UNDER CONSTRUCTION
We live in a real golden age of entertainment. You can argue, and I think convincingly, that the advances and freedoms of the digital age have allowed across the board for entertainment to be… better, and at the very least widely acceptable in multiple, and usually superior formats.
TV, thanks in large part to the advances of streaming, and now streaming broadcast options, shows get to live, that couldn’t or wouldn’t be allowed under the old Network model. Netflix in just a few years has gone from DVD and content repackager to arguably a studio/network with a hit list/quality level… unequaled.
Similar to Marvel Studios which can do no wrong on the big screen, the Netflix original productions, particularly the Marvel entries, are stellar examples of groundbreaking TV. The first season of DAREDEVIL in terms of action and sophistication blew the doors off, and the first season of LUKE CAGE in terms of using genre fiction to say something vital and important to the world outside our fictions, is revelatory.
And it is not just Netflix, across the board the writing has never been as sophisticated and just plain good. I can easily name a dozen and a half shows I’m loving:
WALLANDER (both, but original Swedish version, I like more)
RIPPER STREET
MUSKETEERS
THE STRAIN
HELL ON WHEELS
POLDARK
AGENTS OF SHIELD
GRIMM
DAREDEVIL
LUKE CAGE
JESSICA JONES
PERSON OF INTEREST
BLACKLIST
SUPERGIRL
FLASH
WAYWARD PINES
GOOD WIFE
HOUSE OF CARDS (US)
Heroic Times 