Missing Good Television

Lately, I have been missing good television. At the risk of sounding like an old person declaring, “Things were better back in my day. . .,” television really WAS better about ten years ago. I miss shows like The X Files, ER (Pre. all the original cast leaving), Friends¸ etc. I don’t know if it has been the influx of reality television, or just a string of really bad ideas, but shows do not seem to be as high quality anymore.

I do watch two shows regularly: House and Bones. House IS smartly written. Despite last year’s season finale, it is normally not predictable. It is fresh, funny, and engaging. It is about the only show out there that I have seen that is. (At least on non-cable channels…) I love bones, but I recognize that it is not a “great” show. Lately, the writers have been pandering the fans and making the show’s primary focus the relationship between Booth and Bones. As a result, the show seems a bit corny lately and forced. The writers are taking a too heavy-handed approach.

What I am most upset about is that people do not seem to recognize the lacking quality in television shows these days. Much to my horror, a Bones fan actually compared the relationship between Booth and Bones to that of Mulder and Scully on the X files. I do not see how the writing or the chemistry even compares. The great thing about the X files was that the relationship between Mulder and Scully seemed organic. It seemed to evolve naturally out of the series of events that occurred on the show. It was not the center of the series. The storylines still took center stage, yet the relationship was just as engaging as ever. Better yet, the writers didn’t seem to have a stronghold over the direction of Mulder and Scully’s relationship. It was slow in developing and the writer’s relied on using little interactions, like a look or a touch to keep the audience coming back for more. That worked. Booth and Bones are cute at best. Their trajectory toward love seemed planned on the first episode. The writers forcibly put them in scenes that do not fit with the overall storyline of the episodes, just to get them in a romantic situation. It works, but limitedly. I repeat, it is not great television.

I suppose someone could argue that television is just as good now as it was ten years ago. They could say that all my conjectures are opinion based. Well, to that someone out there, prove me wrong. I dare you!