Has TV replaced fine literature?

Happy 4th of July! To celebrate, I'm going to talk about something said over in the United Kingdom. In fact, I'm going to take that something British and make it American. How very patriotic of me.

The control of fiction for the BBC, Jane Tranter, said something very interesting the other day. She was saying that the golden age of television drama wasn't "today, but neither is it yesterday. The golden age is tomorrow." She went on to claim that television drama his the "narrative of our times that gives our lives meaning and shape," just like novels did long ago.

While she was speaking more about programming across the pond, I think that comment translates very well to American television as well. And, by extension, makes her statement very true. It is not that books do not give a good and accurate reflection of someones life in varying stages, give great conflict and show us the muddy process these people have to go through to get a resolution. They do, and many do a great job of doing so. No, it is not so much debating one type of storytelling over another; it is which medium our culture has chosen to embrace. And that is television.

When The Sopranos ended, everybody knew the show ended with a sudden cut to a black screen. Even though the show aired on HBO, it seemed like every American knew about it, and did their own parody on YouTube. Lost attracts thousands of people online who sort through every clue and red herring given by the show, to find hidden symbolism and cryptic clues for the shows narrative. Even beyond that, even the most casual viewer who started to watch Lost but stopped watching because they found it so confusing (to which I say, Lostpedia!) knows the show's basic messages about striving for redemption and how we would start our lives over, if we were given a chance. Not to mention everybody knows there's a big smoke (sand?) monster that kills people.

Books are a very challenging art form. They allow you to give as much information as you want, usually without much page count restraint. (Usually.) It's not like you have to trim five minutes to get the show to fit to broadcast. But no matter how much information you give, how great a word picture you paint, the reader is going to draw from their experiences, their imagination and adapt it to what they want. This is fine. I enjoy this. Books are great. But what television can do is show you how others feel and adapt in a murky situation. You may not be able to use your imagination in television, per se, but a quality television show (Lost, The Closer, some season finales of House) can do is provoke your thoughts. They can make you think about the characters choices, what they will do, how impossible their situation is, what clues need to be pieced together - and how - and whether or not you could act in the same way as the character.

This is not, of course, implying that all television is great. There is still crap. Stuff like 24 and Heroes exist. Those shows throw out too much logic just to try to do too much, making for terrible television. (Jack Bauer can drive from LA to Santa Monica in ten minutes with no traffic? One character can have how many split personalities that were never, ever noticed before?) But terrible stories are terrible stories, no matter how they are told. A good story can transcend mediums, whether it be in books, graphic novels, movies, television, Internet videos, mobile content, or gas pump monitors. And those good stories are, in my opinion, currently on television right now.

Shows like Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who?, The Closer, The Middleman, Lost, House, Bones, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 30 Rock, among others, all manage to tell captivating stories that shed plenty of light on a variety of characters in different circumstances, in a wide variety of believable situations. It is not that creativity in books is gone; it is just that there is such incredible creativity in television right now, giving is so many good shows. Good scripted shows.

So here's to you, Jane Tranter. You may have been talking about programming overseas, which include Doctor Who and the seemingly terrible special effects budget of $5/episode. You hit the nail on the head by stating that television is the "narrative" that shapes and defines our lives right now. This is also why there are so many "name" actors in television currently: it is no longer career suicide! There are good, good scripts for television, and television is viewed as a very respectable medium for media professionals. And until those writers shift to somewhere else, I know I'll keep on watching.