Nothing says new fall season quite like the Emmys, and, as if to efface the industry’s new rebirth into a “golden age,” previous season’s winners Desperate Housewives and Lost are almost nowhere to be found, and you see Kiefer Sutherland walk off the stage, his first Emmy in hand. But that speaks to the nature of why Americans enjoy television in the first place.
As Adam Nock, a freshman in math education, said, he likes “it when they change around.”
And without a doubt this past season was nothing but trial-and-error for the networks.
NBC, faced with a severe ratings drop and unable to rely on Law & Order or comedies they simply no longer had, attempted a myriad of new shows, almost none of which seem to have made it to their ’06-’07 season.
Last season also saw a temporary resurgence of the Sci-Fi genre; four networks filmed five sci-fi and supernatural shows, four of which have been cancelled. Though fans of WB’s Supernatural, which managed to discover a niche that exists somewhere between Smallville and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, will be happy to hear of the show’s eminent return. As for the rest of the community, they’ll have to settle for the seminal Battlestar Galactica, returning in the beginning of October. How sad for them.
Fox, always on the utter flip-side of good sense, decided to try nothing, and sat on the goldmine that has become known as 24, as well as returning Family Guy to its estranged audience and pumping funds into two of television’s rising deities, Prison Break and House.
In an oddly experimental maneuver, Lost and Desperate Housewives put emphasis on their previous season’s secondary themes, i.e., the spiritual and the social thriller, respectively, and made viewer’s affairs with the shows a distinct divide between love and hate.
As if to affirm the increasing level of escapism television is offering people as a whole, last season also saw the end of eight years of The West Wing, as well as a quick end to a promising opening season of Commander-in-Chief, which focused mainly on a female Independent president of America. Those looking for topical political jabs and observations, in that order, need only apply to Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley’s Boston Legal, which usually has at least one case per episode ripped and scrutinized, verbatim, off the front page.
With all this work surrounding the unending desire for ratings, what reasons do the targeted audiences have to continue to pursue any of the shows the networks are intent on pushing?
While Allen Driggers, a junior in history, sociology and women’s studies, said he really has “to want to watch something to take time out.” Driggers said as far as the favorite shows are concerned, “we’ll all get together [to watch them].”” It’s a testament to the quality of the programming when, even after you have moved to this new stage in your life, gained and lost relationships and experience new folds in reality each day, that we can still take time to sit down and bask in the warm glow.
Shows returning this season speak to these deeply human endeavors, House M.D.(Nock and Driggers’ favorite), returning in the beginning of September, lies in the wake of the series’ lead and namesake questioning the abilities of himself, his staff and even reality itself.
Lost, making its comeback in the beginning of October (though in mid-November it will go on hiatus for 13 weeks), sees the castaways recovering from the detonation of a mysterious weapon on the island. While three major cast members’ lives hang in the balance, the rest of the cast lie under the watchful eye of The Others and a mysterious third party.
Emmy winner for Best Comedy, The Office, returning to work September 26, continues from the cliffhanger ending of the second season, where Jim finally confesses his feelings for Pam, even though Jim has taken a job elsewhere in the company and Pam is about to get married.
Fear not, fans and newcomers to The O.C.; your guilty-pleasure viewing is scheduled to return November 2. Eager fans of 24 and Scrubs, however, will likely have to wait until around next January before their respective cliffhangers are continued. Those needing their action-drama and medical-comedy fixes, respectively, should introduce themselves to the third seasons of Prison Break and Grey’s Anatomy.
Whether we’re making this time to escape to a simpler world or possibly even to reconnect with it, television, in one way or another, profoundly affects our day-to-day lives, and this season’s returning shows appear to demonstrate the creators’ artistic respect for, not only the medium, but the ever-evolving tastes of the viewer.
