Having just watched the entire 6 seasons of Lost continuously over a 2 week period, I've found myself with a little bit of a gap now that I've watched the TV show in it's entirety. What other TV show can show you as much mystery, intrigue and absolute weirdness with more than enough drama to keep you hooked. Looking at the spread of today's series, I have to say, there's really nothing to compare to. Was Lost the last of it's kind or has it inevitably changed the face of television and brought us here to the present state of television shows. Perhaps it's like the old adage "All roads have led us here".
In the 80's and 90's we had shows like MacGyver and Knight Rider, who each week solve a different crime and so on. This method and style seemed apt for the time and provided enough entertainment for the entire family. Morality played through subliminally enforcing the message that crime doesn't pay and the good guys always win.
Then there's sex on television. We didn't see even half as much skin as we do nowadays. Everyone seemed to tip toe carefully around sex and there wasn't much action to speak of. The only types of drama that carried a storyline throughout each season would be the daily soaps. Yes, we're talking about All My Children, Days of Our Lives and their forerunners, Dallas and Dynasty.
Things changed slowly but surely providing more action in all aspects whether it be more sex, more violence and more profanity. Shows like Oz and Sopranos popped up and the landscape of television started changing. Suddenly heroes weren't the good guys that we've come to know of before, they were now criminals and viewers seemed engrossed by this.
Shows then started getting bolder and bolder with shows like Dexter, portraying the life of a modern day serial killer who's also a cop, House, a doctor who's addicted to painkillers but helps people in his own special way and so on and so on.
Sex became less of a television taboo, with homosexuality being portrayed more easily. Will & Grace paved the way and made gays on television shows more digestable to the mainstream market and demographic. Sex as a whole however became more accessible and shows like Californication are a product of this progression.
We now look at present TV shows like Ray Donovan, Breaking Bad, True Blood, Banshee and countless others now pushing all these boundaries towards what will be an uncertain next few years. There will be imitations and carbon copies of these shows but it's all going towards more violence, more profanity and most definitely more sex. Shows 10 years from now will be far different from what we know of now but let's all enjoy the ride and hope that as all things change that the stories and writing will improve also and none of it will be senseless.
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