Promotional image for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Social movement and streaming services
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
When something happens in the world of TV, the landscape changes. Last year, accusations made during the #MeToo movement caused a lot of men in famous shows to be removed from their roles. Also, this led to shows being cancelled or revised to cause their storylines to change. Another big change in television has come with people thinking that streaming services would replace traditional television, yet with surprise hits in network TV and the amount of great shows in premium cable being reduced, there are great shows in every type of television. All these things cause the future of television to change.
The alleged actions of male actors in the film and TV industry potentially led to Kevin Spacey being removed from House of Cards, FX cancelling Louie and all of Louis C.K.’s comedy specials being removed from HBO Go and Netflix, and someone in Star Trek: Discovery being removed from that show. Regarding House of Cards, with the last season of the show focusing on Frank Underwood’s wife, Claire Underwood, this could be the beginning of women being the protagonists in many more shows.
Similar accusations have caused Jeffrey Tambor to leave Transparent, and will probably cause fewer people to watch that show. Recently, a famous Canadian actor named Albert Schultz received allegations from four women that he worked with in his theatre company Soulpepper Theatre Company, which produced Kim’s Convenience and inspired the number one comedy in Canada, possibly affecting that show.
Most of the great shows today are on premium cable and streaming services, which is also a way that the future of TV is changing, even if there are still many good shows on network TV. There is This is Us, which is the number one show right now, even though it is sad; Young Sheldon, which is fun if you are a fan of The Big Bang Theory; and The Good Doctor, which is filmed in Vancouver.
A lot of classic shows came back in the past few years including The X-Files, Full House as Fuller House, and Will and Grace, and more of these shows will be back in the future including Roseanne. Crime shows are starting to be less interesting now with NCIS no longer being the number one show, though crime shows are still going strong in Canada with Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake Mysteries, and Cardinal, which began its second season last week. When Game of Thrones and Veep air their final seasons, there will be not a lot of shows on premium cable.
After these shows end, the only great shows on HBO are Westworld and Insecure, and the only great show on Showtime is Twin Peaks. In comparison, the streaming service Netflix has a lot of shows and arguably has the quality of HBO’s shows and films at the same time, including one of my favourite shows Master of None, which is the streaming service’s Girls. The other streaming services do not have a lot of great shows right now, with Hulu having the Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale and Amazon Prime Video having The Grand Tour, and with a show that involves The Lord of the Rings being shown in Amazon Prime Video, it could change everything again.
Despite these changes, television will still exist in the future and when a big thing happens in the world of television again, the future of the industry, naturally, will change again.
