So stop me if any of this sounds familiar.
Hey, I just watched that show on <insert streaming platform name here> that my well-meaning friend told me to watch, called <Insert Show Title Here>.
It was pretty good, started off pretty well, but it sagged in the middle, probably should have been 2-3 episodes shorter than it was, but was alright by the end.
My case in point, I finally got around to The Night Agent. (I know, I’m SO ahead of the curve…) Now this show had a lot going for it in my estimations, being a fan of 24 and The Shield from the golden age of TV in the early 2000s, anything with a political conspiracy and created by Shawn “The Shield… the sheep?” Ryan was probably going to be great.
Nighty Night Agent
Now, this show has a decent write up on Rotten Tomatoes, so I am sure it has its fans amongst people listening, and it is not without a kernel of good ideas, even though it still maintains a lot of the tropes of the spy genre. “What? The super helpful person who is definitely on your side, uh, isn’t? Shocker!”
But it fell victim to this fairly standard pattern in streaming shows; good set up, decent ending (despite questionable use of a very famous Bowie song) but a saggy middle, where the main characters go on a bunch of side quests to slowly fill out the space in between,
Does any of this sound familiar? Mandalorian fans, I’m talking to you…
Dollar bills
In fact pretty much any Disney+ Star Wars or Marvel series could be used as a prime example of this. And yes, I’m sure Andor IS great, but I haven’t gotten around to that one yet, because there’s just so many others to get through first, and I tell ya, it’s hard to find the motivation after some of the others.
Now, I’m not saying streaming hasn’t brought some improvements to how TV works. The lack of adverts is good (well, until recently, right Jeff? You not making quite enough money over there, you need TV ad revenue in your streaming service too? Nothing greedy about that…) and the slightly higher likelihood to let more niche programs find their audience (Would my beloved Firefly have fared better in the age of Stream? Probably not, since everyone hates Joss now, but it is a thought that keeps me up at night)
However, some of my favourite shows in the history of TV have been one or two season cancel babies, such as (Firefly, The Middleman and Carnivale). Things like Chuck lasted a bit longer thanks to Subway sponsorship, but still, some might argue that some of the most inventive and interesting TV shows were only made that way because of those pressures, because their necks were constantly on the cancellation block, and passionate, creative writers and show-runners didn’t want their great idea for a show to get lost before it found its audience.
The issue with streaming
Here’s the problem. When you create a show for a streaming service, the only advertisers or sponsors you need to please are the ones running that platform, all that matters is the number of memberships you get because of that show, and that it doesn’t cost the earth to make.
Streaming shows are judged on how much they cost to make vs how many people are coming to your platform for that specific show, and less on actual ratings, or viewer appreciation scores, data about which streaming platforms are often reluctant to share, probably because they can’t be bothered to collect it.
And the reason why? It’s because it doesn’t matter to them. Money talks, and with no external money stream driving a TV studio to make sure they make the highest quality possible product, so that people watch the show and are advertised to, and consume like good little consumers, there is no motivation for this product (or show, if you will) to be anything above just good enough.
Cost a lot? Get axed!
Really great shows get axed because they cost to produce. (Yes, I’m still bitter about The Expanse Jeffrey…) but something middle of the road with that guy from that other thing you like in it? Oh we can churn those out, no problem.
This is not to say that all streaming shows are bad, there are good ideas being had here, by the few creative producers that haven’t been replaced with AI yet, but for my money, stuff like The Night Agent, and all those other shows that have the same problems, well, they probably would have made better films.
American TV in the streaming age: Have we thrown the (dancing) baby out with the bathwater?
So, in my opinion, TV that was made in the era of dancing babies, and mob bosses going to therapy, which had this kind of accountability to external financial pressures, was of a higher quality. Watching TV may have been more annoying, because who likes watching adverts? But the actual quality of programming may have taken a hit because of the lack of that accountability.
But now since ads in streaming are creeping in more and more, we face the disheartening prospect of the worst of both worlds. Cheery thought huh. Let’s see what else is on, its about time I got around to The Man in the High Castle…
The author of this piece is a friend of The Nerdi Paradox and one half of the Jambags Gaming Podcast, Mr Dante Rodriguez. If you like his stuff, consider checking out the Jambags Comedy Gaming Podcast.
And if you enjoyed this content (first of all thank you), you may find more to like over at our YouTube and Twitch! Or if you want to shoot the shit with us, feel free to join us on Discord or say hello on Facebook (We know, we’re old), Instagram, or Twitter-X. Check out our other articles here