Topic 4: imagine the best TV show ever

[bironic]

daasgrrl asked: What combination of things would make for the Best TV Show Ever?

It will be a drama.

Above all, it will need to pass the litmus test of a character being able to say, "When I died..." The possibility of surviving death is what draws me to most of the books and shows I've loved. It works for vampires, devils and sci fi technology, among other things. Maybe medical dramas, too, if the docs are really good. :) So that helps establish the genre.

Excellent writing is important. It'll have smart, witty dialogue, but not the smug-quippy one-liner stuff that tries to pass for witty on shows like CSI. And it'll be well written on a larger scale, too -- episodes make sense, arcs build, and the production team pays attention to continuity.

There will be many women characters, and they will be written like people and not like stereotypes.

MINIMAL SMIRKING.

It will star some impossible combination of favorite actors/actresses. Not picky about who gets picked from the long list!

Characters will not spend the whole show bickering or undermining one another. Chosen family is lovely, although not a requirement (I think), but I don't like what developed on shows like House where there were no support networks for anyone and bad stuff kept happening.

It will air on HBO or Showtime or Netflix, because that means (1) episodes can be up to 60 minutes long and not have the roller coaster of mini dramatic arcs demanded by commercial breaks, (2) the production values will be incredible, and (3) sex! Including nontraditional sex.

Which brings me to the last item on the wish list: There will be many characters among whom relationships are possible. Sort of like how on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Vampire Diaries or True Blood or even SGA, you could point to evidence supporting an argument for a relationship between/among any two or three or four characters in a given season, including villains, only this time it would be on screen. So you never know when sexual tension will turn into something more. M/F, M/M, F/F, M/M/F, F/F/M, OT4, whatever. NO MORE of this "heroine must choose between two men" stuff that lasts year after year - on cable TV, she shouldn't have to choose! Cut through the drama leftover from decades of conservative network control! Let's focus on a different plot. Oh, and an asexual character would be nice, too. Sigh.

Well, and I guess the last thing is that fandom friends would get into the show and have fun either writing commentary about it or playing in it.

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What are your litmus tests, by the way? I seem to recall ellen_fremedon's has something to do with robots, for example.

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(Still accepting topics, btw.)

Comments

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

MINIMAL grinnING.

I have a feeling my find-and-replace script is trying to tell me something about how that sentence originally read. ;D I could not agree more.

The possibility of canon OT3 would definitely be part of my perfect show. I never thought about that. Robots, artificial intelligences, aliens, and all other non-human or non-biological intelligences would have to be treated with equal respect as humans while allowing for actual differences -- which would be very much present and explored. The show would take itself seriously but have a light tone most of the time and a sense of humor all of the time, and it would balance episodic plots with arc plots from beginning to end.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

The "could there be a giant robot?" test is cincodemaygirl's litmus test. Mine is the "You fool!" test-- there needs to be a reasonable chance that a character could exclaim "You fool!" at some point.

[elfy.livejournal.com]

That is seriously very interesting and makes me try to think what my ideal series would be like ... honestly, it's something I have not idea whatsoever about o.O I enjoy good series and movies, but I have a really hard time figuring out what connects them ...
I couldn't even answer that litmus test question.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Cool! I actually have no idea what I want in a TV show, but judging from past experience, my tests are "should be based on Sherlock Holmes in some way" or "be a tragi-comic Britcom" plus "have a cast I find pleasing". Excluding XF, which doesn't count as a fandom because I... didn't actually like the show, almost everything I've loved boils down to one or the other. At a pinch, "asocial genius" can stand in for "Sherlock Holmes". Therefore "a tragi-comic Britcom based on Sherlock Holmes" starring actors whom I adore should just about do it. Or not.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ah, right, the fool! Sorry. Whose was the robot? The name didn't come through in your comment.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry! Cinco's.

[sholio]

*ponders* My tastes are so completely all over the map that this is a very hard question to answer! The first thing that came to mind, I guess, is that if I could build my "perfect" show from the ground up, it would be a sci-fi or fantasy show with strong, coherent worldbuilding/plotting and a large ensemble cast with lots of women, racial diversity (not just "oh, we have a couple minor non-white characters" but mostly PoC, especially in a future setting), disabled people, queer people, non-neurotypical people, etc. I would like most of the female characters to be something other than young and femmily beautiful -- old, fat, butch, whatever. The show would often be funny but would have a serious side, blending together a mix of comedy, serious character development, and occasional tragedy.

Basically it would be my favorite aspects of shows like Buffy, SGA, Torchwood, etc. all rolled into one show, with a much wider variety of female physical types than you tend to see on TV.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

The section that starts with "Excellent writing" and ends in "MINIMAL SMIRKING" describes Justified perfectly. It's on FX, which means I'm always at least one season behind, because I can't pay for that cable package, but you can get it on Amazon Prime. I've got as far as the end of S3, and at that point? A thing that happened in the first scene of the pilot episode is still affecting the plot in major ways.

I can't answer the question, though, about what's a perfect show for me. I know I need there to be humor, but not sitcom!humor. I need it to come from the characters, to be the kind of thing that feels natural to them and is way funnier if you've been watching a while and you know them. Justified and Person of Interest are both good at that. I like the shadowy/violent/funny combo a lot. Your taste for SF and magical stuff is one I share, yet I find so few shows that do them very well for very long.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Oh God do I want to watch this.

(I hope it has a speculative fiction bent. I love spec fic.)

[cincodemaygirl.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. The giant robot test includes way more TV shows than you'd think--there was an actual giant robot (...for values of giant) in How I Met Your Mother, for example (Neil Patrick Harris forced the group to attend his terrible experimental theater piece where he danced in a robot costume).

"You fool" is probably more inclusive than it sounds, also--it just requires theatrical people. :D

This was very fun to read, and I think I'd like the show you describe, too!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I'd watch that.

I have a feeling my find-and-replace script is trying to tell me something about how that sentence originally read

Heh. It's just that I've passed my tolerance level for the @$%*$! smirking of people like that guy from The Mentalist and Ian Somerhalder/Damon from The Vampire Diaries and what feels like every male main character in a commercial on a major TV network.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It's hard! The describing, I mean. It's like having "a type" you think you're attracted to, but then someone/some show comes along and you're smitten even though it doesn't fit the mold.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I'd articulated to myself the "When I died" thing a few years back, but hadn't thought about the rest until sitting down to answer the question. Kind of fun!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Would that not be BBC Sherlock? HAVE YOU ALREADY MET YOUR PERFECT SHOW?

/weirdness (and also inadvertent early posting of comment due to keyboard mishap)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I'd watch that, for sure. Have you seen any Orange Is the New Black? It's got plenty of flaws, but with the ensemble cast of racially and physically diverse women, I feel like if you mixed that in to your listed sources you might come close to what you're looking for.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

+1. Now where do we sign up to recruit producers? :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

+1 for Timothy Olyphant. I've never watched an episode of Justified. Hm.

I need it to come from the characters, to be the kind of thing that feels natural to them and is way funnier if you've been watching a while and you know them.

Good one. I agree, although it's also nice to have some more general humor to help in the recruiting of people who aren't yet fans. I'm thinking of BtVS seasons three and four in particular, which I used to lure in some friends and my boyfriend because many of the jokes were accessible to them, and then later when they were familiar with the characters and got back to those episodes, the experience was all the richer for the jokes and insights they hadn't picked up on the first time.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hey! It's not technically a Britcom... although with Mark Gatiss at the helm... let me get back to you on that one ;)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:D

So, like, maybe the outtake reels?

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

OH GOD I WISH ;D

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

It's been ages since I've watched any Buffy, but I used to love it. I ought to dive back in sometime.

I know just what you mean, and I'd say Justified is like Buffy was, in that respect. I originally came in at the end of S2 and was hooked instantly. I want to get my gushing-fangirl mode on, here, but I'll restrain myself and say yes, Timothy Olyphant, and also Walton Goggins, who plays his friend/enemy and they have a pretty intense, dangerous-feeling chemistry. If you like that sort of thing, well, that's the sort of thing it is.