TV of 2012

[swo17]

Feel free to laugh me off the internet if this is the stupidest idea ever, but what if we had a Dynamic Top 10 Current TV Shows thread to get a sense of how strong people's recommendations for certain shows really are (particularly important since TV shows can demand a huge investment of your time)? You could include any show on your list that's currently airing/in production/in between seasons, with shows dropping off after they end or once you begin to tire of them.

[domino harvey]

Sounds okay by me

[mfunk9786]

Maybe Top 5? I don't know that I even watch 10 current TV shows, but maybe that's just me.

And of course this'll open the floodgates for people ignoring the word 'current,' but I guess you'd have to deal with that in compiling, not us.

[Andre Jurieu]

I'm pretty sure I could come up with 10, especially when we include stuff on hiatus.

[mfunk9786]

I'm pretty sure I could come up with 10, especially when we include stuff on hiatus.

Great point. And stuff like the big league dropoff in quality of a show like Homeland will make for more interesting movement than the dynamic films threads.

[warren oates]

Well, Dynamic Top Ten Current is less interesting to me than Dynamic Top Ten Of All Time or Top Ten Since the Recent American TV Renaissance.

[domino harvey]

That would be pretty cumbersome, though. Current shows makes sense to me

Edit: I'm not opposed to the sentiment but older shows might be better served by a TV lists project (which has been bandied about before)

[Murdoch]

I've come to the point where I watch a lot more TV shows than I do movies so top 10 works best to me. I'm for the idea of currently running since that keeps in line with the yearly Dynamic Top Tens for films.

[mfunk9786]

I'm with Domino - because Top 10 'since' is something that'll have a lot less fluctuation and, well, will be a lot less 'dynamic.' You'll make your list, and maybe every two or three years a Breaking Bad may come along and jump onto your list, and then... I just don't see it.

I also think it might be best to highlight 'current' because it makes a show like The Simpsons ineligible (for most people, not trying to make a broad statement on tastes other than my own). Because by putting it on the list, you're flying the flag for 2012 Simpsons, not 1995 Simpsons. It eliminates the sticky business of having to put "But then the show got really bad for a long time!" next to most of your entries.

[domino harvey]

Would there be a yearly thread, with 2012's results held separate from the next year and so on, or just one big constantly changing thread?

[Murdoch]

I'm for the big, alterable thread as I don't think my lists will change must from year to year except for a few outliers.

[matrixschmatrix]

If the idea is to get a feel for what people recommend at the moment, it would make sense to start a new one with every TV season- though that would mean that recommending shows on hiatus wouldn't really fit.

[Andre Jurieu]

I like the idea of it being confined to a specific year. That way you could really get a sense of a show's quality over time, or at a particular stage, rather than just a current snap-shot.

[swo17]

I was thinking just one thread, not a new one each year. And I don't know that I was necessarily volunteering to tabulate a "consensus" list like I do for films (certainly it wouldn't make sense to update every couple weeks), but depending on the participation, we'll see.

[mfunk9786]

The recommendation of shows on hiatus thing is a good point - if there's a yearly thread and a show doesn't premiere a new season until late in the year, it'll presumably be sort of... forgotten? Having one big thread would allow you to take a look at what shows are still actively being produced (even if they're on hiatus from being on the air) and adjust as you go. And swo could probably figure out a way to take a snapshot of the board's tastes every 3 months or so in a NEW post, rather than just editing one post, so we can see the fluctuations over time. Right swo? Or should I be responsible for this? Have I just volunteered myself? #-o

[domino harvey]

I'm in favor of (calendar) yearly lists for whatever it's worth

[mfunk9786]

I'm in favor of (calendar) yearly lists for whatever it's worth

If a show goes on hiatus for over a year, Sopranos style, do they become disqualified for that year? We might as well talk rules even though no one will follow them.

Anyway, I think this should be settled with a poll. Majority rules. One dynamic thread, or yearly threads? Or we could just defer to swo's original idea since it's his idea.

[matrixschmatrix]

The recommendation of shows on hiatus thing is a good point - if there's a yearly thread and a show doesn't premiere a new season until late in the year, it'll presumably be sort of... forgotten?

Well, if it's a long hiatus like The Sopranos used to do, obviously it wouldn't come up in off-years, but if it's just a mid-season delay or whatever I assume that it would show up on people's lists the way that December movies show up on people's movie lists- you just edit and re-arrange or whatever. That's always been the most fun part of the dynamic lists to me.

[domino harvey]

We don't need a poll. Start the thread now. In two and a half months we can decide if we need a new one

[swo17]

I'm open to yearly threads, though it seems kind of like overkill to me, as there may only be one or two shows that differ between my list for one year vs. the next.

I'm also generally opposed to rigorous rules, at least for now. We don't have rules in the dynamic film threads about what you can post there. The rules only come into play for tabulation purposes, and I think it's probably best to hold off on thinking about tabulation until after starting the thread and seeing what participation is like.

[warren oates]

I assume the point of the list(s) is more about scripted fiction shows? But from year to year aside from a few standouts on the order of Mad Men, Breaking Bad or Curb Your Enthusiasm, I'm more likely to spend my TV time watching programming like The Daily Show/The Colbert Report/SNL, nonfiction like Locked Up Abroad or The First 48 or even trashier reality shows like TLC's My Strange Addiction. Should we include all of the above?

[knives]

I presume if you wanted to.

[domino harvey]

In the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, "A TV show is a TV show"

[Andre Jurieu]

Well, NBC decided to put one show out of its misery ... and will now proceed with the network's plan to torture audiences with more crap.

Hopefully, this brings us one step closer to getting Community back on the air.

[mfunk9786]

I think the article's suggestion that Community will likely fill the hole left by 30 Rock in January is the most likely scenario - partial season this year, and if the popularity continues to surge, a full season order in that timeslot next year.