As of late, popular television shows demand more than just an hour (or 12) of your day; they are increasingly requiring a viewer with an IQ more than 70. Sure, there still exists the brilliant programming of MTV and the Home Shopping Network to close the gap, but networks are beginning to cater to those formerly bored by formulaic sitcoms and soapish dramas.
This generation, filled with collegians, is smarter than the average couch potato. They have wants and needs independent of toilet humor and”she slept with her brother’s ex’s dog’s sister’s dealer” plot lines. They crave innovation, novelty, and an excuse to feel good about spending hours at a time in front of an inanimate object.
Crime shows like “Law and Order” and “CSI” (with all of its illegitimate prime-time babies) are a whole new breed of television shows that use ballistics, DNA evidence, interrogation techniques and good old fashioned sleuthing to solve the case before you can say “When is Mariska Hargitay coming back from maternity leave?”
The two dimensional program becomes interactive, causing the viewer to use inferences and higher-order thinking skills to follow Brisco and Greene into the East River on a dive to retrieve the body of a mob boss. People enjoy watching these shows because they like solving the cases along with the experts. It makes them think – not drink the night away.
Another development in recent years is the reinvention of the medical-drama genre. Such shows range from seasoned veteran “ER,” to newbie “House” which earned its lead actor Hugh Laurie a Golden Globe earlier this month. These dramas are significantly smarter than their parents from the ’60s and ’70s that focused more on in-house relations than conditions. They were as smart as they could be, but as the medical field has developed, so has the medical drama.
Fox’s “House” practically invented the medical/diagnostic mystery genre with patients suffering from such maladies as”Whoozit’s Disease” in the second chromosome of the”dweedledoo” gene and orgasm-inducing strokes. Shows like this demand a breadth of knowledge from their audience, but especially from their writers who must constantly create accurate but interesting conditions each week. Smarter writers; smarter audience.
Even dramas like “Lost” and “Heroes” have incredibly complex mythologies that require their writers to keep viewers interested, yet able to follow plot twists and new developments. But smart as they are, the writers of “Lost” have made it clear that they don’t know what is happening on Looney Island. If it’s even an island.
Dramas aren’t the only ones cashing in on the upward trend of competence. Newer comedies are also abandoning slapstick and fart jokes in favor of political satire and pop media allusion. But in order to understand the jokes, you have to have an idea of what’s going on in the world.
Steve Carell’s Emmy- winning Michael Scott would fall flat without his mistaken historical references and hilariously offensive racial and sexual comments. And shows like “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” have somehow made politics seems more ridiculous than they already are. We are currently living in the era of the “smart comedy,” and I don’t see it going away soon.
With its growth in popularity and even greater accessibility to the public, the once shunned retarded brother of film is finally gaining credibility with better produced programming and more complex and diverse plot lines.
But if you still prefer less intellectually stimulating shows fit for a comatose patient, fear not – marathons of “Parental Control,” “Next” and “The Real World: Moronville” will be on the air for years to come. Reality TV is the only genre that seems to be actually regressing. The world needs a new reality show like a fish needs a new bike.
Don’t worry. If it’s mindless boob tubing that appeals to your witless and anserine appetite, you still have the majority of programming to fall back on. Oh, and that new “Hey Paula” show looks like a winner too.