Miss Media Junkie vs. the Monoculture

Reading up on the writeups of television in 2013, it’s clear that it’s been a very good year. Critics have been gushing over the variety and quantity of quality television, though some have also bemoaned the fact that so many of the best shows were relatively obscure programs watched by only a handful of people.

There have also been a couple of pieces, notably the The Year TV Got Small by Andy Greenwald over at Grantland, that have noted the death of the television “monoculture,” which depends on millions of people all tuning into the same broadcast at the same time. Where once there were only three television networks and you could count on large segments of the American population to tune in to prime time, now there are only a few events that people watch live, like the Superbowl, or the final run of “Breaking Bad” episodes. So you can’t count on there being many major TV cultural touchstones anymore. The monoculture has given way to an increasingly fragmented multiculture.

And I couldn’t be happier. It’s only because of the fragmentation and smaller audiences that the new Golden Age of television is possible. Instead of only a handful of big shows that appeal to the mainstream, surrounded by mediocre second-stringers, we have dozens and dozens of shows with wildly different sensibilities, trying all kinds of different approaches to engage different audiences. There are so many of them, that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with them all, and I don’t envy the new breed of television reviewers that have to wade through massive amounts of content to keep up with the ongoing critical conversations surrounding TV these days. The list of shows I’m interested in checking out never seems to end, and I frequently fall behind on the shows that I am watching.

There is always going to be event television, like sporting events, award shows, royal weddings, and election nights. Thus, there are always going to be the shared cultural touchstones, like Miley Cyrus’s twerking at the MTV Music awards a a few months ago. When something momentous happens in the world, people are still going to leave the televisions on, even if they’re simultaneously surfing the internet to search for more information. For the rest of television content, though, I admit I don’t see the point to having a monoculture. The most popular shows on the air right now are not ones I tend to watch. Of 2013’s highest rated television shows on network and cable, the only one I watch with any regularity anymore is “The Big Bang Theory.” And frankly, it’s not the kind of show I feel the need to discuss with people.

I certainly understand why Greenwald misses the water cooler discussions of yore, but there are so many different ways to fill that void now. Online there are all kinds of virtual water coolers filled with viewers happy to chat about every show you could think of, from “Mad Men” to “Adventure Time.” Because time shifting and binge watching have become so common, it’s no longer assumed that every viewer is following along with the live broadcasts. Conversations about specific episodes linger for weeks, and discussions about seasons go on for far longer. There are still fans out there dissecting “The Sopranos” and “The Wire.” Rewatches are becoming a common phenomenon, where a group if viewers will go through an older show and discuss it episode by episode as if it were being broadcast.

I think I don’t miss the monoculture as much as many others do because I never felt like I was really a part of it to begin with. I grew up a nerd who was always watching fringe science-fiction programs and cartoons and cult shows that I couldn’t discuss with anyone until the internet came along. I often only became familiar with the most popular shows through their syndicated runs. “The Simpsons,” for instance, were ubiquitous in the 1990s, but I almost never watched the new episodes. My familiarity with them came almost entirely from watching older seasons years after they first premiered. So I never felt the urge to be up to speed with everyone else except for the few shows that I really cared about.

For me, 2013 was the year of the Red Wedding and “Ozymandias” and Don Draper’s Hershey pitch and Crazy Eyes throwing her pie for Piper Chapman. For others, it was the year Candice Glover won “American Idol” and Brian died (briefly) on “Family Guy” and the paterfamilias of “Duck Dynasty” became embroiled in controversy and “30 Rock” went out with a bang. And that’s fine. Ten years ago, half of the shows I listed wouldn’t even exist.

I’ll take having all of them over being able to share a communal viewing experience over a few of them any day.
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