There’s no doubt about it, television has become a large part of our lives. At the moment, scripted television programs are what occupies nearly all of our free time. I’m not the only one who feels compelled to watch Game of Thrones when it premieres on Sunday nights lest I stumbled upon spoilers the following morning, which I know I most certainly will.
As a screenwriter and someone in love with storytelling in the television format, I love that TV shows make up so much of the conversation nowadays. But the conversation that carries on behind the scene, with those who churn out the programs, is just as compelling because it often centers around what will appeal to our generation.
We live in a world of 400+ scripted programs on air; this includes on network, cable, pay-per-view, and streaming. This overflowing content output has seemingly made it more difficult than ever for networks to produce programming that stands out. And executives are aware of it. In an interview, a few years ago, a SyFy channel exec said, “We’re all figuring out how to cut through the noise and buzz and attract the critical acclaim and social media energy and become a bigger franchise over time.” Still, nothing much has changed in a year’s time. Networks are still trying to figure out how to stand out and make that success last.
Last year and this year has seen an influx in unique, varied shows to be sure (which differs greatly from the year or two previous) but it still seems as though networks are continuously attempting to address this struggle and failing. What I often witness are networks recreating what they already know and hoping it works; i.e. the typical buddy cop police procedural and the chaotic, hot doctor ensemble hospital show. Those types of shows might appeal to the flyover states, but if a network is looking to appeal to my generation I believe there is one hard and fast rule: be unique.
In this ocean of television, my generation doesn’t simply swim around aimlessly; this is the generation who has grown up experiencing internet sensations from MySpace to Twitter to Tumblr to Instagram, all of which allows us to connect to others not only personally but also to share beliefs, ideas and experiences we like with the world. This leads us to not just flipping through the channels and landing on one show or program that looks like something we might like. No, we actively search for things that portray our beliefs and the things we like. We won’t settle for a show we’ve seen done a million times before.
As an example of this uniqueness, instead of simply adapting some of these movies into shows with the same characters and near similar plots (as is the trend lately what with shows like Lethal Weapon and Frequency) why not create a story in the same universe of a film but use different characters? Why not pull from the fandom of the Hunger Games and make a show focusing on the people of The Capital and a rebellion there? Why not pull from the Harry Potter fandom and make a show focusing entirely on aurors? I think those are shows we’d all like to see. And they have built-in audiences and the ability to further the franchise. It’s a win-win.
What is it that appeals to the Millennial generation?
What is it that appeals to you?
Once we deeply understand what we want, perhaps we can even begin creating it.
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