doing a rewatch of something that they loved for comfort, or you’re seeing small selections of things that are being tossed around in social media, which drive people to the original thing.
And so in some ways it reminds me of how exciting it was when Spotify began and you realized, “I could listen to almost anything in the history of music,” as opposed to when I was younger, where you would have to seek these things out.
DINGMAN: Interesting. So it’s almost like the ethos that now dictates music, where the idea is everything is available and you curate it yourself based on the whims of social media and the algorithm, rather than a major studio kind of making a bold statement about where they think people’s tastes are headed.
MURRIETA: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right. And I think the studios still feel and have power in that marketing way, in the distribution way. We’re living in this time, the in-between place. Like, I absolutely agree with you.
But at the same time, I would say for the proof of what I’m talking about, you can just see that Tim Robinson’s “The Chair Company” is out, and you go online and you can see quick clips from it on TikTok, on Instagram in Reels.
And these are the moments that people are talking about, which are driving people to the show. And sure, the studio’s probably got a hand in some of it, but it’s also the fans themselves and the culture that are driving it.
DINGMAN: It also seems to me — and please tell me if this is off base — there’s been this interesting discourse recently of Gen Z folks say discovering shows like “Girls” or “Sex & the City” or “The Wire” for the first time, watching them in the middle 2020s without the social and cultural context happening around them that existed when those shows were first released and prompting this reconsideration of them that sometimes is flattering and sometimes is perhaps not so flattering. Is that something you’ve observed?
MURRIETA: Sure. Absolutely. Let’s talk about a show — not one of the ones you listed — let’s talk about “Suits.” Great example of something that was from the USA Network and ran many seasons and then found this incredible online audience coming just out of the pandemic and to such a degree that the show rocketed to the top of the charts on Netflix, where it now lives, and created a desire for a brand new “Suits” to be made, which only lasted one season, and it was canceled.
DINGMAN: Right.
MURRIETA: And so you look at that and you’re like, “Well, what is that about?” Well, I think that’s about the people who found “Suits,” what did they really love about it?
I think what they loved is it was very comforting. Each episode had a beginning, middle and end, and it also had a lot of episodes. And that capture gave that generation something they could chew on for a while.
DINGMAN: It almost seems like, from what you’re saying, that what they’re reacting to may not even be — and I know this is not unique to Gen Z — but what they’re reacting to with “Suits” is as much the story of the show as the feeling of comfort that comes from discovering a new world that you can really kind of sink into.
MURRIETA: Yeah. It’s the same emotional feeling you get that I got when I was a teen and my uncle would hand me a record album and say, “This is the Rolling Stones. I think you’re going to want to know about this.” And then I’m in the ’80s discovering rock from the '60s by way of someone else handing it to me.
And that’s the online equivalent of the computer algorithm on one hand. But I would also say it’s the communities that grow up around the fandoms that grow up around shows. Like, I’m very excited to see this new (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) series that’s coming. And just read this morning about the original cast, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s in it.
The creator of the new “Buffy“ talked about how it’s very much a sequel. It’s not a reboot, it’s not a reimagine. And that feels like someone who understands a contemporary audience and how to engage them.
DINGMAN: That’s interesting to me because I can remember about 10 years ago, at this point, a similar boomlet of attempts like this to recapture lost glory. There was the reboot of “Gilmore Girls.” There was the reboot of “The X Files.”
MURRIETA: Reboot of “Sex & the City.”
DINGMAN: Exactly, exactly. And the sense I have is that most of those reboots didn’t fare so well.
Do you think there’s a sense in the industry that they’ve figured out how to do it right this time?
MURRIETA: Well, you always hope so. I think the tension between them is economic and creative. And the streaming wars are over, and Netflix won. And now the folks that went up against them are having to figure out how to become profitable and what is their streaming service doing? So I think that’s always going to be the thing.
But I would say in terms of being a TV advocate and where I’ve centered most of my career, not all of it, TV is still the one place, in spite of all that you just said and I just said, where an original idea can win the day.
I think when an original film does well, there’s lots of ink spilled about it. When “Sinners“ does well, there’s stories. Oh my gosh, an original movie. But with TV, I love that, you know, there’ll always be room for “The Bear” and “The Chair Company.” I think TV is still that place where success can come with something brand new. They’re building more sound stages in Hollywood at the same time they’re telling us they’re not making as much.
DINGMAN: Right.
MURRIETA: So that begs a question. And then my follow up to my own question is, there was an announcement that I believe Netflix made not too long ago, where they said after possibly a quarterly earnings call, that they see only YouTube as their competition. And I was very excited to see YouTube’s sort of response to it, which was YouTube pays its creators better than Netflix.
So you’re like, “Oh, wow, OK. So they’re speaking about the creator economy. They’re not speaking about the legacy business.” And yet, if you find a way to push through on YouTube and find an audience, it’s a very exciting time if you’ve got an idea, I think.
