#television in 2021

[prokopetz]

When I was a kid I read a lot of sword and sorcery fiction from the 1970s and 1980s, and there was an extremely specific recurring trope I encountered in those novels and literally nowhere else.

There'd be this villainous duo – typically servants of the principal villain – consisting of a scheming mastermind middle-aged father and his hyperviolent lunatic teenage daughter. The daughter would constantly fuck things up due to her erratic behaviour, and the father would put up with it because they were stuck in this intensely toxic codependent relationship that left the daughter with no meaningful social relationships apart from her father, and the father unable to refuse his daughter anything she wanted, no matter how unhinged.

I ran into this exact trope in at least half a dozen different novels by as many different authors, all in the same subgenre of fantasy literature, all clustered around the same period of time, and nowhere else. (To anticipate the inevitable request for recs, Sorcerer's Heir by Paula Volsky springs readily to mind; I'd have to drag my library out of storage to pin down the others I'm thinking of – it's been long enough that I'm not confident of my recollection of specific titles!) For over thirty years this remained the case, and I was prepared to chalk it up to simply being an artefact of its time.

So, with all this context in mind, imagine my surprise when I checked what was trending on Netflix around November of 2021.

[pedroam-bang]

Adam Hartel - Sabine Wren (2021)

[happy-xy]

#me at work

iCarly (2021) | S03E07

[adam-trademark]

Exports and Imports

(April 13, 2021)

[captainofthetidesbreath]

not to be like this but all of the posts (and there are many across multiple platforms) right now going "I mean obviously I'm not mad or whining or anything but it sucks that there's all these three week breaks, how am I going to survive, this is awful, I cannot believe this is happening to me" like, it does in fact come off as entitled no matter how many qualifiers are put onto it

and the a smaller subset of THAT going "CLEARLY C3 isn't a priority for the studio" or "they're obviously trying to kill C3" or even posting stuff that comes off as "um, don't they know that if they keep doing this I won't shop here watch anymore", like, come on

as a tangent, genuinely, I feel like a lot of people have trouble admitting that they don't actually like C3 so they get existentially worried about them losing interest over a slightly longer break because it'll force them to acknowledge that they aren't actually interested, but it's fine not to be interested!

[gunsatthaphan]

https://twitter.com/tiedyebright/status/1358217924633190400?t=HEf1mlnPrUgA-OKQ1hLvfw&s=19 Throwback

[hydravns]

LONGZHU in WISH DRAGON (2021) Dir. Chris Applehans

[wrathofconpics]

Otakon 2021 | Star Trek: TNG

Cosplayers: Message us and we’ll add your URL!

[chatretr0]

Amphibia Pitch Pilot

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Does anyone else consider certain tv shows as happening in the same universe? For instance, I always think that Grantchester and Endeavour occupy the same universe, with Granchester obviously coming a bit before in the 1950s. Or Father Brown (2013-) and Miss Marple (2004-2013) are both simultaneously snooping around solving mysteries in different parts of England. Agatha Christie's Poirot and The House of Eliot definitely share a timeline too.

[quietfounder]

I started thinking that Disney Channel doesn't really have a programming block for their older audiences like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, then I thought about how Freeform could be that since it is part of the Walt Disney Company.

All the shows I included on the list have all been cancelled, couldn't make it past the first or second season, ended on a cliffhanger, or removed entirely from the service.

People have watched and grew up with Blossom, The Facts of Life, Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years (1988), Saved by the Bell (1989), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, Family Ties, Full House, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, etc., so I thought "What would be this generation's version of those shows?" for most of the programming.

I haven't seen most of these shows I listed, but I wanted to include a variety of shows for the audience even if some of them are syndicated on other channels.

Freeform original programming (by me)

Diary of a Future President (Disney+)

Gordita Chronicles (Max)

Mixed-ish (ABC)

The Wonder Years (2021) (ABC)

Saved by the Bell (2020) (Peacock)

Big Shot (Disney+)

Schooled (ABC)

Mr. Mayor (NBC)

The Big Leap (Fox)

Rutherford Falls (Peacock)

How I Met Your Father (Hulu)

[pedroam-bang]

The Boy Savior - Arcane (2021)

[hmvw2015]

The best girl of P&F!

[tabithatwo]

hi special broadcast: simone kessell’s hot rich new age spiritual cult leader milf lottie matthews can honestly do whatever the fuck she wants as long as I get to look at her while she does it <3 <3 I’m soooo good at critical thinking normally I SWEAR but when she’s on screen my brain goes OffLine (tbh true of all the milfs but she triggers such specific issues in me)

like she said phenobarbital don’t ask questions and I said hmmmm I love her concerned face, rewind, she said don’t worry about if what I’m saying makes sense, and I said ohhhh she’s so deep in thought she’s so serious right now, rewind, she said kys <3, and I said OH NO?

[adam-trademark]

Computer Desk

(March 31, 2021)

[millenniumstrike]

August 5th, 2020 initial concept for Millennium Strike was visualized as a programming block of Internet Rave content on the fictional TV station: "Channel 805", taking visual inspiration from The Weather Channel, while the Millennium Strike block itself would be based off of Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks like "JETIX, Fox Box, 4Kids.tv, esc." First imagined as only a show hosted on Twitch, each episode would feature Audio / Video performances and DJ Sets while having 10 minute intermission lobbies to take advantage of the show's atmosphere and further engage the audience by playing retro and aesthetically pleasing commercials making each performance feel like a TV program from the 90s - 00s. These concepts would be folded into the "SYNESTHESIA" URL event series by the Eternal Virtual Ascension art collective, until the collective's fall in mid 2021. Millennium Strike would officially begin it's run on April 25th, 2021; founded by Ashton Simeon with the support of many friends from past online communities.