TARAJI P. Henson, recently nominated for a best actress Emmy (drama), stars in the hit show “Empire.”
What’s getting viewers excited on the television scene this season? Topping our trending list this quarter is the succinctly-named “binge viewing” fad: This refers to a program’s die-hard fans’ desire to watch their favorite shows to the exclusion of most anything else on view—literally from morning till night!
This was epitomized recently by the hit show, “Empire,” which promoted an all-day viewing “telethon” of past episodes of the “addictive” series!
Personally, we can’t imagine getting quite so exclusively fixated on just one TV program—unless it’s “Saturday Night Live,” which we confess to have watched some months ago for an entire morning, a month’s worth of telecasts, nonstop!
What about you, fellow couch kamote, which program would you want to view over and over again until you drift off to slumberland—with a sated, satisfied smile? Please don’t say it’s “Rich-Bitch Housewives of Humperdinck!”
When it comes to movies, some fanatics proudly boast that they’ve screened “Gone with the Wind” for 40 times! Our personal best is having watched “Bye Bye Birdie” (of all films!) for something like six times (don’t ask us why). But, we do know a super-duper-mega-hyper-fan of “The Sound of Music” who watched that hit movie musical for 50 times—and lived to boast about it!
Another new TV “trending” habit that’s giving viewers a novel kick is the increasing popularity of “guerrilla” shows that they can now access on alternative viewing “platforms” without the major support and control of the big TV networks.
LARRY David (left) with Jerry Seinfeld in “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”
Some star value
These purely indie and budget productions include programs with some star value, like Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” a “road” show in which he just drives around town with an old, iconic comedian and shoots the breeze about any and all topics—laughing all the way!
Another pacesetter is Lisa Kudrow’s “Web Therapy,” a Skype-based program in which she plays a loopy psychiatrist—who’s a basket case in her own right! She dares to dispense “wise” advice to her patients, some of whom are portrayed by famous stars —and a fun, “crazy” time is had by all, the “gonzo” show’s viewers included!
LISA Kudrow in “Web Therapy”
Other indie programs are even less secure in terms of viewer recall, because they topbill hosts whom mainstream TV would snittily dismiss as utter nobodies. Fact is, they may start out as obscure bloggers, but they quickly develop a loyal if grungy following, because televiewers love the alternative vigor they espouse and vivify.
We’re keen on pushing this development, because we believe that the old, “mainstream” TV system has become tired and predictable, and should be supplemented if not supplanted with other shows and production setups that march to a less exhausted and more idiosyncratic and syncopated drummer!
Specifically, we find that the arts are being poorly served by traditional TV, so we hope that the new bloggers-turned-producers trend will result in more shows that promote art and culture—which the country sorely needs to enable it to reclaim the soul it’s lost for, lo, all these post-new millennial years.