Act Four: The future of television

It's hard to know what television might look like in the future until we settle on how much of it there will be.   Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics   Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford in Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series “Feud.” (Suzanne Tenner/FX) Every week, I answer a question from the Monday Act Four Live chat in the Wednesday edition of this newsletter. To read the transcript of the April 24 chat, click here, and to submit questions for the May 1 chat, click here. This week, a reader wants to know what’s next for television in a mutable landscape. How do you see TV changing in the future? Do you think in ten years (assuming no nuclear winter) the networks will become more like FX, perhaps, with less stringent time/season length requirements on shows, more anthologies, producing a lot more of their own shows, etc.? FX, of course, has the advantage that they can fill as much or as little of a prime-time schedule as they want (and it’s also obviously true that some networks have been moving in that direction a bit). And if the big three networks don’t go in that direction, what other options might they have to survive? Sports, sports, sports? My main guess about the future of television is that some point, there will be less of it. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems as though a couple of things are going on. First, I think the cable bundle is in trouble, and if it erodes dramatically, a lot of little networks will find that they’re not able to survive the transition to an a la carte model. Second, audiences are fragmenting. I know a subscription model means a show can survive with a much smaller audience and still be renewed for subsequent seasons, but at a certain point, we’ll have to find out just how low that threshold is. Once that happens, I’m not sure how we’ll see things evolve. Clearly, FX has learned that it can generate big audiences by following the very specific vision of someone like Ryan Murphy rather than making television that’s as inoffensive as possible, and my hope is that even if the television ecosystem shrinks, networks will continue to try to tell these sorts of stories. I worry that in an implosion, some networks will again decide that “relatable” means white or male, rather than recognizing that shows such as “Fresh Off the Boat” and “One Day at a Time” can be universal and specific all at once. Whatever happens, I wouldn’t take this moment for granted. And if the television business does contract, at least maybe we’ll all have time to catch up on the great shows that are airing now but that we simply haven’t found room for in our schedules. When that time comes, “The Leftovers” will be first on my list. ADVERTISEMENT   ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and the power of dystopian fiction in the Trump era What should we learn from dystopian fiction when reality is straining the limits of plausiblity. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘Hamilton’ is associated with Obama. It’s a better musical with him out of office. Tying pieces of pop culture such as "Hamilton" or "Girls" too closely to any political moment ends up shrinking the work those comparisons are intended to elevate. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   You don’t have to choose between art’s politics and aesthetics. And you shouldn’t. Political readings of work will always be stronger when critics look at aesthetics. And of course artists have ideas. That's the whole point. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ and messy encounters between black and white women The movie does a reasonably interesting job of exploring the fraught relationship between Deborah Lacks, Henrietta Lacks's daughter, and freelance science writer Rebecca Skloot. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘Silicon Valley,’ Season 4, Episode 1 review: ‘Success Failure’ What if an industry congratulated itself on changing the world while missing the revolution in its midst? By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   Intersect The corner of the Internet and interesting, in your inbox weekly. Sign Up »         Share Act Four:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you signed up for Act Four. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here. We respect your privacy. If you believe that this email has been sent to you in error or you no longer wish to receive email from The Washington Post, click here. Contact us for help. ©2017 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071