One reader suggested I write about the changes in television and its role in our later years. He said rightly that, while a tad sedentary, TV viewing constitutes an important pastime for many/most retired people. Indeed the likelihood of being a frequent television viewer (21 or more hours per week) rises steadily with age, from 20% at ages 20 to 24 years to 52% at age 75 or older.
While television is not technically social media, it is a social medium given the ample discussion TV programming generates among spouses, friends and family. Take The Sopranos, for instance. The series premiered on HBO in 1999 and became one of the most successful series ever. Ten years after it went to black, viewers still debate its controversial ending: Tony Soprano, dead or alive?
The Sopranos got Glen and me hooked on watching TV series together. Before it, we viewed movies only — on video cassettes, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. We didn’t record TV shows to see at our convenience, though millions did. Some even turned PVR (personal video recorder) and DVR (digital video recorder) into verbs! We simply bought a season when it became available and added it to our expanding collection. We still lag behind the times in terms of following programmes when they first air. This month we’ll watch The Vietnam War on DVD, though PBS showed ten episodes last fall.
We progressed in 2012 when Shaw Communications came to install various services in our Vancouver condo. (Dinosaur alert: we use a landline.) The technician casually asked if we wanted to watch Netflix. I opened an account, and we’ve loved this service ever since. Streaming services — Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others — have caused a steady decline in traditional TV subscription services. In the third quarter of 2017, Netflix had 109.25 million streaming subscribers worldwide, including approximately 5.9 million in Canada and 52.77 million in the U.S. The popularity and accessibility of programming on these platforms also introduced the notion of binge viewing, defined as watching at least three episodes of a TV show in one sitting.
Instead of conceiving resolutions (to break) for the New Year, Glen and I came up with a short list of shows we saw, analyzed, discussed in 2017. They weren’t necessarily released that year. They either became available on Netflix or we borrowed them from the local library. Interestingly three of our five choices are Netflix original series. (Original programming premiered on Netflix in 2013 with House of Cards.)
TOP FIVE SHOWS
El Chapo Beginning in the 1980s, this drama chronicles the rise, capture and escape of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The story exposes corruption and betrayal among unsavoury thugs in the drug cartels, as well as officials in all levels of government.
The Fall Gillian Anderson plays an unabashedly sexy (spikes and all), smart detective (Stella Gibson) called from London to Belfast to head a task force dedicated to solving a sexually motivated killing spree. Early on the series gives away the killer: Paul Spector, a handsome, athletic, family man who works as a counsellor. An unlikely psychopath. Then for three seasons this thriller pits Gibson against Spector in a complex, psychological game of cat and mouse.
Line of Duty Who polices the police? This BBC series follows controversial anti-corruption unit AC-12, operating within West Midlands Police Force, and each season presents a new investigation. According to one critic: “what separates Line of Duty from its more generic peers is its extraordinary interrogation scenes — some of the most audacious pieces of writing and performance that TV currently offers.”
Mindhunter In 1977 the FBI was struggling to comprehend a new wave of depraved killers. How can agents stop murders being committed when they don’t understand why they’re happening? In Mindhunter two FBI officers awaken to the idea of using the minds of real-life monsters to stop similar crimes happening in the future. Dark humour plays a prominent role in this drama about the emergence of criminal profiling.
Narcos presents the global growth of cocaine cartels and the attendant efforts of law enforcement to confront them in bloody conflict. It centres around billionaire Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar, who manages to be charismatic, almost likeable, despite his brutal ways.
AN INVITATION
Please share your favourite shows of last year in the comments below. •
P.S. Glen and I may be the only people on the planet who do not follow Game of Thrones. Its ratings trajectory has been astronomical. In 2015, it topped The Sopranos as HBO’s most-watched series ever when it crossed the 18.2 million viewer mark. In 2017 its seventh season averaged an astonishing 31 million viewers per episode once live, time-shifted, on-demand and streaming plays were tallied.
Ian Wallace says
Dinosaur alert. I like that, especially as we too fall into that category!
Game of Thrones. We are also missing out on this series. I tried reading one of the books and found it to be, after a few dozen pages, absolutely unpickupable.
Here is my short list of favourite series:
The Bridge (Denmark/Sweden)
Borgen (Denmark)
House of Cards (UK)
I, Claudius (UK)
The West Wing (US)
Question: what are the good folks at the CBC waiting for? Canada should get into this game.
Pam McPhail says
Our list of top five series ever would read differently from the titles posted for 2017. The Bridge and Borgen would likely make the cut. We tried watching House of Cards, both the UK and US versions, but to no avail. I found tiresome the main character constantly addressing the audience. Who will ever forget the wicked, scheming Livia in I, Claudius? Or Derek Jacobi’s marvellous turn as Claudius?
Excellent idea about the CBC. You should write to Heather Conway.
Grant says
This is too big for a comment. It needs a discussion. Xo
Pam McPhail says
A small cop out!
Glen Wickens says
El Chapo works almost exclusively within the conventions of the gangster film genre as modified by The Godfather movies: we get the over-reaching gangster protagonist, the importance of family, the attempt to make decisions that are strictly business, not personal, the strong suggestion that the government is almost as corrupt as the cartels, the gangster leader costumed to look anything but flashy (jeans and a baseball cap for El Chapo), the treatment of women as mere sex objects or reproductive necessities. There is no push back against men as with Kay in Godfather Two. Indeed, El Chapo could aptly be renamed El Macho.
Pam McPhail says
Agreed!
Rick & Linda, Victoria says
Pam, you might comment on Lilyhammer (2012), (see Wikepedia), regarding original Netflix programming and series binge watching. Netflix has picked up a lot of series that originated in other countries. Linda and Rick will be giving up our Binge shows soon.
L&R.
Pam McPhail says
Netflix aired Lilyhammer in February 2012 but it premiered on Norwegian TV a month earlier. Estocolmo, an Argentine TV series about human trafficking that Netflix picked up in post-production, made it to our top ten of 2017. Not sure if a second season will follow. I look forward to reading your list of favourites.
BTW: Glen will not binge on any shows though I will indulge in this guilty pleasure. With Suits, for example, which I watch alone.
Rick & Linda, Victoria says
Regarding CBC produced, binge-worthy, now-on-Netflix shows Linda & Rick recommend Intelligence (the setting is Vancouver) and Schitt’s Creek (a comedy).
Pam McPhail says
We’ll check out Intelligence, maybe even identify some of its locales. Likely I’ll watch Schitt’s Creek alone as Glen prefers drama to comedy.
Ken McLean says
Thank you Pam for this interesting topic. I’ve seen Narcos, The Fall and Mindhunter, but not Line of Duty , El Chapo, or Estocolmo, so appreciate the leads. I have also enjoyed all of the shows Ian mentions, and Intelligence.
After a tricky process of narrowing down, I settle on the following 5 as my 2017 choices:
1) Game of Thrones: great characterization, plot, special effects etc
2) Man in the High Castle (on Amazon). The Nazis and the Japanese win WW II and divide the US between them, the Japanese getting west of the Mississippi. There is resistance.
3) The Americans: well-acted and plotted Russain spies drama.
4) Beck: Swedish crime show. I’m a great fan of Scandinavian police shows. Thanks to Glen and Pam for introducing me to the British Swedish Wallander way back.
5) Cardinal: excellent CANADIAN crime show set in Northern Ontario. 6 episodes last season, second season just started on CTV (so pvr needed)
I’m glad Linda and Rick mentioned a comedy, because that’s always a tricky category. I often find here that what one person recommends another may hate. Here’s my 2: Curb Your Enthusiasm and Episodes.
Ken
Pam McPhail says
I awaited your list, Ken, as you’ve given us excellent leads on TV shows for many years, beginning with Deadwood and more recently Borgen. We’ll follow up on Beck and Cardinal in 2018.
Ken McLean says
We just started watching Line of Duty last night. very intense.
Pam McPhail says
Not a spoiler alert but this series improves with each season. We’ve watched three so far.
Ken McLean says
Thanks. I see there are 4. Another interesting Scandinavian crime show on Netflix(in fact it is Finnish)is Bordertown. Detective is quite strange, but that’s part of its appeal
Pam McPhail says
Yes, we watched it and considered it for our shortlist. Although not in the top five, Bordertown would make it in ten or fifteen.
Ken McLean says
It’s great that Netflix is making shows in other languages available. Regular television certainly does not.
Brandon says
Favourite shows I watched last year were Stranger Things, The OA, Narcos, Iron Fist and Daredevil.
Pam McPhail says
Thanks for sharing. You’ve added some shows for us to watch for 2018.